I’m just throwing this out there, feel free to toss it back…
I’m thinking if you’re an author or aspiring author it’s extremely important to have a professional looking website/blog, especially if you’re advertising that you’re an author/aspiring author. And by “professional looking” I mean free of spelling and grammatical errors.
We’re human, so chances are there are going to be one or two here or there, but when your bio/about me blurb is riddled with spelling errors, improper use of punctuation or tons of grammatical errors..well, that makes me, as a reader, not take you seriously as an author. Which means if you DO get published or I see your already published novel on the shelf, I won’t buy your book. Not only that, but I would imagine if you want to be taken seriously by your peers and by the important people in the industry that isn’t exactly the way to go about it.
Basically, not paying attention to the little things could potentially cost you big. Just a friendly piece of advice from a local romance reviewer…
I’m going to look at mine to make sure that’s not me. LOL
Not at all, Marissa. I actually like your site a lot. But now that I have you here….your feed is kind of messed up, so I can’t get your posts in my Google Reader.
Eeep! ::runs author blurb through spell/grammar check::
*phew* (although there is a questionable semi-colon in there…)
We were in a rush to get the site up in time for my release and I wrote my bio directly as an email reply to my website designer. No spell check. Not recommended due to the ‘ugly oversight’ factor.
😛
Hi Holly! I noticed that as well about the feeder. I’m looking into it and am about to have a friend who knows her stuff take a look-see because it’s annoying me that my posts don’t go to ANY reader at all for weeks. Rest assured, I’m looking for a solution! And thanks for pointing it out to me. I appreciate it.
It’s what I keep saying and saying, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’s not me!
I concur wholeheartedly. Typos make my head hurt so I avoid them. If your site is riddled with errors I’ll assume your book is too, despite the copyediting process.
Hm… I think what bothers me even more… is a webpage that looks like a 6 year old made it. [I was going to say 6th grader, but I guess in this day and age, we’d be hitting more age 6.] What I mean is garish colors – bad html, ugly font, something that looks like old school geocities threw up on itself.
I guess that makes me not take the person seriously before I even go on to read anything.
Ah – also the broken links, broken graphics, excessive use of “moving graphics” – and bad music…
music
HATE MUSIC
for godsake don’t announce to my boss I am screwing around, you know when I am at work vs sitting at home on my parents couch playing on the net being treated like a five year old
I swear have one lil seizue at 32 and suddenly people are all nice nice about everything. Well I am not and I still hate your music if it is on your website.
Oh, and as long as we’re all here….
Any site that requires a flash player but doesn’t give me the option of turning it off. One website I visited recently has a book trailer that starts playing as soon as you enter the site. Hello, how am I supposed to get away with playing at work with that going on?