Kimberly A. Cook

Military Romance Author

marketing

How Do Author Web Sites/Blogs Reflect Multiple Genres?

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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.

Two of my keeper shelves of favorite author books. Okay, maybe floor to ceiling keeper bookshelves is more accurate, truthfully.
Two of my keeper shelves of favorite author books. Okay, maybe floor to ceiling keeper bookshelves is more accurate, truthfully.

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!

 

Do We Really Need Every Social Media Platform?

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by Kimberly A. Cook           (Twitter@ WarriorTales)

Working at the day job last week an invite popped up from my sister to add her to my LinkedIn account. Since I don’t participate in LinkedIn for my day job, thought this a tad bit odd. Checked with her and she didn’t send it.

Travelocity Gnome is going to need more backup than the M&Ms kids to protect my digital footprint these days.
Travelocity Gnome is going to need more backup than the M&Ms kids to protect my digital footprint these days.

Either LinkedIn was prowling, there is another virus on LinkedIn or her computer, or yada yada yada. I am so tired of defending my digital social media space from viruses, hackers and spammers while I am trying to get real writing work done.

More than once I’ve thought of taking all my computers offline and keeping one dummy for surfing. I’d be safer unless the others were physically stolen. The only reason I got on Facebook and LinkedIn were for the writing biz for one and a volunteer job on the other.

I have several author/writing friends who use LinkedIn and like it. I, however, might be shutting it down. I don’t need a job right now and I can’t reply to anybody while I am trying to find time to write. Then I stumbled across this Wall Street Journal article about how they are going to have folks write for LinkedIn and be influencers, but only 500 or so, and they won’t be paid. Sounds like free content to me!

When I got on Facebook for the business I was immediately found by a ton of folks from high school outside my little clique; most I barely remembered! For us writers who need some safe space to create and write, it felt like Facebook was rustling through my lingerie drawer. Enough!

Between this blog, Twitter and my web site, I’m thinking that might be enough digital real estate for now. Maybe more than I need. Because in the end, writing and finding time to write come before marketing, really. It’s hard to sell a book that isn’t written or won’t be written this year or next. Get thee writing!

Link:     http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/02/19/linkedin-to-allow-all-users-to-post-articles/