In the beginning…

Establishing an online platform is important and this includes a website and social media presence, along with being involved on some currently popular sites like Goodreads and BookBub. We consider the hub of of your online identity to be your author website, and for that, we’d love to help. Peruse the questions below and feel free to email if you have more questions!

A: When I first started xuni.com in 1998, there weren’t too many of us who specialized in authors. Now there are many author website designers, so you have a lot of choices and should be able to find the perfect fit. Having a professional-looking website says so much about the seriousness of your writing.  Our best advice is to look at a lot of author sites to see what appeals to you, and then contact the designers of those you like best. You should work with a company which works with authors regularly.  Other companies may design great sites, but they don’t know specifically what an author needs. Author website designers do. Here’s a quick list of what to look for in a designer:

1. Go with a professional author website designer.
2. Make sure their style fits what you have in mind.
3. Have them commit to a time frame as to when the site will be LIVE (we’ve heard many horror stories about designers who start but don’t finish).
4. Find out how long they normally take to do edits (our normal time frame for edits is 24 to 48 hours and sooner if needed).
5. Get the price upfront.
6. Email some of their other clients to see how they like working with them.
7. Make sure you feel a connection to them—it will be a long-term relationship and you want someone you can trust and relate to.
8. Most important: it should be a fun process and the final site should be exactly what you had in mind. There is nothing we like better than to show a client a design and have them tell us we “got them.” Love that!

Q: Why would you choose xuni.com?

A: Design style… We specialize in designing sharp, well-organized, professional sites that fit the author’s writing style and personality.  While other author website designers do great work, much of it has a very similar feel.  Our site designs are created to specifically fit the author and their work, which makes both us—and you—unique!

Vision… The difference in working with us is two-fold: personal, one-on-one service and our specialty, which is making the website fit the author’s style. We work with you to create exactly what you want, and if you don’t know what you want, we help you figure it out. We start the process by having you fill out a detailed questionnaire, which helps shape our work together. We’ve done well over 300 websites and are full of ideas on what kind of information works well and how to organize it.

Customer service… Being very responsive is probably what we’re best known for.  We respond to email within 24 to 48 hours, often within just a few. Need something done in a huge hurry? We can almost always oblige you. What can we say? We really love what we do, and pleasing the client is our number one priority.

Q: Why do you need a website anyway?

A: It’s pretty simple, actually: so people can find out more about you and your books in the hope that it makes them buy more.  If you put your domain on your book jacket, people are likely to look up your site to see what else you’ve written. Or if people see your book in a bookstore, they may go home and look up your site to find out about your books. And of course since so much is bought online these days, you want to have a website “home” … your own place for people to find out about you and your books. These days, a website is like a business card—it’s expected, and is often someone’s first impression of you.

And if you’re a yet-unpublished author, having a website is a way to show potential agents and editors that you’re serious about becoming published. Or if you plan to self-publish and you’re active on social networking, it’s important to have a place you can link to where people can find out more about you and your writing.

Q: What about social networking?

A: The truth is that every author should do at least a little of this… your publishers, and readers, will want you to.  So even if you’re not social, you might want to try to force yourself to be at least a little bit more so, as it’s a great way to meet both readers and fellow authors (always a great idea). Readers want to connect with authors, and not just to hear about their new books, but to find out about who they really are, what they like, etc. Our best advice would be to think about which social media your target audience hangs out on and then choose one or two (Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or whatever the next new cool thing will be) that you really like and have fun with it.

Q: What’s up with author branding?

A: It’s important to have a clear perception of you and your writing, and one of the best ways to do that is through building your author identity… your brand. How do you want potential readers to perceive you and your books? Funny, dark, atmospheric, romantic? That’s the first thing you have to figure out.  Once that’s determined, we design the website, the hub of your online identity, to fit that. It’s all about the content, the colors, the imagery… viewers should be able to get an idea of your brand as soon as they visit your website, which is why we’ve always loved designing sites that truly match the author and their work.  And consistency across platforms is important, so we support author branding by creating print and online ads, social media designs, custom newsletters and other promotional materials such as bookmarks and business cards.

Q: Should unpublished authors have a website?

A: While much of our work is with published authors, we take on a lot of clients who are either publishing their own work or are still looking to be published through traditional publishing. Having a professional website shows agents and editors that you’re serious about not only writing, but your willingness to market your work.  It’s also a good place to showcase some of your writing and to connect with readers.  Not to mention that the longer your domain is online, the higher your Google ranking.

Q: What costs are involved in having a website?

A: There are four main costs associated with having a website: domain, hosting, site development and maintenance.

Domain: This is the address or URL of your site, such as xuni.com or in the case of many authors, yourname.com. You can buy it from many domain registrars around the web such as GoDaddy or NetSol.  The fee is paid to the registrar upfront for anywhere from one to nine years. If yourname.com is taken we usually suggest yournamebooks.com or yournameauthor.com. And if you’re thinking about using us and don’t want to deal with registering it yourself, we’d be happy to register it for you.

Hosting: Where you’re hosted is where your site lives. You pay a monthly (or yearly) fee for a server to host your domain.  Most of our clients are hosted on our managed server.

Site development: Getting a website designed and built will of course be your biggest cost.  Email me for details.

Maintenance: Once your site is complete and online, we charge for edits when you ask us to do something, and we only bill quarterly.