Some years ago, I encountered a post that spoke about the importance of having a press kit on your website, even if you were a debut writer. By a press kit, they meant having downloadable pictures and copies of your bio of various formats, and of course, information about your new book. The press kit could be used by anyone for almost any purpose, but it was a form of advertising.
I have no idea on what blog I saw that post on all those years ago, but I remember getting my A into G and putting together a press kit page on my personal website, complete with information about the book that was being released at the time. Since then, I have updated the page to focus on more recent publications, and I keep updating it.
However, in the last week, I have discovered how important having the press kit page really is.
In preparation for the 2019 Romance Writers New Zealand Conference, I was tasked with getting the programs and other bits of printing sorted. Well… When I got the files, the program contained profile images of all the speakers, logos of the businesses taking part in the trade show, and sponsor logos. About half of the profile photos for the guest speakers were grainy. I needed to source NEW profile images because the resolution within the original files was insufficient for printing.
Could I FIND decent print-ready images on the various author websites? You have got to be kidding me! In one case (for a keynote speaker no less), the only profile photo on her website was 150 x 100 pixels. Sure, it looked great online, keeping the page size down, making it easy to load on a cellphone, but there is NO WAY that I can use that image for printing.
And hence, the importance of a press kit, regardless where you are at within your writing career.
The Press Kit Page
If you have an author website, you NEED a press kit page. This is NOT your about page, but rather a separate page on your site where people can go to download print-ready (and web-ready) versions of your profile photo, get a bio that they can literally copy and paste onto their site (complete with links), information about your latest publications (if you have any) and any other downloadables that are used for promotional purposes. This includes the cover images of your latest books, if appropriate, or press releases about upcoming book tours and other projects.
It’s not hard to put together. You need all that information for yourself anyway. Just compile it into one location, so people don’t have to hunt around on your website to find the information that they need. Make it easy for them. Make it easy on yourself.
My press kit page at the time in August 2019.
Back in May 2019, I presented at the NZSA Canterbury Writers Workshops. When I was asked for a profile photo, I just sent the link to my press kit page to the coordinator and invited them to download whatever image they needed. It kept the email size down, because I wasn’t sending a giant print-ready image that is over 3MB through email. (One of the print-ready promo images on my press page is 6MB. Imagine sending that through email. Ugh!) And if they wanted a different image than the one I would have sent, they had their choice of at least two others.
The below list is what I have on my press kit page. I have bolded the items that I feel are the bare minimum for a press kit page.
- Standard profile image
- Web-ready version shown
- Links to web-ready download AND print-ready download
- Alternative profile image (close-up image)
- Web-ready version shown
- Links to web-ready download AND print-ready download
- Micro-bio (single sentence that can be used as a tag line)
- Short bio (single paragraph that can be used for programs or bios on other sites)
- Long bio (full bio that can be used as a spoken introduction for interviews or presentations)
- Social Media links
- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube (if you have them)
- Published authors should include links to Goodreads and Amazon author pages
- Latest Book Information
- Image of cover
- Link to web-ready download if you want to use it as press release information
- blurb about the book
- links to where the book can be purchased
- If it’s not out yet, include the release date.
- (I currently have my two latest publications listed.)
- Image of cover
- Additional promo images
- Web-ready version shown
- Links to web-ready download AND print-ready download
Depending on what stage you are at in your career, you might also want to include links to recent interviews and other little tidbits of information.
Web-Ready and Print-Ready Image Resolution
When we talk about print-ready or web-ready images, we’re talking about the number of pixels in the image file. The more pixels compacted into a tiny space, the higher resolution. Seems simple enough, yet people still get it wrong.
Let me try to put some numbers to this issue in a way that everyone can understand.
I run two 24-in widescreen monitors for my computer. The physical dimensions of my main monitor is 21 inches wide (54 cm) by 12 inches tall (30 cm). (For those who don’t know, monitors and TV screens are advertised using the diagonal measurement, which is 24 inches.) I use a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is the recommended resolution for my monitors. This means, that my monitors use a resolution of 90 dpi (dots per inch).
This resolution is standard for monitors and other electronic devices. However, for high quality printing, you NEED 300 dpi, at a minimum.
Remember how I said above that I encountered one author’s profile image that was approximately 150 x 100 pixels. Well, on my screen, that image would render as 1.6 x 1.1 inches, assuming that the website was not employing any image scaling (and for those who know anything about basic HTML web page coding, there is normally some sort of image scaling employed on websites). If I was to take that exact same image and configure it for high-resolution printing, then it would print at 0.5 x 0.3 inches. That’s dinky! You might think that you can just scale up that image to the respectable 3 x 2 inches, but all you get is a pixelated mess, certainly not the professional printed image.
Enter the growling monster that is asked to print that disaster and make it look good. GRRRRRR!!!
Here is the issue with scaling poor resolution images. Consider the image above. From left to right:
- web-ready version of my profile image, which is 400 x 400 pixels;
- scaled image from original at 250 x 250 pixels (not bad, livable… a bit fuzzy, but I can tolerate it);
- scaled image from original at 150 x 150 pixels (getting blurry here, and my eyes are starting to hurt as they compensate for the fuzziness);
- scaled image from original at 100 x 100 pixels (it’s a fuzzy, blurry mess).
In all four images you can tell it is me, but I would be mortified if someone took the 150 x 150 or 100 x 100 image and tried to use that in a scaled size. It’s not clear at all.
But dare I say it, even that 150 x 100 pixel image is insufficient image quality for modern systems viewing web pages.
My phone is an iPhone 6 (yes, an Apple device, don’t get me started). The screen resolution is 1334 x 750 pixels. It’s a 2.25-inch wide screen with 4 inches in height. If you do the math, it’s using a resolution of 330 dpi. So, if that 150 x 100 pixel image was rendered on my phone with no added scaling in the background, it would appear as 0.5 x 0.3 inches. I NEED to zoom in on an image that size to see the detail, and I get a pixelated mess.
On a website, ANY website, you should be using profile images that are at least 300 x 300 pixels. Ideally, you should be using something that is 500 pixels in it’s shortest dimension. For the 2019 systems, Facebook is recommending 360 x 360 at a minimum for profile photos, but you can get away with 160 x 160 images. Profile images on Facebook render on my monitor at just shy of 2 inches across. Remember my monitor uses 90 dpi, so that 2-inch image is using 180 pixels.
Do you see where I’m going here?
For close-up profile images, ensure that your web-ready image can be truncated to a 300 x 300 pixel square centered around your face and still renders appropriately on your computer screen. The print-ready version needs to be triple this in size, i.e., 900 x 900 pixel square centered around your face. These are the minimum recommendation for images.
Bios
I’m not going to go into the full detail about how to write a micro, short or long bio. I’ve covered that in the past in the post Bios: One Size Won’t Fit Me. All I can say is that it makes your life so much easier if you already have these written, particularly the 1-paragraph variety that I call a short bio.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been asked for a short bio, one paragraph in length. (I think my short bio is currently sitting at 70 words, which includes the added links to my personal blog and Twitter.) Some variant of my short bio is used on almost every site where I have participated in guest blogs, interviews or presenting. Even my Amazon and Goodreads pages contain some variant of my short bio. And when I’m asked to give someone a short bio, where do you think I go to get it?
Are you starting to see the usefulness of the press kit page?
Books & Publications
Sure, you’ll have book information on other pages too, especially if you have a decent-sized book list. On your press kit page, you will include only the information about your latest book. What is the book(s) that you are currently promoting? As I said before, make it easy for book promoters to get everything they need to help you promote your book. That includes the cover image, a blurb and links to where one can buy the book.
If you have a self-hosted WordPress site, I would seriously look into the MyBookTable plugin by AuthorMedia. All of the book pages on this site, including the main recommended books page, have been created by using the MyBookTable plugin. From the back end, you just add the cover image, the blurb, links to where to buy the books, specify the author (which for your personal website would be yourself), give the books an appropriate tag, and that is it. The plugin generates all the pretty pages and the interlinking between the pages, including if you have a book in a series. If you add the ASIN number from Amazon into the back end, you even get those pretty preview pages showing up directly on your site. No need to visit Amazon, except perhaps to buy the book.
I do not get anything out of recommending the MyBookTable plugin to others, except the joy in seeing authors create some awesome book pages on their websites — quickly!
There is a free version of the MyBookTable plugin available, which is still extremely useful and powerful. As of the publication of this post (August 2019), the only features that required a paid license that I use include the grid view of book covers and the integration of affiliate programs other than Amazon. All other functionality that I use on this site is part of the free version, including Amazon buy buttons and Amazon affiliate program integration.
If you don’t have any publications, that’s okay. Don’t panic! They will come. You could still put together the other aspects of your press kit page.
Social Media Links
Even if you advertise your social media links elsewhere on your site, make sure that they are easy to find on your press kit page too. Social media forms a huge part of an author’s online platform. Don’t overlook it!
And don’t forget to include your Goodreads author page and your Amazon author page to your list of social media.
Goodreads
A Goodreads author page is different to your personal profile page. To obtain an author page, you need to have a publication, but this doesn’t need to be a book of your own. It can be a story that was published as part of an anthology. The moment that publication is in out there, apply to get your author page, which will give you a custom URL that will be something related to your name.
After applying for the Goodreads Author Program, your activities on the Goodread site will be seen as things you do as your author profile. Even the reviews you leave on other books get tagged as coming from your author profile. Someone clinks the links to see your profile, and they will instantly be taken to your author page. Your personal profile becomes buried and only accessible by you (and perhaps any friends you might have).
Amazon
You will be amazed at the number of authors with books on Amazon who don’t bother creating an author page. I have no idea why, because anyone can do it.
To create an author page, just hop on over to Amazon Author Central, and signup. If you are listed as the author of any book, you can instantly have those books added to your author page. For anthologies, as long as your name appears in the contents or preview material, easy peasy…
Do be advised that author pages are region specific. In other words, if you have books listed on .com, .com.au, .de, or whatever other international store Amazon now runs, you need to create an author page separately on each store, creating an account on each relevant Author Central.
Personally, I’ve only bothered with the .com site. I know I should sort it for the other Amazon stores too, but…
Final Thoughts
The press kit page is a tool used for marketing purposes. Put anything that you want out there as marketing on that page.
It is so easy to overlook the importance of such a page, but as I mentioned at the start of this post, I got decidedly grumpy because I wasn’t able to find the images I needed to help create a printable version of the 2019 RWNZ Conference program. I was able to get what I needed in the end, but I have the knowledge, the technical know-how, and the software to create high-resolution photos out of web-ready resolution images (assuming that they were more than 150 x 100 pixels). I know what I’m doing, which is part of the reason the conference coordinator asked me to deal with that part of the program.
However, I’m a rare breed of internet user. Most people just use the information they’re given and don’t think about image quality. It’s not their problem if something looks poor because the author couldn’t be bothered to give them something suitable.
Having a press kit page, with web-ready and print-ready images, deals with all those issues and more.
P.S. I’d love to meet you on Twitter or Facebook.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it. You can read other posts like it here.
Copyright © 2019 Judy L Mohr