Day 12 - Model Websites

Before I jump into the post itself, I want to report that I did write yesterday. I told my wife I would be to bed with her in just a minute, and ended up closing the computer 20 minutes later. I ended up writing a page and a half rather than a sentence.

This morning I also wrote before church. I know some don't write on Sunday, and I respect that. But writing is therapeutic for me. I feel better having done it, having placed some the thoughts swimming in my head down onto the (electronic) paper. I wrote another full page, or 294 words. And I referenced the classic "mamby-pamby land" Geico commercial. It was too perfect not to! Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhlWddAXSRA to check it out if you haven't seen it.

Something that has been on my mind today has been my need to expand my media presence sometime in the next six months. When I get to 100 followers on the blog, I'll start tweeting. It should be known, I am deathly afraid of that. I hate texting, love email, blogs, etc. I don't want to particularly get into it. I also know I am running a business alongside my writing, and one isn't going anywhere without the other, so I will do it.

The other aspect of media presence I've been reflecting on is a personal website. It's too early for it yet, but I've been keeping an eye out for what I do and don't like. Today I came across what I think is the best example of an author website I have seen so far: http://www.orullian.com/.

It is the website of Peter Orullian. His first large novel just came out last month, and he did everything right. He created a large web presence. His website is clean. It's organized. The text is easy on the eyes. It has a rotating highlights banner. It has a brilliant world map. And it has a new innovation that I think will take the authoring world by storm in terms of marketing: Webisodes set in your book world.

Now, many of us have heard of or seen "webisodes" for TV. These are mini-episodes that are web exclusive and flesh out a world or tell a short story. We also know how big book trailers have become in just the past three years. Peter has combined them. He does have an official book trailer, but he didn't stop there. He created a short series of stories centering around one side event in his fantasy world, told from various perspectives, ala Vantage Point. It's read brilliantly, has excellent music accompanying it, and beautiful artwork. Each one is about 4-5 minutes in length, and are both self-contained as well as building on each other.

The brilliant part, aside from the execution, is that they were released BEFORE his first book. He hooked people in to his brand new world a few minutes at a time and created buzz before the book was even released! And, if you pick up the book, you may feel like you are "in the know" versus the average reader because you already know what parts of the world are. You already know some flavor information about some of the characters that others don't. I'll say it again: This man is brilliant and is one to watch.

Do yourself a favor, hop over to his website, and check it all out.

One other shout out, for the thriller genre though: http://www.vinceflynn.com/. Vince Flynn is a mega-star thriller writer. His website is also excellent for his audience.