It's hard, after the celebrations of last night, to contemplate just how much work still needs to be done to turn this country around. Similarly, it's hard for me, after the exhilarating moment of hitting 'send' and letting my editor take over obsessing about my manuscript for a while, to contemplate how much work is left to do once a book is finally finished. Which mine isn't, not by a long shot. There's every likelihood of at least one more round of revisions in my future, plus endless proofreading and answering of nitpicky copyeditor questions. But beyond the book itself, there's still more.

Marketing. The other half of the bestselling author coin--you have to be able to write a good book, sure, but what does that matter if no one reads it? Marketing is the means by which you connect readers who will love your book with the knowledge of and desire to actually purchase your book. Obviously, there are lots of ways to skin that cat. I plan to start with the basics: a website. A good portion of my advance money is earmarked for a webmaster, someone who will design a fun, flashy site that fits the tone of my books and draws potential readers into my world. I've spent hours poring over other author websites, sifting through the boring ones and trying to figure out what makes the good ones work. I like elements from many sites: the clean lines of Roxanne St. Clair's site, all the fun extras offered by Eloisa James and J.R. Ward, the cool navigation and slick style of Kresley Cole's site. But there's a lot out there, and no way I can get through it all. So I'm curious. Do any of you have favorite author sites? Things you wish your favorite authors would offer?

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 10:38 AM