Best Face Forward: Building a Website

I recently participated in a seminar on book marketing. It was useful, in large part because it put together in an organized fashion bits and pieces and ideas that I'd heard or thought of before. Now I feel that I can be a bit more systematic in my approach, and I've begun doing a little each day to prepare for my book's launch in September.

I definitely knew that I needed a website and I had a good idea of what needed to go into that website. So I already had purchased the domain name and had some ideas of what I thought the site should look like. With the seminar behind me, I've begun now to build that site, something I mentioned today in my Facebook Status Update. Poet Sandra Beasley, a friend from Sewanee, notice the update and commented that she had just blogged on the subject. Indeed, she had: Where I'm Going, Where I've Been. And Sandra makes some very useful observations about what works and what doesn't in a writer's website. I can't say I disagree with anything she's saying there, and I whole-heartedly agree with a lot of it.

So, what to expect from mine? It won't be white text on a black background, but there may be a little light text on a darker background. Not much though. The main focus will be the book cover, and some of the colors and images from the cover will be repeated throughout. I think that will look nice. I'm not a big fan of pictures of me, but I'll include at least the headshot on the bio page, and since Sandra notes she likes to see an "action" photo from a reading or signing, I may try to do something along those lines, too. I'm planning a brief excerpt, and a Q&A, and I'll do my very best to keep my scheduled appearances page up to date and relevant.

I'm working on this now and may launch it in the next week or so. Any suggestions? Requests?