There’s people (like me) whose primary purpose is to, as quickly and efficiently as possible, keep up to date on new books and fill holes in their collection, any extraneous fluff that gets in their way is mostly an irritant, or a “spoiler” for the books themselves. These “impatient buyers” probably already know they want to buy from you, they just want to find out that there’s something for them to buy in the first place, and get on with it so they can start reading… NOW!

There’s people who are “undecided buyers”, maybe they’ve read a book by you before and are looking to see if you’ve done “more of the same” or maybe they found out about you some other way: they don’t know what books you have, and they also don’t know if they want to buy something. Those people you need to convince that you’re the right author for them… the longer you take to do that then the more likely they are to give up. They want extracts, they want to be pointed at a “good starting point” if you’ve got 30 zillion books in print, they might find “extra materials” interesting or they might find it confusing (because they don’t know the source material.) These are the people who need the hard sell.

Then there’s the “just can’t get enough” fans, these are the people who like the “impatient buyers” probably own everything you’ve ever written and will buy anything new you write, but they want MORE, they want photographs of your hand-written manuscript, they want spoilers, they want updates every 30 seconds on the new novel, they’ll hang out on your forums and give you a real sense of community, they’ll comiserate with you when you’re ill and can’t write for a few days, and so on. For these people, anything extra you can give is a reward for their loyalty and they’ll love you for having a rich website with as much background info as you can manage (while holding down your day-job of actually writing the next book…) For them, they’ll visit the site wanting to know if there’s anything new on the site as much as for news about your books.

I think most people are probably some combination of these three types, but you can see, each has their own needs and purpose when they visit your website, and to serve each of them well you probably need to gently guide them in different directions from the moment they arrive at your website with clearly labelled sections targeted to their needs even if it’s just as simple as sections labelled “Latest Book News”, “New to my Books?” and “Community/Fan News”.

Hope this is of some help.

Since I don’t live in an English-speaking country, I can’t just walk into a bookstore or library to browse (I get all my English books from amazon). I usually don’t buy books without having read an excerpt first, and on the few occasions that I did I was disappointed more often than not and swore to never again trust reviews.

Reviews tell me nothing about the book. Only I can tell (from the first 5-10 pages) if I might enjoy the book.

Even if it is one of my favorite authors, an excerpt can only help. A short while back, one of my favorite authors wrote a four-part series I couldn’t get into, so I was both overjoyed and skeptical when I saw she had a new book out. The excerpt along with the jacket blurb at amazon convinced me to buy it, and I am glad I did because it is the best fantasy novel I’ve read in a long while and I can’t wait for the second part. (Yes, I am talking about Flesh and Spirit, and Breath and Bone. ;o)

I like to discover new authors by browsing first pages. It’s really the only thing that can persuade me to buy a book.

Cheers,

Anya

What I look for in an author’s website:
Up-to-date information - There are few things as irritating as going to an author’s website to find it hasn’t been updated in 3 years and has no mention of their latest 2 books.
Excerpts - As others have said, from the start of a book and more than just one chapter. Even if I’m already a fan, I often find myself posting a link to an excerpt.
Upcoming Books - If I like an author, and know everything there is to know about the books, it’s updates on the status of the next book that will keep me coming back to the website.
Bibliography - Sam Graham described what I look for in a bibliography perfectly.
World Background - Maps! I love maps. Big huge jpegs you can zoom in on. Katharine Kerr’s List of Incarnations is another example of why I go back to an author’s website. Glossaries in the back of a book are nice, but so much nicer on a website when you can use CTRL+F. Ooh, family trees. I do love a good family tree.
Promotional Fun - Desktop wallpapers of bookcovers, screensavers of the same, crests/coats of arms, icons, banners…. yes, I know, it’s not quite as “academic” as an essay on the practicalities of FTL travel, but I’ve got the Lirael bookjacket as my wallpaper right now. Lois McMaster Bujold’s quote generator is also addictive.

Things that turn me off an author’s website:
Rudeness - I have had similar reactions to Laurie’s to some author’s websites. While not verbally abusing your customers may seem obvious, I thought I’d better mention it.
Bad Design - I love the content at George RR Martin’s website, but the layout drives me up the wall. Frames are the tool of the devil. Please bear in mind as well that your website could be being read by someone with a sight disability. Or on dial-up. Which should also count as a disability.
Spoilers - Please try to avoid unmarked spoilers. If people are coming to your site to find out how many books are in the series, they don’t want to see an explanation of why you killed off the favourite supporting character plastered on the Home page. Again, sounds obvious, but it’s happened to me.
Out-of-date information - Yes, I know I mentioned it before, but it’s really annoying.

Blogs:
Blogs are tricky. Neil Gaiman’s blog keeps me going back to his website every day, and Wil Wheaton’s has persuaded me to buy his books. But if it’s not updated, or is only updated with cat pictures and links to Amazon, I would prefer a link to this kind of communal blog. It’s a terribly clever idea. I found it through Katharine Kerr’s site and have found a lot of authors through it.

Right, that’s more like $2 than 2cents, but I hope it helps.

1. Bibliography, absolutely the single most important aspect of an author’s site for me, if they have nothing else they should have this done right:

- It should have each book.
- It should have cover images of each edition in each country.
- If different countries have different titles, it should say what the original title was so we don’t end up buying some expensive import thinking it’s new when we already have it under another name.
- Likewise if there’s an omnibus it should clearly state what the original books were since so many don’t even on the covers.
- It should be grouped by series and at the least have a description of the series as a whole at the head of each section.
- Publication date is useful but not (to me) essential.
- Links to somewhere to buy it seldom hurt, but I’m perfectly able to cut-n-paste the title into an Amazon search box, and if I’m looking to buy I probably already have it open in another window.

2. News section - distinct from a general blog, there needs to be a news section relating to just professional stuff like new books coming out - I may not like your personal musings on life in your blog, but still be interested in your books, so having the two distinct is important.

3. RSS feed - mandatory if you want me to read your news or blog. Sorry to bust your ego but, important as reading is to my life, no-one is important enough for me to visit their site every day on the off chance they’ve posted something new. And if I don’t do it daily I don’t remember. I do however have a whole bunch of RSS subscriptions to authors who have a feed, and then whenever they update I read it.

4. Publication pipeline - partly news, partly bibliography, letting us know which parts of the world are getting which book in what format when… ie “The Randomly Titled Book” is being published in trade paperback in the UK by Almost As Random Publisher on 17th February 2008.

5. Current project(s) info - I like to know what to expect next from my fave authors and some vague idea of how long I have to wait, sure it’s not a precise art and it can be out of the control of the author (and not entirely relevent if international publication dates are way out of sync) but “about six months” makes me a lot more excited than “about eighteen months”.

6. Extracts - if I don’t know you as an author then the opening chapter can be a big help - if I don’t know by the end of that if I like the style then I’m obviously not that fussed. If you’re an author I like though I won’t visit the extracts section since I’ll prefer to read it in the book rather than on screen - in that case a description is best for me. Preferably one with more relevence than the back-cover blurb usually has.

Not so important stuff to me, least-interesting last:

1. Blog - can be a great way to keep “in touch with the fanbase”, but honestly most authors I like for their stories, not their life. Writing interestingly about mundane life isn’t the same skillset as writing interestingly about sci-fi or fantasy; that said there’s a few I do read. CJ Cherryh’s blog is one of my regular reads (despite my earlier comments about not having RSS feeds.)

2. Supporting materials - some people go wild over appendix style info on websites, I think a timeline for a series or the like can be good, but if your editor isn’t convinced it’s good enough to go in the book (or be a book on its own) then there’s probably a good reason. Also I prefer the books to stand and fall on their own merits, not the strength of “oh it said on the website that this little politcal fact was true, thus their mysterious motivations in the books make more sense now” type outside-book information.

Er, I had more thoughts than that when I started I’m sure. Ah well, hope it’s useful anyway.