Another perk of the Author's Guild!

We've posted before about the advantages of Authors Guild membership, but member Lois Harris has another example to add: free publicity.

She explains, "In 2006, I joined because I needed a website and didn't have a clue about how to get or build one, and the Authors Guild had a Sitebuilder software program for members. You can play around with different themes, colors, design, etc. I am not a computer type but found the program easy to use, and I'm happy with the results.

"Was I surprised the other day when the AG's marketing communications manager emailed, saying they liked the looks of my website and wanted permission to use it in an ad on the back cover of Poets & Writers Magazine's November/December issue.

"Of course, I said yes —unexpected publicity for my books! I'm tickled. If anyone out there gets or sees the magazine, please email me and let me know how the ad looks."

WordPress design workshop

This workshop by the Graphic Artists Guild might actually be helpful for writers, too.

Creating Sites in WordPress: What Designers Should Know
Presented by Bob Dunn
Wed. May 28, 2014​, noon-1:30 p.m. (social time at 11:15 a.m.)
Seattle Design Center-EAFA Gallery

Get more information or tickets.

Graphic Artists Guild Workshop Oct. 24

Are you looking to create your first site? Is your existing site is looking tired? Is it a pain to maintain?
A website is an essential promotional tool for visual artists. It’s a 24/7 venue to showcase your work and present yourself professionally to potential clients.


The Graphic Artists Guild presents its next workshop, "WordPress Portfolio Websites for Artists and Designers," this Wednesday, October 24 at the Seattle Design Center.

Leslie Newman, an independent graphic designer/illustrator/website architect demonstrates how WordPress can be used to create professional portfolio websites that are easy to update.

To register for this event, click here.

Children's Websites: Usability Issues in Designing for Kids

Thanks to Wendy Wahman for sending us the link to this article on usability issues in developing children's websites (a good thing for authors with sites, and those of us who want to develop websites that are kid-friendly). Here's the summary of the article:

New research with users aged 3–12 shows that older kids have gained substantial Web proficiency since our last studies, while younger kids still face many problems. Designing for children requires distinct usability approaches, including targeting content narrowly for different ages of kids.

Jakcob Neilsens's website use.it.com is all about current issues in web usability, and worth checking out.