Website design for new book series entitled "King's Highways & Steam Trains".

My business website is IanWilsonAuthor.com and (of course) I am Ian Wilson. Note that I want an entirely new website, with a new domain name (http://www.kingshighwaysandsteamtrains.com), developed.

I write, publish and market print books under my own name. My books and subject matter are about the 1950s in the province of Ontario, Canada. The principal subject of my books is steam trains (classic cars have recently been added to the mix). My target audience are people interested in trains, the 1950s in general, Ontario (Canada) history, and classic cars. Traditionally, this audience has been about 90% male, upper middle class, and an older demographic (although my current efforts are to expand that reach to a younger demographic of both sexes).

http://www.ianwilsonauthor.com

I would like a WordPress theme the designer considers appropriate for the function. This function will be outlined here and then I will leave it to the designer to use his/her expertise to fulfill that.

For colours, I would like to draw upon those used on my main website (ianwilsonauthor.com) so there is a family resemblance. Also, those colours featured on the front and back of Volume 1 of “King’s Highways & Steam Trains” (it is that specific series of books that the new website will promote), including the blue of the classic car. There is also a proprietary red and yellow that are featured in the book title heralds of my “Steam” series (e.g. “Steam Scenes of Allandale”). These covers are on my website.

HOMEPAGE

The focus of the new website at http://www.kingshighwaysandsteamtrains.com is to showcase a new series of books entitled “King’s Highways & Steam Trains”. The purpose of the homepage is to convince the visitor to do one of two things. Either to buy a book right away or to opt in to watch one or more videos about the book series.

The purpose of this landing page at http://www.kingshighwaysandsteamtrains.com is to bring (into a launch sequence) potential new readers of my books. The focus for these new readers will be this particular series of books. My main page at http://www.ianwilsonauthor.com is a repository for all my books in all series.

The “King’s Highways & Steam Trains” chrome logo should be prominent on the homepage and other pages. The homepage (and other pages, as appropriate) should also feature a large graphic of the book(s) in the “King’s Highways & Steam Trains” series (as of now there is only Volume 1, but by February there will also be a Volume 2 and several more volumes to come in 2017—and I will want the provision for each cover graphic to be displayed as the series grows). The “Ian Wilson” script signature logo should be featured somewhere as well. Navigation bars should be provided, as appropriate, for each page.

In addition to the graphics, the homepage should feature the following:
• sales copy about the book(s) in the series
• an invitation for the visitor to buy a signed copy of the book right away (by clicking a PayPal “buy” button which leads him to an order page)
• an invitation to opt in to watch a series of videos about the book series (via an AWeber web form link which requires the visitor to provide a first name, a last name, and an email address)
• a “look inside the book” link (which offers a PDF sample for download)
• a picture of the author and brief bio (alternatively, this could be in the form of a short video greeting)
• some short testimonials

‘ONE MORE THING' PAGE

The purpose of this page is to offer the visitor (who just opted in to my email list) a onetime offer to buy a signed copy of a specific book (the most recent in the series) at a special price with bonuses. This offer will expire in five minutes from the moment the visitor lands on the page. The actual wording could be something along the lines of ‘One More Thing’ or ‘You’re Almost Done’ or ‘Final Step’ (etc.). The bonuses for book buyers would be listed near the “buy” button(s). One of those bonuses will be a PDF version of the book provided right away so the person could start reading immediately, before the print version arrives. There would be a “buy” button for the special offer. A countdown timer (starting at five minutes) would immediately start counting down, with the offer expiring when the timer reaches zero. Otherwise, there is a ‘no thanks, take me to the first video’ link. This page should feature graphics, as appropriate, common to the homepage.

‘ONE LAST THING' PAGE

If the visitor has purchased the signed copy of the book (as per the special offer that expires in five minutes), he is taken to this page. I have called it ‘One Last Thing’ for lack of a better term. On this page, I offer the visitor the chance to buy additional copies of the same book, or any number of copies of other titles, for no additional shipping charges. This page should feature graphics, as appropriate, common to the homepage. The link will take the visitor to the order page.

ORDER PAGE

On this page, there will be cover graphics and prices for each book currently in print (please see http://www.ianwilsonauthor.com for these), including those in other series besides “King’s Highways & Steam Trains”. There should be drop-down menus for each title the visitor purchases, asking him for whom he would like the book specifically signed (at the moment, we take care of this through our PayPal buttons). This page should feature graphics, as appropriate, common to the homepage.

VIDEO PAGE

This page will have a YouTube video. The visitor would click the video to start it when he/she pleases. There should also be a “buy” button (should the visitor decide to bypass the video at any time and purchase a book) and a link to the next video (if applicable). When the website is coded, there will be three such video pages, virtually identical except for the YouTube video and the sales copy. This page should feature graphics, as appropriate, common to the homepage.

Please use my existing website http://www.ianwilsonauthor.com as a resource for graphics including book covers, sales copy, and the like. The books available are listed in two menus on that website (Canadian Branchline and Angus Wolfe Adventures). With the design of this new website at http://www.kingshighwaysandsteamtrains.com, the books will be divided into three series (the new King's Highways & Steam Trains, plus the Canadian Branchline and Angus Wolfe Adventures).

The videos that I will be using may be found at https://www.youtube.com/user/IanWil…hor/videos (although I will probably produce new ones).