Recently, my wife has been updating the Web site for her company. And that's gotten me to thinking about a topic I've had on my mind a lot over the past couple of years: Should I build a Web site for myself — my writing self?I do a little freelance work. Having a Web site might be a good way to attract more work, though to be honest, the best way is to go out and pursue it, not expect it to come to a Web site others don't know exists.
Should I try to park my domain name now and come back to the site later, when I have published books to hawk? Perhaps. But my name is already being used by someone else (probably someone named Matt Sinclair), so what would I be saving? Perhaps the name of my first book. There may be sense to do that, but does that mean I'd have to create a new site for the second book? And what if the first book is never bought and published, but the second (or third or fourth) becomes my first "real" novel? Well, I don't really know.
Then, there's also the issue of having the time. If I'm to build a site, I need to take time to do it right. As those who've visited this blog and my writing-related blog, the Elephant's Bookshelf, know, I barely have enough time to habitate this little avenue of cyberspace, so adding one more rest stop along the highway probably isn't going to make the trip any smoother.
My hope is to eventually blend this and the other blogs into one primary site for me as a writer. But I believe it makes more sense for me to take what little time I have to actually write. I have work that could be done on my "finished" novel, and query letters to send out. I also have a second novel that's begun, which has characters locked en flagrante in Antarctica. Ok, maybe that's not quite true, but I think there was some love brewing when I was last mentally visiting that little spot of ice on the world.
So for now, I'll stick with my blogs. I don't need to spend money to park something when I can always get a new domain that's named something interesting. Hope no one minds.
