While having a website in the first place isn’t necessary to get work as a writer, it’s something to consider.
If you do it, however, you should force it to slavishly serve your purpose. Your purpose is to provide potential markets (publishers) with a little more information about you to improve the chance of establishing a working relationship.
What It Looks Like
Website designers are ubiquitous these days, and html skill is not hard to come by. However common it might be, it’s not a skill I have, so I’m not going to discuss the back end or design concepts except in the most general of terms. My idea of information technology is "use a template."
Ideally, your domain name should be a memorable name. Your name, for example, or a brief phrase. Mine, for example, is www.lloydwrites.com. While it’s not always true, it’s much easier to remember than lloydisplayingcivagaininsteadofgettinganyworkdone.com.
Graphics should emphasize the content, not distract from it. You’re a writer. Pictures are great for artists. Unless you’re one of those enviable creatures skilled enough to do both commercially, limit the images. Superfluous graphics take the emphasis away from the writing.
What It Has
Your website should feature a graphic-intensive version of information similar to what you send with a book proposal, except more generic in nature.
In the book proposal, you usually start with a hook, and then flow into substance. What are you writing about? On your website, describe what you write about. Are you best at fiction? Do you favor a genre? Are you a fluff or a crunch person?
In the proposal, you usually follow this initial paragraph with information about why your offering should appeal to your market. Your website should highlight what makes you a useable writer. Do you always meet your deadlines? Are you available for running games at major conventions? Are you extremely prodigious? If you can write 5,000 words per day of useable material, mention that.
You might even ask people you’ve worked with for an endorsement on your website. Known publishers who offer positive comments on your work experience encourage other publishers to work with you.
The next section of a book proposal establishes your credentials and explains why you should be the person to write this material. On your website, this section should contain your publication credits. You could just list the credits. The page carries more weight, however, if you add positive reviews, awards, graphics, and sales information (if you have that information and are allowed to share).
In the same section list any relevant education, such as a degree in English or Literature. Mention any work experience in publishing, journalism or any other appropriate field. The number of years you have been gaming, while it might actually have some relevance, is less impressive.
Some publishers prefer to see examples of previous writing with your proposal. In this area, our electronic cognate shines—you can store nearly infinite text on your server space. You can segment your writing samples however you like, but if you offer a substantial amount of material, you should find some method of organizing it. Separate it by genre, by purpose, by game setting, or however you like that’s simple to navigate and clearly identified.
You usually wrap up the text of your proposal with your hard information: word count and deadline. Your website should feature your availability for work, including your backlog if you currently have work in progress.
Finally, you sign your proposal and include contact information. Your website should be no different: give an e-mail link, preferably in several prominent places. You don’t need to include a mailing address or phone number, since it’s nearly certain that anyone visiting your website has access to e-mail.
What You Do With It
A website that nobody sees doesn’t help. You have to encourage the right people to visit.
Keywords, which are usually one of the simplest methods of generating traffic, don’t help because their main purpose is to increase your search engine ranking. Publishers don’t search for your website. Publishing, even in the RPG market, is a buyer’s market. Publishers are too busy publishing to have to search for new talent.
That said, some publishers will go to your website if you have one, if they first make contact with you through the Internet (and, less likely, if they meet you in person). It helps them develop some sort of overall image of who you are and what you can do. The lack of a website is not a strike against you. It’s more of a cipher; if you don’t have a website, the publisher doesn’t use your website content in their decision-making.
Google adwords are too expensive. In fact, you’ll find that unless you’re a publisher and selling directly from your site, you won’t find any form of paid advertisement that yields any return by directing traffic to your website. Quality is better than quantity.
Exchanging links or having your site linked on websites provides some random visits. It rarely provides meaningful visits. If publishers don’t have a lot of time for searching for writer websites, they have far less for browsing endlessly from one link to another.
A simple signature line in your e-mails and message board signatures will be the best way to share your website. If you set up accounts specifically to promote your writing—including your real name or a name related to what you do—you’ll find that automatically including a link to your site in business and gaming-related discussions yields the best results in terms of who visits and the impact these people have on your writing.
Where It Sits on the Totem Pole
Things that take priority over website development or marketing:
- Writing useable material
- Writing useable material for the right publisher
- Performing market research to do the above
- Performing game/historical/scientific research to do the above
- Pitching your proposal or finished work to a publisher
- Editing or revising work as required by your publisher
- Playtesting adventures or rule material
The point is that having or not having a website will not establish or destroy your freelance writing career. I have seen a writer post once on a message board, mention credits outside of the industry, and receive offers for work from three publishers that evening. Whether he was in a position to capitalize on those offers is solely dependent on his ability to write game material, not any website he did or didn’t have.
