In this day and age it is impossible to be an author without having a place to direct your readers. For a lot of authors that may start off with a personal Facebook page, then move to a Facebook Fan page, and then at some point you also create an author website. If you are writing a fiction book, then you will also need a book website. Depending on how successful your fiction characters are, at some point you will also have Facebook fan pages for your characters.
I have created dozens of websites for specific purposes. I have had my business website for selling websites for over 20 years, I created a book site to actively promote the book before launch, and now I have created an author website, specifically related just to me. I do have a personal blog that I have had for years, and it still gets hundreds to thousands of hits every day. That is a good reading site to immerse yourself in my thoughts, ideas and inspirations.
The site you are sitting on right now is the new author site, www.AaronMstephens.com. Just like any business I had to create a logo for my name, brand myself, share information of who I am, where I came from, what I like to do, where I am going, and where you can find my books and signing events.
I am a writer. I have been writing my whole life. The book writing, editing, advertising, marketing and now distribution are all set into place. It has been a never ending challenge learning everything that I needed to know. I have been so busy that I haven’t been able to write anything other than my short little 140 characters on Twitter. @aaronmstephens if you are a Twitter user. I find less commitment to a short random thought.
So I created this site really just for my fans, and for media. It will be a place you can go to find out what events I am doing, things related to books and publishing. It will automatically post to my Facebook Author page, which now has over 42,000 fans. The cool thing with my two Facebook pages, is they are totally different markets and audiences. The author page has mostly guys who are my fans, and the book/angel page is mostly women. Sure there are both, but Facebook tells me all the demographics of the who and the where. There is a little bit of overlap, but not much.
I have designed a lot of websites, and I think that this is one of the coolest ones. I wanted to make it fun. I also needed a place to send people if they wanted to pre-order the book. Even though I wrote a “religious” kids book, I’d really say I wrote a magical “fantasy” kids book. You can call it whatever you like, and after you read it, I think you will agree that it’s not very religious at all. You may notice I use some really cool photos in my websites and marketing. To me, each photo elicits a certain feeling or emotion when you gaze into it momentarily. The main website background of this mysterious little tree that bears a tiny little door with a heart on it. What does the heart represent? Is it love? Who lives there? Is the light on to welcome someone home? So many questions that are left unanswered.
There is just six weeks or so before the book launches, and that really gives me a lot of time for my readers to get to know me more. I have requests almost daily from fans asking me to post more. Facebook is really limited in what it can do for the user, and so this blog will provide a cool fun place for readers.
I don’t know about you, but I get frustrated when I go click on an article and it’s this really wimpy one paragraph or two that really didn’t say anything more than the catchy title. So I will be sure that if I post something it will be worth your time, or at least won’t be one of those trick you blogs and there is nothing to read.
When I originally contacted my church they told me they were full, and then I said I could do it during the day and they told me it was going to be $950 USD! The Tatttered Cover is a very large bookstore in Denver with 3 stores. It has a very strong reputation in Denver and one of the reasons I would like to have my book launch there. The I have sent 3 emails now with no response, so if they don’t want to host me I know Barnes and Noble will OR the Boulder Bookstore will also do it. Boulder is where Rick Riordan is having his book launch next week. As soon as I have it locked down I will update it on this website and also on the Facebook fan page. I plan on writing a lot more for you guys! If you happen to make it all the way to the end of this blog I have a small gift for you. You can go to the official book site: http://angel.academy and there you can read the first chapter of the book. The password is “godloveme”. No quotes.
