Today it struck me that I have a book coming out next month (yay!) and I haven’t revamped my website since 2013. Published writers tend to have more professional-looking websites, no? The landing page is usually a static page with nice pictures of their novels and the links to buy them. I was convinced for around two hours that I simply had to change the look of my website.
And then I read this piece by Sofia Samatar and changed my mind. I mean, I might change it again, but I think my website is just fine the way it is. If you want my book, you should totally pre-order it here. Now that we have that out of the way, this is why I use social media – to be social. My blog is a way for people to find out more about me and my work, if they want to. And for me to talk about stuff. That’s all.
So instead of a shiny new website, I am going to leave you with an old poem I wrote a while ago. Considering the season, it seems appropriate.
Goodbye December
Not even the snowflakes are real
They melt and leave
Your eyelashes untouched.
Nights freeze in anticipation
But the days roll mechanically
Making a movie of us
What’s to feel?
The only certainty
Is that you loved and now you don’t
The minutes gather in clouds
Pick up your skirt, take my hand
We’ll run before the storm.
Rati Mehrotra 
That’s what sidebars and pages are for. You stick the pertinent details, and the cover, into a widget, make sure it shows up on every page, and away you go.
I think all that kerfuffle about the ‘look’ of a website/blog is from the beginnings of the interwebz, and maybe it works for some people who feel they must change with every breeze that blows through or they might miss out on something … but of all the blogs and author websites I visit, the ones that catch my attention are the ones with a simple design, with logical navigation (no more than two steps at the most) to whatever I want to find.
And as for static landing pages my visceral response is, NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!11, and my more objective response is, they’re not necessary. (if the author or web-person has done her job. 🙂
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I think I’m just lazy. 🙂 I’ve stuck a widget there, and I’m done.
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