This morning, I was updating the blog with recent award winners in the children’s and young adult categories and what I came across surprised me. These days, everyone has a website, or so it seems, but the more popular the writer, the more elaborate the website. We often have people come into the library and ask about books in a series, and the best way to see what’s next or what they might have missed is to check out an author’s website. And our patrons are often surprised at how much you can learn about the books and the author themselves, just by typing someone’s name into Google.
So today, when I started the award list, I decided to provide links to each of the authors websites and found something interesting. Out of the six books that I listed, five of the authors had websites which were interesting, fun to look at and easy to maneuver. The fifth author didn’t even have a website (because it was a non-fiction book?), which in my opinion, really leaves her out in the cold. People want to know about their favourite authors. They want to connect with them, and websites are a great way to do so. Plus, many of these authors not only provide information about themselves and their books, they often have great links to other sites and many times, they provide useful information to new authors who might not know how to sell that fabulous book they’ve just written.
Rebecca Stead, When You Reach Me
These are just examples of great sites that I visited this morning, but you might want to try your hand at any of your favourite authors. Just type the name into Google and look for a link near the top of the list that includes the author’s name. That’s often the one written by the author themselves. And sometimes, even though they have a website, they might also have a blog, where you can read updates almost daily into their lives. Try it! You might learn something great!
Tales From An Open Book 