HarperCollins Launches Site for Author Web Pages

HarperCollins has established a pilot site called AuthorAssistant that allows authors to create, and control, their own Web page using HarperCollins backend technologies. The site, which rolled out with 40 authors from the Avon imprint, offers, according to Carolyn Pittis, senior v-p of global marketing strategy and operations, a way for authors to have a strong presence on the Web without forcing them to create and host their own site. “Maintaining an author Web site is a lot of work,” Pittis explained. “Now these authors have a platform in which they can very simply use our system to add their own content.”

Encouraging the authors on AuthorAssistant to add the kind of words and links that frequently crop up in search engines, Pittis said the site “uses their content and the science of search engine optimization” to get the writers more attention and, hopefully, more readers. HC plans to roll out the program imprint by imprint. Article