TGIF

Posting early b/c I'll be gone all day---client meetings across the bay, a lunch meeting, taking a pal to the airport in the afternoon, and then doing my dayjob work at night when I finally have a chance to be in the office.

Seriously hectic week. This weekend I can't wait to closet myself in and write!

Got my prize from Katrina. Thanks, Katrina!

And my Good Karma prizes went out on Thursday. Not without drama. I took them all to my local USPS, where the lady got snippy with me because I had a couple strips of scotch tape on the packages.

Now. If the rule is no scotch tape, then the rule is no scotch tape. I don't care about that. But I've been mailing packages with scotch tape for literally years (before Good Karma Tuesday, I used to be a serious swap addict for scrapbooking stuff) and nobody has ever once mentioned it. This woman says it's always been the rule in the entire history of the USPS, and I need to go home and re-package everything. Or... I could buy their super-expensive tape on the wall behind me, and redo everything right there. So, fine. I do not have the time to waste to go home and redo it all. (And later, at Walmart, I saw the same tape for literally 1/3 the price. Prolly because 3-year-olds make it in a sweatshop somewhere, but still. I bet the USPS tape is made in the same toddler sweatshop.)

I think it's my local post office. Before I moved across town, I never had a problem. Now, at this branch, if I include anything inside a card--or even put a slightly puffy sticker on a card, for example--they charge me twice the stampage. Maybe they're the only branch who really plays by the rules. Or maybe they hate me. Hard to say.

Either way, they did their job (ie drove me crazy) and the packages are out there. If you're a recent winner, keep your eye on your mailbox. (And don't forget to leave a long comment thread complimenting the lovely, lovely tape on the package. *g) Even the one I sent to Egypt will allegedly arrive within 6 business days, so yay. =)

YOUR TURN: Tell me about a time a simple trip to the post office (or errand of your choice) spiraled into hair-pulling aggravation. I can't be alone in this. Share!

P.S. If you're a recent winner and never mailed me your address, what are you waiting for?? =)

Aargh

What is it with Real Life and The Day Job? Once in a while, they rear their ugly heads and balloon into such proportions as there's no time left for blogging or writing or critiquing or reading or going through all my email? (Hence the post title: Aargh.)

Goals for today:
1) Client work (gotta pay the mortgage)
2) Respond to urgent emails (gotta unbury my inbox)
3) Post Office (gotta mail all those Good Karma prizes!)
4) Grocery store (gotta eat, since I'm in town for a few weeks)
5) If possible, crit (L & D, this means you! *g)
6) If yet more time exists, make blog rounds

Goals for tomorrow:
1) Client work (it's relentless!)
2) Off-site client meeting (hour's drive each way--yuck)
3) Further attack overflowing Inbox
4) Help my friend's daughter with her Spanish for an exam
5) Make a blog post, do blog rounds as much as possible
6) If the gods smile upon me: more CP critting

Goals for Saturday:
1) Watch from safety of kitchen while friend's daughter mows my lawn
2) Set up laptop in front of story board and finally make time to work on revision
3) (Possibly) meet other pals at Borders or similar for yet more writing fun
4) Ignore client work! Mua ha haaaaaaaaaa *choke* (well, unless there's an emergency)

YOUR TURN: Ever had Real Life or school/dayjob interfere with the good stuff (Email/blog/writing)? How do you deal/compensate/reshuffle? Please spill all tips, tricks, and horror stories!

I'm Alive!

But stuck working. *sobs*

Will write more later if I can...

E

Good Karma Tuesday

Today's winner is COLE!

Cole, email me your addy and I will send you an autographed copy of the New York Times bestseller Die For Me by Karen Rose!!!

Speaking of Good Karma, I was a prize winner this week over at Stone Soup. w00t!

Between client stuff, I'm making baby-steps progress with Touched and hoping to make a huge dent this weekend. (Yes, I know it's supposed to be Birthday Month, but I ask you: What says wild partying quite like "closet yourself with a laptop for 48 hours"???)

What do you have going on?

Boring Birthdays

So, as you may or may not know, my pal Lacey's birthday was this month and she celebrated all month long, going out two or three times a week. I was like, wow, I'm totally going to do that when it gets close to my birthday! (Moron alert: it is close to my birthday. *bangs head on desk*) I then completely forgot all about it, as is my style.

So then a couple days ago in the mail, I get this giant box from my bff Carrie F, who lives 1000 miles north of here. You may remember her as the pal who came to visit me about a month ago who had to beta-read for her breakfast. When I saw the package, my first thought was, "What on Earth?" because I was thinking, usually the person owning the house has to send forgotten stuff to the person who left the house (not that Carrie's forgetful, but my family is. My mom had to mail home my niece's shoes once, etc) and I was generally flabbergasted.

Determined to be flabbergasted no more, I opened the box and what do you know--birthday presents! For me! So then I was like, WTF. It's not my birthday. (Moron alert: Yes, it is. Next week. *bangs head on desk*) And it wasn't until I glanced at a calendar (which the Mavens can tell you I've no skill in deciphering) that I put two and two together and got Oct 2 is right around the corner.

So. It's not only too late for me to do a month of pre-partying, it's also almost too late to plan anything for the weekend of my birthday, which is in a few days, or my birthday itself, which is a week from tomorrow. I was thinking about doing nothing at all, but then a friend of mine fish-slapped me into submission, so I guess I'll get into revelry/debauchery/shenanigans of some kind or another.

Possibly even involving me getting out of the house.

YOUR TURN: When's YOUR birthday? Are you excited about them? How (if at all) do you celebrate them? What was the craziest thing you ever did in honor of your birthday, or the birthday of a friend/family member? What was the funniest? The most boring? The wildest? Spill all! I need do/don't ideas!

P.S. I'm over at the Manuscript Mavens today, yammering about the Golden Heart contest and the RITA contest.

Karen Rose: Squee!

I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to announce that my friend Karen Rose just hit the New York Times best seller list with her latest release, Die For Me.



Die For Me totally rocked (as does Karen!) and in honor of her success, I'd like to give away an autographed copy on Good Karma Tuesday.

Just comment on this post, and you will be entered to win!

P.S. I'm over at Romantic Inks today--come say hi!

Photo Evidence, as promised

This will most likely change repeatedly as I revise, but for right now, here is Touched, in all its sticky-noted glory.

I already had to rethink several sequences of events and move around a significant number of sub plots as I created the board (where each major plot thread gets its own color) and I can't tell you how glad I am to do it now, rather than write myself into a corner and be forced to set the MS on fire. *g

Photo Evidence to come...

Back later... am off storyboarding.

Huzzah!

Go Ahead: Make Me Swoon

So, if you've chatted with me in the blogosphere for any length of time, you know I have a soft spot for analogies. Analogies make me swoon.

Evidence from my recent blatherings:
* Pitching is like The Princess Bride analogy
* Websites are like Houses analogy
* Agents are like Pawn Shops analogy

So, imagine my expression last night during an instant messaging chat with my youngest brother (currently an engineering student at Respected University) when this little gem sprang forth:

[23:21] YB: My math TA made the greatest analogy today
[23:21] YB: we were talking about limits where x goes to infinity
[23:21] YB: and so we had a polynomial over a polynomial
[23:22] YB: he wanted to show us that it depended on the degree of the polynomial and not the actual polynomial, so he made an analogy (you have to imagine an Indian accent with this)
[23:23] YB: he said that if it is degree 3, divided by degree 2 (or anything where it is larger on top) then it is just infinity
[23:24] YB: he said that if you compare two dissimilar stuffs (yes, he said stuffs), then it is like comparing an elephant to an ant, where if you subtract the weight of the ant from the elephant, then you still get an elephant
[23:25] ER: that's awesome stuffs
[23:25] YB: its not done
[23:25] ER: oh boy
[23:26] YB: if the degree is the same then you need to look at the numbers in front, because if you compare to similar stuffs, then you are comparing an elephant to elephant, and if you subtract an elephant from another elephant you end up with something smaller, like a cow.

Wow.

YOUR TURN: Go ahead, make me swoon. Dish me up the craziest analogy you can think of, about any topic you want. Be creative! If you add a blog comment to another blog comment, you get something bigger than a blog comment. Like a cow.

Good Karma Tuesday

First off, today's Good Karma Tuesday winner is CONDA. Yay, Conda! Send me your addy, I'll send you a prize.

Second, big waves to Foxydot and Carrie F! Very fun to see you on the blog!!! =)

Now that my TATTF furor has settled somewhat, I'm turning to my next (technically, previous) project: Touched.

I just re-read all 85k yesterday, and it doesn't suck as bad as I remembered. So that's good. I think. (It's always harder to delete and rewrite when the stuff you're pretty sure you should delete doesn't suck.)

Did some plotstorming last night with the brilliant mavens Lacey and Darcy, and I think I've got the new and improved ending squared away in my mind. (Technically, the ending is more or less the same, so I guess I have the new and improved Turning Points 3 & 4 squared away.)

My plan is to re-read (okay, skim) again, this time taking notes on what plot elements occur when, so as to more easily draw up a storyboard this week. Am going to storyboard a little differently this time, and am super-excited about that. We'll see how it goes.

I'm also trying to think of a way to get a massive storyboard on an airplane. Am thinking it's impossible. (Even posed the question to my fabulous TARA sisters and the consensus was: "think of a Plan B".) So, may resort to multiple small boards or possibly posterboard in art tubes to be later tacked to more durable boards.

Oh, and the impetus is the Manuscript Maven retreat in November. Although, this being September, ideally I will have made decent enough headway on Touched that I won't be in desperate need of storyboard plotstorming. We shall see.

YOUR TURN: Where you at? What's on your plate--not just for today, but in the near future, writing-wise? What's the most recent writing goal you either achieved or made good progress toward? What actions made it easier/possible to get your goal?

Happy Monday!

I am over at the Manuscript Mavens blog today, yammering and analogizing, as is my wont.

Also, as Diana, C.L. and Vicki intimated, I left out part of Friday's news: an editor did in fact request the full manuscript after reading the first chapter in the 2007 TARA Contest.

So, yay! And thank you to everyone who congratulated me over the weekend--I'm still on cloud 9. =)

Contest Update

It's official! My triple-finalist rankings in the 2007 TARA Contest are:

Touched: Second Place
Trevor & the Tooth Fairy: Second Place
Dorinda & the Demon: First Place

(Awww, my first win evah!)

Web Sites: Wrap-Up

The web site series:

* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

Today I'm going to round off the web site series with answering questions from comments. These were asked on Monday's post, but if you have more questions, feel free to keep asking at any time (whether or not that day's post has anything to do with web sites.)


What would an author's ideal web site look like?

Ah, that is the point of the entire Creative Brief! It is a very personal decision, based entirely on your goals. The ideal layout and infrastructure changes dramatically depending on audience, content, and purpose.


One page per book? Or all books on one page?

The infamous "depends" comes again. In my professional opinion, this answer depends entirely on the amount and quality of the content provided for each title.

If the content is simply to consist of an image of the book cover and a one paragraph blurb, then it is silly to have 20 different such pages, when they could be, say, split by series, with a link for each of your 3 series and 5-7 short blurbs (with click-to-order covers! *g) on each page.

On the other hand, if you will be providing complete back-cover text, reviews, deleted scenes, character interviews, genealogy charts, maps of your story world, excerpts, etc, etc, then you may want one or more pages per book.

In a nutshell, if there is too little content on a page, it looks like the site has nothing to offer. On the other hand, if the reader is overwhelmed by content on a page or must scroll extensively, they will be turned off and not bother reading anything at all.


A "Meet the Author" bio page?

Definitely a good idea. While this is a page that may not often change and most visitors will only visit a single time, it is crucial information for anyone seeking to write about you, whether in a press release, news article, workshop intro, blog post, etc, etc.

When I'm at a chapter meeting and the emcee announces a speaker, oftentimes that text comes straight from the author's web site, no changes made. If it's good enough for the author..., right? And if it's not there, who has time to to hunt for information to cobble together a googled biography? Nobody.

So, yes. Readers, news writers, and emcees alike will appreciate a bio page.


A PayPal or secure order page for those who want to order personalized copies directly from you?

If that is the only way to order your books, then absolutely. Wherever your books are sold--be it Amazon, an e-press, national book chains, the trunk of your car, etc--definitely link each title to a place where the web visitor can easily order a copy.


Pimp links to your author friends' pages?

A very personal decision, and another "it depends". Friends or not, I would caution you to link only to web sites that satisfy two key criteria: 1) sites with content relevanct to your readers, and 2) sites which do not reflect badly on yourself.

Relevancy: If you write fantasy novels and you happen to be BFF with Anne McCaffery, then by all means, link away. Add a nice photo of the two of you clinking champagne glasses or whatever. Totally fine content. As is linking blog-to-blog, even if the blog topics are different. Blog readers' goal of seeking entertainment often outweighs predilections toward any specific content genre. However, if your BFF is a pro-wrestler or a writer of recipe collections called Cooking With Cardamom, readers who click from your non-blog professional web site will mumble wtf to themselves and move on.

Reflection: If your friends write similar content (be it blog-to-blog or romance-to-romance or what-have-you) but their web site either 1) looks like crap, 2) is impossible to navigate, or 3) contains offensive, controversial, or highly polarizing content, you may wish to consider carefully before providing the link. Even if you do not support the prompt beheading of runaway children, if your self-proclaimed BFF has a web site in favor, readers will draw their own conclusions.


A discussion/blog page about things you've read or topics you want to share?

An excellent idea. ANY potentially entertaining and/or informative (and relevant!) content you can dream up should definitely go on your web site.


I heard someone at a workshop say you should never have more than six items in your main menu. Is this standard advice?

In a word, no. Barnes & Noble's web site, for example, has considerably more. The key to effective navigation is to be 1) uncluttered, 2) intuitive, and 3) easy.

Uncluttered, so the user can find what they're looking for. Intuitive, so if you have many pages or categories (like Powell's Books) the different sections/topics are obvious. Easy, so the user has to neither scroll nor hunt to find what they're looking for.

I have seen sites with only a few links that were difficult to navigate, typically because I had to scroll side-to-side or all the way to the bottom to access what I was looking for. (Particularly, do not bury your Contact link/information.)

YOUR TURN: Any other questions? I will be checking back to answer questions, reply to comments/snarkage, and do general mythbusting. I hope you enjoyed the series!

Good Karma Tuesday + SuperFun Poll

Yay! Good morning! And it's good karma time here once again in Ericaland. As you may already know, all you have to do to be a Good Karma Tuesday winner is leave a comment on the blog sometime in the previous week.

Today's winner is:
KATRINA STONOFF

And, in honor of today's super-fun poll, today's bonus winner is:
JOEY POLANSKI

Katrina and Joey, email me your address and I will send you a treat!

Tomorrow I will round off the web site series with answers to the questions you posted, but today I need a favor. I'm sending the story formerly known as Trevor & the Tooth Fairy to my agent first thing tomorrow morning, and it needs to have a new title.

That's where you come in:
Click Here for the super-fun poll!

(If you have other title suggestions, please email me.)

After you vote in the poll (and/or if you link to the poll from your blog), leave a comment so I know. Next week's Good Karma Tuesday winner will come from the comments to this post!

If you've already voted in the poll, click here for current standings. If you re-submit the poll, you will overwrite your previous vote. (That's so one person can't skew the results by voting for "The Fairy and the Bone Lover" fifty-eight times.)

YOUR TURN: Go vote on a title! Pretty please! With sugar on top! And then leave a comment, so you're entered to win!

P.S. How's your karma lately? Confess! =)

All About Web Sites: Day 6 of 6

The web site series continues:

* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

(REMINDER: I'm discussing for the first time ever, my real-life Creative Brief I send to all potential clients. This is proprietary information, so please don't copy anything I say without asking and/or providing credit.)

The next section on the Creative Brief questionnaire is
ADMINISTRATION.

1. What is the full business name, address, and phone number of your organization?

Your web developer will collect this information for many reasons. First, and most obviously, is to be able to get a hold of you. Second, you may want some or all of this information available on some or all pages of your web site. As an author, it's doubtful that you want your home phone on every page in the same way that a boutique might want their store phone number available on every page, but it is conceivable that you would want your email address or link to a contact form on every page.


2. Who are the primary contacts for your organization that have final approval on the project(s)? Please list names, titles, email addresses and phone numbers as applicable.

Particularly in corporations, the person speaking to the web developer may or may not be the person with final say or administration permissions. Even as an author, this may be the case. If a spouse, friend, child, or intern is the first line of defense for filtering incoming emails from web contact forms, approving web visitor guestbook comments, altering page content, etc, the web developer needs to know this and plan accordingly, as well as be able to contact that person directly, should an issue arise.


3. What is your target launch date for this web site? What are the dynamics surrounding this deadline?

As a web developer, the answer I most often get to this question is, "As soon as possible." While I appreciate the client's eagerness, that statement is useless as a deadline-defining term. All clients want their projects completed as soon as possible. The web developer will need to prioritize based on some logical hierarchy. Sometimes this does mean first-come, first-serve. However, chances are high that your web developer will be more than happy to take extenuating circumstances into consideration, such as an upcoming workshop presentation or an impending book release, etc, which would drive more traffic to the site. If your web developer anticipates your mack daddy new web site will require two months to develop from start to finish and your book release is in six weeks, if she knows this information, she can often plan the updates in a staged or phased approach, making sure the functionality you most want ready is completed first. For example, perhaps you want the new design more than you want the user login section. The web developer will make sure the new design is in place before the launch date, and then move on to functionality. Or, if the design is secondary and your number one concern is having a contact form to collect addresses for your mailing list, then that will be the web developer's first concern, as well.


4. What is the budget range and limitations? Will this project be segmented in a phased approach to help you meet your goals or will the web site be completed at one time in its entirety?

As a web developer, I see about half of the potential clients having even a rough guesstimate of budget when they come to me with their wish list of bells and whistles. This is a bad idea. You should at least have a basic idea of what portion of your disposable income you're willing and able to spend, so that you and your web developer can work together to get the most bang for your buck and make sure the items you want most top the list. To put this in perspective, imagine you want a new house, and you contact a builder. If the builder's first question is, "What do you want in your dream house?" instead of "What's your budget range?", you might answer, "Oh, it would be awesome if it were three stories high, with vaulted ceilings, stained-glass windows, turrets, fiberoptic wifi, a finished basement with a wine cellar, spiral staircases and an all-glass elevator, state-of-the-art kitchen and entertainment systems, marble floors, an eight-car garage with built-in work area and loft, and a stone block medieval tower with a writing workstation." That may very well be what you want, but if your house budget is $50,000, it's not a very realistic goal. (Unless the builder deals in miniatures, and even then... *g) So it goes with web sites. They can be as simple or as extensive as your imagination permits. Cost varies accordingly, because development time varies accordingly, and also because some elements may require additional purchases outside of the developer's control, ie hosting costs, domain names, secure certificates, certain database programs, certain third-party plugins and software, etc.


5. Please list any other comments or concerns here:

The last element on the creative brief is a place for the client to provide any information not previously covered. All projects are different because every client has different needs. The web developer will not always know what she doesn't know and may not know the right questions to ask in every situation. Part of the responsibility is yours, to make sure you effectively communicate your needs, wishes, limitations, imperatives, timeframe, communication needs, and so on. This not only eliminates misunderstandings, but greatly aids efficiency, as the more information the web developer has up front, the less likely the need will be for time-consuming (and costly!) re-work.

YOUR TURN: As mentioned, the Creative Brief does not cover all aspects of web development, because it is designed to give me an overview of what you are looking for and how you envision achieving your goals. Do you have any questions or comments about anything mentioned throughout this series? Do you have any questions or comments about items not covered here?

P.S. Don't forget! Tomorrow's post features a super-fun interactive poll!

I did it!

Everybody see the Revise-O-Meter over there to the right? Huh? Do ya?? I did it! Yay! Squee!!!

Beta Reader will be having her first taste of the soon-to-be-renamed Trevor & the Tooth Fairy very shortly, so that I can send this bad baby back to my agent by this time next week (if not sooner!)

I'm going to go celebrate by digging my way out of a backlog of client work, but if you've got a moment to spare, you might want to check out today's guest blogger at the Manuscript Mavens site.

Next week, we've got some fun stuff lined up.

Monday:
Day 6 in the All About Websites series

Tuesday:
Good Karma Tuesday and a super-fun poll in which you, yes you can vote on your very favorite potential titles for TATTF!

Wednesday:
Uhhh... Okay, I admit it. I don't plan my blog posts very far in advance. Stay tuned, and I'll surprise ya! =)

All About Web Sites: Day 5 of 6

The web site series continues:

* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

(REMINDER: I'm discussing for the first time ever, my real-life Creative Brief I send to all potential clients. This is proprietary information, so please don't copy anything I say without asking and/or providing credit.)

The next section on the Creative Brief questionnaire is
HOSTING & TECHNOLOGY.

Get out your pen and paper!

1. What is your target platform and browser? What screen resolution would your target audience like to see your web site and/or print media? What is the lowest common denominator of browser version you will target?

Have you ever visited a web site that looked like a tiny postage stamp in the center of your screen? How about a web site that made you scroll left-to-right in addition to up-and-down? This is where you consider your audience and design the technical specifications of your web site accordingly.

If you were targeting video game developers, for example, it would be safe to assume those visitors would have large screens with high resolution, fast internet connections, the latest browsers and every plug-in known to man. If you were targeting elderly retirees, on the other hand, it would be safe to assume a good chunk of those visitors would have dial-up connections, older computers, smaller monitors, and whatever browser came installed with their operating system.

For group A, maybe you decide on 1024x768 with the latest bells and whistles. For group B, maybe you decide on 800x600 with a straight HTML interface. (Your web developer can help you decide.)


2. Will your web site have a need for specific plug-ins or adaptive technologies? (Ex: Acrobat Reader, JavaScript, Secure SSL transactions, databases, etc) If so, how will they enhance the user experience? Please describe in detail.

This is where you say to your web developer either, "I want a basic site, so simple that people can browse my content from their cellphones." OR, "My site better have flash animation, scrolling submenu navigation, a database-driven fan database with password protected content, real-time credit card processing for the merchandise available in the online catalog, and a Java plug-in taking polls on what to name the hero in my next book."

(Obviously, there's a wide spread in between those two extremes. Make sure your web developer knows where you fall.)


3. Do you have a domain name in mind? If so, what? Is it registered? If so, where? If you already have an existing web site, please indicate current programming language(s) and type of database(s) used, as applicable.

Sometimes you contract a web developer to fix, update, add to, or redesign an existing web site. Other times, you may be starting from nothing.

No matter how close or far you are from launching a web site, the second you know what domain name you want, verify its availability and make the purchase. If you prefer, your web developer can do the actual procurement for you, but the key is to own the name you want before anyone else has a chance to register it.

If you already have a domain name, share that information with your web developer. Either you or your web developer will need to access the DNS information at the registrar in order to point the nameservers toward the appropriate hosting provider.

Also let her know whether the current site is in plain HTML, or whether it contains custom JavaScript, PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, JSP, Perl, .Net, etc. This is important because if you want your web developer to modify your web site, you'd better verify she has the know-how to do so!


4. Do you have Internet access at your business (or home office)? If so, is it high-speed or dial-up? If not, do you intend to procure Internet access in the near future?

This information will help the web developer to understand how you will be interacting with your web site. She'll want to know when and how often you'll be available to view the changes as she posts them. Often, the time necessary to complete a web project varies proportionately with the responsiveness and availability of the web site owner.

If you have a day job that prevents you from checking your email or web site until you return home, or if you only have Internet access while at work, this is something your web developer may need to know.


5. Do you have existing web hosting? If so, will you be keeping the same service provider or are you in need of a new hosting location?

If you already have a domain name and a hosting provider, give your web developer the corresponding login information for web control panel and FTP access, so she can alter the web site.

If your vision for your website contains functionality not provided by your current hosting provider or plan (ie, tracking features, integrated databases, secure certificates, upload capabilities, etc) then you will need to research an alternate provider. Your web developer can aid you with this task, provided she is aware of the technological parameters you plan to implement in your new site.


6. Whether or not you keep your existing web-hosting provider or procure a new one, please indicate server platform, capabilities, disk quota and hosting provider contact information below.

This is important for many reasons. Perhaps your web quota is 100mb, but the video files for your book commercials total 150. Obviously, there is a disconnect there, even without factoring in the disk space required for site images and the code itself.

Or perhaps you want to transfer your existing ASP web site to a Linux server, because Linux hosting is so much cheaper than Windows hosting. It is not as simple as moving the files from Point A to Point B, because ASP is a Windows-based programming language and will not work on Linux servers. The converse is true for other programming languages.

Also, any time you move files from one server to another, even if you keep the same language and the same server platform, many times scripts will need to be updated with the new file paths or DSNs or IPs or mailservers or any number of other details. Make sure your web developer is kept abreast of these items.


7. Do you intend to maintain the web site (i.e. content and site updates) internally? If so, does your staff need training to do this? Please indicate a contact person. Will your web site require administrative content-updating functionality?

In other words, will the web developer be providing web site maintenance and content updates or will you? You will need to come up with a solid plan.

Perhaps your site content will change once a month, and even then, only on the home page. In that case, perhaps you don't wish to be bothered with learning a programming language, and it's just as easy to email your web developer with the new changes. Determine in advance whether your web developer will be operating on a fixed-fee monthly retainer or a billable hourly rate.

Or perhaps your site will change frequently, with merchandise coming and going from an online catalog and a news ticker updating hourly and a Tip Of The Day scrolling across the home page. In this case, it may not make sense to bombard your web developer with emails requesting content changes.

You may wish to learn enough HTML to make your own updates. (And if so, tell your web developer in advance so she can design the pages with that in mind.) Or, perhaps you want your web developer to install or create an easy content management system, where you can type the new text into a text box and click a submit button to push those changes live. Decide well in advance, so the site can be created accordingly.

It is always much faster and much cheaper to develop a web site correctly the first time than to have to go back and redo whole chunks due to functionality changes after programming has begun.

YOUR TURN: Do you have a web site? If so, how did you choose your hosting provider? If not, do you at least own a domain name (or three)? In a perfect world, how would you prefer to have your web site content updates handled?

Book Addiction

My pal Ann Aguirre tagged me with a meme!

If you've been reading/lurking/snarking here for any length of time, you probably know that I try to keep this blog at least tangentially related to the writing, reading, or promoting of books. Annie hit me with a book meme, so of course I can't resist.

Thus:

Total Number of Books I Own

Oh, my. I have no idea. Maybe less than I used to,¹ maybe not. One sec while I go count...

...okay, I'm back. In the kitchen, I have about 20 cookbooks, if that counts, one of which was scrapbooked together by yours truly. The living room is chock full of scrapbooks of all kinds.

In the guest room, I have about 240 books in two tall bookcases, all of which are either in a foreign language or books on learning a foreign language. (Guest room is supposed to be travel themed, but I never did get around to printing out photos for the walls. *sigh*)

Guest bathroom has half a dozen Uncle John's Bathroom Readers (a big hit! My guests are always returning from the bathroom with comments like, "Did you know the secret ingredient in Dr. Pepper is prune juice?")

My office has about 30 books on craft or general writing life, another 30 research books pertaining to various aspects of Regency England, and 60 or so on marketing, international business, and multiple programming languages.

My bedroom has about 800 books, 99% of which are novels, approximately 80 of which are to be given away as prizes or whatnot, and at least 200 of which are still on the To Be Read shelves. Oh, and there's close to a dozen on the nightstand from the library. I am always checking out books I don't have time to read, renewing them, and then still not reading them. *sigh*


Last Book I Bought

I don't tend to buy many books this time of year since I come home from conference with a suitcase full every summer, but I have in fact made it to the bookstore a couple times. The most recent book I purchased was Unmasqued by my pal Collete Gale. Before that was Twilight by Stephenie Meyer.


Last Book I Read

Technically, Trevor & the Tooth Fairy. I've read it multiple times over the past few weeks, as I've been polishing it up to send to my agent.

Outside of that, the last book I read was Dedication by Janet Mullany, and the book I'm halfway through is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Next book I want to read is Specials by Scott Westerfeld. (Don't own it yet, though, so I may end up actually reading something off my TBR pile. *Gasp!*)

Five Books² That Mean a Lot to Me:

1. On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

I own all seven books in the Incarnations of Immortality series, but this one has always been my favorite. I loved the clever, unique twist on an old idea (old as Death, har har³) and how the Incarnations were ordinary people doing something extraordinary.

When I pitched the soon-to-be-renamed TATTF to an editor at the 2007 RWA National Conference, the first words out of his mouth were, "Read a lot of Piers Anthony as a child?" At first, I was flabbergasted by this question. TATTF is a fun, madcap romance between an apprentice tooth fairy and a no-nonsense paleo-anthropology professor. In what way did my story possibly resemble Piers Anthony?

It wasn't until later that I realized he hadn't meant in tone--he'd meant in concept, the ole unique twist on an old idea. Daisy wasn't an Incarnation of Immortality, she was a tooth fairy. Both are things we don't typically think of as jobs held by everyday people. So, thanks, Piers!


2. Once a Princess by Joanna Lindsey

Odd as it may sound, this book is far from my favorite of hers. The special place it holds in my heart is because Once a Princess was the very first romance novel I ever read. And it came about by happenstance. I was away from home. I wanted something to read. I wandered over to a shelf of books. I'd never heard of Joanna Lindsey, but there were several of hers on the shelf. I picked up the top one and wandered away to see what it was all about. Three hours later, I was back at the shelf to pick up the next one. And a new genre addiction was born.


3. Must Love Dragons by Stephanie Rowe

Shortly after I'd written TATTF, I went through a tough time where it seemed there was no chance of ever selling it because it crossed too many genres. Booksellers don't order books they don't know where to shelve. Publishing houses don't buy books they can't distribute. And agents don't represent books they can't sell. All of which is logical industry behavior, and left me in a sangria pitcher of depression. I was venting to the Manuscript Mavens, as is my wont, and one day my pal Darcy mailed me a care package containing the aforementioned book and a note that said something like, "Hey, crybaby. Stephanie is a cool chick who writes books like yours and she managed to get contracted for a four-book series without all the whining and moping you do.⁴ Read and see." So I did. And by golly, Darc was right. Stephanie wrote light hearted paranormal wacky romances with non-traditional non-human protagonists, just like I did. Yay! There was hope! So I ran out and bought Stephanie's entire backlist (including her chick lit, but not including her YA since at the time I didn't know she had another pen name) and spent the weekend reading. I have since met Stephanie, and she is in fact a cool chick (go buy her books!) and I'm thankful to Darc for pointing me in her direction.


4. It by Stephen King

Again, not my favoritest of his books (although I'd be hard pressed to pick just one) but the book that first introduced me to the genre. By the time I graduated from high school, I owned every single King book I could get my hands on. I'd even gone through a phase where I wanted to be a horror writer above all things. I would write these grisly, apocalyptic short stories (which in no way resembled Stephen King's work) and foist them upon my dad, hovering over his shoulder and saying, "Did it scare you? Did it?" no doubt quite annoyingly. The best thing that taught me was probably to use my imagination. I hadn't read anything like the apocalyptic short stories I wrote, before or since. Stephen King thinks outside the box. (As does Dean Koontz, another favorite.)

5. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst

Love this book. Had it when I was a wee little munchkin, read it a zillion times to children over the years, own it today in Spanish. Still giggle and empathize with poor Alexander--great book. Read it to a child near you. (Another good one to read to kids is The Monster At The End Of This Book, Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover.) (Yes, that's the whole title. Oh, and Fox in Socks by Dr. Seuss is a good one, too. I've got the tweedle beetle section down by heart. *g)

YOUR TURN: Spill! How many books do you have? What's the last one you bought, and the last one you read? Which books mean the most to you? If you like memes and want to do this one on your blog, please link to yourself in the comments to let me know so I come visit your blog!

¹As a child, I asked for books every holiday, and spent any allowance money etc on yet more books. On my 18th birthday, a house fire destroyed everything I owned, leaving me literally with just the clothes I was wearing. I lost all my photographs, all my artwork and handwritten stories/poems, and of course all my books. That experience changed my life in many ways (I didn't write again for almost a decade) but I never got over that love of books.

²Two books on Annie's list---Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams---mean a lot to me too.

I have Wild Things memorized thanks to the countless times I've read it to various children over the years. I even own it in Spanish.

Books like Hitchhiker's Guide are probably responsible for a good chunk of my bent sense of humor. When I discovered my younger brothers weren't readers (Gasp!) I loaned the youngest the first book. He loved it, passed it to the second youngest, and I ended up loaning them the entire series, which travelled around a good dozen of their cronies. The books came back worn and well-read, but I couldn't have been happier. That's what books are for!

³Main character in this book would be Death.

⁴Er, paraphrased. I read between the lines. *g

All About Web Sites: Day 4 of 6

First, it's Good Karma Tuesday! Today's winner, randomly chosen from the list of everyone who commented on any given post over the past week, is: SOPHISTICATED WRITER. Please email me your address, and I will send you a prize!

Now, on with the web site series:

* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

(REMINDER: I'm discussing for the first time ever, my real-life Creative Brief I send to all potential clients. This is proprietary information, so please don't copy anything I say without asking and/or providing credit.)

The next section on the Creative Brief questionnaire is
AESTHETICS & USABILITY.

Get out your pen and paper!

Ideally, at this point you have a fair idea of the fonts, colors, and general layout. You know whether or not you have a logo and/or slogan and you've identified the key features to be present on every page, including the navigation.

Before actually beginning to create your site, however, it's a good idea to take a look at what else is already out there.


1. List any URL(s) of web sites you find compelling or persuasive. Describe what you find most appealing about these web sites.

The first list you make is of web sites who get it right.

This does not mean competitors--it means successful web sites in general. Perhaps your list contains eBay, YouTube and Amazon. Or maybe your list contains Wikipedia, Facebook, and Meetup. This should be specific to you, sites you find compelling.

Ask yourself, from which websites did you actually use the contact form or purchase a product or sign up for a newsletter? Whose web site was attractive? Whose was easy to navigate? Whose has the best content? Whose did you visit more than once? Whose did you bookmark or forward to a friend?

Once you have this list, analyze what about those sites made them work for you, and what made you act, whether by bookmarking and forwarding or by using shopping carts and interactive forms. If it was the design, what about the design? If the layout, what about the layout? If the content, what about the content? Etc. (Please share examples in the comments!)


2. List any URL(s) of web sites you find displeasing or bothersome. Describe what you find most displeasing about these web sites.

This list is of web sites who get it wrong.

Again, this does not mean competitors--it means horrendous web sites in general. Perhaps this list includes that map site you used once and never again, or that game site that never loaded properly, or that free email site with all the banner ads, or that web portal with more popups than actual content, or that online catalog whose shopping cart system never did work right.

Ask yourself, what made you run away screaming? Why did you never return? Was it the colors? Legibility? Download time? Layout? Navigation? Content? Tone? Distracting images? Too many ads? Actual page errors? Broken links? If you tried to interact with the web site and couldn't, what went wrong?

Once you have this list, analyze what made the site too much of a hassle to bother with. If it was the interface, what about the interface? If it was impossible to find what you were looking for, which elements should've been in plain view on the home page? If it was too busy or cluttered, which elements could've been removed altogether? Etc. (Please share examples in the comments!)



3. List URL(s) of competitors’ web sites and explain what you like or dislike about their overall web sites.

Ah ha! This is the list where you finally compare other authors' web sites. You now know what elements tend to work or not work, and you can look at their sites objectively.

Because of this, you can also keep an eye out for industry related things they do--or don't do--that you may wish to implement on your site. Do they have an awesome, easy-to-play book video right on their home page? Maybe you want to put yours there, too. Or is their video a giant monster, taking up the whole screen as well as five long minutes to download? Maybe you don't want yours on your home page.

Look at where other authors place some of the elements you've decided to include in your web site. Are the elements prominent or hidden? What will make your layout easier for your readers, your content more relevant, your navigation more intuitive? (Please share ideas in the comments!)


4. List your key competition. How does your product/brand differentiate itself from competitors?

First, a giant disclaimer to say I personally believe that in our industry, unlike almost any other, we do not have competitors in the truest sense of the word.

If you're car shopping, you're as unlikely to buy an Aston Martin and an F150 as you are to drop by the convenience store for a bottle of Coke and a Pepsi.

If you're browsing for books on the other hand, as a reader you are actually more likely to walk out with the latest King, Koontz, Lumley and Barker, than you are to just buy one book. (Or Kleypas, Quinn, Hoyt and Balogh. Or Crusie, Rowe, Davidson and Evanovich. Whatever.)

If you write mysteries, for example, Mary Higgins Clark is not your arch nemesis. Every new reader she entices to your genre is one more reader with the potential to fall in love with your books. Every debut author, every New York Times bestseller, every news release or billboard ad or book signing or podcast interview, all help to increase the size of the market.

This is a Very Good Thing. We are in this together and should concentrate on helping each other. (Plus, you will be indirectly helping yourself. Mua ha haa!! *g)

That said, even if you do write mysteries, you do not want your web site to look exactly like Mary Higgins Clark's. Perhaps fans of A Cry in the Night would love to read your books too, but you still need to differentiate yourself to show them why.

You want them to recognize your brand, to add your name to their subconscious auto-buy list of favorite authors.

Even if you have mediocre (or no) sales, you don't have to have a mediocre web site. Make yours rock!

YOUR TURN: Take a look at your list. Please share a few ideas of things that can go right on a web site and things that can go terribly wrong. Have you seen excellent or frightening examples of color usage, fonts, images, advertisements, content, layouts, navigation, interactive sections, registration forms, downloads, etc? What makes it bomb? What makes it work?