Your Novel Doesn't Sell? You Can Change That. (Part Five)

This is Part Five of my series on what you can do if your novel isn't selling.

E) Get a dot-com website (not dot-net or dot-biz, etc.) that uses your author name as its domain name. If your name is not available in the dot-com format, use your name with the addition of the word "books" or "author" or something similar (i.e., johndoethrillers .com). If people hear about your book, one of the first things they do will be to Google your name to find your website. If you can't get a dot-com domain using your name in some fashion, consider writing your book under a pseudonym that is available in the dot-com format. (Note that this may change in the future, and there are now a few successful authors who are only using Facebook. But they are a tiny minority. For the foreseeable future, you need a dot-com website as the hub that asks for readers to contact you (from which you can begin building your email list), directs readers to your blog if you have one, your social media pages, and to your books' pages on Amazon. Note the use of plural "books" instead of singular. You are writing more books, right?

A website can be expensive, but it need not be. I took a cheap website design class at the local community college and did my own website. I pay Godaddy for domain hosting for several years at a time at a very cheap rate. And in the beginning, when I got confused, I visited the website teacher at the community college for occasional help and advice.

Stay tuned for Part Six...