What should you call your author website?

Hello my name is author

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As an author, of course you want to sell copies of your book, so you might be tempted to name your website after your book and humbly relegate yourself to the “About the Author” page. Don’t do it!

It’s critical to your career as an author that you have a website that’s all about you, with your own name in the URL. Why?

  • The infrastructure–website, traffic, SEO, etc.–is built around you, so it can grow and develop over time. Promotion of your book – and all your subsequent books – will piggyback on that.
  • It increases awareness of you as a personality, allowing you to expand into podcasts, speaking engagements, and more.
  • It acts as a fantastic credibility-booster (and source of pride!)

 

Of course, there are some cases in which it might make sense to build a website just for your book, particularly once your book’s brand becomes bigger than your own. (Harry Potter, anyone?) You might also want to build an online platform for your book itself if you have a course or other related content to promote. But don’t fall into the trap of putting your book’s brand before your personal one right at the outset–your future, immensely renowned self will thank you!

Paris Spence-Lang

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