This year’s ALCS AGM was prefaced by a fascinating panel discussion held in association with Byte the Book. The three panellists were:

  • Leena Normington (@leenanorms), a producer and online creator who has amassed over four million views on her book-themed YouTube channel…
  • Natalie Haynes, a writer and broadcaster, whose first novel The Amber Fury was published to great acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic…
  • Orna Ross (@OrnaRoss), an award-winning and bestselling independent author who writes novels, poems, and non-fiction for other indie authors and creative entrepreneurs.

This is an extract:

Is it still worth authors having a website? Natalie Haynes responded that for her, it absolutely is, even at the most basic level of referring people to it for simple and commonly requested downloads such as her biog and author photo. Orna Ross agreed, saying “yes, absolutely”. Every author should have a website that you can update and control yourself, she argued. And ideally it should also be a functioning e-commerce website so that authors can offer direct sales of their books.