…and Some Other Important Things, Too

Two Birds Author Services welcomes guest poster Sarah Berke to our newsletter today!

Sarah is a novelist and small business owner who helps professional and aspiring professional creatives. She started Esperance Creative in 2024 to help creatives build the confidence to share their work and take up space with their craft. She loves to help creatives find the courage to claim their space in the world. In 2020, after over a decade in non-profit corporation management, she traded non-profit business management for writing upmarket book club fiction and negotiating with her spirited and strong-willed daughters. She’s a member of the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.

 

 

Whether you’re getting ready to launch your very first website or you just want a pulse check on whether your current site is serving your needs, the key things to consider are the same. But what is the most important thing your website needs? The answer is simpler than you think.

 

Your website is the place where people come to meet you. If you have a book or articles already published then readers will have a sense of you through your work, but this is the place where they’ll come to meet the writer behind the writing. And of course, if you haven’t yet published, this may be a reader’s first real introduction to you beyond the snapshots social media allows. Your website is the cohesive place where you present yourself to the world, letting them get to know you and your brand. The most important thing your website needs is your personality.

 

Your website needs to feel right for you. A quick online search will give you lists of best practices, but the most important thing to keep in mind is that your website should help people fall in love with you. Even for those of us who aren’t creating with a goal of being visible ourselves—or who aren’t comfortable in the spotlight—we have to learn to sit with that discomfort and let website people behind the curtain. Because the thread that ties all of your work together—and all of the potential good you can do in the world—is you. Your website is a great place to let people get to know the artist behind the art, which could be anything from recommendations to your own story to a peek at things that matter most to you.

 

As a professional or aspiring professional creator, it’s also important to have a mission that guides you. It should be broad enough to capture everything you want to do, but specific enough that it anchors you in your own eyes and the eyes of the people who read your work. Start with asking yourself what your goal is, professionally. Not the achievement—signing with an agent or getting a book deal or publishing or teaching or whatever—but what is the guiding purpose behind that want? What do you hope to achieve by sharing your work with the world? You may not put the text of your mission on your website, but it should pulse in the undercurrent of everything else.

 

Aside from personality, here are four more things your website needs:

 

A cohesive visual vibe

The visual aspect of your website is going to set the tone for everything else. Colors, fonts, layouts, and imagery will come together to form the visual brand that supports both you as a creator and the work you create, and before you can put pen to paper (or mouse to computer) on any of those details, it’s important to have an idea of what your goals are for your site. Do you want it to be welcoming and inclusive? Humorous and lighthearted? Serious and informational? Light and airy? Dark and edgy? The visual vibe is where your personality, mission, and brand will shine through in a concrete way.

 

Sticky content

Sticky content is content that invites people to click and stay awhile. There are lots of options for sticky content, but the primary purpose isn’t to convey news about you and your career: it’s to provide information that might be useful to the visitor. Blog posts, newsletter articles, book recommendations, links to prior work, and so much more can be considered sticky content if it provides something relevant to the visitor that makes them want to settle in and keep clicking.

 

Bouncy content

The opposite of sticky content, bouncy content is designed to send site visitors to another place you want them to go. These are generally in the form of links and can include links to your social media accounts, links to order your book(s), links to other creators you recommend, links to bookstores, or links for anything else that you feel is worthy of enticing people to leave your site.

If you’ve already published a book, the promotion would be considered bouncy content. You don’t just want them reading about your book on your website—you want them clicking away from your site so they can order it for themselves.

 

Ownership

“But my publisher gave me a landing page for my book, so that’s all I need, right?”

“I just rely on social media to get my message out.”

“I haven’t even published yet, so there’s no need for me to have my own website.”

I can’t stress enough the value of owning what you can so that it’s under your direct influence and control. It’s up to your publisher to decide for how long to keep that page active, and up to them what content goes on it. Social media is volatile and unpredictable, and, most importantly, outside of our control as creators. Publishing is a long game, and there’s benefit to launching your author brand long before you have a book in the world. Making sure that your website is under your control and that you’re collecting contact information from supporters is one way you can ensure your longevity for years to come. Claiming ownership of your career is the first step to having the career that you dream of for yourself.

 

As a website creator and brand cultivator for creatives, my job isn’t to create your brand, it’s to help you find it within yourself and bring it out in a way the world can see. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, please check out my website at www.esperancecreative.com.