The Author Online: A Short Guide to Building Your Website, Whether You Do it Yourself (and you can!) or You Work with Pros

This brief manual, written by a longtime publishing veteran who now builds websites for authors, is designed to help you conceive, plan, and create your own unique presence online. It's not a technical book but instead focuses on the large questions that all writers must wrestle with as they plan their website: Who do you want to be online? What do you want to do there? And where do you start?

A central premise of The Author Online is that anyone who can write a book is capable of building his own website. New technology and open source innovations make it easy, affordable, and even fun - a creative act unto itself. But like writing a book, it requires thoughtful and careful planning.

The Author Online is filled with ideas, advice, and real-world examples. It also includes results from the first and only comprehensive survey of author websites and invaluable insights into:

* the features readers look for on their favorite author websites
* whether or not to blog or Twitter, and how to approach both in an authentic, effective way
* when and how to work with designers and/or programmers
* how to create a content plan for your site
* how to use analytic data as an editorial tool

Visit the companion website, TheAuthorOnline.com, for more information including a constantly updated and detailed list of online resources and tools plus dozens of sample author websites.