Some of you asked for examples of good writer websites.
Our own Nicola Liu has a good one here
Nice horse picture for a good start.
Link to Twitter works.
I love the flash fiction! FF is a great way to show your writing chops without requiring 15 minutes of eyeball time from me.
And there's a mailing list sign up!
Nice job!
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Madeline Mora-Summonte uses her blog as a website.
This works well.
It's current (VERY good)
The tab with Select Credits is terrific. Once you've got more than two or three pub credits this is an ideal way to let an agent know. You don't want a big block of text in a query that lists all this. For one thing it would be hard to read. And second, you don't want that many live links in a query (you actually don't want any.)
But what I look for here is engagement, and yup, there are 20 comments on the blog posts. That tells me there's an engaged audience.
Did I miss the place you get those engaged people to sign up for a mailing list?
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Lisa Bodenheim tells us she has a page, but is there a link in her Twitter profile?
NO there is not.
(Lisa is waitlisted for Carkoon! Let's see if she evades the net!)
It doesn't do you any good to have a lovely website if you don't let us know your URL.
Make sure your Twitter profile has it, and your Blogger profile.
(When was the last time any of us looked at our Blogger profiles??
Me? ummm...)
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KariV has a very nice website here!
Huzzah!
The peril of linking to Facebook is that you can't go back from whence you came.
I'm not sure if that's adjustable on your end (open tab in new window?) but if you send people to your Facebook page and they can't get back to your webpage by clicking the back arrow, you increase the chance you'll lose them.
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Kelly Claytor's website is here
NOT in your Twitter profile, but quite nice when you get there.
I notice the mailing list sign up asks for telephone number and address.
I suggest taking those out.
You're not going to need that info are you?
If you're mailing something to a reader, you'd email and ask for their preferred mailing address no matter what, right?
I've had THREE mailing addresses in the last 18 months (and no, I haven't moved even once!)
The first was my home address which I used by necessity when I could no longer receive mail at my former agency.
The second was a PO box which I thought would solve the problem. It did not. The postal workers had a hard time recognizing that Janet Reid and JetReid Literary were both on the box.
The third address is 151 First Ave which is a mail receiving service. Staffed by real people that I can talk to. And who kindly email me when packages arrive. It's twice as expensive as a PO box and worth every nickel.
But more important, people are reluctant to hand over their info. Don't ask for anything but what you need: name, email.
What I particularly loved on Kelly's site is the self-pubbed book. Take a look.
Any questions?