How Early is Too Early?

Hi! I hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Captain Technology and I got a weekend away without the minis. We went up to Estes Park and stayed in a cabin. Hubby knows me so well he even brought the movie The Cabin in the Woods, because he knew I'd want to watch it. We should have grabbed Evil Dead, too. What better way to watch?!

I'm hoping I nabbed some good photos in Rocky Mountain National Park to share on Wednesdays, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and look since I got back.

Onto the topic! I've been trying to figure out the timing on author sites and head shots. See, I was asked to submit a head shot with the short story that will be published next spring. What I've got in the form of a head shot is the photo on this blog, in which I'm not even wearing makeup (I usually don't), and it most certainly isn't a professional head shot. I've had to give head shots for guest posts and profiles and the like, and this is the one I give. The funny thing is, this photo was taken because my daughter wanted me to take it. She liked the butterfly in my hair. It doesn't even pretend to be a real head shot.

But it feels weird to get a professional head shot at this time. I guess I always viewed them as being for the covers of book jackets. You get a head shot when you've made it big, not when you have one short story coming out. It feels...presumptuous.

Also feeling presumptuous is the thought of creating an author website. I keep hearing that I should already have an author page on Facebook, an author website, an author everything. That I shouldn't be using my blog as the site (I do own thewarriormuse.com), but should have a site in my own name. In other words, it's time to start establishing "my brand." I've started doing that with my blog, but haven't done that as just me.

I have a built-in web design guy, right here in this very house, so the moment I decide to jump on that particular bandwagon, I can make it happen. But is now really the time? I've got one flash fiction piece in an anthology, and one short story that isn't even out yet and that I have no promotional materials for. I haven't even made the time to submit anything else since I submitted that particular short story this past winter, so until I "get off my arse" and make that happen, I don't have anything else coming out to cover.

So my question is, how early is too early for head shots and author sites? I think I've answered my own question on the head shots. I found a photographer I'll probably go to, who did the head shots of a local author friend. If I'm going to have a presence on the web, whether it be author or blog, or both, I should probably have a professional head shot, no? I was just going to take it myself, using my camera remote, but my research did turn up compelling arguments for having a fully professional head shot done, rather than ones done even by a good friend who dabbles in photography, for instance. (By the way, if you're looking into this same thing, there's a ton out there on the interwebs with tips for this sort of thing.)

However, the web sites and Facebook seem too early to me. What exactly am I going to be promoting? I'd connect it to my blog, of course, but what else? Then again, maybe it would give me the incentive I need to get back out there and start submitting again. I've thought about starting a couple little fun things based on characters or story lines. For my Urban Fantasy, I could probably post information on cryptozoological beasties. It's not that I don't have ideas, but I wonder how effective any of it will be without more to promote.

What's your opinion? Do you have an author site on Facebook and Twitter, and an author website? What do you put on it? How early did you set it up? Or do you just use your blog as your website for the time being? Have you had professional head shots taken?

P.S. I start my five-week CNA training course tomorrow. Wish me luck!

May you find your Muse.