A must-have page that belongs on your web-site is a media room. This media room should include downloadable pictures like your author pic and book covers. Include copies of press coverage (.pdf files are excellent for this), your bio (a few versions in different lengths) and contact info. If you have a favorite list of interview questions, you might want to post these with your answers as well.
Be sure to include a list of acceptable uses of photos or other material in your media room and any provisions for notification. Make it easy for a reporter or blog host to give you coverage and help spread your name. Think about what is interesting about you and include what a reporter would want to see in this digital news room.
Having this media room also makes it easy for you to respond to requests for interviews or more by having this information at your fingertips.
Make the room easy to navigate with clear labels for all downloadable information. A reporter will most probably not want a canned story so limit your info to a list of facts or prose that is easily drawn from. Make sure that contact information is easy to find so that a reporter or blog host can follow up easily – try to offer more than one form of contact.
Don’t include extraneous or non-pertinent info in your biographical information. While your family may have thought your childhood antics were adorable, reporters will not usually be interested in this. Nor will they need to know personal details of your family life. Tell them about YOU as a writer and include information about your expertise about a subject you write about or personal background info IF it goes into your writing (such as a traumatic family illness that gave you impetus for a series of books on that illness).
Control the information that gets out there by keeping in mind what you want and DON’T want people to know. Don’t post a photo you wouldn’t want used. Always make the info you include truthful.
Writing exercise: Write a brief introduction someone can use to announce your appearance at some major community function. Make sure that the information provided is relevant to the type of group you would be speaking in front of.
Writing prompt: Pick any ten items in the room (a room where you live or work in). Pretend to be a first time visitor to the room and pick a quality about each object that you think says “something” about the occupant (you).
