to website or not to website

[Brenda Wamsley]

Many of the authors I've read also have their own websites. Should I get my own website? Who would you recommend I go through?

[Bryan Lincoln]

I like www.godaddy.com, despite their horrendous ad campaign.

[P.G. Holyfield]

Should you? Most definitely, if you are serious about this.

Who with? I use Dreamhost (http://dreamhost.com). It's easy to set up an account, get a website, set up a wordpress blog (in case you ever want to podcast your novel through your website in addition to podiobooks... they're good.

[Mike Sharpe]

I use Matthew Wayne Selznick http://www.mattselznick.com/ Not exactly cheep but you do speak with a real person. Plus if he knows about Podiobooks..

[Philippa Ballantine]

Yes, have a website! If you are planning on being an author, building a career, or even just making it easier for people to find out more about you- have a website. Podiobooks is grand, but for an author, you'll need one. If you're not concerned about that now, at least secure your name as a domain for the future.
I've used Dreamhost for a couple of years now and it's been great for me as I can host all my podcasts in one place and never have to worry about bandwidth. But if you don't run an indie feed you can probably find a less expense option just to host author information. (Not that DH is expense IMHO)

[Frank Marcopolos]

Yep, I too think it's essential. I use WordPress and host on powweb. My domain is purchased through godaddy. I'm happy with all my vendors.

[Mark S]

Definitely get your own website if you are serious, as others have stated. I have bought some websites through Godaddy.com in the past, no problems in purchasing them. However, I have never done anything with them so I can't advise on website creation and such so don't know how difficult that will be.

You know, when I find an author I really like I like to find more information about him/her....if they have a website of their own I always check it out. If you do this it will be good to put a bio section in there along with the information about your books. If folks enjoy your work, they probably will like to 'get to know you better' by reading a bio, a blog, etc.

Best of luck, I hope it works out for you. I have not read or listened to any of your work, what kind of books do you write?

[James Keeling]

I think you've got to have a web site. But do you register the 5,6 or even 10 URLs that represent your content and point them at the same place? Or do you maintain different sites for different projects? or do you just register one and then call that it.

[Philippa Ballantine]

I have three URLS, but I am sure there are more. Just try and think of how the average person would plug in a url to find your name. I was lucky in that mine is an uncommon name in an uncommon combination. All of them point back to one place however, and on that one place I have everything. That's my author site.
For my podcast novels I do also have a whole separate site for each project, but I have cross links between that and my main author site.
Wow, now I come to write all this down, it does sound complicated!

[Mike Sharpe]

I should point out that .com and .net and .org are very easy to grab, and are the most likey to be taken.

They are for me, so I went with Mikesharpewriter.com it's what I do.

[James Keeling]

Which brings up a whole new question. I have a moniker that I use for my online personna. Am I better off dealing with that identity or establishing a new one based on my 'real name'.... I can't help but think that in the future, I'll want me real name out there, but what if my online nickname is well known and I don't want to lose those social connections?

[Brenda Wamsley]

I've been thinking about this for a while. There are so many Authors with pen names. Mark Twain for example, when you look for a book, you look for Twain not Clemens. And if he was alive now and I wanted to find his web site, I'd do the same thing. If you are using a nom de plume then I'd stay with it and be consistent throughout with websites, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

[Margaret Taylor]

Totally get a website. I'd like to point out that if you're just starting out, there are a number of free options out there like Google Pages and Wikidot. I know it's silly, but my website is powered by Blogger.

As a matter of fact, that brings up an interesting question. Is paid web-hosting better than the cheap, user-friendly (but less flexible) option? I imagine it would be a bad thing to start with a free host and the move to a paid one, because then you'd have to change your URL.