The book! It seems obvious, right? But you’d be amazed at how hard it is to find information about the book on some author websites.
It’s fine to have other content on your author website or blog, but make sure that it’s really easy to find a description of your book and a link directly to a place where customers can buy the book.
Recently, I visited the website of an author who had written a book on a topic that I have an interest in, but I could find no description of the book. I clicked on the link that said the book was available on Amazon and landed on Amazon’s home page. No, I did not make the effort to search out the book on Amazon.
It’s helpful to look at your site through the eyes of a visitor who has never been there before:
- What’s the first thing you see when you land on the site?
- Is there a book cover visible on the home page and other pages? If your website is a blog, it’s easy to display your book cover in the sidebar, along with a link to the book description or purchase page.
- Is there an obvious link to somewhere people can learn more about the book? From your main navigation menu, you could place a link that says something like “About the Book,” “My Books” or “Buy the Book.” On this site, the link says “Resources.”
- Is the book description compelling enough to motive buyers?
- Have you listed quotes from book reviews in the book description, to demonstrate that others find your book valuable or entertaining?
- Is there a direct link to your book’s page on Amazon or some other place the book can be purchased? Check the links and make sure they work properly.
Don’t make it difficult for visitors to your website to learn about your book and buy it. Make sure your website does a good job of selling your book.
About Dana Lynn Smith
Dana Lynn Smith, The Savvy Book Marketer, helps authors and indie publishers learn how to sell more books through her how-to guides, blog, newsletter, and private coaching. For more book promotion tips, get her free ebook at TheSavvyBookMarketer.com.
Dana –
This is such an important article because I see so many author websites that make it difficult to learn about the author’s book. And when someone gives me the link to his or her book on Amazon by using the Amazon home page URL, this is so irritating.
As you point out, if we want people to buy our books, we need to make that as easy as possible!
Phyllis Zimbler Miller
http://twitter.com/ZimberMiller
Great tips as always Dana. It often so easy to set up a link incorrectly as I am guilty of doing that myself! Agree with Phyllis too. God bless / thanks again.Dave
Phyllis and David, thanks so much for your comments.
One more tip – if your book is available in both paper and ebook format, be sure to mention that and link to both versions.
I agree from a children author in Concord, Ca.
Thanks, Dana, you give such great info, especially for those of us who are new to the writing field…so much to learn…but your help keeps us on track. More, more, more. Thanks again for the tip.
Thanks William and Pat, I am glad you enjoyed the article. I wish you much success with your books!
Always good to hear from the experts! Thanks, Dana.
Thank you, Dana, for this great article. At your suggestion, I added comments about the book to my book page by using excerpts of reviews (with the title BLURBS). It feels like the finishing touch. Thanks, again.
Thanks for sharing, Mary Jane. I’m so glad you found these tips helpful