ften I do websites for people who are getting on the internet for the first time, but what I sometimes do is re-design sites which are old, outdated, or just plain unattractive. I can't deny that it's pretty fun! Here are some examples of taking a site lacking in organization or beauty and making it into something the author is proud of. After all, your website should be an expression of you and your writing. BEFORE AFTER Alyson had done her original site from a template. It worked fine for a while, till she started writing more young adult books, and then added adult books into the mix, so that it became more and more unorganized. She told me that she wanted "colorful fun with some Andy Warhol thrown in." I had so much fun doing it and we both love the outcome! She has two sides: Young Adult and Adult, plus a matching blog and MySpace site, so check it out to see how it all fits together... BEFORE AFTER Okay, so I don't usually do websites which aren't for authors, but a literary agency is pretty close. Besides, one of the agents is married to one of my clients, and I never say no to a family connection. The Andrea Brown Literary Agency is made up of five professional, creative women (ignore that man on the old site!!) :)... we just made their site reflect that. BEFORE AFTER I now do MySpace sites to match client designs—they look so much classier! MySpace sites are definitely geared towards a different audience, so depending on your books, they can be a very good marketing tool. We can also build slideshows for both your MS site or your regular site! BEFORE AFTER What can I say? I got bored. Wanted something lighter and brighter and I'll admit it: I wanted some pink. BEFORE AFTER Angela's original site didn't have the professional or vibrant feel she wanted and her books deserve. She writes mysteries, or what some might call romantic suspense. This new, brighter, more colorful design (in her favorite colors) fits her books much better. BEFORE AFTER Michael's site was just a little too bland, a little too colorless. It didn't have any sense of a mysterious/noir/PI kind of feel. Once he gave me a new author photo and some shots of nighttime Cleveland, it came together, simple and noirish with a sense of elegance. BEFORE AFTER Sybil had a very boring website which made it look like she might write very dry books. The interesting "problem" in this case was that her books are all stand-alones with nothing in common... thus trying to come up with design elements that related to all of them was close to impossible. So instead, we decided to just go for something vibrant and colorful without a specific theme. I took out my camera, took photos of things around my house, and voilâ, this was the result. BEFORE AFTER To say Lee's sites (he also has a Diagnosis Murder site) were unorganized was putting it mildly. In his words when he contacted me, the site was a "large, ugly, confusing mess." Instead of the many many articles and reviews (all in different sizes, fonts and colors by the way), he wanted to drastically streamline both sites. We managed to do that plus pull in some colors and photos which worked perfectly for his image as a California novelist and TV writer. BEFORE AFTER Eric had a website he had done himself, and as many of the graphics didn't work quite right, and it was rather clunky, he needed to have it redone. He wanted to stick quite close to his original design, though, as far as colors, general layout, and simplicity went. This is what we came up with. Simple, clean, and affordable, but still with a sense of class. BEFORE AFTER The protaganist of Don's books is a journalist who chronicles the history of rock and roll, and uncovers murder in locales such as Florida, Jamaica and Barbados. Sue Grafton described Don's work as "sex, drugs and rock and roll and murder... what more could you want?" Don's original site was too serious and staid for this! So we opted for a beachy, casual look. It's all about image... BEFORE AFTER The original one's not so bad, huh? Of course not—I did it! But it was my very first author site, done in messy GoLive code and as we added more and more sections, the navigation simply got too outdated to live with anymore. Thus, the new look. We went from 60-some pages to over 140, my largest site thus far. It was a fun challenge to design a site with 20 books, TV/film news and a rock group, and still keep it well-organized and therefore easy to navigate. BEFORE AFTER Marne is an elegant woman who writes elegant (but funny!) books and deserves an elegant website. Luckily, her latest book cover was absolutely perfect in terms of the type of design she wanted, and I was able to emulate the style. The diamonds even drop from the top hand through the navigation links to the bottom hand. Just what she wanted. BEFORE AFTER Margaret writes wonderful mysteries involving a priest and an Arapaho attorney in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. Both her books (including her non-fiction works) and she herself encapsulate a sense of the West. Her website needed that feel as well. That's one of the first things I ask new clients—what "feel" do you want, what "image" do you want to portray? For Margaret, the answer was easy.