Hi James, this is a beautiful looking website! Can't believe it only took 3 hours.
Once I get my next book published, I was thinking of doing the same. Although I already have a website/blog on Wordpress, the format is dated. In some ways I like that "homemade/folksy" feel to it, so I'll probably keep some of that, but other parts really need updating.
May I make a suggestion on yours? Under "more" I found your blog, so it's sort of hidden. I'd bring it out with its own "Blog" link, because I think readers will be really interested in your posts.
Oh brilliant, a new Cavafy biog if you stick with SB to the end - Rilk's Greatest Hits and "a kind of Druid thing going on". Fedlimid gets the full treatment and Druistan apparently is unsummarisable.
The main thing is I did an experiment. There was a well-known American children's author and illustrator called James Marshall (died young), a Texan. If you go on Goodreads and type James Marshall, all you get is George and Martha and Fox Unfoxed. So lesson no. 1, if you have a name that someone else has published under, find a different slant - jmarshallauthor. (There was also a James Marshall, American actor and James S Marshall, some kind of theosophist.) Not to mention Mrs Marshall, author of Under the Mendips about the Bristol Riots of 1831 who is not our Mrs Marshall.
So now that jmarshallauthor is a thing, how does he fare on a straight Google search. Well, not bad. The top AI box finds our dead American illustrator, then the next best thing is our own man with his new website, straight in, nice picture of James smiling to himself at some secret joke embedded into The Letter that we are yet to discover. The second image box across the top gives us a copy of Stone and Water on ebay at twice the price on A***m but no The Poster. No other images, back to George and Martha etc. That's a 7 out of 10 if you know what you are looking for but gives a bit to work on to draw in a new audience. Maybe some more tags - the South West of England (ie. not the SouthWest Texas), Druids, Roman invasion of Britain, novels set on Exmoor, "if you liked Rosemary Sutcliff as a child, read this new author", etc. Then the same for the Poster, the walking book that James will eventually give in and write with his gorgeous photos and so on. The Cornish Tourist Board has just gone out of business. There must be an gap to be filled (just don't mention The Salt Path!). Great journeys, small steps . . .
Congrats Jim. I checked your site and you seem to be doing everything right. By coincidence I also am getting a website, although I consider my Substack as a perfectly good one. What motivated me was ownership. An author needs to have a site they exclusively control. Not that Substack would ever throw me off : )
I think this sort of “what I did, it might work for you” post is just what is needed. Thank you
No, thank you for reading it!
Hi James, this is a beautiful looking website! Can't believe it only took 3 hours.
Once I get my next book published, I was thinking of doing the same. Although I already have a website/blog on Wordpress, the format is dated. In some ways I like that "homemade/folksy" feel to it, so I'll probably keep some of that, but other parts really need updating.
May I make a suggestion on yours? Under "more" I found your blog, so it's sort of hidden. I'd bring it out with its own "Blog" link, because I think readers will be really interested in your posts.
Thanks. Wordpress seems clunky to me now
Love it! And the website looks great! Reminds me I need to update mine...😂
Love this! Website looks great. Thank you for sharing.
No, thank you for reading!
Oh brilliant, a new Cavafy biog if you stick with SB to the end - Rilk's Greatest Hits and "a kind of Druid thing going on". Fedlimid gets the full treatment and Druistan apparently is unsummarisable.
The main thing is I did an experiment. There was a well-known American children's author and illustrator called James Marshall (died young), a Texan. If you go on Goodreads and type James Marshall, all you get is George and Martha and Fox Unfoxed. So lesson no. 1, if you have a name that someone else has published under, find a different slant - jmarshallauthor. (There was also a James Marshall, American actor and James S Marshall, some kind of theosophist.) Not to mention Mrs Marshall, author of Under the Mendips about the Bristol Riots of 1831 who is not our Mrs Marshall.
So now that jmarshallauthor is a thing, how does he fare on a straight Google search. Well, not bad. The top AI box finds our dead American illustrator, then the next best thing is our own man with his new website, straight in, nice picture of James smiling to himself at some secret joke embedded into The Letter that we are yet to discover. The second image box across the top gives us a copy of Stone and Water on ebay at twice the price on A***m but no The Poster. No other images, back to George and Martha etc. That's a 7 out of 10 if you know what you are looking for but gives a bit to work on to draw in a new audience. Maybe some more tags - the South West of England (ie. not the SouthWest Texas), Druids, Roman invasion of Britain, novels set on Exmoor, "if you liked Rosemary Sutcliff as a child, read this new author", etc. Then the same for the Poster, the walking book that James will eventually give in and write with his gorgeous photos and so on. The Cornish Tourist Board has just gone out of business. There must be an gap to be filled (just don't mention The Salt Path!). Great journeys, small steps . . .
That's very helpful, thanks Mandi for doing the legwork. I'll get on it: got to have a base from which to work.
P.s. who the heck is selling Stone and Water on eBay?
Answers on an email
Someone is selling the first edition of Stone and Water on eBay for twice what it costs new on Amazon! Must be a signed copy….
Congrats Jim. I checked your site and you seem to be doing everything right. By coincidence I also am getting a website, although I consider my Substack as a perfectly good one. What motivated me was ownership. An author needs to have a site they exclusively control. Not that Substack would ever throw me off : )
Yes, owning the IP and address is important. Thanks for reading!