This image may be cliché, but it's pretty. And...it's shelves of books! Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash (Mods)

Reading time: 2 minutes

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The hook

I know. We writers can be takers.

Primarily, we take your time. That pile of queries isn't going to read itself. Sure, it's how you make your living, but you don't make money off every writer you interact with. Your cost of doing business is high.

What I'm offering is a courtesy, treetop analysis of your website from a programmer's perspective. A roadmap for making your site better.

You deserve a break. It's time someone gave you the opportunity to be a taker.

The problem

Many literary agencies have excellent websites, but many others...don't. This is true for every industry in the world.

Father reading to son, who is paying close attention

Reading to my son Francis.

It's 2020 and a significant number of literary agency websites need to be either:

Spruced up
Overhauled
Burned down and allowed to rise gloriously like a phoenix...?

Does yours need an upgrade? It might.

The design and content may not be to your liking, but that's not the point. As a collection of software, this website is a well-oiled machine.

On one hand, there's no shame in it. You're agents, not technologists—and besides, technology changes constantly. Building and maintaining a website is difficult. Updating content can be unpleasant. And almost no one has time to work on their website—it's an afterthought for a lot of companies.

On the other hand, don't tell yourself it's ok to have a non-responsive website with 15 month-old content. It's not.

I've been doing this since 1994. I can help.

The solution

I do not want to redo your website.

What I'm offering is a courtesy, treetop analysis of your website from a programmer's perspective. A roadmap for making your site better: basic technology, functionality, and UI/UX first, then—maybe—some design ideas. (Not SEO. I'm not a search engine specialist.)

Then you take that roadmap and go find a programmer or developer you're comfortable with. I'll even share thoughts on what it might cost.

I've been a programmer for decades. This website, the one you're looking at? 100% me.

Don't tell yourself it's ok to have a non-responsive website with 15 month-old content. It's not.

The design and content may not be to your liking, but that's not the point. As a collection of software, this website is a well-oiled machine. It runs in three environments (for development and testing purposes) with custom plugins and airtight security. It is responsive and SEO-friendly. The scripting is not obtrusive. I hacked the content management system within inches of its life and it works exactly the way I want it to.

I could go on. Believe me.

The quid pro quo

The Ask: just look around my site. That's all.

Check out the many, many (many) pages devoted to me under "About." (You can just scroll down this page and start.)

You'll quickly discover that one of my interests is travel writing. My travel memoir, Backseat Cities: Travels Through Places People Only Live In, is halfway finished. I have the introduction plus two chapters, and they total 52,100 words.

The drummer for Kiss, Peter Criss, donated a drum kit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. Why is the image on this page? Why the hell not?

A couple of years ago, I cut half of my historical novel but haven't followed up with rewrites yet, so there's that. Right now, though, travel writing is what I'm most interested in.

To summarize

The short version:

I'll give you advice based on twenty-five years of experience
In return, you read through a few pages of my website (there's no quiz or follow-up)

You deserve a break. It's time someone gave you the opportunity to be a taker.

In a little more detail:

If you are a literary agent, or represent a literary agency, contact me and give me your web address
Spend some time on this site and read about my travel memoir or peruse my blog
Wait for a Concise List of Awesome™ to arrive, from me, via email
If the programmer you hire doesn't understand my list, or pushes back...get another programmer
Within reason, follow up on the list as much as you like
Improve your site and think of me with a satisfied smile every time you look at it