The Internet is an important arena for promoting yourself and your books, but it’s huge. How do you create a space for yourself amongst all that noise?

Many authors believe that a website is something they can put off and think about once they have a publishing contract for their first book, and specifically a publication date that they can use the website to announce. Some even believe that the publisher will sort all that kind of thing out for them, which is extremely unlikely for a new writer.

If you’re serious about using the Internet to provide information about your book to potential readers, you need to start a lot sooner than just a few months before publication.

Websites take time to build

Decide now whether you’re going to learn what is necessary (at minimum some basic html, ftp, and how to use a website creation program) to build and maintain your own website, or whether you are going to pay someone else to do part, or all, of it for you.

Content

You will need to provide some content on your site or it won’t be well indexed by the search engines. At the very least you can put up some biographical information and a blurb about your book, but consider writing some articles that tie in to the themes of your book.

Join forums to see what people are talking about in relation to your genre, or the themes you cover, and then write about your point of view.

You can also write reviews of any books you’ve read in the same genre, or review the books you’ve used for research. Readers looking for information on those books, or the topic they cover, may land on your site and decide to try your books too.

You may have heard of “Search Engine Optimisation” as the buzz word for getting your site on the first page of a Google search, but good content will do the job for you and is ranking more and more highly in search engine algorithms.

Search Engine Indexing

The main reason to begin creating your website now is the time it takes the search engines to find you. Google has a policy of waiting until a website has been up for about six months before they begin to take it seriously and send their bots in to catalogue it properly. The reason for this is the increasing number of websites created to host fly-by-night schemes and scams, phishing sites, and spam sites. These don’t often last more than a few months at the most, so longevity is ranked higher by Google’s algorithms.

So if you only get around to publishing your website a few months before your book is due to hit the shelves, your site may only be appearing on Google after the date you’re trying to announce. It’s not the end of the world, though, and some other search engines will catalogue your site almost immediately, but there’s no denying the power of Google’s popularity as a search tool.

It’s preferable to have a strong website up and running, with all the kinks ironed out, well before people start searching for you.

Agents and publishers

A strong website is a positive sign when you’re trying to find an agent or a publisher in the first place. Both agents and publishers want to see signs that you’re willing to self-promote, and you’ll be able to present a stronger public image if searches on your name result in links to your website.

Blogging

Blogging is a great way to start if you have something to say, and can keep up a regular flow of chatter despite the feeling that nobody’s listening. The down side is that there are so many blogs on the net that you need to stand out with your own voice, angle, and regular posting. It takes a while for people to find you, and you have to be patient. The up side is that search engines love blogs, especially regular ones.

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The Web-Savvy Writer : Book Promotion with a High-Tech Twist by Patrice-Anne Rutledge