The last two articles discussed writer’s Web sites with a dash of why we should have one and a smidgen of how to do them. This time I thought it would be interesting to look at the real-life sites of a few Texas authors to see what they've done.
Keep in mind that there are almost as many different kinds of writer sites on the Internet as there are writers. Some sites are homemade, some are done by technical friends of the author or are done by hired professionals, some sites are created by publishers as part of their marketing package and some are made by fans, often without the author’s knowledge or permission. It’s not impossible for a popular author to have several Web sites in many different languages or to have more than one of a particular type.
Several of the examples I picked have a links section in their pages. Sometimes these links lead to other writing sites but more often they lead to sites that reflect the author’s personal beliefs, causes, or hobbies. A links section is optional, but it’s a quick way to make a site unique. Visitors can tell a lot about authors by looking at what Internet sites they recommend. It’s sort of like seeing what books someone has on their shelves at home.
The first example is only one of several sites devoted to mystery writer Mary Willis Walker: http://www.twbooks.co.uk/authors/mwwalker.html.
This one is created and maintained by Tangled Web UK, a Web site dedicated to British crime and mystery works. Because Mary’s books have been reprinted in the UK, Tangled Web built a page for her in their presentation of mystery authors. The information on this site is typical dust jacket data such as a bibliography of Mary’s books, a short synopses of each book, pictures of the covers of the books and so forth. This is a normal third-party site, useful but somewhat impersonal.
Contrast the Tangled Web site with that of Writer’s League board member, author and teacher, Laurie Lynn Drummond: http://www.stedwards.edu/hum/drummond/.
To quote from her introduction, "My interests are varied and the purpose of this home page is to organize those interests for my students, peers, writing colleagues, fiction and writing aficionados, friends, family, interested web surfers, and insomniacs." Laurie has created pages relating to her writing classes at St. Edwards University and her writing career, but she also includes personal information like family photos and a favorite links pages.
Mystery writer/musician Kinky Friedman’s site is a mix of marketing and personal sections, but the overall feel is, of course, a bit different: http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/. Along with the usual author bibliography and biography there is a discography and an online store offering Kinky Friedman merchandise. Instead of family photos, Kinky's photo page is mostly pictures of him with other famous people.
Western writer Cindy Bonner’s site at http://home.viptx.net/~cbonner/ contains the usual marketing materials about her books, information about her current work, a schedule of where she’ll be appearing in person and so forth along with some personal pages, but to me Cindy's site more fan-oriented than many. She offers to answer email questions from her fans and in other ways creates very friendly atmosphere for visitors.
Science fiction and nonfiction author Bruce Sterling’s site at: http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades/sterfaq.html takes yet another track by using a Frequently Asked Questions page instead of the usual Web page. The tone of the FAQ may be off putting to Internet surfers who wander there by accident, but to me it seems just right for Bruce. To see the usual book covers and such marketing materials, back out of the FAQ and go to the bottom of the Mirroshades main page at http://www.well.com/conf/mirrorshades.
For a personal page made by the writer herself, check out science fiction/fantasy writer Wendy Wheeler’s site at:
http://www.io.com/~wendyw/. Wendy has been running the Writer’s League SF Study group almost since its creation and she also teaches writing through UT’s continuing education classes. Her Web site combines information about her writing, her teaching, her day job, and quite a lot of personal stuff including a baby picture.
These are only samples of the many Texas authors who have Web sites. If you’d like to find your favorite author's site, open your preferred search engine, enter the author’s name and filter the search with added words like "home page" or "homepage". If you enter only the name, you’ll probably be swamped with reviews and online bookstore sites instead of the author’s site. Sometimes a site may not be called a homepage, so try other word combinations if your first attempts aren’t productive. Note that a few professional authors still don’t have a Web site of any type. Not many, but a few.