A not-so-random observation for authors new and old...

If you haven't noticed, I've been skimping on the blog posts the past week and a half. It's a bad habit of mine, particularly when I'm working on some content-heavy posts...which will arrive next week.

In the mean time, here's a quick thought for some of the newer authors out there:

If you maintain a website to promote your published work (and thereby your writing career), it MAY be a good idea to make information about your work readily available, up-to-date, and easy to find.

Now I'm not saying you need to drown your blog in self-promotion. But no one ever complained about a sidebar link to an up-to-date bibliography page. That would be the natural place to look for information about things you wrote, would it not?

Especially if you have a book coming out. You know what books are right? Those things that people are willing to pay you good money for? The ones that are going to be read by more people than that short story you sold to a no-name magazine? The things that people will display proudly on their shelves and recommend to their friends? Yeah those things. The honest truth is - you can't buy a book you don't know about. You would be surprised how many new authors (and some older ones) simply don't volunteer accurate, up-to-date information about their work. It's inexcusable, particularly when you are at the stage in your career when you need to find new readers the most.

People Potential customers (and not just bloggers) will come to your website looking for information. And many of them aren't going to mine through your old blog posts or subscribe for new updates. Unfortunately, this is an age of immediate information and if your information isn't available immediately, you will get passed by.

If you haven't guessed these thoughts and my research are not entirely unrelated. Come back next week for a look at some new authors, several of which could use some help getting the word out about their new books.