Working with Authors

One of the most enjoyable aspects of WebforAuthors is being able to respond to someone’s need. When Jeff Gibson wanted an attachment emailed to everyone who signed up for Dr. Nell’s (http://www.drnell.com/maillist_01.php) mailing list, we were able to add that feature a few weeks later. Nell wanted to offer a chapter of her book as an enticement to join her mailing list and having the system automatically send it as an attachment with the confirmation email made sense.

Recently Jeff emailed me and said “… I would like to comment on … how responsive you are. I have been impressed since day one with how quickly and professionally you have addressed any issue that has come up. Also, your taking into serious consideration and acting on suggestions for improvement.”

Several authors had commented on needing a calendar on which to put their activities such as appearances, signings, etc. We did not include this on our original feature list, thinking erroneously that this would be kept under a particular book on the Updates page. But we saw the error of our ways and developed the new “Events” page and calendar maintenance system. This new feature was just installed.

Although wee have not officially announced the new calendar feature, Bertha Davis (http://www.berthabooks.com) has already found it. She wrote “The calendar is what I really need so badly. I like the way it's set-up. I'm going to work on my site today to see if I can add some of my signings ….”

The uniqueness and power of the WFA system is when we add new features, they become available to all our subscribers. So when Nell and Bertha got their wish, everyone else benefits too.

Our next new feature is a Links page on which an author could maintain links to other websites. We pre-built navigation when we added ‘Events’ by adding a ‘Resources’ button too. ‘Resources’ will include the new Links page, plus we are discussing a download page and the ability to link to a blog.

I’m excited about these and other new features we are working on. Plus we have several new designs being prepared that are excellent. As we get a larger variety of designs, I plan to emphasis our ability to do custom designs for an author.

Think about it. By using the WFA system as the ‘backend’ of the web site, there is no need to spend bucks when we have it all for a low annual cost. Put a few dollars into a unique design (‘frontend’ or ‘facing’ side), and presto, you have a web site like no other with features you didn’t know you needed for a cost you could not have imagined.

That’s a few of the ideas anyway. Gee, I’d better get to work!