“A website can be like an attic that never fills up. Space is not the problem. Attention is.” - Gerry McGovern
In layman’s terms, “Web development means creating, building, and maintaining website/s.”
The website is the face of the company, and it is necessary to make it look pretty and, at the same time, functional to attract customers. A web developer needs to pay attention to the aesthetics, navigation, pictures, functionality, etc., for the same. They work day and night to make the website and make it look better.
Web development companies all over the globe understand that they have to make a website that sells, and they engage in doing that job correctly. Even though web development is often confused with web designing, web development is reserved for the actual construction and programming of websites and apps.
Everything we browse on a daily basis, from basic and simple websites and complex web apps to social media platforms, is web development. Even the numerous online shopping web pages to CMS, all the online tools and websites are part of Web Development. The skill of web development is in high demand worldwide, and they are paid well too.
Getting a website built is essential if you are an author – be it a fiction author, non–fiction, novelist, poet, screenwriter, ghostwriter, translator, etc. Let's say you have written a beautiful book or at least have the manuscript ready; you must have a website in your name which can sell your book.
As George Orwell famously said, "All writers are lazy," then how would they sell their books? When people come to know about your book, the first thing they will do is look up your books. Sure enough, you don't want them to leave disappointed, right?
People(readers) need to see the website that you own and have control over it. It will not only allow you to put your stake in the ground but also own your tiny little corner in this vast sea we call the INTERNET. With that being said, here are a few points that state why having a website is essential:
- It increases the credibility of the organization or the person. People these days check the website first to see if they can trust the organization.
- Having a website adds to the brand value. It establishes what you believe in and what your brand stands for.
- With most people glued to their phones, having a website that opens on their phones can bring organic traffic. While people search for a particular product, your website popping up is the hard work of web developers.
- A website with all the information will save you money on customer service, and you can focus on more critical areas of the business.
- Be it a launch of a new product or news of the collaboration, post it on the website, and it will reach people in no time.
- Linking social media accounts to the website will increase followers and grow the business. Brands often sell well on social media, but people only put their faith in them when they have a legit website.
- Receiving feedback are an added benefit of having a website. People will be able to connect to you and express their requirements which can help increase sales.
Process of Developing an Author Website
Despite having a website, having a good website is essential. Because Jakob Neilson has rightly quoted, "A bad website is like a grumpy salesperson."
You need to develop a rich author’s website to attract more customers. A Bangalore based web development company can help you create such a website. Even though it may consist of simply a page with endless scrolling, it should tick all the points of the checklist.
Take, for example, the website of Charlie Mackesy. He is the author of the book whose documentary won an Oscar in 2023. If you take a look at his website, you'll understand that immediately after the win, they had made the changes. If he wouldn’t have had a website, people won’t be able to search about him, his book, and the movie adapted from his book.
Charlie Mackesy’s website screenshot of 15th July 2018
Charlie Mackesy’s website screenshot of 24th October 2019 after he had published his book - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
Charlie Mackesy’s website as of 28th March 2023 after his book was made into an Oscar award-winning movie with the same name - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse
Thus, here is the step-by-step process of developing an author's website:
1. Planning
Developing a website needs planning too well in advance. One cannot simply create a website based on whatever is available on the internet by copying the competitors. Of course, references can be taken, but the original has its own value. The first step to creating an author's website is planning, and you need to have a layout or a blueprint as to how you will go about it.
A few questions that need to be answered while planning a website are:
- What is the purpose of creating a website (determining the goal)?
- How is the market for books?
- Are you already an established brand, or with this book, are you going to enter the market?
- How many pages does your website need to have?
- How will the website help with social media?
- What are your competitors (fellow authors) doing?
- How can a web developer jump in and assist?
Websites these days do not require coding, which is why it has become more accessible for people to create the website on their own, but it doesn't come with a guarantee of ranking. At the same time, a website created by a web developer will rank because they know what elements to add and how to make it functional, even if it's just a one–page website.
From creating a wireframe to drafting a sitemap to code to building the backend as well as a front-end to manage the content and choosing the domain name, it is a long process that needs to be followed stepwise. You might create a website on your own, but discussing it with a web developer will give you in clear idea about how it can be made SEO friendly!
2. Creating a Wireframe
The next step to building a website is creating a wireframe of the website.
It is used to map out the main features and navigation of the new design of the website. It will give you a thorough idea about the site's functionality before deciding upon visual design elements, like content and color. The overall experience of the user needs to be asses with the help of layouts and features such as drop-down menus and clickable buttons.
There are two types of author's websites – one where the author is focused on selling the books and creating newsletters to send out regularly, and another is where he himself is a brand and is promoting himself. The example of the first one is Neil Gaiman, and the latter is Adam Grant.
The THINK AGAIN author Adam Grant is more of a speaker and podcaster and organizes workshops and seminars. Thus, he is a brand himself, but Neil Gaiman is all about selling his books because he is a fiction author. Thus, both websites are different, and so are their wireframes.
Wireframes can be created in two ways – physical copy and digital copy. If you're using physical pen and paper, then using dotted paper or grid paper is preferable. It keeps things aligned. Also, it will help you transform the physical version of your wireframe drawn into a soft copy easily and quickly.
And if you're working directly on a digital platform, choose a tool that works best for your wireframe fidelity. There are wireframes with three types of fidelity – low, medium, and high.
3. Drafting a Sitemap
Drafting a sitemap is listing all the pages that search engines will use to crawl. They are structured depending on their usage, but technical sitemaps are created in XML or HTML. This makes it easy for search engines or other programs to understand, which is important for SEO. Other site maps like Architecture Sitemaps, commonly known as Information Architecture, use a different structure to ensure their teammates can easily understand the structure of a website.
The diagram of the website sitemap should be serviceable. Below mentioned are the points that will help you meet your sitemap goal:
- Take any user profile and see how they will navigate the website. What will they click first, and what will they click last? For how long will they stay on the website? Some users might be interested in the books, while some might be in newsletters. Thus, as mentioned above, about us, the home page, books page (separate for each book), contact form for e-newsletters, etc.
- Getting a second opinion from a professional if you are creating the website yourself because the truth is that site maps can and will become unwieldy and overwhelming if the site is too big. Pruning the outdated pages and using categorical organization will help the brand better manipulate the site's data.
- Be doubly sure of the details in the diagram regarding fonts, space, buttons, etc., because after the site is launched, one might be unable to change the details. Being consistent throughout your site map makes it easier to navigate and read.
4. Coding
Coding is a work of art, but as I mentioned above, websites can be built without codes too. However, most people still do not trust websites that are created without codes, and as I said, Google rankings could be an issue for an author’s site that use low-code/no-code platforms. Thus, you need to hire a web developer to code the website. There are various coding languages that are generally used for website building but nonetheless can be applied for an authors’ website too:
1. Coding with HTML
HTML and CSS form the foundation of web development. Coders use HTML to determine where elements are placed on a web page and CSS to style it. The "hypertext" of HTML refers to the links that connect pages. Developers use the "markup" feature to explain the elements of each web page. These elements are defined by "tags," which include an instruction between the "<>" punctuation convention.
2. Coding with JavaScript
JavaScript is generally more challenging to learn than HTML or CSS, but its options are pretty rich. It brings websites to life, adding interactive elements, animations, photo slideshows, automated survey forms, and much more.
3. Coding with Python
Python is used for many different projects, mainly within web development. It is considered relatively easy to learn since it relies on English keywords and recognizable syntax. Some of the websites that are created using Python are Google, Spotify, Netflix, etc. Within Python, various frameworks are available, like Django and Flask.
Django is incredibly fast, and you get access to all essential web components, such as admin capabilities, database integration, and authentication features. Flask is a minimalistic framework as compared to Django, but it offers greater flexibility in that you can add libraries and extensions as and when you need.
5. Building the Backend
The backend of the website is the portion that you cannot see. Backend developers are not only responsible for building and maintaining the website but also for assessing the speed and efficiency of the web applications, writing high-quality codes, troubleshooting and debugging, managing the hosting environment, and doing all while keeping the latest technology in mind.
Building the backend of an author's website is not that hard. All you need to know is the components used to create the backend: servers, logic, frameworks, databases, and APIs.
- A server is a computer that gathers details about the interactions users have with a website, interprets them, and sends them across a network.
- Logic is the sequence of operations that programmers code into the backend to accomplish specific tasks. Website logic contains algorithms and functions that allow websites to perform different actions and output information depending on how users behave and interact with website features.
- Frameworks are templates for a website's backend that software programmers use to facilitate writing and editing code for their server. Some frameworks include data libraries and tools that give programmers access to functional segments of code.
- In website backend architecture, databases include information such as integers, characters, and arrays, which are sets of variables that have something in common.
- APIs, or application programming interfaces, allow software programs to communicate with other servers and databases to exchange information. APIs exist in the backend to simplify the presentation of information from multiple databases in a single place.
6. Then Comes the Front-end
Front-end web development is also known as the frontal development or development of the client - side. It is the practice of producing a website or a web application with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for a user to see and interact with it directly.
- The Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) programming language is a building block for front-end development that defines the structure and meaning of web content. It is only through HTML that the browsers display text or load elements and render webpages, which accommodates hyperlinks and links to other webpages for the users.
- Cascading Style Sheets, popularly known as CSS, is the standard language of web development that specifies how to display HTML content in a formatted manner: fonts, foreground, and background colors, etc. With CSS, you can control the design layout and its components for various devices like desktops, tablets, and smartphones. Examples of the features are the header, body, footer, content, asides, and sections.
- JavaScript (JS) extends the functionality of websites beyond HTML and CSS. It is through JavaScript webpages can refresh themselves dynamically and respond to the user actions without page reloads or other changes. And one can model animated UI components, such as pop-ups, image sliders, and extensive navigation menus with JS.
7. Content Management System
There are various content management systems available in the market to build the website. Most authors like Claire Fuller use WordPress websites, and it is working out perfectly fine for her. However, However, Drupal is catching fire, and writers should take advantage of it.
Drupal SEO ensures the hard work you put into creating the content actually reaches your readers. With a history of reliability, Drupal generally requires more technical knowledge and allows for far more customization than plug-and-play options like Wix or Squarespace.
On a more technical level, a content management system is made up of two core parts:
- A content management application (CMA) – this is the part that allows you to actually add and manage content on your site (like you saw above).
- A content delivery application (CDA) – this is the backend, behind-the-scenes process that takes the content you input in the CMA, stores it properly, and makes it visible to your visitors. You can read more about the content delivery application here.
8. Domain Name
Choosing the domain name is one of the most critical steps in the process because this will be how people will search for you on the internet. Most people who are planning to build the brand prefer to create the website under their own name. Most authors have done the same too.
When it comes to Domain Names, you can either choose to have your full name like Salman Rushdie does or go by your second name, as TIPPING POINT author Malcolm Gladwell does on his site as it called “Gladwell Books.”
You have to see what works for you. But make sure, no matter what, you do not buy the domain name on the name of one of your books unless you are not planning to write more books. If you are planning to establish yourself as an author and write more than one book in your lifetime, buy a domain name that is generic.
9. Launch the Website
Once you are done creating a website, launch it. It is one of the most straightforward steps in developing a website. What is hard is what follows because post that you need to see how your website is received. Based on the constructive feedback given by trusted people, you can keep on editing and revising the website.
10. Maintenance
Simply creating a website isn't enough. One needs to maintain it afterward. Otherwise, it will be outdated. Modern websites are built without codes that are prone to hackers. Thus, a professional website maintenance service will ensure that your website is always kept secure and up to date.
One needs to think of it as an investment and not an expense. While a website can easily be maintained on its own, it is better to hire an expert who can skillfully preserve your website. Web maintenance is vital to prevent from hacking, check the SEO ranking, and improve the user experience.
Hence, just like these writers, from content to malware, to links that you need to get up to date, there are a host of things you need to get the most out of your website.
Bringing to a Close:
Many authors have started building their own websites for various purposes. It helps them connect with their audience at a personal level and sell the book. They are able to deliver what they believe in by keeping in touch with their readers on a regular basis.
One of the best examples of such author is James Clear. People who follow him know that he sends out a weekly newsletter every Thursday, which sells his famous book ATOMIC HABIT more. Whether your goal is to sell more books, earn from an e-newsletter, or establish yourself as a public figure, website building is a must.
Having said that, if you think you wish to leave all the backend work to building and maintaining the website to the experts, check out various web development companies in India. They will help you create and manage the website in an organized manner for a more extended period of time. It will not only increase your sales but will also give you time to focus on writing your next book…think about it!!!
