Why Book Authors Need Their Own Websites

Many book authors decide that they do not need their own book author websites. These authors feel that they can get enough exposure by listing their book on the various online book sites.

Yet, if you are truly interested in giving your book the best online marketing opportunities, you need to have your own book author website.

To begin with, if you use social media networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to promote your book, you will want to include a URL link that sends people to a dedicated book author website to show that you are a serious book author.

You don't want to use a URL to a shared site where people can get distracted with the other books available and forget about checking out your book. This is especially true about Amazon - do not tell people they can find your book on Amazon. Give them the exact URL to the Amazon page with your book on it. (Because that URL is quite long, use a shortened URL site to create a shortened URL for your book's Amazon page.)

Second, you want to be able to offer a sample chapter on your site in order to entice potential purchasers to buy the entire book. This sample chapter can also be used to encourage people to give you their name and email address by using an email opt-in function.

If you have this email information, you can keep yourself in front of people who might not have bought your book the first time they visited your site. Now you can send out emails that provides news of your book and your next book.

Being able to include book club discussion questions is another reason for having your own book author website. Plus you have the opportunity to add book audios and book videos.

Then there's the advantage of having your blog on your book author website. With the constant addition of fresh material, you make the search engines happy with your site. The result of this is to help your website come up higher in the organic search results when someone is looking for a book related to the topic of your book.

Of course, you can add your own book signings and book event dates to let your fans know when and where they can meet you in person. And you can add book reviews and testimonials to encourage potential purchasers.

The bottom line is that, if you have your own book author website and you can control it yourself, you can greatly increase your online marketing opportunities.