Summary: Many novelists don’t know what to put on their author websites. What are readers actually looking for? In this episode, we tell you what will thrill them and make them want to come back.<br> The only reason why anyone would visit an author website is that it is the most interesting website in the entire world – for that person at that time.<br> So, why would someone visit your fiction website?<br> Here are ten answers that will not only draw readers to your author website, but will get them to bring their friends as well.<br> The DVD Approach for Novel Websites<br> Thomas: So in this episode we’re going to be talking about how to make a website that’s actually interesting for your readers to visit. And this is something a lot of authors really struggle with, because they’re like, “I write novels, what do I talk about on my website other than posting the book covers to my novels?”<br> We’re going to tell you exactly how to do that, but first we want to talk a little bit about philosophically how to approach that. And the most important way I feel to think of your website is like the special features on a DVD. So think of your website as that companion to the story that helps accentuate it. Jim, what kind of special features do you like on a DVD when you’re watching one?<br> Jim: Well, I immediately go to the Bloopers. The bloopers are fun, they make me laugh, you get a little bit of the behind-the-scenes look and feel for who the actors are. The other thing I love is the continuity things, right, where “why did this continuity break here, and why didn’t it break there” and the other thing I love hearing about is how did this story come together?<br> In other words, it started off as a screenplay or possibly started off as a novel, and then a group of people came together to make this thing into a movie. So I really like the story behind the story.<br> #1 Deleted Scenes & Alternate Endings<br> Thomas: Yeah. Exactly, which leads us straight into our first thing, which is Deleted Scenes and alternate endings. This is one of my favorite things to see on a DVD. It’s like, I want to know the other ways that it could have gone or the other scenes that could have been there. Because if you really fall in love with the story, you want more of it when you’re done, right? <br> I remember being so sad when Lord of The Rings ended, like “I want to read more” and there was no more, and Tolkien was dead, and oh it was the worst. It started me on my track of reading other people’s fantasy books, because I was like “well I’m not going to find more from Tolkien so I have to start exploring other writers” and so this is something you can put on your website– deleted scenes and alternate endings from your book. <br> Something that makes people curious and also interested. It’s the sort of thing, especially if you mention it, “Deleted Scenes available on book title.com”, now suddenly I’m curious to go visit your website and find out more about you.<br> Jim: Yeah I love that idea, Thomas, because for example, [with] The Five Times I Met Myself, I’ve had a number of readers write to me and say, “Oh gosh, I was just hoping it could have ended this way, that could have been great” and I’ve written back and say “well it did actually end that way, that’s the way it originally ended” and then we decided to change it up. So you’ve kind of inspired me right now to go back and put that on my website for people that want to see how the story originally ended.<br> #2 Integrated Blog<br> Thomas: Another thing that authors are looking for, the 2nd thing people are looking for on your website, is a blog. And they want the blog integrated into your website. And I will say, authors have gotten much better about this nowadays. Years ago people used to have their blog on one website and their website on a separate website. So they had a blogspot over here and their website, their name.com. You want that all together.
