(no subject)

[dr_pretentious]

Now that Tales from Rugosa Coven is available in paper from Dark Quest, and all the usual other places where you order books, I’m waking my website, sarahavery.com, back up. It’s got a lot of cool new jobs to do. Thanks to my glorious husband, I can now cross-post easily from my website to my longtime personal blog, Ask Dr. Pretentious. This will take a little getting used to for me. I think the personal and teaching stuff will stay over on LiveJournal. The writing/publishing/promotional stuff will appear in both places. Comments will be welcome wherever you want to put them–you’re always welcome to join the party.

Comments

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

You should update the bibliography there. It still says you're looking for a publisher for Traffic/Magic and the Rugosa books.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I hadn't realized how outdated the bib was. I'm going to need to reorganize that completely.

Hey, since you're here, do you have three favorite ways you've used davidwriting.com? Any pitfalls to avoid?

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

Well, davidwriting.com really needs an overhaul. I looked at two templates a while back, didn't decide, and now I need to look for them again.

I like having a detailed bibliography and a page with the book covers and review clips. Though the covers could be on the same page.

I also think that keeping links to a few things that people can read online is a good idea. I would definitely recommend that you put an index of your Black Gate posts somewhere on there.

Probably the biggest mistake I've made has been to put my freelance services on the same site. I really should've kept that separate. I also shouldn't have let Deena put in a blog roll, on the sidebar, because that's hopelessly out of date and I have no idea how to fix it.

[thunderpigeon.livejournal.com]

One more thing I didn't think of before, that I've been meaning to do to my own site all year since I spent some time editing SEO web sites: write down a list of primary search terms that you think might reasonably lead people to your stories--words like fantasy, urban fantasy, pagan, Jersey shore, New Jersey, magic, traffic, humor, comedy, dark comedy; and a list of secondary words like Atlantis, netherworld, Jersey Devil, OCD, lawyer, accountant, Episcopalian, crossword puzzles. Also throw in the names of writers who influenced you, or whose readers you think will enjoy your work as well. Write a few paragraphs that you can sprinkle throughout the Web site. Use all of your primary terms at least once, preferably more (though not overusing them in any one place). Use the secondary words if you can.

Lists and catalogs are great. Shakespeare would've loved writing SEO, because things like

"The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable, or poem unlimited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men."

or

"A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud,
shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy,
worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson,
glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; 1090
one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of
good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave,
beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch;
one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny the
least syllable of thy addition."

are just perfect for getting a lot of terms into a tight space without looking spammy.

After you've finished, take a look to see if it looks like spam, or if it looks like something you might naturally write. When you get it to the point where it sounds natural but incorporates the search terms where it can, then put the paragraphs in the Web site, where they fit.