Dear writers of all kinds- I am pleading for every author to have a simple website that serves as a digital anchor to help us readers discover more about you and your works. Far too often I get the best info about you from places like Goodreads, and that...truly isn't ideal. #BookSky

I read your article on Goonhammer and came across this. I like your articles, they are well written, pleasingly enthusiastic and comprehensive, so thank you. Anyway, I thought I'd respond. Here's why I don't have a website.

Way back when I started writing novels, 16 years ago now, the internet was still relatively new. All publishers were saying to their authors they should have a blog or likewise to connect with their readers. So I had one for 7 years or so. I worked and worked on it, I put several articles up a week.

Of course, a cynic might say that relieved them of the obligation of promoting your work themselves, with paid advertising, which always was and remains the single best way of getting your name out there. I digress.

I averaged a few hundred hits a month. It did not drive engagement. It did give people a place where they could come and vent at me for one thing or another. It was a purely performative space where I could not be honest about myself or my work. It made me paranoid and anxious, despite nice people.

Maintaining a website takes time, effort, and, if you're doing it properly, money. I found that the best way to drive engagement with my books, Warhammer especially, was to write... more Warhammer books.

I've always treated writing very much as a business. It's opportunity cost - if I spend x number of hours writing content for online, it's x number of hours not writing stuff I actually get paid for. So, I decided to shut it down, and experienced an immediate cessation of stress.

Now, you're talking about a simple website, which is different. But even something like that, with links, lists, descriptions, images, takes time and effort (even if, once done, it's done). And once it's there, the temptation arises to engage once again; the fear that static sites are dead sites.

Authors with very active social media engagement, like Josh, or Chuck Wendig or John Scalzi, often do it for the love of it. Chuck wrote at length about how his website didn't really sell his books.

I found this true. Even during times of high traffic my site did nothing to increase sales of my original books, which is what I wanted - because Warhammer sells itself, by and large. It also didn't stop people confusing me with Gav Thorpe or David Guymer... 😆

Of course, all this depends on the author. Newer authors benefit from such things more, maybe. I watch Victoria Hayward's highly organised efforts to use the net with great interest. Then some authors just love doing it, while really successful authors have teams of people to do it for them.

As for me, I am available directly. If you want to ask me anything about author profiles or whatever else, I'm always here or on X or on LinkedIn. But for the time being, my inner time accountant says no to websites.

People often ask me how I manage to write so much in a year. Not creating content for the internet is part of the answer to the question.