Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Posts Tagged ‘web’

Authors! 8 Tips For Your Website’s Usability and Design

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

by Monica Valentinelli

In today’s article, I’d like to share with you some tips to consider when you’re reviewing your current website or when you’re thinking about creating one. Let’s take a look at these tips for your website’s design and usability.

1. Structure Your Theme Around Your Update Frequency – First and foremost, I believe that you have to make a decision, up front, about how often you plan on updating your website. If you’re not going to blog or update very often, you can simply choose a different website theme that’s a little more static than a blog, but still attractive and professional. If your website isn’t focused around a blog, visitors won’t expect you to update your website as often, but you can still provide good, useful information for anyone who visits. Several themes offer you the ability to have a blog component integrated separately into your website, too.

2. Balance Text with Images – Images can be a great enhancement to your website and they can allow you to easily share content with your readers that they might enjoy seeing. However, your website copy is arguably the most important asset you have for many reasons. Copy allows you to reach your readers and search engines, and it also allows you to attract new visitors through Google and similar places. As an author, your content is exceptionally important because it’s a reflection of you and your work. (more…)

Tags: beginners, business, Monica Valentinelli, web
Posted in Networking and Self-Promotion, SFWA Blog | 7 Comments »

The Pros and Cons of Having Your Own Website

Monday, August 24th, 2009

by Monica Valentinelli

Whenever I’m at a convention, one of the more common questions I am asked is: “Do I need to have my own website?” I always counter with, “Well, what do you want to use the website for?” Several have answered me either with the proud declaration “To get published, of course!” or “To sell my books!”

Having an online presence may or may not translate to your desired action, in part because your presence really is about “you” as a person rather than “you” the author. With today’s technology, the two are not mutually exclusive. Even if you post personal things on one particular corner of the internet, doesn’t mean that other professionals won’t read those comments and form opinions about you. In this way, a website can help you manage either the “first” impression that people have about you or a designated location you can send your readers, editors and other professionals to. There are pros and cons to having your own website that depend upon where you are in your career and what message about yourself you’d like to share.

It is easier than ever before to create a website that looks polished with a small budget. Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress are a boon to many writers because they allow you to schedule content and update your website fairly easily. Depending upon how you want to treat visitors to your website, you can do all your website updates (e.g. if you have a blog component in your website) weekly, and then set your content to automatically post. Since the technology does exist to “do-it-yourself,” many people (authors or not) are drawn to the idea of having their own presence online.

A website can help leave a positive first impression if it’s designed well and your content is professional. (By designed well, I mean easy-to-use and easy-to-read.) Typically, I recommend not posting extremely personal content on your personal website, because you really don’t know “who” the audience is going to be. It could happen that your neighbor, a random reader, or an HR professional stumbles across your website. For this reason, I tend to use different tools for different reasons. My own website (located at http://www.mlvwrites.com) is very different from my LiveJournal or my Facebook account because my content varies depending upon where I’m writing it.

If you’ve never been published, but you are an aspiring author, having your own website might actually work against you depending upon the content you post on it. For example, if an agent “googles” your name and comes across a website full of bad poetry or rants about not getting published, chances are you have potentially left a bad impression in that person’s mind. However, a web presence can work “for” you. Short writing samples and discussions about the craft of writing can show a positive attitude and an enthusiasm for the industry.

If you have been published, your website can also help your readers find a point-of-contact for you as an author. Once you have a website, you’ll need to maintain the technology and occasionally update it with news about your career or your writing for your readers. That strain on your time can work both for and against you. In one respect you’re providing content about you or your books for your devoted readers. In another, if you don’t plan on being online very much you might view those updates to be a chore. Some readers react positively to a static presence; some don’t. While you can’t control what your readers think of your site, an “official” web presence can be a really positive thing for your readers and your “author’s brand” because your news is coming from another authoritative place

For any website, whether you currently have one or not, I feel that the most important thing to consider is what message you are trying to convey. Even though a website isn’t a guarantee that someone will “discover” you, I like to think of it as a tool that you can wield rather than regard it as a room you’re hoping someone will stumble into.

About the Author

Monica Valentinelli is the content and web analytics manager for the digital sheet music retailer http://www.musicnotes.com and the project manager for the horror and dark fantasy webzine www.flamesrising.com. In her spare time, Monica enjoys writing fiction, and has over a dozen game and fiction credits to her name including: “Pie,” a short story found in the Buried Tales of Pinebox, Texas, her recent novella “Twin Designs” which was part of the collection Tales of the Seven Dogs Society, her flash fiction piece “Prey” on Pseudopod.org with more works on the way.

To read more about Monica, visit her blog located at www.mlvwrites.com.

Tags: Monica Valentinelli, web
Posted in Building a Career, Networking and Self-Promotion, SFWA Blog | 2 Comments »

Welcome to the new SFWA website

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

This website is intended to be a pivotal part of the Science fiction and Fantasy Writers of America’s mission to inform, promote, support, defend and advocate for writers.

We’ve got a number of new programs for writers, readers and educators which we’ll be highlighting this week. At the moment, I want to give credit to our hardworking webteam volunteers.

Designer — Jon Armstrong
Website Content Editor — Nancy Fulda
Webmaster – Chris Hansen
Conversion to Wordpress — Jeremy Tolbert
Content Transfer: Jamie Todd Rubin, Scott Danielson, James Bassett, Brandie Tarvin, Aislynn Denny, Jin Kang, Christie Yant, Meg Stout
Forum Moderators: Jim Johnson, Joy Marchand, Scott Roberts, Charles A. Tan, Brandie Tarvin

There’s still more to come, but these volunteers have worked incredibly hard to get us to this point and deserve serious kudos for their efforts.

Tags: volunteer, web
Posted in SFWA Blog | 14 Comments »

Update: Website changeover

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

Update: sfwa.org is in a transition state at the moment while we wait for some things to finish propagating through the internet. At the moment, if you go to sfwa.org you might get a parked page with advertising. This should change by the end of the day although for some people it may take up to 72 hours.

When you receive the 2nd of the emails that we promised you, this will be an indication that for most of our users, sfwa.org points to the correct site.

Please do not worry, nothing is broken.

Tags: web
Posted in SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Website transfer update

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Our webmaster had a minor traffic accident today. No one was injured, but it’s made us get a slow start on the transfer. At the moment we are waiting for the domain name to finish transferring to our new registrar.  Once that happens, we will change the DNS servers to point to the new site.  It is unlikely that you will see any change between now and Sunday afternoon or evening.

Thank you for your patience.

Tags: web
Posted in SFWA Blog | 2 Comments »