Meera had published two well-received books through traditional publishers, entirely without a personal website, relying on her publisher's page and social media alone. It never seemed necessary — until a literary festival organiser tried looking her up online for a speaking invitation and found almost nothing beyond scattered social posts.
That near-missed opportunity made Meera realise how much control she'd been giving up by not having her own space online — no proper author bio, no organised list of her work, nothing that represented her as a professional writer beyond whatever her publisher chose to post.
She finally built a simple author website through affordable WordPress hosting, easy enough for her, a non-technical person, to update herself between books. She paired it with her own proper domain instead of a generic free subdomain that looked unprofessional to festival organisers and journalists searching her name.
Her third book's launch, promoted partly through her own site for the first time, brought in three separate speaking invitations within the first month, opportunities she believes her previous online invisibility had likely cost her before. For any writer, freelancer, or professional still relying entirely on others' platforms, it's worth exploring simple personal hosting solutions to actually own your professional presence online.
Top comments (0)