Comments on: Morning Brief — Wednesday, June 4 http://yodiwan.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/morning-brief-wednesday-june-4/ News, Tips, Trends and Miscellany for Book Publicists Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:56:35 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: David de Beer http://yodiwan.wordpress.com/2008/06/04/morning-brief-wednesday-june-4/#comment-114 David de Beer Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:35:44 +0000 http://yodiwan.wordpress.com/?p=161#comment-114 I'd just like to point out that a lot of authors are using the blog as their frontpage now(very easy to do if you use Wordpress to build the blog), so the frontpage is always dynamic and in movement, and static pages containing vital statistics can be found via navigation bars on the top and sidebars. Basically, a nice integration of website with blog and continually updated. Jeff Vandermeer and Cory Doctorow do this to good effect, and it's not quite what John Scalzi does (he does have a static website page at scalzi.com), but for all intents and purposes close enough. http://jeffvandermeer.com http://craphound.com http://scalzi.com/whatever Although quite a bit text heavy, and image light, David Louis Edelman drives a nice balance between dynamic and static too: http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/ As to whether dynamic is to be preferred to static, I don't know. Hard to say. Right now there's grumbling about static websites, but it could be just a passing fad and soon everyone will want static again. But, using something similar to wordpress or one of the Expression Engines and taking the authors above as examples, you can so seamlessly combine the strengths of static and dynamic now that it doesn't matter. Widgets are available to advertise books, reviews and even calendar schedules for conventions, book signings, etc. Websites are getting easier and easier for anyone to construct, and if you can blog, you can update. There are loads of gorgeous website themes free for download with, example again, wordpress. Alternatively, there are some very good designers out there who for a one time fee sets the site up and the author is good to go. It's not that hard anymore. I’d just like to point out that a lot of authors are using the blog as their frontpage now(very easy to do if you use WordPress to build the blog), so the frontpage is always dynamic and in movement, and static pages containing vital statistics can be found via navigation bars on the top and sidebars.
Basically, a nice integration of website with blog and continually updated.

Jeff Vandermeer and Cory Doctorow do this to good effect, and it’s not quite what John Scalzi does (he does have a static website page at scalzi.com), but for all intents and purposes close enough.
http://jeffvandermeer.com
http://craphound.com
http://scalzi.com/whatever
Although quite a bit text heavy, and image light, David Louis Edelman drives a nice balance between dynamic and static too:
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/

As to whether dynamic is to be preferred to static, I don’t know. Hard to say. Right now there’s grumbling about static websites, but it could be just a passing fad and soon everyone will want static again.
But, using something similar to wordpress or one of the Expression Engines and taking the authors above as examples, you can so seamlessly combine the strengths of static and dynamic now that it doesn’t matter.
Widgets are available to advertise books, reviews and even calendar schedules for conventions, book signings, etc.

Websites are getting easier and easier for anyone to construct, and if you can blog, you can update. There are loads of gorgeous website themes free for download with, example again, wordpress.
Alternatively, there are some very good designers out there who for a one time fee sets the site up and the author is good to go.
It’s not that hard anymore.

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