Chapter 9

Using WordPress to Set Up a Website or Blog

In This Chapter

Understanding why your author platform is important

Getting your website set up on WordPress.com

Customizing your website design

Creating the pages for your website

Considering the pros and cons of blogging

If you don’t already have a website or a blog, you need to set one up. You need to have a home on the web that potential readers can visit to find out about you and your books. Though Amazon and other online stores give you only limited space to explain your e-book, you can pack your website with useful information and interesting resources for your potential readers. You have full control over what you include — for example, you can serialize your e-book in blog form or give readers extra information about the subject matter of your nonfiction book or your novel’s characters.

Many authors feel daunted by the prospect of setting up a website — but it doesn’t have to be a complicated process. You certainly don’t need to pay a huge sum to a web designer. In fact, you can get your site online for free, in less than an hour.

Even if you already have a blog or a website, skim this chapter, and look for anything that you’re not yet doing or that you want to improve on. For example, you might want to add or update the pages on your site to make sure that potential readers can find out what they want to know.

In this chapter, I explain why your author platform is important and how your website works to engage prospective and current readers. I explain how to set up your website using WordPress.com (which is free), and I describe the crucial pages that your site needs. I also help you decide whether to include a blog on your site — though WordPress is designed for blogging, you can also use it for a regular site without a blog.