Worderella Writes

Marketing Through an Author Website

For some reason, most author websites are awful. This is probably because authors don’t have the time, money, or inclination to put a lot of effort into a good website design…and that’s fair. But a bit backward-minded in this day and age. Many agents suggest that authors, aspiring or not, should have a website. But what are you supposed to put up there, anyway?

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Want to be Showcased on Worderella Writes?

I’m looking for guest bloggers to spice up Worderella Writes. At the end of your post, feel free to advertise your own website/blog, especially if it has to do with the craft of writing, or the progress of your own work.

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To Everything There is a Season

Well, the season hasn’t changed yet, unfortunately. The weather forecast says winter storm for the rest of the night. However, today the season did change for my website. I’ve been agonizing over the new layout (the old one was just awful) for the past three weeks, and I think I’ve come up with one that is both functional and visually appealing. I’ve never used brown and pink together in a layout before.

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The new year cometh

Happy new year, everyone! Here’s hoping your muse is kind. Mine favored me at the end of my break from school, the procrastinating little wretch that she is, and I’m now 76% complete with the WIP manuscript! I’ve done a lot of work-shopping on the tagline and the hook. Here’s what I came up with for my WIP, Trentwood’s Orphan…

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New Blog Layout

So, I don’t know how many of you actually came to the blog yesterday, but if you did, I apologize. I don’t have a PHP interpreter on my computer, so when I made changes to the layout I had to upload them to the blog to see if it looked like how I wanted it to. I’m pretty pleased with the end result! The colors are a little more subtle, and I find it more visually pleasing than the last layout I made. I especially like the horizontal links along the top. I had to change the actual blog code to get that trick working…

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Being Worderella

Things have been crazy around Worderella’s part of the world lately. I took the GRE yesterday, my second time, just to see if I could improve my somewhat decent score. I did, so huzzah! I have been reading a lot, which explains the lack of article-posting and the proliferation of book-review-posting. I’m also working on graduate school applications, my college’s magazine, and my appeal to graduate form which gets me priority scheduling for the next year.

I have not been writing. I wrote about ten thousand words last month, and this month, maybe two. I’m not too worried about this, however, because I came to a scene where I realized my character, who is very spirited, was doing something no girl in her right mind would do in 1887 London. Back to the research books for me!

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Writer’s Digest Website Contest

I was just notified that I am a finalist for the Writer’s Digest Best Writer’s Website Contest! I’ll be in the October issue, so look for me, Belinda Kroll at www.worderella.com! This is very exciting, as I was certain I wouldn’t even place.

In other news, I’m a little over 40% complete with First Draft B. It’s pretty amazing how these characters are taking over.

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Marketing: Author Websites

This is something that I come across time and time again, and with some of my favorite authors: horrid websites. As a computer scientist and amature web designer, it just breaks my heart to see websites with no style, no definite design, and therefore, not much attracting new fans. This isn’t to say I’m an expert at awesome websites. I change my layout often enough when I learn a new coding trick. But let me say this: there are certain websites that just turn me off to the author.

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