Most useful textbook and academic posts of the week: October 16, 2020

Andre Gide once said, “The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.” As academic authors we balance the creative process of writing (and ideas that may be perceived as madness) with the need to express those ideas through reason and logic. Along the writing journey we have to, therefore, be willing to prompt progress with madness and continue writing with reason. In this week’s collection of articles from around the web, we find advice on both.

Included are mental models for writers, unusual essay writing tips, and completely maddening ideas like planning to rest. These are balanced with practical advice on things like style, tone and grammar, launching a book during a pandemic, and building a credible web presence.

Author website or social media? Oh, the choices!

Congratulations! Your book is written. It passed peer review and the final changes have been made. It’s with the publisher and they are full steam ahead. They anticipate publication in four or five months. It is now seeming all too real. But that pesky marketing reminder keeps popping up on your calendar. Your day is already jammed packed. How will you fit it all in?

One of your published colleagues raved about the power of their author website and the results they saw. Another said blitzing social media brought them great contacts and increased visibility. With your limited schedule, which should you do?

5 Questions to ask your publisher about their author websites

In today’s marketplace, authors need to be integrally involved with the marketing of their books, including making decisions about author websites. While many authors have the opportunity to use their publisher’s author website option, they should carefully consider whether that website offers the design elements, content features, and editing flexibility to best serve their needs.

4 Key requirements for building an author website

In part 2 of her webinar series, “Designing a Web Presence for Your Book (Beyond the Publisher Website)”, Dr. Katie Linder, creator of The Academic Book Promotion Toolkit shared detailed insight into technical requirements to consider when designing a web presence for your book. Among these requirements were domain names, hosting providers, content management systems, and themes, widgets & plug-ins.

In this article, we summarize key aspects of these four technical requirements as presented by Dr. Linder.

9 Reasons to design your own author website

In part 1 of her webinar series, “Designing a Web Presence for Your Book (Beyond the Publisher Website)”, Dr. Katie Linder, creator of The Academic Book Promotion Toolkit shared valuable tips for considering your options when designing a web presence for your book. Among these tips were questions for consideration on whether your book needs a website, pros and cons of publisher vs. author sites, what to include on a book website, and dos and don’ts of website design.

In this article, we focus on nine reasons you should consider creating your own author website for your book. As presented by Dr. Linder, some of these reasons are disadvantages of having a publisher website, and others are advantages to creating an author website for your book.

How to build an academic brand online

If you Google your own name, are you happy with what the search results show about you and your work? If not, you may want to take steps to improve your online presence to better reflect your academic brand, which articulates your unique expertise and affects the way you are perceived both online and in the real world.

In a recent TAA webinar entitled, “Designing Your Online Presence to Communicate Your Academic Brand,” veteran higher ed blogger Lee Skallerup Bessette and academic branding coach Paula Thompson, both of Academic Coaching & Writing discussed ways to create or enhance your online presence to promote yourself and your work.