Yesterday, when I wrote most of this post, there were stunningly beautiful creations in progress on the monitors across the room. The designs had been unfolding, layer by layer. These things take time, and experimentation, and a lack of interruption. Estella worked for about a half hour trying to create an impression of light without actually going for a literal shaft of light. It had been coming from different directions, and at different intensities, and by different techniques. She finally found one that sat well with her and quietly moved on. It’s so sublime, and it looks effortless, but I know she churned the brain cells on it.

While this was going on Misono created a curve, then adjusted it, then tilted her head to the side and moved it. She straightened her head and moved it again. Then moved it back. Then she did did nothing for a whole minute, fingers poised on her trackball. Then she started creating again, adding dimension, and now she is blurring only parts of the edge. It’s — oh, there’s that word again: sublime.

I love that word. And it’s so hard to achieve. Beautiful things being created here this week.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Back in February of 2010, one of the CEOs quit, and it was seen as a really bad sign. Back in the heyday of MySpace, bands flocked to MySpace music in an effort to connect with their fans in a medium their fans were already using. Today, I know many people who only go on MySpace to find new music and tour dates from their favorite artists. The powers that be over at MySpace have been saying that they’re going to refocus according to that trend. They recently acquired iLike, a music service, and revamped their music section. However, they have been talking about moving away from social networking and focusing on entertainment for years without much follow-through, so time will tell. It’s also important to keep in mind that there are plenty of other places to get your music and if someone goes to MySpace for a music page, there’s nothing making them browse around the rest of the site.

In July 2010, MySpace started to beta test a cleaner (and more Facebook-like) profile template and bought out another social networking service: Threadbox. This seems to indicate that, no matter their claims to focus in music, they’re still trying to resuscitate a dying form of social media. They’re trying, but nobody’s optimistic and, more importantly, nobody is excited, which is what MySpace needs to get any popularity back.

Of course, who knows what might catch on, but it’s pretty well accepted at this point that unless you’re an indie band, a MySpace logo on your website looks antiquated and maybe even a little weird.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Pamela Palmer signing the back of a fan's Nook at the RWA big benefit booksigning in Orlando, July 2010. (Photo: me)

“Sign my Nook, please.”

Fans didn’t just buy books to support literacy programs, I saw a quite a few people handing over their Nooks for authors to sign. The backs are easily removed, and replacements come in different colors. One reader said her plan was to hang signature-filled Nook-backs in rows on her wall.

I love it!

And what’s on my eReader? I have a Kindle app for my iPhone, and I am slowly reading Edward Rutherfurd’s massive tome, New York whenever I find myself with a few minutes without a book in hand (I still love paper!). But Max has a Nook, and I just transferred my HarperCollins eARC of Kathryn Caskie’s The Duke’s Night of Sin to hers and plan to ensconce myself with it tomorrow afternoon. I am calling it “working” (I have the BEST job).

And in case you missed the previous post, Awesome Things, Part One lauded the incredible accomplishment of Julia Quinn hitting the RWA Hall of Fame. Let’s all take another moment to say “yea!”

photo courtesy of Barnes&Noble.com

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

As an author, when you ask a reader to select your book to spend many precious hours with, you are commanding a high price point. Your book may be only $6, or a $10 ebook, or it might even sell for $16 or more, but hours of someone’s time is far more valuable. Obviously if your book fails to enchant the reader they may feel cheated. But what else might be jarring about the experience of reading your book? What else might leave the reader thinking: “Really?”

How about an ugly bookmark? One that clearly says, “I spent as little as possible on this.” That bookmark might actually be a liability, leaving your customer with the feeling that you didn’t think that they were worth anything more than your cheapest effort.

Analogy:

When I bought my house last year I spent a few stressful hours in a title company conference room signing a massive stack of paperwork. For the privilege of doing so, plus the title company’s legwork to ensure that the title to the house was clear (very important), the title company charged a significant 4-digit figure, their regular price point.

At the end of the session I was handed a vinyl envelope as a “gift” — swag, as it were. A takeaway. The envelope was emblazoned with the company’s logo and is the right size to house some paperwork. In it was a heavy, substantial feeling key chain — appropriate for a title company, yes? I instantly saw it as my spare key set chain. Back in the car with the vinyl on my lap I held the key chain in my hand, rolled its weight from one hand to the other as I nervously contemplated the huge purchase I had just made. I then reached into the vinyl envelope and pulled out a couple of unimpressive one-color notepads and an incredibly cheap pen — one of those pens, the ones you never choose.

I sat there holding the pen thinking, “Really?” I expect a cheap pen when I walk out of a Home Depot, or the cash-strapped library. But at the title company’s price point (especially for as little work as I felt that they did), the pen felt wrong. The effort of the key chain was overshadowed by the obvious cheapness of the pens — the company would have been better off leaving the pen out of the mix entirely. And as a brand player, I now associated “cheap” with the that company.

One supposes if I had pulled out the pens before the key chain perhaps the key chain would have made up for the pens, but do you really want to have to make up for anything?

Segue to:

When we recently printed some bookmarks for a client (they are so pretty!) the printer accidentally grabbed the wrong paper and printed the whole stack of them on something far thinner than I had specified. The bookmarks looked beautiful, the color was so vibrant, the cover beautifully displayed, but the piece felt cheap.

They were reprinted.

Go for nice design and substantial paper for your bookmarks and business cards. It matters.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

If you are visiting this site for the first time, you might be impressed, even seduced, by the animation, or how it fills the browser window like a big, beautiful postcard.  But over subsequent visits, seeking information about the next book or an author event can become annoying in a “flash.”

As attractive as these Flash-based, high-concept websites might seem at first, we regularly counsel our clients against them. Consider that you’re trying to establish an enduring relationship with your readers, and your homepage needs to function as both a first introduction and an on-going and compelling welcome.

Here’s the problem: If your visitors become bored with the homepage that doesn’t change, or if they become irritated with a gateway/splash page that needs to be skipped over every time, what will bring them back? If confronted with a home page devoid of news and book info, what propels visitors onward?

Another factor to consider is that Flash is not good for search engine optimization, nor is it supported by sexy and fun mobile devices like the iPad. Limiting searchability and accessibility in favor of flourishes here will not support your ROI.

Bottom line, your website is a communication tool, not solely a high-concept art piece. Certainly, your web presence should convey a pleasing aesthetic, but rather than sacrifice your business goals in favor of stylish bells and whistles, we strive to build sites that offer substance with style and function beautifully formed.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A couple weeks ago I went to a booksigning at a A Great Good Place For Books in the Oakland Hills. It was cozy and intimate and, as I realized upon entering the store, it was the first such booksigning I had been to in quite a while. The last few had been either big multi-author signings tied to a conference, or a gaggle of people crammed into an alcove of a busy Barnes&Noble. And while these types of signings are valid, informative, and helpful to an author’s career, there is something very grassroots about hosting an intimate event.

When author Christi Phillips stood up and began speaking in the bookstore, the energy of the entire bookstore was focused upon her. Small booksignings like this go great distances to allow the author to make individual connections. This can be hard to accomplish at huge signings where the line is kept moving.

Christi began with a reading from her new book, The Devlin Diary, moved on to  Q&A, and closed with signing copies of either of her books for the few dozen locals who turned out. She had some simple but pretty trays of snacks, and a little basket of cookies by the signing area. And while I do not remember the actual text from the reading, I do remember thinking “Now, that’s something I would like to read,” and I how comfortable and charmed I felt at the signing, how kind and approachable the author was. In short, she intrigued me.

She did not have autographed by the author stickers, but not every signing can be perfect (and I feel she and the store will get them in hand!)

There are many people for whom this type of effort is not balanced by enough return. If you do it by sheer numbers, with the possibility of selling a couple dozen books at the royalty rate most authors enjoy, then the entire profit is spent on the refreshments and you have spent resources promoting it and then of course you are out the evening and whatever travel time. And while this cost-and-return approach has its merits, this is not why an author does these types of events. The intimacy of a small booksigning allows the author to meet readers. And the readers who attend booksignings are predisposed to talk about books. These are fans you want. The brand relationship between reader and author is significant. Courting them is worth the effort.

If you can seal the relationship with your voice and a shared experience within your fictitious world you have created (and a cookie helps), then there is a very good chance you have drawn that reader into your world and intrigued him or her enough to explore more. Maybe they will read one of your books (and hopefully it’s a signed, stickered keepsake, complete with leave-behind bookmark reminding them of the lovely evening you, famous author, hosted for them). Maybe they will leave a comment on your blog or enter a reader drawing on your site, or interact with you further in some other way your website offers.

Fan bases are built one reader at a time. Go out and meet them.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I don’t think it’s my computer, because it only happens with the database – but when I try to check the info link on each member, odd things happen. The first few times I click on info, it opens with no problem. But by the 3rd or 4th person, it starts taking a very long time for the link to open, and then pretty soon, it just freezes up. I’ll have to literally shut down IE and then go back and restart all the programs I use (twitter, facebook, etc…) and start over.

image courtesy niponwave.com

Our advice to her: Break the IE habit.

Internet Explorer, due to monopolistic market activities, is the default browser for most people despite its notorious (and well-earned) reputation for poor web standards. And while it has gotten better in the two major releases since the piss-poor IE6, IE remains a faulty browser that requires a host of hacks. Web designers regularly curse IE, and this should tell you something. For instance, javascript, that basic necessity on the web, has intermittent problems with IE (undoubtedly the cause of our client’s issue above).

All due respect to my Microsoft friends out there, but y’all know it’s true. Over drinks at a Seattle conference two years ago a Microsoft wife confessed that several developers in her husband’s division (Sector? How doth mighty Microsoft call out its minions?) felt that creativity was more important than web standards.

In a browser? I sputtered into my drink (and it was an expensive Cosmo).

She just shrugged.

I applaud creativity, but adherence to web standards is a far more important goal for a browser. IE’s problems are the inevitably unfortunate result of its overwhelming market dominance. Microsoft placed IE on every PC for years, and 95% of the market share just got comfy with it.

Break out of your comfort zone. Firefox is better.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Okay, so this may be true for those dozen (or three) people who wrote in. And I absolutely respect how loudly such comments can color your opinion of your own content. But do not forget, that your loudest contingent is rarely your largest, most representative, or your only.

When designing your content you must consider all your audience sectors — the hard-core invested, the curiously interested, and the merely intrigued. You need both sales content and you need reinforcement content. You need several lures. You can’t put it all on your home page (that will look like a circus, but good navigation should consider that your audience consists of levels), and you can’t fill your blog with only one audience appeal. These are your portals. This is where your audience — all of it — first sees you. Be welcoming and encouraging.

Here is a short tale of what it feels like to be the audience who is forgotten. For me, it’s yoga. Once upon a time I went somewhat regularly. Then life, motherhood, and work messed with my schedule and suddenly I was ten-plus years out and my stamina was gone. Every time I tried to get back to yoga I felt like the cross-eyed stepchild in the back of the room who couldn’t hold a down facing dog for any respectable stretch.

I passed my neighborhood yoga studio and looked at the window wistfully, longingly, like a cute boy way out of my league. I felt that they did not have classes for me. I couldn’t carve out 90 minutes, and when I did I was disheartened by the end. I needed to be eased back in. I needed shorter, more basic classes and my neighborhood studio felt closed to me. And I know I wasn’t alone because I’d heard the moms at the park talking, and just yesterday the people in front of me in line at Trader Joe’s described going to the studio as intimidating (at which point I thought, Well, that’s just bad for branding).

I finally said something, and they were stunned. Of course we have classes for you!

Maybe I had just missed it. So I looked again at their newsletter — info about advanced workshops. New level 2 classes, etc. Well, that’s what our regulars were asking for.

Okay. Sure. You need to appeal to your regulars. I get that. But how can you grow your audience if you ONLY appeal to those you already have?

I suggested a small invitation in their window, website, and on their newsletter: NEW TO YOGA? or EASE YOGA BACK INTO YOUR LIFE or WE HAVE BEGINNER CLASSES — something inviting that spoke to this forgotten audience — yes, we have content for you. Follow this little icon to these classes…

Moral of the story: Diehards will ignore what they don’t love. They will remain devoted unless you tick them off. The quiet, forgotten audience will rarely speak up.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I regularly suggest to authors that they write a little something on their website for readers to read after reading the books. Something to help readers continue in the warm glow of the wonderful story they have just read. Some extra content to help solidify the brand experience. This is not a sales strategy, this is author-reader relationship building. And there are many, many ways to do this. Here are a few:

Kathryn Caskie gives interesting insight into aspects of her book in her Inside the Story feature. Elizabeth Boyle offers incredible Footnotes complete with character lists and more. Jennie Lucas has a wonderful online after-the-story additional epilogue feature for some of her books (Beware: this one is s spoiler). Eloisa James deliciously provides Extra Chapters for each of her Desperate Duchesses series (login required). Julia Quinn has a whole set of Second Epilogues for her Bridgerton series (purchase required, but for those not wishing to purchase the $1.99 e-book, there is a plethora of other info on the series.) More on series: Joy Nash provides a page full of info about one of her series. Stephanie Tyler has extensive extras, and Pamela Palmer has several series, all with extra info. It’s a readers’ bonanza. (And there are many more examples… Just tool through our portfolio.)

All this, because after a reader spends so much time with your characters, you will have done your job if your reader is wistful, and if you’re lucky, said reader might welcome a chance to revisit them and be reminded about how much they enjoyed spending time in the world you created. That reminder is crucial to the emotioanl branding bonding process.

Yes, a little extra content goes all this way.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I did not agree. The content did not contain enough about her, which has to be, IMO, one of the main goals of an author website. I had had to gently twist her typing fingers to get her to understand that Yes, it was about the books, but it was not nothing but the books, so help me God. She did not want to “ram ME ME ME down people’s throats.” She just didn’t believe people would be all that interested in her, per se. Of course the ego trip can be overdone, but there are ways to include enough info about oneself so that those who want it will seek it and those who don’t won’t.

It took a little doing, but I was able to convince her. And now I want to convince you. As an author (or realtor, photographer, wedding consultant, massage therapist, artist, or any other profession where much of the success of your product depends upon you personally), there is a significant level of loving the product that depends upon an emotional attachment with the person who created the product. You. In some fields such as realty, trust. In others, writing and publishing, where you are asking people to give over hours upon hours of their time to fall in love with your characters and settings, etc. That means you actually want people to develop a crush on you, or the idea of you. “Oh, I love Elizabeth Boyle, too,” was an email I recently received from someone after posting my own adoration.

Some people are experts at being adored, and for some people this is just awkward. But this is business. Give your online audience enough info to feed their crush. Definitely stop short of TMI, and and of course neither encourage stalkers nor bore your audience to death with endless mundane inanities, but if someone has just read your book and is riding that high, give them enough on your bio page to smile more. To feel that they have met you. To reinforce that crush. You are a celebrity to your readers. Throw them a juicy, meaty bone. Your website should be about your books, because selling your books is what allows you to keep writing. But your website is YourName.com — it needs to be about you, too. Because somewhere, some one is turning to the person next to them and saying, “I love her!”

And that is definitely a goal.

©2010 Waxcreative Design Blog. All Rights Reserved.