Yes, a book list would be useful. Linking to Amazon does seem the most obvious thing to do though I understand completely that its marketplace section might not be favourable to an author. But it does have reviews and information about the book and an excerpt from some books. Very useful for a newbie. The other thing is that not all readers come from the US so I'm not sure if it would be too time consuming to put links to or at least contact details of booksellers for some other geographical locations like the UK, Canada, Australia, Singapore.

Maybe some excerpts from your books.

Your bio section is a bit confusing as there seem to be a few different sections.

Links to some reviews or even better, interviews that you have done. Karin Slaughter has this on her site and though its not interactive, when I just started reading her books, it helped me to decide if they were something I wanted to invest in or not.

But this is all cosmetic. I think what really makes your site work so well is the blog.... its current, interactive and updated very regularly. And your little bits of information about storywriting etc are really nice and useful.

I'm a bit in two minds here, Sara - the points that Sillybean makes are good ones, but then I really like the way you run your blog. All of those other things I can source from elsewhere, if I really want to (or work it through for myself - you know, cleaning up an old PC the other night, I found the family tree I made myself the first time I read "Into the Wilderness").

But maybe I think this way because I think of a blog and a site as two very different mediums with quite different purposes...

Sorry the post was painful! Let me be reassuring: your site is one of the better ones. You are not on my list of bad examples. (I do have one, but since their creators aren't around to defend themselves, I've been reluctant to cite any of them.)

I've yet to become obssessed enough with Poppy's books that I need the full character list, but I *love* the smaller ones, where you get all the series novels and related short stories in chronological order, regardless of publication date. Her Liquor series was published a bit out of order, and some of the short stories are in obscure places, so that list has been essential to me.

Meredith: absolutely. I think of a blog as a particular kind of site, or as one part of a larger site.

Thanks (everybody) for the supportive words, but you know, it's okay to say that there are things that could be better. There always are. In everything. All the time. So I'll make a few small adjustments where (1) am able to and (2) get the sense that people who visit here will find those changes useful. And I'll leave it at that.

And now I'll have to go read Poppy, because Stephanie has said enough that I'm truly intrigued.

Have you heard of "structured procrastination"? I ran across the idea on this website: http://www-csli.stanford.edu/~john/procrastination.html
A blogger (unfortunately, lost to my memory) drew my attention to this essay on the topic, when he claimed that blogging was a way for him to engage in structured procrastination. Itemizing characters from your writing doesn't sound so bad, as far as structured procrastination projects go.

PBZ's site drove me crazy. When I want to find out about an author, I do a search and click on whomever has reviews or comments--usually ending up on a site done by fans. When I want to find out what an author thinks, independent of his/her work, I look for a blog or journal. The one thing that will turn me off faster than anything else (odd, eh) is when there's no way to respond. That drives me batty.

Not because I necessarily need to respond--I've read your site, and Buckell's, and Neilson Hayden's, for several months before seeing something that made me decide to reply. No, it's not that. It's the implication that there's no two-way conversation. What's the point of a journal system, then? Why pay $200 for an EE license if you're not going to interact with the community? Why join LJ, a community of thousands upon thousands of people, if you're not going to allow them to participate? It'd be like giving a speech on a daily basis and never allowing questions from the audience.

One of the sites mentioned--Crusie, I think?--was well-done, especially the info about the books currently out. Each one had pictures of the hardback and paperback versions, with teasers. PBZ, in contrast, just lists all characters in this long line of info. Okay, that's cool if you're already a convert, but I'd think half of the potential audience is someone just randomly stopping by. You want them to read more, not send them shrieking in horror at the unbelieveable overwhelmingness of it all. That was my only impulse on PBZ's--"kid who gives Toby blowjob in bathroom"--what the hell? This doesn't make me want to read, it just makes me confused.

IOW: I think your site is fine. You encourage interactivity, you talk about writerly issues such that we unpublished peons don't feel like we're being patronized but that there are common curiosities to both newbies and already-theres, and your site is laid out neatly and legibly. That's what matters, at least to me.

(Don't even get me started on black-on-white. You'd bloody well think a writer would have some semblance of awareness of what's hard to read. Sheesh.)

err, I meant white on black. long day!

sGreer -- I'm very glad to hear that (1) you find useful bits here and (2) I don't come across as patronizing, because I'd pack up today if that were the case.

I have always avoided the traditional writers' retreats (Breadload, for example) and other such organized get-together precisely because I can't stand the embedded social hierarchy with the published writers up on pedestals. The whole scene makes me vaguely nauseous.

As I don't write sci-fi and I can only give my general impressions, it seems to me that they as a group are more successful at getting together and leaving the caste structure behind. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it does seem as if the sci-fi community is far more socially adept and less codified.

Having veered off into another, only vaguely related topic, I'll go away now.