Getting a New Look & A Book Launch!

By Jody Hedlund, @JodyHedlund

Today I'm celebrating two big milestones!

The first (as you can probably tell!) is that I've had my website overhauled for a brand new look. I had my first website designed almost five years ago by Pulse Point. Needless to say, Pulse Point did a fabulous job, and I've been VERY happy with my site ever since.

So why have my website overhauled, you might ask?

Well, several reasons, actually:

1. I'm branching into two new genres next year. In addition to continuing to write historical romance, I'll be adding Young Adult (An Uncertain Choice, a medieval romance releasing in March 2015 through Harper Collins) AND I'll also be releasing Historicals (the first is releasing in September 2015 through Random House).

Thus I wanted my website to not only have special pages for my new genres, but I also wanted it to have a broader appeal (so that I'm not branded as only a historical romance writer).

2. I wanted to bring a clean-cut, more 2015 feel to my website. Just like styles in clothes and shoes come and go, so do styles in websites. What was popular five years ago, may start to feel dated today. So, in an effort to keep up with the changing styles and times, I wanted to clean up my website.

3. I have new author and family photos. Every so often, we writers need to have our author photos updated. Since it's been about five years since I had mine taken, I realized I was due for a makeover. (And my family photos needed to be updated too.) The new photos have a slightly different feel to them, so I decided this was a good time to place those new photos in a new home.

All that to say, grab a cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy browsing through my new site! I hope you'll feel at home!

The second big milestone today is the launch of my seventh book, Love Unexpected! This is the first book of my first series. So I'm really excited about it! The series centers around real women light keepers who served at real Michigan lighthouses.

Of course I've fictionalized the stories and piled them full of my usual page-turning danger and adventure. Nevertheless, I hope you'll enjoy learning a little bit more about lighthouses and some of the women who helped run them.

If you enjoy marriage of convenience stories, lighthouses, and pirates, then I have no doubt that you'll like Love Unexpected. Whether that sounds like your cup of tea or not, I'm encouraging readers to give it as a gift this Christmas. We all know books make an excellent gift!

In fact, in celebration of my book's release, my publisher is sponsoring a "Give the Gift of Books" giveaway with a package of FIVE new releases (including Love Unexpected). Enter to win the package of books either on my Facebook Page or on the Events Page here on my website. If you win, you can gift yourself or give the books to someone else.

 
(And if you missed out on my FREE e-novella, Out of the Storm, make sure you go get it now! It kicks off my lighthouse series.)

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating these new milestones with me! I'm so grateful for the many friends and readers who've encouraged me along the way!

A HUGE thank you to Jones House Creative for the fantastic job they've done on my new website!

So what about you? What do you like to see in an author's website? What makes a site stand out to you?