Sites for writers and small business, with easy content management

What to post online?
It’s probably not a good idea to post unpublished work that you intend offering for publication elsewhere. Magazine editors tend to consider a poem or story “published” if they know it has appeared on the Web. If you don’t intend offering the work elsewhere, go ahead and put it up on the Web. Otherwise, maybe just post a selection of work already published (after a decent interval has elapsed and that issue of the magazine or whatever is no longer current).

Writers’ Sites

An affordable website to showcase your work

I’m offering to help talented writers of prose and/or poetry to establish a personal Web presence. You won’t need any technical knowledge of web development or HTML. I’ll create and host a site for you which you can use to show some of your work.

Your site will be at http://yourname.netpublish.net (you can also use http://www.yourname.netpublish.net). If you require, you can have a matching e-mail address: yourname@netpublish.net or something@yourname.netpublish.net. (See the note below if you prefer to use your own web space and domain name.)

For only US$200 initially (Aus $250), I will set up the site and host and maintain it for a year, with various payment options. After the first year, continued hosting and maintenance will be available at half the original price.

At this price I must ask you to accept one of two general “look and feel” designs — Model 1 or Model 2. You can choose a general color scheme within the style of the chosen model; for example, here is another Model 2 site. These models are subject to ongoing refinement or modification, so the look and functionality of your site might vary slightly from the examples.

You would supply formatted content in Word or RTF file(s), or in the body of a formatted e-mail, laid out as you want (line breaks, spacing, indents, etc) with text in bold or italics where required. Epigraphs and endnotes with poems or stories will be accommodated and styled as in the examples. Web links can also be included — by default these will be set up to open the target page in a new window (so visitors don’t leave your site when following a link).

You would get:

  • Site with up to 20 poems/short stories or other prose pieces (one per page or on scrolling pages as you prefer) in the selected standard style with color choice
  • One photo image per page, if you like (your or my royalty-free images)
  • Fast turnaround: with agreement on images, your site done and online within two or three days after you send all formatted text
  • Maintenance during the year — email me content changes up to 12 times a year, and I’ll update your site, usually within a day or two.

Flat fee: US$200 via PayPal or credit card, or Aus$250 by Australian cheque or money order, payable on acceptance of site.

Includes hosting and maintenance for twelve months. Subsequent hosting and maintenance will be at half the original rate per year. 

Does not include custom design (which can be very time-consuming), pages with multiple graphics, web response forms, sound files, or scripting for special functionality. I’ll be happy to quote for any of those as extras. 

Conditions: My discreet “Get a Writer’s Site” ad/link appears on each page, and your site is listed in the netpublish Writers’ Sites index.

If you prefer to use your own web space and maintain your own site once it is set up, I can offer you help in maintaining it yourself on a Windows PC. I’ll supply or point you to the free version of the content management system that I use for setup and maintenance (CityDesk 2, from Fog Creek Software) together with that program’s project file for your site, and you’ll be able to maintain your content easily — changing, adding or removing pages. (CityDesk does not run on Macintosh computers; if you use a Mac, I suggest you let me host and maintain your site.)

Contact me for further details.

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