Digs. Get it?! Holes in the ground! Silos! Ah, nevermind.*
It’s a brand spanking new website, but it should feel familiar enough. The background features artwork supplied by James Akers in our template competition. If anyone wants to showcase their stuff, feel free to send it along. And check out James’s website to get in touch with him. The dude has mad skills.
Everything else is in its normal place. The coffee mug now features a Jolly Roger. The old button was installed when a handful of readers complained my ebooks were too cheap. It soon became a spot for people who pirate my books to salve their consciences. I’ve been dying to update it into something that made more sense, and I think this works.
The genius behind this transition is Tim Grahl of Out:Think, who approached me some time ago to see if he could help. He had read about my system of taking orders and signing books (which is too convoluted and crazy to go into here) and said he could help. Tim works with authors to streamline their processes and help them sell more books. This is partly by making sure they spend more time writing, partly by helping them build their mailing lists, and also through website design and marketing tips.
Tim is seriously changing my life. If you’re a writer, I highly recommend going to his website and signing up for his newsletter. I’m not saying this as a favor to him, I’m saying it as a favor to you. His recommendations of little programs to install on my computer to keep me organized and help me respond to emails and PR requests are game-changers.
If you click around, you’ll see the site gives you the ability to buy ebooks online from Amazon, get signed copies from me, or get DRM-free ebooks directly, all a lot cleaner than before and just as secure. And all from one drop-down box. He integrated my word count feature, gave me more control over the navigation bar (which now features a fan corner), and kept it all in WordPress, so I know how to write posts and update things on the back end. It looks pretty and is easy to use.
It might take me a little while to get the signed books flowing again, just so you’re warned. I have some things to look into there. I’m going to play around with home pickup, as going to the post office was killing me. UPS has worked the past few weeks, but I feel bad about the extra shipping costs to you all. It was three times as much. I’ll update more about that later. For now, enjoy the new site, and I’ll try to keep the content coming. More writing and publishing tips soon, as I’ve had some requests for those. And more about DUST, which is getting close and closer to a finished rough draft. Exciting times!
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*Lisa: I know nevermind isn’t a real word, but it should be. And I’m doing my part by adding to popular usage. I believe, in forty or fifty years, this will no longer be a typo. Get on the right side of history, girlfriend!
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