Website

Saving $750 to $800 by building my own website …

When you’re contemplating going indie, you need to save money. It’s that simple. Because you may not want to, and many people likely don’t, but you will need to spend money if you realistically want to sell books.

You need to get your manuscript edited, and not by family and friends. You need an objective pair of eyes to scour your manuscript. And if the editor’s good, he or she will not hold back and will let you know what needs fixing.

Then there’s the cover art. That’s the second most important aspect of putting out your own work. At least I think it is, and I’ve never done it before. But after the story, you need something professional to go up against the Big 5 and the reputable (somewhat big) independent publishers, and there are a few that rival the Big 5.

A good cover, in my humble opinion (and I could be wrong and will gladly admit that I am), will cost a few thousand dollars, and that’s simply a guess on my part based on what I’ve seen out there.

Take Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes:

Version 1.0.0

Did you know Travis self-published his book first, not expecting his cozy fantasy to explode the way it did? Well, he did, and I recommend everyone who’s thinking of going full indie to read the wonderful chronicle of his journey. He is a strong advocate of ensuring a self-published book looks as close to a traditionally published one as possible. He doesn’t say how much he spent on his cover (and it’s a great one), but he implies it was not cheap.

Now, if you can’t afford a super-expensive cover, that’s fine. I get it. This is reality. We have more pressing purchases than a flashy cover, which doesn’t guarantee you’ll sell anything. At the same time, anyone can spot a bad self-pubbed book cover. That isn’t to be mean, it’s simply the truth.

If I go independent, I want to give myself the best possible chance to succeed, knowing what I am up against (professional book publishers) and that millions of books from trad/indie authors are released a year.

That brings me to my website. I’m not sure what I paid in 2013 to get a professional website made, but I’m guessing it was at least $500, and I didn’t mind paying it. I knew nothing about code and didn’t want the hassle. And I was pleased with the outcome. I wasn’t looking for anything flashy, just a logical landing spot. I’ll keep that landing page for a little while longer until I transfer to the WordPress site I’m building. It won’t look much different than my current one. The difference is that I spent roughly $150 to go it alone (paying for the WordPress subscription that provides access to all the features). I was given quotes of $750 to $800 for SquareSpace packages from professionals. I found those quotes fair, honestly. I’d received ones in the $2,000 range.

And I’m enjoying the process of learning it as I go. Does it look like some super-snazzy author website? Not right now. But it gets better-looking every day as I figure things out. The money I’m saving will absolutely go toward a cover if I go that route. And to me, that’s a worthwhile tradeoff. (I can always hire a professional if need be to help with the bells and whistles.)

Every dollar counts.

And I haven’t even gotten to marketing yet. Sheesh.

Did you create your own author website? Asking for a friend …

Every author needs a website. I’ve had one since 2014, and based on what people I contacted on Reedsy said, it apparently dates back to the Stone Age.

So, new book or not, I need to update my site. The lady I hired more than 13 years ago was nice as can be. She built the website from scratch and it’s currently hosted on HostGator. And when I go to review the code, I see things like this:

HTML <<44 smfjoeodm xxxxx fdsoirms.fne>>

<tm> PL ^##skjed <crush> uuz # TML.

And there are HUNDREDS of those rows! I have no idea what any of that is, as I’ve never learned to code. And I hope I never have to. I could go back to the designer, but that would cost more. That’s fine. Or, I could hire someone to build a new website. I’ve gotten quotes on Reedsy ranging from $750 to $800, which I find reasonable. And I’ve gotten ones for thousands of dollars.

If you get to Squarespace, it’s quite intuitive. Meaning, in theory, I could build my own website without knowing any code.

I’ll have to renew HostGator in March, which will cost money. Or I could sign up with Squarespace and take the plunge (and still spend money, but it’s far less than $800).

I don’t need anything fancy. I just want something functional that looks nice and professional. I don’t need animations with dragons swooping across the screen. And if you’ve ever thought about going indie, you’ll need not just a good book cover, but a great one. That will cost over $1,000, likely more. (I got a quote for $10,000!) I won’t spend that much, but I will certainly invest in a great book cover because, let’s face it, some indie book covers look unprofessional. And this isn’t a knock on any author or artist. People choose what they can reasonably afford and what they think looks good on them. Heck, I had small presses (that are no longer in business) make excellent covers and, frankly, cringy ones. It’s the way it is.

But if you’re going indie, you want the most professional-looking product possible, both inside and out. That will cost thousands of dollars. Can it be cheaper? Sure. But it won’t look good. You and I both know it.

So, if creating my own website can save me money that can go toward a cover (I’ve already had it professionally edited, and that was pricey but worth it), I figure, why not try it? If I screw up, I can always go back to the professionals I originally contacted and see if they’ll take me on.

So, I’m curious. Did you build your own site?