Why makes me an insecure writer this month?
Doing all the non-writerly stuff that writers need to do to be successful.
Now that the writing part of my story is finished, I’ve turned my attention to those other niggling details I’ve been putting off for a while now. Setting up my Facebook author page. Setting up my author website. Signing up for an email service. At least I already have my domain name. I bought it over a year ago and it’s just been sitting idle ever since. ☹
I have a Facebook page now, but without any art for the banners, it’s not anywhere I’d send people yet. Hopefully no one stumbles across it in the meantime.
Encouraged by my success with Facebook, I worked up the nerve to purchase hosting for a Wordpress website. I’ve been having fun downloading themes, website builders, and generally mucking about trying to make it look like a real author website. I’m studying other author websites for inspiration, but as I don’t have any books yet, or any reader magnets with which to convince people to join my newsletter, or any cover art for the banner, my website is pretty sparse. Heck, I’m not even telling my mother about it until it’s a lot more polished.
In another surprising burst of productivity, I signed up for a Mailerite account. Don’t expect to get any emails from me for a while though. One of Mailerlite’s requirements is a link to my website so they can see I’m not a spammer, and I’m currently too embarrassed to show them my site until it looks as though it wasn’t built by a second grader.
Not that there's anything wrong with being a second grader.
So progress on all fronts. Now all I have to do is talk to my prospective cover designer and keep the ball rolling.
Question for you guys. How long did it take you to get set up at the beginning?
Take care everyone, and stay safe!
ChemistKen
That's great! Just get some good artwork for your sites and you'll be ready for the next step.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken
ReplyDeleteFacebook, an email service and a prospective website - sounds like you've been very productive. Keep going!
Happy IWSG Day!
You're making it happen! Just remember that everything needs the same header for consistency, something I didn't do in the beginning.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you're definitely making progress. That's awesome.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done up an email list yet. And I know I'm suppose to, but something stops me. You're doing a good job, Ken. Bravo.
ReplyDeleteYay for all that progress - that's wonderful.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a LONG time to figure out the website - but I'm with WordPress too and I'm happy with it. I'm still changing/tweaking in the background but it is fun :)
Good job making progress! I started working on website stuff about a decade ago, but I never turned it into a professional author website. I only have my own domain name because it was a birthday present from my husband one year, and web languages are my career.
ReplyDeleteSounds like everything is coming along! The only reason it didn't take me forever to get it all set up is because I took an online course and the homework was setting everything up daily. Sort of forced me into it.
ReplyDeleteIt took me a while. I don't remember how long. I just hired someone to redo my website and help me work on other aspects of my cyber presence. You can check it out at my name run together .com. I'm worried that my newsletter has been dormant too long. I hope they haven't kicked me off. My next novel should be published in a month or two.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on all you're trying to do. I second the mention of Canva. It's free. I'm am totally unartistic, but I figured out how to make a banner for my FB page using Canva. When I started putting together social media, etc. (back in 2011) I did a little at a time. Take it one step at a time and you'll get there. Good luck with the website, etc.
ReplyDeleteAll those things take time. It's definitely important to lay the groundwork. Sounds like you're making progress to me. The important thing is, you finished the book, so your product is ready to roll!
ReplyDeleteCongrats. Sounds like you're almost there.
ReplyDeleteAnd keep in mind, you'll tweak your site over and over again as you produce more books.
Anna from elements of emaginette
Sounds like you are moving forward. It takes a lot of baby steps, but before long you will look back and see how much you have accomplished.
ReplyDeleteYou've been quite busy! I'll search out your FB page and follow you.
ReplyDeleteI quite like the features being a part of AllAuthor gives me. They have a free tier, with less services, so you can muck around finding out what you like. And then if you feel like splurging for more, their paid tier contains some nice extras, like automatically generated Facebook banners and social media graphics using your book cover. I used the paid tier for the cheapest contracted amount of time (6 months), downloaded, and saved all of their graphics. Worth a look!
ReplyDeleteAnd, of course, if you would rather stick to the completely free tier, Canva.com is a fabulous option. I create social media graphics on there easily and I'm terrible at computer stuff. Best of luck to you!
I think you're doing great, Ken! Improving my Blogger site is on my list of things to do. I finally resolved not being able to answer comments on my blog, a problem that had increased over several months to not being able to answer a comment, anyway anyhow. That's the basic level I'm functioning at. LOL Simple steps add up, and you have come so far! You'll get there!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you're making great progress! I'm not very fast when it comes to anything social media, but the hardest part was just taking the plunge in the first place. Congrats on jumping in!
ReplyDelete