Category: self-publishing

What is the Difference Between a Blog and Author Website, and Do I Need Both?

Whenever I am out and about the first question people ask: “Do you have a website?” So I thought I’d talk briefly about the difference between a blog and an author website and if you need both.

First, no. You don’t necessarily need both, though I do recommend it for authors with several published books. But, first, let’s get into the major differences.

Website vs. Blog (No, they are not the same) 

Though both are referred to as “websites” a website differs from the blog because it is something that is static and unchanging. It focuses on the author and his/her work without the distraction of other elements (like new posts). Sometimes websites just have one page and that’s okay.

The purpose of the website is to give immediate information about who the person is, what they do and how you can stay in touch with them and their work. These things must be understood immediately upon visiting the author’s website.

A blog is a platform where the author can connect with readers consistently by introducing them to who they are and their writing style through the kinds of posts they publish. Derived from the word weblog, blogs are technically also websites but the differences are important. A blog is constantly changing and presents the opportunity for readers to learn more about you as a person and become familiar with your work through your posts. They can get to know you as you are writing your book, not just by reading your published work. A blog is always changing as the writer is always posting new content and is much more interactive than a website. Because blogs are so interactive (comments, sharing options) they are better indexed by Google than static websites.

  • Website- Static, to the point, unchanging (except from updates here and there)

  • Blog – Constantly changing, interactive, easily indexed by Google

The question is: When should you invest in a website or blog?

If you have no books out yet, I recommend starting with a blog. My recommendation is to use WordPress. Blogs that are integrated into Website builders like Wix just doesn’t pick up the same traffic. (Consider that WordPress powers 30% of the web). You can use the free blog to get a feel for blogging and writing publicly, and to introduce yourself to your potential audience and then upgrade from there. Don’t just talk about your writing, talk about your life. Who are you? Let us in a little.

Use blogging as an opportunity to be social, make new friends, and network with professionals. Blogs are interactive and a great way to keep your readers updated. It’s also the easiest way for you to get to know your audience on a level beyond the basics. You can tell by likes, comments or social shares what kind of content people like. This will help you produce valuable content.

So, website? Blog? Both?

If you have several books published I recommend both a website and a blog, with the blog accessible through your website.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money on a website, but it should be part of your budget strategy when you are ready to begin. Publishing books, my dearest Indie Authors, is not free. It doesn’t have to cost a lot of money to publish a book, but it will cost something. Create a budget for that something and don’t publish the book until you can afford to do so. If you want to become a Self-Publisher, you will need to be just as financially responsible as if you were starting any other business. Let’s take ourselves seriously as authors! And if you’re serious about publishing, you must consider thinking like a businessperson and the basics of all businesses are having a website where people can learn more about that business. If you’re a serious author, you should have a website. Period.

Yes, your blog can certainly act as your website….with a few changes.

Because the blog and the website still have major differences, if you do this (have your WordPress blog act as your website) consider making a few changes to your blog:

  • Use your author name as your blog name…

…and purchase a domain name. If you intend to use your blog as an author blog you will want it to be something like: www dot yournamehere dot com, and not www dot tanyaforeverlove dot wordpress dot com. Yes, this blog is not named after me but consider that I have an author website that is named after me already and this blog is linked to that site. I can send people to yecheilyahysrayl.com and they can still access this blog and that’s what you want: a place where people can access all of you in one place.

 

  • If your blog is also your website (and you blog using WordPress), consider setting up a static or landing page.

I can tell people to go to yecheilyahysrayl.com and they will find everything they need on me (including this blog), but if you are using your blog as your website, remember, the major differences between the website and blog is that the website is static and gets straight to the point. There is no long list of posts to sift through and what the person does and who they are is immediately available. An author website focuses ONLY on you, the author, and your work. It’s unchanging and provides everything someone would need to learn more about you without the added commentary, widgets, theme changes and constantly updated articles. This means that if your blog is your website, change your blog name to reflect your author name, create a domain name of that name and then create a static page. While I no longer use a static page (I have a website for that), it worked really well for me in the beginning.

To create a static page on your blog, first, create a new page.

Dashboard > Pages > Add New

Make this a landing page. A landing page is a single web page used to promote a business or product. Click on my Stella Trilogy Page Here for an example. It was once the static page for this blog. Notice the number of comments. I also sold books through that page. By focusing on books with no other distractions, people could focus on the work. That’s what you want, and that’s what author websites provide. If your blog is your author website, you can provide that same focus by adding a static page.

After you’ve published your new page you’d want to make it your static page.

Go to your dashboard

Setting > Reading >

Under Your Homepage Displays, check static and then check the landing page you just created

Now, when you tell people about your website they won’t be distracted by your recent blog posts, sidebar widgets, comments, etc. It will act as an author website but also a blog.

Cons:

There are pros and cons to everything. One con of having a static page on your blog is that sometimes it can be harder for people to access your blog posts and follow you. If people have to look for stuff, they usually leave. This is one reason I took down my static page. Depending on your theme of choice, people won’t be able to access your blog posts or follow you with the static page up. With this theme I am using (2017) the static page doesn’t even show my follow button. Not good.

Which comes back around to why I think, if you have several books out and have established yourself, it’s easier to have both.

  • If you have no books out and are just getting started, create a free WordPress blog and be sure to name your blog after your author’s name as it will, for now at least, also act as your author website and people will try finding you first by your name so it’s easier. (You can also consider creating a one-page website if you don’t want to blog.)

 

  • If you have several books out, have both an author website and a blog. I suggest using either WordPress to create your author website or Squarespace and then making sure that your blog is accessible through your website. You can create a blog through your website platform (i.e. through Squarespace) or you can create a blog on WordPress separately and then just link it to your website. Either way, you want people to access the blog through the website.

Even Salt Looks Like Sugar, a novella – Coming October 2, 2018

Novella’s have my heart. The Stella Trilogy was a novella series and readers loved it so I had to write another short story! (If I am honest, I think they are kinda my thing).

This book is coming to you on Tuesday, October 2, 2018.

Proceeds from this book will go toward the funding of my next poetry contest.

We are looking to level up BIG time for year three!

This is modern-day literary fiction and is available now for pre-order.

 

Cover Reveal for

‘Even Salt Looks Like Sugar’

Even Salt - Book Cover

 

 

About.

Wanda wants nothing more than to escape the oppressive upbringing of life with her abusive foster mother. Miss Cassaundra manipulates the system by bringing lost children into her home turned whorehouse and collecting the money. Wanda knows what it’s like to be abandoned and has no doubt that Abby is Cassaundra’s next case. When an opportunity arises that could save them both, Wanda must find a way to get the paperwork that will secure their freedom. But Cassaundra’s got eyes everywhere and no one can be trusted when even salt looks like sugar.

Title: Even Salt Looks Like Sugar, a novella
Author: Yecheilyah Ysrayl
Publisher: Literary Korner Publishing
Publication Date: Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Coming October 2, 2018

MARK AS ‘to read’ on Goodreads

PRE-ORDER NOW

IMPORTANT: Possible Changes Coming to Createspace

CreateSpace DVD / CD production is shutting down and it is possible that Createspace is being faded out, moving from CreateSpace to Amazon Media on Demand.

“Bit by bit, Amazon has been shutting down different parts of Createspace. First they launch KDP Print, a competing/replacement POD service, then they shut down Createspace’s publishing services unit, and now they have shifted the DVD and CD production to another part of Amazon. As a result, there isn’t much left in Createspace besides the book POD service.” https://the-digital-reader.com/2018/07/25/createspace-dvd-cd-production-is-shutting-down-with-accounts-moving-to-amazon-media-on-demand/

This is important if you use Createspace for paperback copies of your book. It is possible CreateSpace POD is going next. I am still reading into it but it is advised that if you have paperback books published through Createspace that you move them over to KDP Print before CreateSpace is officially out and you have to rush to move. Below are some articles you may want to read (in addition to the article link above.)

(1) It Looks Like The End of the Line for Createspace

 

And here’s an article on how to move your titles:

 

(2) Moving From Createspace To Amazon KDP Paperback Publishing

“Revolution: The Nora White Story (Book 2)” by Yecheilyah Ysrayl

Thanks so much for sharing! Fam, remember that Revolution needs your support. Part 2 of The Nora White Story. Check it out.

The Evolution of a Book Cover

I have always enjoyed looking at book covers. Choosing a cover is my favorite part of the Indie Book Publishing process. In the beginning, I didn’t care too much about the cover and that was cool. But then, as I matured, I started to look at my writing differently. I stopped looking at my writing alone and started looking at the book as a complete package. In doing so, I’ve learned that the best chances of a book succeeding is not just one thing, but a collection of things. Not just a nice cover alone or a well-written story alone, but everything together. That is what I’ve learned, and that is how I will look at book publishing from now on. I will look at the process as a complete piece, a body that I must dress not just outwardly but inwardly and not just inwardly but outwardly.

I have had a little success with I am Soul so I thought I’d talk a little bit about the evolution of the cover and how I think it has played a major role in that success.

To start, I wasn’t going to even release this book when I did. I was supposed to release book two of Nora December 20, 2017, my mothers birthday. Instead, I pushed that book back (it wasn’t ready) and released I am Soul.

I am Soul is a collection of poems from this blog as well as my personal journal, collected, compiled and edited into what is now my 4th collection of poetry. I call it I am Soul because some of the poems are personal, some of them are centered around the African American experience (a people of Soul) and also because people have always said that I have an old soul. Even as a kid people have said that I was mature for my age. For these reasons, I am Soul.

Grainy pic of me and I am Soul with old cover.

The first cover was decent. I liked it a lot. A purple book with a heart-shaped bible page. It was nice enough to land me the #7 spot in the African Literature category of Amazon before release day. It started at number 17, then dropped to number 9 and then number 7.

Screenshot_2018-06-24-11-14-59-1

But…

I liked the cover a lot but I didn’t love it. I couldn’t help but notice that the cover looked better electronically, to me, than it did when the paperback arrived. It also didn’t stand out very well on Amazon.

I AM SOUL- 3D

I still think this is a cute cover but it doesn’t look all that great offline. Once the book printed it didn’t look the same. The dark blue on top the purple didn’t pop. In fact, this is still the cover on Goodreads. I don’t know how to change it. At first I didn’t care but after awhile I had to follow my heart and change the cover. (A privilege of publishing books Independently. You can change what you want, when you want.)

I decided to try something that matched the name of the book and the content in full. When you think of Soul you think of something deeply personal and connected to that individual.

Soul is something Israelites (Blacks) have always had (think Soul Train), from our hair styles to our creative way of dance, the way that we dress, the way that we sing, and the way that we speak. We set the trends and nothing was more trendy than the Afro at the peak of the Civil Rights and Black Power movements. From the practice of shaving the head to pass as a free person in the antebellum south, to the Afro of the 60s and 70s that said that Blacks were proud of who they were and free to be so openly, natural hair had made a comeback.

FFxG
Young, beautiful Cicely Tyson.

In the 1950s-60s it was common for Black women in Africa to wear their hair in small bushes. In America, Black women stopped straightening their hair. Women like Nina Simone and Abbey Lincoln are examples. And then Miriam Makeba (“Mama Africa”) emerged with a fro in the January 1960s issue of Look Magazine and Cicely Tyson wore her hair in a fro on episodes of the CBS drama East Side, West Side. And as college students and political activists like Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis started wearing fros, the fro had eased on into the mainstream.

Before and After

 

It wasn’t just about hair no more than Samson’s locs was about being trendy. Those locs were a representation of power and strength and so the Afro was a representation of the social-economic and political era of the time. A time when Black men and women were gaining strength and reclaiming parts of their lost heritage, one hairstyle at a time. A similar revolution is taking place today. Black men and woman are embracing more of their natural selves and waking up to the true knowledge of who they truly are.

For all of these reasons, I felt an image of a Black woman wearing a fro spoke volumes concerning the kind of messages I was seeking to give with the poetry inside of the book. Not just the soul of one woman but the soul of a people. The soul of an era.

I still think both covers are nice in their own right but the one that sticks out the most and which embodies a much more clear message; the one that will not just appeal to those who are biblically conscious but reach a larger audience; the one that makes people stop in their tracks, is the new cover.

When I uploaded this to social media, readers responded immediately. This had not happened with the first cover.

 

 

The new cover got me new reviews…

Screenshot (42)

I submitted this book to two different bookstores. One using the old cover and one using the new cover. The one with the new cover got a call back and the book is beginning to sell at the store. I am still waiting on a response from the store using the old cover.

 

I’ve learned that book covers really are important because I’ve experienced how important they are. Don’t get me wrong, content is just as important. At the end of the day if there’s nothing special to read there’s nothing special about the book. I am Soul still had to be edited and get through the bookstore’s professional reviewers to be stocked.

But, when I walked into the store yesterday, I couldn’t help but notice that because of the cover, Soul stuck out more than some of the other books that I could tell, as an Indie Author, were also self-published. In fact, to my surprise, Soul was sitting right next to Nikki Giovanni’s A Good Cry. Whether someone just sat it there or not, I cannot be sure. But, I was sure enough proud. I wasn’t going to taint the moment with thoughts of how it got there. It was there nonetheless.

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