[IRTF] Website Tour

[mabfan]

One of the important pieces of a marketing plan for a book is to have a website, as noted in the book The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity. A website is a relatively inexpensive way for an author and a publisher to promote a book. I knew that when I Remember the Future was about to be published, I would want it to have its own separate site, independent of my author website and this blog.

So I turned, once again, to Heather Greene.

Years ago, Heather had done the design for Michael A. Burstein's Homepage, and I very much liked the result. Fortunately for me, Heather was willing to help me out again for this new site.

First, though, I needed to figure out what a website devoted to a book needed. I looked at the site that my friend Jennifer Pelland had put together for her collection Unwelcome Bodies along with a few others, typed up some scattered notes, and emailed them to Heather with the request that she work her magic.

And she did.

Burstein Books is now all set to promote I Remember the Future. We've included the following pages on the site:

• An introductory page about the book
  
• A press kit in both HTML and downloadable PDF
  
• A "How to Order" page, which includes links to every bookseller that I know of carrying the book
  
• A Bio page with links to profiles
  
• And links to my blog and home page.
  

The press kit includes all the materials I created for my Boston University book marketing class, as well as the standard publisher's TIP sheet that goes to bookstores to explain what the book is all about.

By the way, Heather also helped me update Michael A. Burstein's Homepage, which I had barely touched since January of 2007, when my mom died. My author page now includes pictures of the cover to I Remember the Future as well as more up-to-date news.

So, one more time, I'd like to thank Heather for all her help. As I noted before, if you're a writer who needs a site designed, Heather's rates are very reasonable, and I highly recommend her.

Comments

[sorek.livejournal.com]

Don't forget to create a wikipedia page for the book.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

There's a link from my Wikipedia entry to the book's site, but how do I create a Wikipedia entry for the book? Would it be better if someone else did it instead of me?

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Yes. If you create it, you risk having a pile-on of people deleting it as self-promotion and advertising.

[sethg]

...and whoever does create the page will have to defend against charges that the book is not sufficiently notable to deserve a Wikipedia page of its own.

(Michael's own notability, as a Campbell-winning writer, seems to be undisputed--the page has been there for years--but I'm not sure what criteria the Wikipedia hivemind uses these days to rule on the notability of individual books.)

[jamietr.livejournal.com]

The site looks great, Michael! Sorry I'll miss the grand unveiling this weekend, but I can't wait to get my copy!

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Why settle for only one copy? :-)

[klingonguy.livejournal.com]

What an excellent site! And it contains much useful information that I now eagerly plan to emulate/steal/borrow from in the coming months.

[mabfan.livejournal.com]

Feel free. As I said, I studied other sites before deciding what ought to be in this one.

[malkaesther.livejournal.com]

Websites looks great.