The Publishing Performance Show

Stuart Grant - Maximizing Your Online Presence with Author Websites

September 12, 2024 • Teddy Smith • Episode 1

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Stuart Grant is the founder of Digital Authors Toolkit, a digital agency specializing in author websites. With over a decade of experience in the publishing industry and having created more than 300 websites for authors, Stuart is a leading expert in helping writers establish their online presence. His approach combines technical expertise with a deep understanding of author needs and reader expectations.

In this episode:

  • The importance of author websites and essential elements they should include
  • Website design tips, including using book covers as inspiration
  • SEO optimization and strategies for driving traffic to your site
  • Email list building and effective use for author marketing
  • Common mistakes authors make with their websites and how to avoid them


Resources mentioned:

  • Website builder: Wix
  • Print-on-demand services: Book Vault, Lulu
  • Ebook delivery: Book Funnel


Book recommendations (add links)


Connect with Stuart Grant:

  • Website: digitalauthorstoolkit.com
  • Social media: @StuartGrantUK


Connect with Teddy Smith:

Join our Facebook Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/publishingperformance/



Teddy Smith (00:01.442)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Publishing Performance Show with me, Teddy Smith. Today we're talking to Stuart Grant from Digital Authors Toolkit and we're gonna be talking about author websites and how you can use them to promote yourself as an author online. So welcome Stuart, thanks for joining.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (00:16.987)
thank you for having me Teddy. It's great to be here. I know this is a fairly new venture, so it's great to be one of the first guests. I'm very honored to be part of that. Yeah, so I'm Stu. I've been working.

Teddy Smith (00:26.51)
That's

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (00:30.185)
I've been working in the publishing arena for about 10 years and as part of the self -publishing show in the background helping with things with those guys and then also running a digital agency which focuses laser focused on building author websites and very specifically author websites. yeah, we've made over 300 or so websites now for authors. We're the highest rated website designer on ReadSee and

Yeah, we love working in this community and being part of

Teddy Smith (01:04.814)
Brilliant. So why was it that you went into authors websites in the first place? And why do you think these digital authors need websites?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (01:13.689)
well, I started just because I actually started making apps for people and thought an app would be a great thing for an author to have. as it turned out, it was a bit of a nightmare. I, I ditched that, but it being in the tech side of things, I kind of thought actually the net, the natural step is to, make websites for authors. And I noticed that quite a few authors either didn't have one or they were a bit shoddy, you know, and they passed the sale by date. So I thought, actually, I can probably help with the design on these.

And it just ballooned, it just shot off, really, it just took off. You know, once I realized kind of the reasons why a website is so important for authors, I could make, you know, could make it all work and, you know, did a lot of research into what platform to use, how to actually construct the architecture of a website for an author. And I kind of, I mean, I suppose when you ask the question, you know, what does an author need a website for? I mean, one of the main things

should be to collect emails. You you want to grow that audience. You want to have that fan base. You want to be able to email them all and say, hey guys, book three's out now, you know, and off they go and buy it. And you get a little spurt up the charts or whatever. So, you know, that's the fundamental reason or one of the fundamental reasons, I guess, that most authors have a website to collect emails, you know, and we'll talk a bit more about how to get people there to sign up to the email list a bit later on. But

The other reason is obviously for people to find you. So if somebody ever Googles your name or your books or whatever, you want them to find something about you and a website is as good a place as any. It also offers you the opportunity to sell direct. So if you've made that decision and you want to, you know, sell your books direct from your website, that's another reason to have one. And it's also the only place that you can exist as an author where you are completely in control of everything, you

It's your house, your rules. It's any color, any style, any layout. You can have videos, can have pictures, you can have whatever you want. Whereas every other platform out there forces you into a, you know, into a standard kind of cookie cut, you know, the same as everybody else. It's got to look like this. It's got to be this dimension. It's got to be this color. So yeah, I think from that point of view, gives authors who are fundamentally creative the opportunity to be creative online and have a hub or a space to be found.

Teddy Smith (03:38.178)
Yeah, so it's basically about brand recognition essentially, but for your own brand.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (03:42.564)
Exactly. Yeah, to have a brand space in the internet.

Teddy Smith (03:47.96)
Now, of self publishers that I've speak to, like when I'm doing my coaching and things like that, they often have multiple pen names. And that's actually one of the questions that I get asked quite a lot is if you've got multiple sort of pen names or author profiles, how do you manage that having those multiple websites? Cause I know some people have like a, they create almost like a publishing house for themselves. Whereas some people have like multiple websites, which can end up being maybe difficult to manage, what do you usually advise people to do if they have that sort of situation?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (04:19.045)
It really depends on so many factors, cost being the first one. Obviously, if you have more than one website, you've got to pay twice. I've worked with a couple of authors who've got pen names and what we've done actually is just separate the website into two areas, if you like, or two kind of distinct places so that when the user lands on the website, they'll either go to, you know, X author or Y author and it takes them to the list of books for that page.

because I think there's quite a lot of often there's quite a lot of cross fertilization with readers, you know, if they're they're reading this stream of your books, they will almost be definitely interested in the other stream of your books. So unless somebody wants to keep those series or genres or whatever it is, very separate. The only way to do that really is to have two websites, unfortunately. Otherwise, if you're quite happy for that sort of cross fertilization to take place, I don't see a problem with having both pen names on a website.

And like you said, that's a nice idea to give it the name of a publishing house or whatever, you know, have an umbrella domain, you know, that covers off both of them somehow. Yeah, I mean, it is a bit of a problem, but it's always achievable. So I think, you know, ultimately it's either two separate areas on one website or two websites. And even more difficult if you've got three or four pen names,

Teddy Smith (05:39.192)
Hahaha.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (05:40.137)
some people do because then you end up with multiple areas but yeah they're the kind of two solutions I

Teddy Smith (05:45.954)
Yeah, think multiple pen names is something that is, I think a lot of people having problems with at the moment, they've written all these books on different pen names and now they can't manage all those different online profiles they've created for themselves. So maybe something think about. Yeah.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (05:58.302)
That is a problem. It really is a problem because you end up creating Facebook pages for that author. end up with, as you said, websites for that author. I mean, yeah, it's endless. Twitter accounts, where does it end? So yeah, you have got to think wisely about that before you go down the path of pen names, to be honest, or multiple pen names.

Teddy Smith (06:12.832)
Yeah.

Teddy Smith (06:20.566)
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I mean, most of the people I speak to it sort of on Amazon first, like I think just there's kind of that's how that's where they sort of start out. They sort of start their publishing on there. And as they've got that author profile, do you try and link the author profile to the website in any way? Or is there or do you use the same sort of language or that sort of feeling to the to the two things?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (06:43.805)
Yeah, I mean, obviously one of the things that is fundamental to having a website is to sell the books. That's, know, the email list is one thing, having your own space is another, but also to sell books, you know, that's obviously almost really more, more important than the others. So yeah, on every website, you know, if, an author is on Amazon, obviously there'll be loads of buy now links, the link out to Amazon. use things called genius links, which are geo -located links, which are ever so clever because they know where in the world the person is that's clicked them and it takes them to

local store. So if you're in the States, it takes you to .com. If you're in Australia, it takes you to .au. If you're here, it takes you to .co .uk. So yeah, and that's way on from where we were even like 10 years ago, where we were having to put links for every store, which was a nightmare. Whereas now it's just one link, it takes you off. yeah, we absolutely link out to Amazon at every stage really, because that's why we want them to visit, is to click that button and buy the book. And we also do

Teddy Smith (07:15.458)
All

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (07:41.445)
smart stuff around using some of Amazon's assets. And what I mean by that is when you land on most authors books, you can see the book picture, the cover underneath that it will say, read a sample. And we've worked out a way to get that sample onto your website so that now people can click that and read the sample via the website as well as via Amazon. And we've worked out a way to embed the audio clip. So if your book's on Audible and you've got a

you know, underneath the book cover again on your page, it says, read a sample, sorry, listen to a sample or whatever. We've managed to work out how to get that on the website. So that is another reason why readers might visit because there's opportunity for them to read a bit of the book, to listen to a bit of the book and to buy the book. So we're trying to think of all these ways that kind of sync up with Amazon. And the beauty of those two options as well is that when you click the read a sample, it opens with a big buy now link.

you in the top right hand corner. So you're kind of making it a very subtle kind of decision, you know, that looks a good book, I'll buy it straight away from Amazon. So yeah, there's a big, you know, it's a lot of talking between websites and Amazon, if people are on Amazon, but like you say, most people are.

Teddy Smith (08:41.676)
Yeah.

Teddy Smith (08:56.44)
So I think when you mentioned that the website is to help people buy books from the website as well, do you mean like putting essentially a link to Amazon on the page or is it actually a way, do you host the book separately somewhere so that it can be bought directly from the website without paying the Amazon fees?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (09:16.189)
Well, those two different things, yeah. So fundamentally, people really start off, as you said, with just selling on Amazon often. So we just have links that take them to Amazon. They can buy the book, end of story. But in recent years, you know, there's been this big wave of selling direct and being able to sell your book from a printer, if you like, a local printer or a printer elsewhere that will then print and post the book to the reader.

without having to go through Amazon. And that's, you know, become a big sort of thing that people are asking for. There are lots of reasons why you should do that because you potentially could make more money per sale. You get a direct relationship with the reader because they give you their email address when they buy it. So you've got actually their email address at the point of sale, which you don't get from Amazon, obviously. So there's a few bits and pieces, but there's lots of reasons why you shouldn't do that as well. I think particularly as a new author.

I've been through this with loads of authors who have said, I want to sell direct. I said, hold on, just wait a minute and think about what that actually means. So, you've got to first of all have an e -commerce platform, which means you can take payments and all the rest of it. So that generally comes with a higher cost. So the starting fee on Shopify, for example, is $25 a month. It's a lot cheaper on the platform. I use Wix, but it still is more expensive than the standard.

You have to generate all the traffic yourself and this is what a lot of authors forget. Amazon is the biggest store in the world. It's got millions of customers coming through its doors. Whereas your little website over here in the corner of the internet is unlikely to get any organic traffic on its own. It's not just going to appear. You've got to work at it. So you've got to do all the work for that. You've got a slightly steeper learning curve because you've got to learn all about...

Teddy Smith (11:00.846)
Yeah, of course.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (11:08.189)
how to do an e -commerce platform and what that involves and how to upload your books and what happens with the postage and all the rest of it. It's a problem with trust. I think some readers are hesitant about putting their credit card details into a, you know, an unknown website. They don't really want to do that. They're much happier doing it with Amazon. There's also a higher cost to the customer. So they've got to pay for the postage. So whatever the prices you put on your selling direct store,

Obviously that is added onto the postage cost. And the most important thing I think is that there is no best seller tag. There's no organic, lovely Amazon reviews because they're not buying them from Amazon. So you don't get that best seller tag. You don't get all those lovely reviews posted on there. So yes, of course there's an advantage in you make more money per sale, but you've got to weigh that up with the, you

cons and pros. And I think if you're a first time author with no real readership, it is going to be a struggle. I think you've got a massive audience. They love you to bits. They're happy to buy from you. You can tell them you're selling the books direct. Great. Knock yourself out. But I think for an early stage author or even a mid stage author, I think it's a lot to ask to introduce direct sales through your website.

Teddy Smith (12:29.068)
Yeah, I mean, unless you're really amazing at social media or something like that, it's gonna be difficult to get as much traffic as you, that Amazon can give you, like for sure. So I think if you are, no, I mean, but if you are doing both, like you are selling on Amazon and also you want to them on your own site, I guess you just need to make sure you've got your own ISBN number rather than using like Amazon's one, for example.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (12:37.467)
Exactly. Yeah, or you never will.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (12:51.399)
Yeah, exactly. So you're more than able to do that.

Teddy Smith (12:53.678)
with the printer.

I was going say, sorry, with the printing options you were talking about before, what was, have you got any recommends about for websites?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (13:04.263)
Yeah, so we use Book Vault predominantly. They're based here in the UK and just up the road from me actually not too far in Peterborough. And yeah, so they are a print on demand company. So people order the book, they print one at a time and it gets sent off and posted by them. So they are, I've been to the factory, it's fascinating, it's really amazing to see. And they do all kinds of special editions as well. So you can have

gold foiling and sprayed edges and all kinds of know bookmark things and it's amazing the stuff they can do and Lulu is the other big sort of competitor of theirs I suppose but they do a fairly similar thing you know it's print on demand so you plug it into your website and both Lulu and Book Vault have got plugins for you know Spotify, Wix, WooCommerce I think that's it but the three main kind

platforms that they've got an integration. it's not too difficult. mean, but again, it's taken me quite a while to learn how to set it all up. So, you know, for an author who doesn't really know this stuff, it's going to be a steep learning curve. But yes, they're the two main providers currently, I

Teddy Smith (14:13.846)
Yeah, brilliant. so if you are doing a website yourself, so when I on my website, I've used WordPress, I know you mentioned just now Wix and Shopify are those like the two platforms you usually recommend?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (14:28.233)
Currently, I only recommend Wix. I've been working with it for, well, 10 years. And I've, you know, I've investigated all of the others, Squarespace, strikingly, WordPress, the whole shebang. And Wix for me just comes out trumps every day of the week. I mean, it is such a robust platform. It's almost like it's been made for authors. That's the really strange thing. It feels like it's a perfect fit.

Teddy Smith (14:51.79)
Ha

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (14:54.845)
so yeah, I'm a Wix partner and, you know, I've said this a hundred times on different podcasts and whatnot, but it would be totally counterintuitive for me to recommend a product I didn't a hundred percent believe in or think was the best option. That wouldn't be right as a business owner. I can't do that. You know, so there is a good reason why I recommend this, you know, and say completely unbiased. There's no benefit to me, you know, if somebody goes off and uses whatever, but yes, having worked.

Teddy Smith (15:13.08)
Yeah, of course.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (15:24.233)
particularly with WordPress, just to me is crazy. I find it really, really unintuitive and difficult. But yeah, so it's not to say that this is the only way to do it, but it is the way we do it. And you know, our 300 authors are very happy.

Teddy Smith (15:37.324)
Yeah.

I do agree with you, is really easy to use as well. I think WordPress is quite complicated. guess I'm, I quite like the flexibility of using, having all the different plugins you can use, but how complicated do need your website to be, suppose. And Wix does all those things you need to do. Yeah.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (15:55.975)
Yes, exactly. Exactly. And Wix does everything comparatively as well.

Teddy Smith (16:04.012)
Yeah. Are there any particular elements that you think an author needs, especially for the, especially for an author type websites? I'm guessing you need like a blog and a profile page, but are there any, are there any things you really recommend people having that can help with the scrub discoverability or helping with conversions and things like that?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (16:20.765)
Yeah, mean, kind of standard stuff, I suppose. You need a page for your books, obviously on your website that lists your books, preferably in order. That is always a question that authors get asked, you know, what order should I read your books? So make it clear what order they come in. You should have an about page, which can be about you, a bio, you know. And again, don't be scared about writing in detail a bit more about you. know, some people, they say we need an author bio and they say, you know, I live in London with my two dogs.

And it's like, no, no, no, you need to tell people what you even if it's made up, if it's a pen name, but just write, you know, at least a paragraph introducing yourself. This is a two way relationship. You want them to get to know you. So don't be afraid to write in detail information about yourself and things like I know it sounds ridiculous, but people love pets. Right. So if you've got a dog or a cat, you know, make that a feature of your about or bio because people go, I love your dog.

Teddy Smith (16:49.848)
Ha ha ha ha!

Teddy Smith (17:03.566)
Yeah, 100%.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (17:19.837)
You know, and that is always that always triggers responses. I don't know why, but it's a crazy thing. So, you know, don't be afraid to share those kinds of things. Obviously, some people want to fence off their lives from their author career, but, know, where you can and it's appropriate. I do recommend writing more. So, yeah, we've got the about the books, the bio and then blogs are actually. Very good to refresh content on your.

website and to keep it active. So if you're going in there and writing a blog every few weeks or whatever and Wix for example has this brilliant feature where if you write a blog you hit a button and it says do you want to send this to all your subscribers and it sends the blog off to them. So a lot of my authors use the blog as a newsletter so they haven't got to write it twice. They write the blog as a newsletter and then click the button and it sends it to all their subscribers which is a neat kind of feature but

Teddy Smith (18:06.691)
Right, okay.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (18:14.429)
The trouble with blogs is you've got to write them in such a way that they are relevant and searchable. although obviously sometimes you want to write, maybe I had a great time in Tenerife with my family this holiday and this is where we stay. Fine. That's great stuff that it should be shared, but it's unlikely to result in any Google searches because no one's Googling what author X did on holiday. So, you know, if you're a science fiction writer, for example,

It might be worth writing blogs along the lines of why I write science fiction or what to look for in a science fiction novel or things that you should include in because they're things that people will actually search. So although they're not necessarily directly related to you as an author, they are related to the genre or the process or the whatever. You know, how I got started in self -publishing, I don't know. But they're the things that might bring, you know, readers to your site.

And then they say, brilliant, this is part of a bigger site that's got books for sale and I'll read this author's. So when you are writing blogs, do think about it from the point of view of what is searchable or being searched, you know, rather than just a list of holiday destinations or whatever.

Teddy Smith (19:24.02)
Yeah, yeah, I mean, a couple of the authors I follow, I love the, I love the fact that you mentioned before, they give personal details, as a couple that share pitch their dogs or where they've been on holiday. And it's kind of just like, being part of their lives. I know that Richard Herring, the comedian, he's he's got a blog, which he updates every day, which I, don't, I don't know how he has the time to do that. But it really feels like you're kind of living part of his life with him, which is quite funny.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (19:48.551)
Yeah, that is, I love that tune.

Teddy Smith (19:53.858)
With the, with the,

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (19:54.173)
think that's an important part of what we need to share with the reader as well is that, you know, the DVD industry made billions of pounds out of the extras, you know, the extras DVDs and authors, think, have got a really good opportunity to do the same, you know, to share the behind the scenes stuff. And the website again is that you can't put that stuff on Amazon, but you can put it all on, you know, on your website. And again, it's another reason to shout about on social media, you know, hey, do you want to, I mean, it sounds

dull here but you know hey guys do you want to see the view from my office and what I'm looking at or whatever you know check out my website for the latest offi... I don't know whatever it is you know people are interested in that stuff and it does bring them closer to

Teddy Smith (20:38.094)
And the process ones are quite good as well. People love reading about that, like how you did the writing, how you structured it, all that, because everyone thinks they've got a book in them, so they love reading that stuff about how you did it and how you wrote

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (20:50.237)
Totally, yeah, exactly right, exactly right. Yeah, so they're the sort of things you can include in a blog, definitely.

Teddy Smith (20:55.586)
Yeah. So when you're, when you're creating the websites that you do using Wix, are there any things you optimize, especially for things like SEO? Like I know you mentioned doing the blog, but is there any things that people, if they are doing a website for themselves, for example, should be focusing on? Is there anything that's really important they shouldn't forget?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (21:14.121)
Absolutely, yeah. So SEO is search engine optimization. So it's making sure that your website has all the information that a search engine would look for and then it's all in the right place. for example, Google does not know what's inside an image. So if you just upload a picture of your book cover and it's called 2032 .jpg, that is completely redundant, completely useless. You've got to label it with what it is. you

XYZ book cover in 3D mock -up by author so and so so and so. So if anyone ever Googles those terms Google says hold on there's a website over here that says it's got that book cover we'll serve that result to this person. Okay so that's a very common mistake that people just upload loads of photos and book covers and whatever and they don't label them properly. You know making sure that your metadata is is up to date so metadata is the

You know when you Google something and you get the blue kind of link to click and then underneath that you literally get two lines, it's 165 characters and you actually generate that. So that isn't something that Google, it can do this, but it doesn't generally generate that for you. You have to do it. And it's just, you know, being on top of it, making sure that if you've written a new book, that that title is in that metadata. And what Google is looking for there in that section

to tell the user what happens when they click that link. That's what they reward. That's what they will give you kind of points for. So you need to say, you know, on this page, not as explicit as this, but on this page, you will find out more about AuthorX. He's writing, you know, sci -fi fiction or whatever. So the reader, when they've got to the Google, they've typed in something, they see the link, they go, okay, that's what I'm going to get on this page. That's what I want. And click

So yeah, it's about optimizing all that kind of backend stuff. And again, without kind of waxing lyrical too much about Wix, but you know, there is inside Wix, you can use AI to do all that, you know, and it takes you through step by step. Each image, each page, each metadata, each title tag, everything that you need is there in kind of a process that you can just step through. So it's really, really useful, you know, to get it all right. And it doesn't take that long once you know what you're doing.

Teddy Smith (23:31.618)
Yeah. And on top of that, what about things like the design of the actual website? Because how important is that? And is that sort of the surfaces that you would do as well? do you do more like the putting the website together? Or do you do the full design and everything?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (23:47.709)
Yeah, we do the full design from start to finish. And, you know, we, don't know if we're unique in this, but I think we're quite, you know, at the forefront of it, I hope, because two things about it, really, the design. One is that it should always be critically about the reader. Nothing to, in a sense, nothing to do with the author. It's a bit like how we've talked about book covers for the last decade, how they should shout what genre it is, and they should be instantly recognizable as

as a thriller or a sci -fi or whatever and they should fit in, you know, the zone of those genres. And I think, you know, websites are exactly the same. They need to give that instant emotional response. When someone looks at it, they go, fantastic. This is about sci -fi. I get this straight away. It's something that interests me. Off I go. So the way we do that is to use a lot of animation, a lot of video, a lot of immersive kind of experience. want our websites to be an experience rather than just a static.

kind of flat, you know, the days of kind of a white background with all your books in a line with a buy now button underneath. I mean, it's just, yeah, it's fine. And it does serve a purpose. And to some extent it works, you know, for some genres, but I think the days have moved forward. You know, we all know what an advent we've seen with video. You know, it's just huge. know, TikTok stories, Instagram, you know, and I think the reader and users

in that world, they expect that level of kind of experience to some degree. So I think that needs to be introduced a bit more with some author websites. So yeah, we're very much about the experience, having things that move, things that are clickable, you know, the architecture, so that if something moves over here, you look at it, go, what is that? And click it. You know, I'm a big Disney fan and a big Apple fan, and Disney is all

you know, the experience, the theater, the show of it. And that's kind of what I try and bring to the websites and Apple, know, again, a lot of their advertising, a lot of their kind of marketing is fantastically interesting videos and really cool stuff that people, you know, are immersed in and it draws you in. So that's our starting point with every website that we build.

Teddy Smith (26:00.312)
What's your favorite Disney film?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (26:03.161)
good question.

Teddy Smith (26:04.238)
I like the rescues down under. was just watching it with my daughter the other day. It reminded me of when I was little. An old one. Yeah. Yeah, a of a weird one.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (26:09.787)
wow, that's a left field. is, yeah. Well, I'm having to watch all of them at the moment because I've got a five -year -old daughter. So she's across everything. My favorite is probably The Lion King or Aladdin, bizarrely. They're two of my faves, I think. I can't stand Frozen anymore because we've watched it more times than I've had at dinners. And if I hear Let It Go anymore, I'm going to jump out of a window. But yeah, no, we're big Disney fans.

Teddy Smith (26:25.386)
Yeah.

Teddy Smith (26:39.884)
I still haven't seen the frozen. I have to get back to that one. So with the design, there any, do you have any like tools or anything you use to help authors to think about things like the color scheme or what they want that, cause you mentioned, you know, if it's a thriller, make it look like a thriller. How do you do that? If you've got any, like, if it's going to be a horror, do you just make it black and red or something like that? Do you have any tools or tips for people who want to do that sort of thing?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (27:07.155)
So one of the easiest ways of getting inspiration is to look at other authors websites or book covers, know, think about the colors that are used there, what makes them instantly recognizable. So yes, black and red is a fairly obvious horror kind of combination, but we take all of our inspiration from the book cover because, and that is our starting point. we won't generally, no, we won't start a website until we've got that book cover. So we take all of the kind of design

Well, the inferred design from that book cover. So, you know, the type of fonts are they, you know, do they have little tags on sans serif or are they serif? Do know what colors are they using? You know, what kind of backgrounds have they got? And we'll use that as our kind of starting point for our website. So that is the inspiration for every website we make. And yeah, we don't really want to, we don't often start websites without having that because what's happened in the past is people have said, can't you do it without the book cover? And we've gone, yeah, okay.

So we've made the thing and then the book covers come along and it's completely at odds with what we've built, you know, and then we end up having to remake it. So it's just a waste of time to do it that way around. So yeah, I mean, that's a big tip really for authors. You know, if you're starting your own, then just kind of use your covers as a starting point, make it all look and feel like yours. It's got to be branded to you. So, you know, ask your book cover designer for the background of your book without all the text on it.

and use that as a backdrop for the website. These are pieces of art and actually to some degree they get wasted a little bit because they only get used once on a book cover. So put them elsewhere, use them as the backgrounds for things and all of that. So yeah, book covers for me is where people should start their design.

Teddy Smith (28:50.168)
There's some really good examples on your website actually in your latest project section. So you can see like James Blatch's book, the final flight, his most recent one, where it's got the picture of the Eurofighter on the front. So it's like really clear what you're sort of, what you're looking at. You're looking at like a military sort of book there. And you've got some other examples of like some of the non -fiction books as well, where it's, yeah, you're starting with the cover art and then building on from there. Makes total sense. Yeah. So the last thing I just wanted to talk about was

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (29:08.019)
Exactly.

Teddy Smith (29:19.032)
There's kind of three, well, the two parts is like driving traffic and mailing lists, because I know you mentioned it at beginning that it's really important. Now, if you, there's sort of two parts to it. Firstly, how do you get those emails? Have you, how do you collect them? And also how do you, what do you do with them once you've got them? I know you mentioned Wix is really good for doing that, but have you got any tips for gathering those email addresses in the first place? And then also, you know, what sort of things you should send out to the customers or your potential customers.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (29:49.607)
Okay, there's a lot there. yeah, getting people to your site is a major issue. You have to think wisely about that because people are not just going

Teddy Smith (29:57.053)
Sorry, do want me to?

I was going say, do you want me to rephrase that question?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (30:03.485)
No, that's fine.

Teddy Smith (30:05.196)
Okay, I can cut that bit out, don't worry, carry

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (30:06.289)
If I miss any, just let me know and we'll go back over

So one of the key ways to drive traffic to your or drive email signups to your website is obviously to give something away. That's a great, you know, well kind of versed sort of thing to do. So most authors give away either a prequel to their series or the first book in the series or the first chapter or, you know, something else. And there've been examples of James Black, for example, gives away a mocked up crash report for that aircraft that appears.

on his website so you sign up and you get this fake crash report. Other people do things like a police report for their lead character that gets arrested in the book so you can see that. So doesn't have to be something that takes you forever and a day. It could be a map, could be a family tree, I don't know. It could be anything. It doesn't have to be something like a long but it's a great idea to have that kind of lead magnet, a reason to sign up. Hey guys, welcome to my website.

as a thank you for coming and signing up, you'll get a free XYZ. And I was on the site the other day and it really made me think about the psychology of how we do this. So at the moment we generally write things like sign up and get your free book. Okay. And, but I've been thinking about this kind of psychological twist on that to say there's a free book waiting for you if you want to put your, and that just very subtle.

there's almost an urgency to it. You know, there's a free book. It's not like a command. It's not saying you must do this to do this. It's just saying, hey, look, there's a book here. If you want it, you know, put your, it sounds the same, but it's not. There is a very different experience around that. So you can play with the way you actually get that to happen. And then obviously what we do then is send them an email that says, thanks for signing up. Here's a link to your new book or your free book or whatever it is. And then often we'll use Book Funnel as the provider for

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (32:00.521)
which is really, you know, cost effective, 20 bucks a year, I think, to deliver ebooks to readers, and they take care of all the customer service and everything. So that is the kind of routine that it takes. But getting people there, not just to do that, but just getting people to your website, I think there's a lot of missed opportunities by authors. I've got a list here of some stuff that I'll just run through, if that's all right, just quickly, just to kind of give you some real takeaways.

Teddy Smith (32:01.292)
Yes.

Teddy Smith (32:22.83)
Yeah, of course.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (32:26.353)
Spotify Playlists, I think is a great idea. So can create free playlists. You know, it could be music that you've written to. It could be music that's listened to by the characters in the book, or it could just be music that's inspired by the book, you know, but it's another thing to then share. And if you think about all these points I'm going to give you as reasons to post on social media, it gives you a reason to say, hey guys, have you checked out the Spotify playlist for this character or whatever? And people will be like, yeah, amazing. I love that. And click on

Resources for book clubs. So book clubs are quite a big thing still and you know it's great to get your book reviewed and read by book clubs. So have some resources on your book on your website you know so you might have quizzes or things to remember or I don't know anything that might be of discussion in a discussion point at a book club. Behind the scenes content we've talked about that already so you know where do you do some

videoing of yourself, sit down like we are and just stick a camera. It doesn't have to be high level production values. But hi guys, you know, I'm so glad you've arrived at my website. Thanks for coming. I'm an author X. I write in this, you know, anything you just make it something that's there. And again, another social media post. Hey guys, you want to get to know me a bit better. I've just recorded a great video of myself talking about my process. Bosch can cost anything. A media page, you know, if you've ever been on a podcast or in the newspaper, list all

you know on your website so that's another potential page that you could have and if you haven't done any of those things then sort it out and get yourself on there because you know lots of local radio stations and radio and newspapers are very interested in local authors and they'll often do they won't do page one or page three but they might do a little bit of editorial somewhere as a local author so always get in touch with those people and find

What else have we got? Character profiles and artwork. With the advent of all this AI, you could potentially go to one of the AI generators and say, want a man that looks like this, as described in your book. And then you can have it as a talking point. This is what I created of my character X. Do you think this is how you see him or whatever? You can play around with those kind of things. You could write a little bit more profile. So in a very similar way that you write your own bio, why not write a few bios of your own characters?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (34:47.037)
and stick them on there.

Where else should you put your web address? That's the other thing, driving these people to your website. know, there's places like your front and back cover. You know, we all talk about back matter, but why not have it on the back cover? There's absolutely no reason. You've got ISBN numbers and other bits and pieces. No reason why you shouldn't have your web address on your back cover. Some people have seen it on the front cover. I don't think that's so much a good idea because again, it's a piece of art and you don't want to interrupt it too much.

But certainly inside your front and back matter, people always talk about back matter, but why is it not in the front? know, hey guys, I hope you enjoy this book. If you want more information about me, you can check me out at blah, blah, blah, blah, where you can get your free book or whatever it is. Here's one that I think every author in the world pretty much has forgotten about is in your audio books or at the end of your audio book. So when the audio book finishes, you could come in and say, hey guys, I hope you enjoyed my

I'd love to get you to know you a bit better. You can visit me at xyz. I've checked all this with ACX as well. It's perfectly fine to have that link out at the end of your book. So, you know, I think I've only heard one book and I am a voracious audiobook listener. I listen to like two audio books a week. I'm crazy. And I've only ever heard one book with that at the end. So missed opportunity there.

Teddy Smith (35:56.952)
All right, okay.

Teddy Smith (36:02.541)
Ha!

Teddy Smith (36:06.722)
Bye.

Teddy Smith (36:10.306)
I'm just saying that join us on the website.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (36:14.441)
The email sign off, so every time you send an email should be at the bottom of your email. The link in your bios on Insta and Twitter, they're all places that people click and might go through to your website. And is that it? think that's probably enough for today, but that's quite a lot for people to be getting on with.

Teddy Smith (36:32.92)
Yeah.

Yeah, brilliant. That's really good. Thank you. And the, the last thing I wanted to talk about was just analytics. So like, there any particular analytics for the specifically for the website and not talking about like the stuff you get from Amazon? I mean, are there any analytics you track on the website? And it's quite hard to track. Say for example, it's quite, think it's quite hard to track Amazon sales from your website. But are there any other analytics that you particularly track instead of

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (37:03.401)
I mean, with the program that we use Wix, you do get a full suite of analytics that tells you where people have visited from, know, what kind of device they visited on, is it mobile or desktop or whatever. It is difficult to track Amazon clicks, but it's not impossible. There is ways to do that, but it does involve a little bit more technical expertise.

So you can have some like activity triggered when somebody clicks the Amazon button and it knows where it goes. So there is ways of doing it. But yes, in terms of standard analytics, you're looking at, you know, number of people that have visited where they've come from, what kind of device they're using, and if they know any information about them, you'll see that too. So yeah, you just have to keep an eye on the visitors really and just hope that people are actually visiting your site by using some of these techniques.

Teddy Smith (37:53.964)
Yeah, so it's like looking at the traffic. Yeah, exactly, using that traffic, see if it's improving. mean, if you do have a newsletter, it's easy to see the traffic coming back from the newsletter, for example. You can see that on the analytics easily, but I was wondering if you had a secret trip for tracking Amazon sales from your website, but it doesn't seem like you found one yet.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (38:12.539)
No, not exactly. mean, there is a way, as I said, I can't actually remember the name of it. It's not affiliated, something like that. But it just escapes me right this second, obviously. But there is a way of kind of making the buttons tell you what's happened and where they've gone. But again, it's a bit more technical and needs a bit of attribution, maybe, that's the word. But anyway, you need to look that

Teddy Smith (38:30.574)
Yeah.

Teddy Smith (38:34.562)
Yeah. Well, thank you. This has really, this has been super helpful. Thank you so much for coming today. So just thought the final question just before we hit off. sorry. What's your dog called?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (38:36.179)
Thank

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (38:42.451)
That's my dog, sorry.

Dora.

Teddy Smith (38:49.64)
Tora, the explorer. Yeah, so just the final question before we head off. So like trying to get all the guests to recommend some a book that you think either everyone should be reading or it's one that you think maybe is a bit under recognised at the moment, especially if it's a self published book. So what is it you're reading at moment that you think everyone should be reading?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (39:10.569)
Well, I've just finished a couple of brilliant books which have changed my world. They're not so much about publishing or anything like that. One of them is called Ted Talks by Chris Anderson and it's all about how to be a great speaker. But it's also about being a great communicator, you know, and I think that is relevant to authors in lots of different ways, you know, be it on social media or in front of people or having to do presentations of any sort. So that

blew my mind that was really, really good book. It's written by the CEO of TED, who really knows what he's talking about. So I absolutely love that. So I'd really recommend looking that one up on on Audible. He narrates it on Audible. So it's really good. The other one that's got nothing to do with any of this stuff is another mind blowing book is called Ultra Processed People by Chris Van Tulliken. And he's one of the twin doctors. Yeah. And that is a scary

Teddy Smith (39:43.938)
Bye.

Teddy Smith (40:01.341)
yes. I've heard a bit of that.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (40:07.305)
because it talks about how food is manufactured, how it's made, who owns what and what money goes where and it's scary. You will never eat the same again, I guarantee. And then in terms of favourite

Teddy Smith (40:18.85)
I thought my lunchtime laps were really healthy, but it turns out they're just full of rubbish.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (40:23.567)
Exactly, yeah everything is full of it. The basic outcome of that book is if it comes in a wrapper it's been processed, you know, that's it. And lastly, I know I'm stealing the limelight here with three but my favourite self -published author at the moment is JD Kirk with his Hoon series. He writes Scottish thrillers and they are laugh out loud, you know, when I'm walking the dog and listening to those I am literally

Teddy Smith (40:45.603)
Put it.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (40:51.293)
guffawing in the middle of the field. if you fancy something funny but very offensive, then JD Kirk.

Teddy Smith (40:59.864)
JD Kirk, wow, that sounds right up my street. So I'll definitely let you know how that goes. Yeah, well, thanks so much for that. I really appreciate your time today. If people want to get in touch with you or they want to follow you anywhere, where's the best place for them to do that?

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (41:04.306)
It's hilarious.

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (41:16.441)
So the website is digitalauthorstoolkit .com. So you can find us there online, digitalauthorstoolkit .com. If you can't find it, just Google it. We can also be found on Readsie. So just look for us under website designers. I think it's readsie .com forward slash Stuart dash Grant or something. Or you can find me on any social media platform at Stuart Grant UK. It's all the same. So at Stuart Grant UK on all social media platforms. So you will find me. I am out there somewhere.

Teddy Smith (41:44.969)
Ha

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (41:45.309)
But yeah, it'd great to speak to anybody that wants to know more or anything. But Teddy, thanks for having me on. It's been fun and a great pleasure.

Teddy Smith (41:50.904)
No, thank you very much. So all those links will be in the show notes for this. So if you want to click on those, then follow along. But thank you very much, Stuart. It's been really great to chat to

Stu - Digital Authors Toolkit (42:01.171)
Cheers.