Writers: Online Press Kit? You Need One. For All Our Sakes.

The marvelous Luis Rodrigues has just created the press kit pages for my two books coming out in the fall:FinchBooklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century WriterAre they purty? No, although Luis can do pretty. They're simple and functional, because they're not for readers--they're for reviewers, review editors, interviewers, and other people associated with the various and sundry media outlets out there. These sites are also for the venues I'll be appearing at as part of my book tour in the fall. (Some of this info will change in the next week, since the pages are up well in advance of when they'll be needed.)If you have a page like this, you and your publisher don't have to continually email files and press releases and whatnot in response to queries or even in being proactive about approaching the press. Some places will require that, but most will be fine with the URL.As a writer for the Amazon book blog, I can't tell you how much time I waste because the writer or the publisher of a book hasn't just put all of this information up on one simple page. It also helps me when I'm on tour, because usually I'm going to just have email through my phone. If someone queries needing information, it's a lot easier to type a short URL and email that than to have to try to send attachments, or then have to email my publisher to send the person the required info.Cory Doctorow has talked about this in the past, too, especially with regard to cover images. You wouldn't believe the number of publishers that have only a tiny cover image of a book on their site. So when you go to snag it for a feature you're doing...you're out of luck, and then you've got to cast a wider net searching for a size-appropriate image. And time is money.What should be in your press kit? Author photo (high-res and web-res), book cover (high-res and web-res), press release, author's bio, blurbs about the book, etc. Be creative and inventive, but keep it simple, too.The effort you put into having this information in one place will pay off by saving you time in the long run--and it will save other people time.UPDATE:Here's a press kit integrated into a book website (Shriek)Here's a different look-and-feel for a press kit (City of Saints)