New client website goes live: www.sarahpinborough.com

Sarah Pinborough is a British writer who's been causing quite a stir since her arrival on the genre scene with her 2004 debut The Hidden. She's written and has had published another three novels since then (The Reckoning, Breeding Ground, The Taken) - the latest of which has made the shortlist for this year's British Fantasy Award for best novel - and has another novel (Tower Hill) due from Leisure next year, with a novella (The Language of Dying) also in the pipeline, from PS Publishing.

I'm reliably informed (by Jo, who's read 'em all) that Sarah's books to-date are proper, old-school horror stories, with strong supernatural influences and some genuinely perturbing moments to savour. I'm planning on reading a couple of them on holiday this year, with the aid of a dose of bright Mediterranean sunshine and several ice-cold beers to help dispel the shadows...

Sarah's definitely not shy, either; she's launched herself into the genre convention scene (ably aided and abetted by good chums like Tim Lebbon and Mark Morris) and has been a regular on panels (and in the bar) everywhere from WHC2007 to Alt.Fiction, with forthcoming trips lined up to Fantasycon, next year's World Fantasy and World Horror, plus a writer-in-residence stint at the Pen to Press writers' retreat in New Orleans next May. She's also joined the all-woman horror-writers' collective, MUSE; more on which we'll no doubt be hearing in the near future.

So when Sarah got in touch and asked me to help out with a website re-vamp I jumped at the chance to work with yet another pro-active author who isn't afraid to get out there and get themselves noticed. Aesthetically-speaking, she didn't want the new site to look too hard-core horror-esque, on the grounds that she's currently branching out into crime, thrillers and screen-writing as well. Her brief called for more graphic design skills than I have in my locker, so I called in a freelance designer of my acquaintance by the name of Penn Smith who came up with a suitably atmopsheric main header design and colour-scheme, and I then added the page layout and built the site around her work.

The end result is a new-look site that Sarah seems to be particularly pleased with, which is always great to hear, and ought to be pretty much completely cross-browser compatible, accessible and extensible as time goes on. It's online now at www.sarahpinborough.com. What do you reckon?

August 28, 2007 | Filed Under Work | 7 Comments

Client website update: full Joe Abercrombie site goes live

Well folks, here it is: the full version of www.joeabercrombie.com, including an extract from Last Argument of Kings, the third and final part of Joe's rather superb The First Law trilogy, which hasn't been published anywhere else to-date.

It's been an absolute pleasure working with Joe on the site-build. As a film editor by trade he's got a very keen eye for both visual arrangement and fine detail, so his feedback and suggestions have been great all the way along. And as I've always confessed to not counting graphic design as one of my greatest strengths (but dammit, I'll build you a website that works) I've really appreciated the input.

And I reckon the end result is not too shabby at all, if I do say so myself... :)

August 1, 2007 | Filed Under Work | 4 Comments

New client website goes live: philippalmer.net

Philip Palmer is a new British science fiction author whose debut novel, Debatable Space is being published by Orbit Books in the UK and the US in January 2008. I've read it, and it's an anarchic, mind-bending space opera about revenge. And love, and hate, and killer robots, and sex, and all sorts of other stuff. But mostly revenge. You can read an extract on the site, of course.

I've set up Philip's site - www.philippalmer.net - on a full Wordpress-based blog, because both Philip and the guys at Orbit really get the whole blogging concept. Philip is really interested in the immediacy of the blogging process and the opportunity that it will give him for instant feedback, especially once Debatable Space is out in January.

And it's not like he'll be short of a thing or two to write about in the meantime, either; he may be a debut novelist, but he's also a radio- and screen-writer of numerous years' experience. There are a few posts on the blog already (Philip prepped and posted a few as the design process went along) that talk about subjects as diverse as Spooks, Captain Jack Sparrow and his recent involvement in the production of a 15-minute radio play about the political situation in Gaza.

Here's a screen-shot of the site:

And yes, for those of you keeping score, that's two new websites launched in one day (and another - a bit of a biggie - on the way as well). So now you know why I haven't been blogging much this past fortnight or so... :)

July 17, 2007 | Filed Under Work | 2 Comments

New client, new(-ish) website: RichardKMorgan.com

I've recently taken on the management of Richard (K) Morgan's website, which I'm very pleased indeed to be involved with, seeing as I'm a bit of a fan and all...

I was going to start by just transferring the old site onto a new server, but... well, I couldn't resist having a bit of a tinker (as you do), so we've actually ended up with an interim revamp. It's still fairly close to the look of the original site, but I've broken the pages out of the frameset to improve Google spider access, added a bit more info about Richard's books to the homepage and so forth.

There will be a fully re-designed site going live later in the year, with a design that reflects the re-design work that publisher Gollancz have unveiled for the full range of paperback editions of Richard's books, and plenty more bibliographical information etc. Watch this space. And in the meantime, here's a quick shot of the interim site:

Interim version of www.richardkmorgan.com

July 17, 2007 | Filed Under Marketing, Work | 4 Comments

Quick Question: Author Websites

Quick Question As you may have gathered, I'm running my own business (and loving pretty much every minute of it) these days: I'm a freelance website content manager (or 'webguy' for short...) and a significant proportion of my work involves designing, building and managing websites for genre fiction authors.

I reckon I've got a pretty good idea by now of the sort of key elements that a good author website should ideally include:

A full bibliography of the author's published work, preferably organised by chronological and/or series order.
A biography section, with press-quality photo(s) if available.
A regularly-updated news / news & views / blog section.
Contact information, both for the author and their agent(s).

Those would seem to me to be the core essentials, but in the interests of research and development, I was wondering: what do you folks - as however occasional visitors to, rather than administrators of, author websites, or even as authors and writers yourselves - think are the next most important aspects of an author website?

Content, functionality, graphic design elements, add-ons, enhancements; whatever you think adds the most to your experience of visiting an author website as a reader / interviewer / publisher / researcher, whatever your role or remit might be.

And, conversely, is there anything that you regularly see on author websites that drives you mad, or that you think is largely superfluous to requirements?

Please feel free to discuss in the comments section and I'll post a round-up of the most interesting suggestions in a week or two.

July 13, 2007 | Filed Under Work | 13 Comments

Client website update: new-ish look for Brian Ruckley

Orbit Books have finalised the brand new jacket design for the UK and US paperback edition of Brian Ruckley's debut novel, Winterbirth, and they asked me to integrate some of the new artwork into Brian's site design:

I do like the new cover art: I think the imagery reflects the harsh, chilly landscape and bitter, confrontational atmosphere of Winterbirth quite nicely...

July 12, 2007 | Filed Under Art, Work | 1 Comment

New client website re-vamp: AdamRoberts.com

Adam Roberts is one of the brightest stars in the UK science fiction firmament. His novels, novellas and short stories are always ideas-driven, usually highly challenging and often misunderstood, but you can rely on them being packed to the rafters with intelligent writing: literary allusion, metaphorical and metaphysical extrapolation, and some truly stunning visions of alternate worlds, alternate futures, alternate realities.

Adam has been a client of mine for going on six years now and his website has been through three different incarnations in that time. The third version of www.adamroberts.com went live yesterday, and I'm sure all will agree (if memory serves) that it's a big improvement on the first two:

This time out it's a Wordpress site, and I've been exploring the options that WP offers to use it as a site-wide content management system rather than just as a single blog page. Hence the bibliography section is self-contained within the WP setup, which means that if Adam wants to add to them, or tinker with them, he can do so to his heart's content, without waiting for me to have a few minutes free in my schedule to make the changes for him.

He can also drive his own news section as a full blog now, complete with RSS-feed for all you feed-grazers out there who don't even bother to visit the lovely websites that some of us have spent so many hours slaving over... (James, I'm looking at you...)

Adam also runs three other blogs (Europrogocontestovision, punkadiddle and Rambling Ad Rumpo) and I'm working on persuading him to bring those three within the main blog as well - there's some great content on them, and having it all in one place would really strengthen the main site. Between you and me I reckon that once he's seen just how far superior Wordpress is to clunky old blogspot he'll be looking to at least move those over to WP sub-domains of their own, but I think that bringing them within the main site on a by-Category basis would work even better...

May 26, 2007 | Filed Under Work | Leave a Comment

New client website goes live: NorthStarDeli.com

I'm delighted to announce that my latest client commission site went live yesterday: www.northstardeli.com.

Bit of a departure from my usual line of work, you might think? But actually, there's a very definite genre connection lurking not so far beneath the surface, because the North Star Deli is owned and run by a family partnership that includes a certain Mr John Berlyne, proprietor of The Works of Tim Powers (which, I might add, is due for a renewal and transfer to a Wordpress platform in the very near future...) and UK reviews editor for venerable online genre 'zine SFRevu.com.

The deli itself is located in the South Manchester suburb of Chorlton; Jo and I drove on down there one Sunday a while ago and enjoyed some damn fine coffee and theoretical polenta cake (theoretically, John promised us polenta cake, but actually they sold out on the Saturday... a common occurrence, the polenta cake is very popular...) whilst we talked to John about books, writing, food, drink, and the current state of the world... as you do.

Fast-forward a couple of months to John and I having a very enthusiastic conversation over cartons of spicy far-eastern food in Manchester city centre one lunchtime, whilst discussing the enormous potential for developing the North Star Deli website into something far, far more interesting than just the usual online brochure-dump.

I spoke at great length about the concept of blogging as a means of developing an ongoing conversation: a very direct and immediate link between the Deli and its customers. John saw the potential immediately, and in turn introduced the concept to his partners, brother Adam and sister Deanna.

Thus, www.northstardeli.com is now reborn, on a Wordpress platform, with regularly-updated content and all the character, enthusiasm and foodie-knowledge you'd get from speaking to any of the deli team in-store. I think I'm right in saying that the North Star is Manchester's first blogging-deli, but I suspect it won't be the last, once word gets around...

It's the content that will be a winner though. It's early days yet, but I've already learned much - maybe too much (bacon-mints, anyone?) and speaking as an avowed foodie myself, I'm looking forward to future posts (particularly Deanna's recipes) with relish...

Check it out. Join the mailing list (e-bulletins should start going out in a couple of weeks, and you might learn something from those as well). Leave a comment or three. And if you live anywhere near Chorlton, get yourself down there and stock up on fine food and beverages from around the world, as well as plenty of fresh local produce. Sample the coffee. Enjoy the polenta cake (if you're quick...)

I just wish they'd open a branch in North Manchester (preferably Prestwich... in fact, just around the corner from me would be ideal...)

I reckon if they did that and then set up WiFi access in there as well, you'd never get me out of the place... :)

May 18, 2007 | Filed Under Work | 4 Comments

Work in Progress: bit of spare capacity, if you're interested…

One of my major clients (a public / private sector organisation based here in Manchester) has had to make budget cuts this year, so they've cut my contracted hours from 15 to 7.5 per week.

Planner image by 'nosheep', via sxc.hu This is, of course, entirely fair enough and it does come with the bonus of freeing up some of my scheduled work time to focus in on some other projects that I've been meaning to get my teeth into for a while.

And if there's anyone out there who has a website that needs building, or a genre-fiction related project that they'd be interested in getting my input on, please do feel free to get in touch.

In the meantime, here's a quick run-down of what I've got in the pipeline, just to give you an idea of the sort of projects I'm currently involved in and particularly interested in working on:

Adam Roberts and I are currently re-designing his old website at www.adamroberts.com. The new one will be chock-ful of Wordpressy goodness and will allow Adam to tinker to his heart's content (he's a great web-tinkerer, is our Adam... ;)
I'm also building a blog-based website for John Berlyne's family business, the North Star Delicatessen. It's a great deli based in South Manchester, that serves great coffee (I can definitely vouch for that), and John really gets the whole blogging thing, so it should be a very lively and interesting site to visit, whether you live in his cathcment area or not, and especially if you're a bit of an amateur gourmand, like I am.
I'm about to re-launch myself back into the major overhaul of the PS Publishing website that I started earlier in the year. It's been strategically sidelined for a while recently - largely due to the huge amount of work that Pete Crowther has been putting into his trip to the World Horror Convention in Canada, where he was one of the Guests of Honour - but will shortly be back on track with a vengeance. The new site will be great - full e-commerce facility, a regularly-updated blog, tonnes of info about the books and their authors. Looking forward to getting stuck back into that later on this week.
Later in the year I'll be working on full-scale websites for both Joe Abercrombie and Jane Johnson, whose holding pages / micro-sites went live in the last couple of weeks.
I'll be running a six-monthly site update for Les Edwards (and his alter-ego Edward Miller ready for July 1st, so there'll be a stack of new artwork for you to feast your eyes on.
I'll also be building new sites for three new clients, all of whom I'm very pleased about and looking forward to working with immensely... and whose names I'll reveal once the work itself is under way (not that I'm superstitious, but...)
And finally, I'm planning on launching at least one, maybe two new blogs. One will be for me to talk about my freelance work and provide links to interesting articles about website content management, online copyrwriting etc. elsewhere. The other I'm not saying too much about at the moment, but it will be a very focused, topical blog that I hope will prove both useful and interesting to a wide range of folks. Mysterious, much..?

Should be a damn good summer!

April 17, 2007 | Filed Under Work | 4 Comments

New client website goes live: JoeAbercrombie.com

Another initial page of content went live as of yesterday; it's been a good couple of weeks on the work-front. This one is for a brand new client, and someone I'm particularly thrilled to be building a website for, given that I really, really enjoyed his first book or two.

Currently www.joeabercrombie.com is a holding page containing some information about the first two books in his The First Law series: The Blade Itself and Before They Are Hanged, as well as a mailing list sign-up form and an email contact address. Joe and I will be working on a much more comprehensive site later in the year; the target is June / July (ish), work-load (Joe's) permitting.

Again, it's a simple design, using the parchment background to reflect the cover-theme of The Blade Itself. The only thing I might do differently, thinking about it, is improve the header, try to put it into a gothic-serif font to try to match the book's lettering. That would look better, but give Google less relevancy-matching to get its teeth into, but then the primary domain should grab Google's attention quite nicely. I'll think I'll see how it goes for now.

And as always, any comments or feedback - or thoughts as to what sort of content you'd like to see on the finished site - would be gratefully received!

April 14, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Marketing, Work | Leave a Comment

New client website goes live: JaneJohnsonBooks.com

I'm delighted to announce that I was able to launch a new site just before the weekend, for an author who's been a client of mine for a few years now.

Jane Johnson, longstanding editor at HarperCollins' Voyager Books imprint, is also a well-established author in her own right these days. She co-wrote the Gabriel King books with M. John Harrison, and then wrote a nordic fantasy trilogy under the pen-name Jude Fisher, as well as the official tie-in guides to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies.

More recently, she's written a series of children's fantasy books under her own name (the publisher's promo website - a very good one, too - is at www.janejohnson.eu). Her new novel, Crossed Bones is due to be published by Viking in February next year and so in advance of the launch of the book, Jane has aked me to put together a mini-site at www.janejohnsonbooks.com, which looks a little like this:

The new novel is a (potentially) bodice-ripping saga of high drama and romance, about the lives of two young women: one of whom was captured by Moroccan pirates in the 16th century, the other a modern girl who turns detective when she's given a piece of embroidery that was created by the first girl during her captivity. It's not a fantasy title, but should appeal to anyone who loves historical adventure tales.

Jane asked me to create a site that reflected the themes of captivity and mystery and had a feel for the Moroccan sands, where Jane herself now lives for half the year. Do please let me know what you think of the end result.

April 10, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Work | 3 Comments

New client website goes live: www.JayAmory.com

Another new client website went live yesterday: a simple (but hopefully effective) initial page for young adult fantasy writer Jay Amory, at www.jayamory.com.

In effect it's a holding page for now - Jay is hard at work on his next book and so doesn't have the time just at the moment for generating additional content for a full site. So this initial page presents a section of information on his first two books, links to Amazon.co.uk for anyone who would like more information on availability and ordering, an email address for fans that would like to get in touch, and an email list sign-up form for folks to register for further updates as they occur.

Do let me know what you think... bearing in mind that minimalism and simplicity were the client's watch-words, is there anything else that ought to be on the page that isn't there? Or does it do the job it sets out to do?

February 20, 2007 | Filed Under Books, Marketing, Work | Leave a Comment