Thursday, May 31, 2012

Another Website Sneak Peek...

I didn't post anything here yesterday because, well, I've been knee deep in web design for the past couple weeks now and I really found some breakthrough Tuesday night, so I rolled with it until past midnight and totally neglected to write a Wednesday post.

So here's a Thursday one. And since I've had my head in this website so much, I figured I'd give everyone another sneak peek at what I've been messing with. To check out my earlier sneak peek from last week, head here.

So if you did check out the earlier sneak peek, you'll know that I settled on a certain design and was trying to implement it throughout all the pages of my website. And then I found out that I wasn't happy with it in the least. But that's how it's always been for me and web design. I can be very fickle, mainly because I'll create a site design and then look at other site designs of other authors/web designers, and get jealous and toss mine out the window.

I finally realized I needed to come up with a design that was what I wanted, and not compare it to other website designs. That's when I came up with a better version of the black and blue design of the old idea. I'll give you a glimpse of what I have so far for some of the major pages of the website, but keep in mind this is all subject to change. Although I will say that the design itself is one that I am DEFINITELY sticking with, it's just some of the positioning and alignment that may change, not the major color scheme or most of the major elements, like the paneling and the navigation set up. That being said, you'll notice some things are off alignment and a bit out of place here and there, but that's something I'll address after the major parts of this site are put together.

Here's a peek at what I have so far for the home page. The top left corner has some space in it because I'm going to have an author picture there. It will help to personalize my website, but I just haven't picked out the right one yet.









This next screenshot is of the main page for the Black Earth series. On the left will be the novels of the series, and on the right the additional stories, such as the flash fiction pieces. I have the tree from the cover of End of the Innocence as a watermark against the background, and the comet from the same cover in the top corner to spruce things up a bit.





Next is a peek at the main page for The Compendium, which has been altered to fit the black and blue theme.














Here's a glimpse of one of the actual Compendium pages, this one referring to Pulse Science, which is found in both my Black Earth and Expired Reality series.












And lastly (for now), here's a glimpse at the sales page for Black Earth: End of the Innocence. I plan to have samples of my novels that can be downloaded in PDF format straight from my website, reviews from readers, and links to other books in the same series and of course links to purchase the book.


Well, that's it for now. I'm going back to work on this beast! Enjoy your Thursday. And for those curious, I use WebEasy Professional 9 to build my site.

2 comments:

Tiffany said...

Once again, I'm blown away by how wonderful and interactive your new site is. Will this site go live by the end of this month? In book 2 of my DIY Guide to Book Marketing, I want to dedicate a lot of time to interactive sites, and I'd love to feature your site.

Unknown said...

Yes, Tiffany, I plan to have this website up and fully functional by the end of the month, probably earlier. My hope is to finish up the handful of Compendium profiles I am writing out and then finish rolling out the new design layout. At that point, I'll put finishing touches on the timeline and then slap it all together and make it live, hopefully by mid-month.