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Fiona Joseph

Building an author website, Part 1: gathering your assets

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Do I really need to have a website?

I don’t know, but my guess is that if you’re asking the question then perhaps the answer’s yes – especially if you’re at the stage of wanting to achieve the following aims:

  • building your credibility as a potential author with agents, editors and likely readers, and
  • connecting with like-minded people who will buy your work and/or be referrers of your work (also known as an author platform these days)

So this post is especially for new and emerging writers who are hovering nervously on the brink of deciding whether or not to have a website. (In follow-up posts I’ll look at more technical stuff but for now it’ll be pain-free, I promise.)

One step at a time

All is safely gathered in

All is safely gathered in...

Where to start? Forget any anxieties about html coding and file transfer protocols. None of that matters for the moment. The first step is to collect all your assets together. By ‘assets’ I mean all the bits and pieces of information that you might need for your new website. And, as it’s the harvest season, there couldn’t be a more perfect time to gather in what marketing expert C.J. Hayden calls your success ingredients. I love that term – so American and dynamic!

#1 Author Photos You need an author pic – one at least, but a few more would be even better. Either hire a professional – go on, you’re worth it – or take the cost-effective DIY approach. In the latter case, an excellent and user-friendly online tool is Picnik. Here you can upload your photos for free and do the basics of image editing: cropping, resizing and adding special effects. (Don’t make yourself look too gorgeous though, or we won’t recognise you at your book launch. And you may attract stalkers.) You could also check out the advice from Salt Publishing in their 10 Ways to Take a Bad Author Photo.

#2 A Longer Bio
Gone are the days when writers could be all deep and mysterious; it seems we’re expected to give at least the bare bones of our life story. There are different formats, like Questions and Answers, or 12 Things You Didn’t Know About… , as well as a simple and straightforward narrative. (N.B. Longer Bios are not to be confused with the Shorter Bio of around 60 words that you also need.)

#3 List of writing credits
This should include the writing you’ve published so far; writing courses and qualifications; professional engagements; prizes or awards …  really, anything that will enhance your reputation and suggest to the casual browser of your website that you’re to be taken seriously.

#4 List of possible links
Who are the people you’d want to link to? Friends and colleagues in your field? Opinion-makers whose work you admire? Even better if your list includes people who are prepared to reciprocate by linking back to you.

#5 Reviews / Endorsements
These are one of the most powerful forms of marketing you can get. Here’s a secret: I’m really shy when it comes to repeating nice things people have said about my writing. (It’s my childhood conditioning I guess, although – oddly – I’m not at all embarrassed by some of the testimonials I’ve received through my business, here and here.) Okay, I have issues to work on but don’t let that stop you.

#6 Notes on your personal brand
You will either loathe or adore this part, but an awareness of your ‘personal brand’ is helpful when you get down to designing your website, or briefing a web designer. Why? Because you want to make sure that your website reflects who you are, through your use of colour, fonts, images, etc.

That’s a lot to be getting on with. Next time, I’ll look at domain registration, static vs. blog websites, and doing a basic storyboard.

Do you want or need a website, or are you determined not to have one?  Have I missed out any success ingredients? If you’re a new/emerging writer with your own website, tell us how it’s working for you.

Fiona Joseph

It’s no good asking Ruth Rendell

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Ruth Rendell

the magnificent Ruth Rendell

Is Ruth Rendell, aka Barbara Vine, the most prolific writer ever? Her output is truly phenomenal: 21 Chief Inspector Wexford novels, 26 ‘non-Wexfords’ and 13 Barbara Vines, as well as 6 short story collections and a few non-fiction titles. And it’s quality stuff too. I just can’t get enough of her compellingly twisty storylines (A Dark-Adapted Eye, The Bridesmaid) and her clever and wry insights into human nature and the mores of society (The House of Stairs, Going Wrong, The Keys to the Street). In short, she rocks. So it’s no wonder that her fan mail contains countless queries from wannabe writers asking what her ‘secret’ is.

How does she do it?

When speaking at the Cheltenham Book Festival once, she lamented those letters, the kind that go, Dear Ms Rendell, I want to be a writer. Please can you give me some advice? She said she’s tempted to reply, For a start you should stop writing letters to me and get on with your own writing. Ouch!

But she has a point.

The Productivity/Creativity Principle

A profound thought about writing and productivity popped into my brain the other day: the more you write the more you write. Okay, it doesn’t look quite so profound now I’ve written it down, but I promise you it felt like I was onto an important discovery. Could it be that creativity and motivation have a direct relationship with writing output? The faster you empty the well (productivity) the more quickly it fills back up again with fresh and wonderful ideas (creativity) that you can’t wait to get down (motivation)? Conversely, the less you write the more stagnant you become or, worst horror of all, the source dries up completely. I feel a mathematical formula coming on… if p=productivity, c = creativity, s = speed, etc.

Would you like a refill, Sir?

More wine?

More wine?

There’s another analogy I want to run with, this time from Stan Barstow’s brilliant novel, A Brother’s Tale. The MC is Gordon Taylor, a writing tutor who by his own admission (only to himself, you understand) ‘dabbles’ in the field of creative writing. Chapter six takes place in a Chinese restaurant, with a foursome made up of Gordon, his wife Eileen, his famous footballer brother Bonny, and one of Gordon’s students, Eunice (a pushy type who’s trying to bag an interview with Bonny). A number of things conspire to put Gordon in a sour mood that evening: his wife’s annoyance at Eunice barging her way in, his loaded brother splashing the cash around, ordering champagne, and flirting with his student…  (Yes, of course Gordon fancies her – she wears smoke-grey stockings and writes sexy poetry, for heaven’s sake!)

Gordon is irritated when the waiter comes over and refills each of their wine glasses. Nothing wrong with that, you might think. Aha, but those who’d drunk at a faster rate, like Eunice, ended up getting more of the wine. But hang on a minute, Gordon – that sounds like my Productivity/Creativity Principle. Perhaps you need to drink more to get more. I speak metaphorically, of course.

Okay, so how is it for you with your writing? What’s your formula for productivity? Who or what fills your wine glass? I’d love to know.

Fiona Joseph

Why I’m glad to be part of the union

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The county of Dorset, England, has to be one of the best holiday destinations for the aspiring writer. Think Dorchester and the Thomas Hardy trail, John Fowles’ Lyme Regis, not to mention Bridport, home of the coveted short story and poetry prize. Much as I enjoyed all of these places last week, it was a visit to the quiet village of Tolpuddle that provided the most inspiration and – it has to be said – a few moments of sombre reflection too.

Remembering the Martyrs of Tolpuddle

George Loveless, Leader of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

Statue of George Loveless, Leader of the Tolpuddle Martyrs

In 1834, six poverty-stricken agricultural workers, led by George Loveless, formed a Friendly Society to take collective action against the erosion of their weekly wages. Following a tip-off to the authorities by their disgruntled landowner, James Frampton, the men were arrested on the flimsy pretext of “administering illegal oaths”, found guilty and transported to Australia for seven years, until they were eventually pardoned and allowed to return home. Their real ‘crime’? Daring to form a trade union to protect themselves and their families against harsh economic conditions and falling income.

Writing – another precarious trade?

Just as the farm workers of nineteenth-century England faced threats to their livelihood, so do writers today. The sad fact is that the majority of professional writers in the UK do not make a living wage from writing alone. But we’re also fortunate in that at least we have the option of joining long-established trade organisations like the Society of Authors which seeks to “protect the rights and further the interests of authors”.

Writing is by nature an isolating profession. And when I began writing EFL textbooks in the early ’90s I don’t think it occurred to me that there would be such a thing as a union for writers. (Surely you just signed a contract with the publisher, got some money in advance, and then chained yourself to your desk until the manuscript was finished and delivered to your editor?) I was lucky in that pretty quickly I was mixing with other more established and industry-savvy writers who told me of the benefits that the Society of Authors had to offer, i.e. a confidential service for vetting publishing contracts; help with chasing money owed to you; member discounts; a trade journal offering practical and reassuring advice and guidance. I was glad to become a member back then.

And now, as I’m beginning as a different kind of writer, I’m even more glad to have renewed my membership. If you want to join you can check the Eligibility Criteria here.

Finally, once you’re actually published, you should register with these organisations to claim the additional revenue that you may be entitled to.

  • The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) collects revenues from secondary uses of your work (such as photocopying or digital reproduction) and pays out twice a year, in February and September. They have a handy online tool to check whether any titles you have in print have uncollected royalties. The (one-off) membership fee is £25 and you don’t even pay this unless you actually have any money owing to you. Members of the Society of Authors get free membership of the ALCS.

Questions and comments welcome. How important is it for writers to act collectively? What other trade organisations do you recommend? Let me know what you think.

Fiona Joseph

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