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Author Website Package
Love is Murder Conference Sees it First
Sprocket Websites is very pleased to offer a website package designed expressly for authors. The website shows off the author's books and keeps his or her followers aware of the latest scheduled appearances. Based on the very popular DNN Platform, but all the Content Management System parts are taken care of by our staff. And we've created a remarkable pricing scheme that lets starting and established authors both have professional grade websites.
This is not some cookie cutter, "Try-To-Do-It-Yourself" kind of website offer. This is a state-of-the-art, boutique website, built with the same quality professional IT development tools used for large corporate websites based on Microsoft web servers, and not a site that's free with other people's ads running on them, or built by a friend's teenage son in the basement.
We use this technology everyday for large corporate customers. You get a top-shelf site, custom-made for you, with trained artist developers putting it together with you, showing you how to update it yourself, and there for you from then on to keep your site up to date and looking professional, all at a great price.
Why are we selling this package that most developers would sell for $3000 to $5000 per year, at such a low price? We love authors! One of our founders is an award-winning author herself, and we attend author events. We have lots of friends who are authors. So we put our minds to it, created a development process, sharpened our pencils and voila!
We want authors to have good-looking websites. That's how people will find them online, and that first impression is important. Of course there are cheap or free tools for the do-it-yourselfer but even those need some professional web developer handholding to get them to look good. Otherwise, they're very obviously cookie cutter sites, and authors deserve more.
Here's what you get:
12 Themes to get started
It's so much easier to know what your website might look like by starting with something rather than a blank screen. Of course, they can be customized.
Customize with color
Headline text, borders, navigation effects all can have your favorite color associated with them.
Rotating Photo Banner
Put several of your favorite photos on the site as the welcoming effect. Give a great first impression.
Book Cover Carousel
Shows right away in a concise space the books you're about to show them
Book Listings Page
All your books are listed on this page, including a cover photo, synopsis, and a shortcut straight to the purchase site.
Book Details Page
Go in-depth about your book. Put a sample section so people get a feel for the book's style. And of course, don't let them take just your word for it, put quotes from your reviewers. Even do some name-dropping! Don't forget the links!
Links to purchase sites
Sell your book on Amazon? B&N? Other places? E-books? Paperback? No matter where, send your viewer to the place they'll be able to buy your book.
News/Blog Writer
Keep your website fresh with your own content like recently won awards, upcoming appearances, or musings about your characters or a new book. We'll be available for you to prompt and help so your site stays current. It's great for the Search Engines!
Event Calendar
People want to know what you're doing and where you'll be, so let them know.
Feedback Form
A great way for people to sign up to your mailing list or just ask a question.
Social Media Links
Send them to your facebook page or your twitter account or any number of social media platforms you may use.
Responsive Design
Did we mention that people viewing your website on a smart phone will see a version just for them? Without any additional work on your part. Our sites use the latest techniques to automatically rearrange when viewed on phones and tablets.
How it Works:
You work with one of our talented web developers who will help you put all the pieces together - that's the toughest part, and we do that part for you! - and then shows you how to add and update it yourself!
You get us what pictures you'd like in the banner so we can post them for you.
For each book, get us a cover JPG, a synopsis/description, an excerpt, up to five review snippets (a few sentences) along with the reviewers' names, and links to where your visitors can find your books (Amazon print, Kindle, B&N, etc).
Do you have any upcoming book signings, talks, or appearances? We'll load them up to get you started.
Have any news about your work (were you mentioned in a magazine or online, did your work win an award, etc). We'll load those news stories to get you started.
The Price
We typically don't provide pricing on our website since every site we do is custom. But this is very unique. We've worked out a method for these author sites that let us provide all these services to you, host your website, and work with you to keep it up to date, for only $1200 development and $49.95 per month.
Click the images below to see examples of our themes. Of course, we'll color them to match your colors, so don't worry if you don't like it too dark or too light.
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Don Gingold
Co-Founder and Managing Director of Sprocket Websites, Inc.; Co-Founder Chicago Area DotNetNuke User Group
Other posts by Don Gingold