I have a dumb question, one that’s been nagging at me recently: What exactly is an author or book website supposed to do?

The short answer is sell books. But it ain’t that simple.

If you stop and think about it, give or take a few bells and whistles (the ubiquitous flash intro page, for example), most author websites are exactly the same: Descriptive copy, an excerpt, author bio, possibly a trailer or Q&A, reviews, events & readings, and a link to Amazon and other book retailers. In other words: an electronic business card. It comes as no surprise, then, that a recent Codex study quoted in Courtney Sullivan’s article “See the Web Site, Buy the Book” found that 8% of book buyers had visited author websites in a given week. 8%!

So what would engage the other 92% of the book buying market? What are the elements of a successful author/ book website? (On Friday Debbie is hosting a breakfast for our authors to discuss these very questions so more to come on this subject from the rest of the HS gang). For now, here are some of my unscientific observations. I would love to hear yours….

A good author website:

- Is interactive and speaks to a distinct community

- Is inherently entertaining

- Engages someone who has never heard of the book or author

- Gives the reader a reason to come back

- Can be found easily on Google

Here are 5 authors who are getting it right.

John Hodgman: http://www.areasofmyexpertise.com/

Tim Ferris: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

Chris Anderson http://www.thelongtail.com/

Sloane Crosley http://sloanecrosley.com/

Cory Doctorow http://craphound.com/

(note the savvy publicist Sloane Crosley is the only author here who has used her name rather than the book title)

- Julia

Gayle Tzemach’s piece in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor offers a sobering look the road ahead for Afghan women: 

“Despite their anxieties, a growing number of women view negotiation with more moderate Taliban elements as the only way to bring the country some measure of peace." [CSM]

Gayle has been in Kabul the past several months researching her book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana.

Check them out at www.collinsbackstage.com

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m obsessed with Twitter. I could live on it.

I also say, when a trend reaches me, it’s hit critical mass.

This week I felt the earth move twice from Twitter:

The first was the news out of Mumbai. I was watching it on Twitter and thinking to myself, this is like CNN during the first war in Iraq. Something major had changed. Sure enough, there’s an article in today’s New York Times about Twitter and the news.

There’s also a story in the New York Times Week In Review Section about famous people using Twitter.

The second Twitter moment came when I found poetry being written on Twitter by Jeremy Toback. He makes magic with 140 characters and I feel like I’ve been given a little present every time I log on and find a new one.

What could be better……get your news, celebrity updates, and poetry —  all in one Opt In place on the web.

Debbie

Gayle Tzemach is a journalist currently living in Kabul where she is at work on her book The Dress Maker of Khair Khana:

Today as we battled our way back from Kabul University in inch-by-inch traffic, I heard a police siren. Turning around to see what was happening, I watched a jacked-up grey pick-up truck pass us on the left. Turns out you can buy horns which sound like sirens. My fixer told me they are very popular.

A motor hierarchy governs the roads. Big white SUVs toting foreign VIPs, government officials, and all of the UN officials are the bullies, regularly cutting off with bravado anyone smaller.  We play chicken daily with an assortment of battered mini vans and station wagons, but when it comes to trucks and buses, my driver lets them have their way. Creative maneuvering is his specialty: The other day we drove our car in reverse for two full blocks when we overshot the pale guarded gate of the foreigner’s restaurant where I was meeting a friend for lunch.  Those who loved “A Bronx Tale” would be proud.

Safety standards are different here than in the developed world…. 

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I’ve been thinking a lot about the 60s lately, not only in terms of the election (I will admit to delighting in every
minute of the Bamelot media blitz) but also in terms of the books that were read and celebrated during the decade. Sometimes I wonder if looking backward may give us an inkling of what lies ahead on the literary horizon. Here are some highlights from cader books excellent 1960s bestseller list:

1960: Hawaii, James A. Michener

Ourselves To Know, John O’Hara

1961: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller

1962: Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown

1963: Profiles in Courage: Inaugural Edition, John F.
Kennedy

Happiness Is a Warm Puppy, Charles M. Schulz

1964: In His Own Write, John Lennon
A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway

1965: Herzog, Saul Bellow

1966: In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Games People Play, Eric Berne, M.D.

1967: Rosemary’s Baby, Ira Levin

1968: Couples, John Updike

1969: Portnoy’s Complaint, Philip Roth

The Godfather, Mario Puzo

The Andromeda Strain, Michael Crichton

Are the 60s’s coming back in full force? Barneys seems to think so! Check out their holiday catalogue

Gayle Tzemach  is a journalist currently living in Kabul working on her book The Dressmaker of Khair Khana  

The American election captured Kabul’s attention this week. At an airy bar in Kabul shuttered behind two metal doors and four armed guards, a hive of excited Democrats celebrated Election Night, watching CNN and drinking blue cocktails. The collection of aid workers and rights advocates cheered Obama’s win, donning “Yes We Can” tees and signing the Obama ’08 banner hanging from the wall. No sign of McCain/Palin paraphernalia anywhere.

The Europeans in Kabul were almost as excited as the Americans. In international offices across the capital, Wednesday brunches celebrated the end of the Bush era and the Democrats’ return to power. BBC has played nothing but Obama video since Tuesday.

Afghans, too, were captivated by the vote 6,000 miles away. Nearly everyone I interviewed asked me about it. What did I think about Obama? What is his policy toward Afghanistan? Do I think he is serious about focusing on Afghanistan now that the US realizes the war in Iraq was a grave mistake?

Pulling up to one of the short and dingy apartment blocks near the airport, the kind of neighborhood where flies swarm unmolested and the arrival of strangers raises eyebrows, I walked up three flights of stairs to the headquarters of a women’s NGO. Inside I met a woman who organized schools and sewing classes for women during the Taliban years. As we wrapped up our interview, she congratulated me on Obama’s win. “I hope he will help to make things better here,” she said. “I believe that if the US really wanted to bring peace and security to Afghanistan, it would.”

She is not alone in thinking that if the international community really wanted to secure Afghanistan, it could.

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