by Kimberly A. Cook (Twitter@ WarriorTales)
Last week I took a web site and blog tour of my favorite authors for research purposes. Since I write both non-fiction and fiction for publication, I wanted to see how the best are handling this split personality marketing challenge.
It seems there are as many answers as there are authors. It also depends on where the author’s main focus is, writing only or writing and speaking gigs. This makes sense since we all write for our own reasons and goals.
Looking at the queen of romance fiction, Nora Roberts solved the problem when she wrote mystery books by making her J.D. Robb namesake another person. When she came out of the mystery closet with her two different author photos on the back of one book, it was a true split personality. Now she links to her mystery blog from the top of her main website www.noraroberts.com
Author Kate Carlisle proudly shows off her split personality by letting the visitor choose whether she wants romance or mystery, since she publishes both. Her great mystery series is one of my favorites, so this is working for both her romance and mystery fans. Her blog is the same for both sides of her website. See her beautiful landing page at www.katecarlisle.com
Non-fiction and fiction author Joanna Penn has her blog for writers and writer education at www.thecreativepenn.com where she shows her fiction and non-fiction titles. Her fiction thriller website at www.jfpenn.com has a thriller fiction blog attached to it. She split her online marketing footprint on purpose to separate her fiction readers from her non-fiction readers.
Still leaves me up in the air about how I want to handle the non-fiction vs. fiction issue. So who is my marketing mentor, my go-to-guru when I wonder about these kinds of decisions? Debbie Macomber. Not only is she an amazing romance fiction author, she is a non-fiction and children’s book author too. She keeps it all together on her main website and lists all her books under books. So simple yet classic. Love it. Check out her printable book list at www.debbiemacomber.com to see the elegant way she lists and groups all her books. She makes it easy for her readers.
Simple is best for me. I like to think of it as the Coco Chanel guide to author website design. Fine lines and no clutter. Is my website like this? Not now, but this Fall I think a re-design is required. In a publishing world where we can finally pick and choose what we write and when and how we publish, this is one decision I’m glad I can quit tearing my hair out about; a book is a book is a book. What a concept!
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