A few posts ago, I announced the launch of  the official Black Girl Next Door website:  http://www.theblackgirlnextdoor.com

Now I’m going to detail the process of its creation and share some things I learned along the way.

First, web presence is a vital dimension of book promotion.  Think of it this way:  the web is “awake” when you are asleep and your site is like a 24 hour open invitation for readers to become familiar with you and your book.

You can’t simply rely on the publisher’s website to promote your book.
Your book certainly needs to be featured on the publisher’s website for several reasons.  SEO or search engine optimization is a key and publisher’s websites have a lot of pull in terms of SEO.  I’m no expert but engines like Google and Yahoo rate sites in terms of traffic and age of the site.  So places like simonsays.com are very powerful because they attract so many visitors.  Although your book will have a page, it may not be prominently featured on the first page of the publisher’s site.  Check out The Black Girl Next Door at Simon Says to see what I mean.    Placement on the site is key, but as a rookie author you may not have much control over that.

Unless you are familiar with web design I’d say hire a pro for the job.  Professional help is a worthwhile investment in your book and your writing career.  Again, the site is your book’s virtual home:  it should be as inviting and lovely as it can be.

Of course, there are lots of web designers in the world, and I have used providers I found on Odesk and Elance for other projects.
But for theblackgirlnextdoor.com, I asked my editor to recommend someone with experience designing author and book sites.
That’s how I found my way to a guy named Jason Chin.  He’s an author and web designer who runs Cleverbird Studios and really knows his stuff.  He has designed some wonderful author sites and had worked with my publisher before.  He was a complete pleasure to work with—patient, savvy, and responsive.

Here are the basic elements of author/book website design:
•    About the Book (put the flap copy here)
•    About the Author (write an engaging bio but keep it relatively short)
•    Buy the book links for online retailers
•    Press and Praise
•    Author Questions and Answers
•    Video and Audio clips
•    Original Content (essays or additional material related to the book)
•    Links to related articles or other sites

Jason and I are working together to implement the next phase of my web presence, and I’ll let you know what I learn about video and audio, book trailers, social media, and more about marketing as we go along.