HANG YOUR SHINGLE STUDIO
Start a new chapter in your story.
Let’s Work Together
About ten years ago, I heard someone ask the question, “What are you working on when you find you’ve lost track of time because you’re so in flow?” I immediately thought of the websites I had been designing during my free time, when I wasn’t teaching at Caltech or running Writing Workshops Los Angeles. I liked both of those jobs—they helped me learn how to help writers of all stripes—but something about the design element of building websites brought me so much joy and satisfaction.
Since then, I've designed websites to accompany publications from Simon & Schuster, Pantheon, DC Comics, Random House, Hachette Book Group, Counterpoint Press, W.W. Norton, Flatiron Books, Hogarth, and more. The authors were always embarking on a new stage of their career: a new project, a new publication, a newfound desire or reason to promote their work. Then I also designed some websites for small business owners at a similar stage in their development. I found that I loved working with people on the cusp of making a positive change, moving forward, taking a risk.
At the same time, once I stopped teaching after many, many years, I started expanding my coaching business. I always enjoyed one-on-one meetings with my students, and now I was able to meet with creative professionals who were writing books, growing their own businesses, querying agents, and generally looking to up their game.
As I planned a move to Paris at the end of last year, I started to think about where I wanted to direct my energy in this new chapter. Back when I launched my website business, a friend helped me promote it on social media and told her followers that I had “hung out my shingle,” a wonderfully old-timey phrase that I’ve thought about ever since. I realized that through the websites I was designing, I had been helping other people hang their shingles—the beautifully ornate signs outside a store or other venture that announce “we are in business!” I wanted to combine my enjoyment of website building with my love of helping people start the next chapter of their story and Hang Your Shingle Studio was born.
The Hang Your Shingle package below takes you through four stages: coaching to firm up your ideas for what’s next, branding to nail down the visuals and copy that will help distinguish you from the crowd, website design to build the shingle, and consulting to help you market your new chapter.
I currently have four open spots for Hang Your Shingle Studio beta testers. If you get in touch in time to claim one of the spots, you can get $200 off the total price. Also, feel free to reach out to me for coaching, branding/marketing consultation, or website design à la carte. I want to help you share your work with the world!
How We’ll Work Together
Coaching (usually two hours)
We will discuss what you hope to achieve from this new venture, including questions around why you’re doing this now, with whom you would most like to work, what unites the services you’d like to offer, and more. We will emerge with enough clarity to move to the next step.
Branding consultation (two hours)
We will meet twice for an hour to discuss how we're going to present your brand. In the first meeting, we will brainstorm copy and visuals and general strategy. In the second meeting, I'll come with more concrete suggestions like possible logos (if appropriate), a palette, a landing page prototype, or other assets for us to discuss.
Website design & build (two to four weeks)
Once I have the materials I'd need from you, I'll build the website (process described below), which usually takes two to four weeks.
Marketing consultation (two hours)
Once the website is built, we will meet twice for an hour (or once for two hours, whatever seems best) to discuss strategy to share your work with the world (my logline :-). We can go over possibilities for social media, newsletter content, ads, networking, etc.
Hang Your Shingle Studio
Hang Your Shingle total package*
*Package includes:
Two hours of coaching
Two hours of branding consultation
Website design and build in Squarespace
Two hours of marketing consultation
Video updates tutorial
$3400
Website Design Process and Checklist for Authors
I’ve included some details below about how I work with authors, but no matter which industry you call home, we’ll customize the plan for you.
Clients usually show me some sites they like (or tell me what they like about the previous sites I've designed). Once I have a sense of how you might like the site to look in terms of design and layout, I usually design a prototype landing page and menu structure for us to discuss. Then you could provide feedback like Can we add a page for press and reviews? Can we use this color instead of that? Could we use a font that is more ___? Could the images be placed in a different layout? I'll do what I can within the confines of the platform we're using, but I can also make CSS code adjustments in many cases.
It would be helpful as I get started to have any media you'd like to use. If you are an author, here's a list of some possible items to gather in preparation (some might be applicable to your site, others not):
Bio
Headshot(s)
Book cover image (many authors get assets from their publishing house/publicist such as the layers used and the fonts)
Any other favorite fonts or colors?
Any photos, video, or audio you'll want to include, either your own or that you like from Unsplash, RawPixel, or a number of other public domain art sites I can recommend
List of online publications (maybe broken down into categories of top, middle, and bottom in terms of how you'd much importance you'd like to give them)
Book covers, descriptions, blurbs, and reviews (often conveniently gathered at Amazon/Bookshop)
The bookstores you'd like to link to for book purchase and the links to your book specifically
Any professional links or descriptions (teaching, training, etc.)
Services breakdown (teaching, editing, etc.)
Testimonials
News
Events
Newsletter sign up form details
Contact form details (email address you prefer for website correspondence)
Links to social media
Promotional pop-up text
FAQ
Once the design is settled, I'd finish filling in the text, images, etc. Then you could give feedback again on what's there, I'd make adjustments and finalize built-in social media and SEO settings, and then we'd transfer or connect the domain. That will require some cooperation on your end for billing, etc. (I'll send you detailed instructions.) At some point, also, you'd need to get set up with Squarespace, but as a member of their Circle team, I can get a six-month trial period (which you won't need but otherwise it's only two weeks) and 20% off your first annual hosting subscription.
Clients often ask about updates to the site after it's complete, and if you think you need it, I can offer you an hour-long tutorial in doing your own updates for $150 or a video walk-through recording of me making updates that you can watch and keep for $100. (Hang Your Shingle Studio clients receive this video tutorial for free.) If you'd prefer to have me do the updates later as they come up, there are two options: 1) as needed at $150 per hour or 2) if you anticipate frequent developments or regular new clips, you can arrange a monthly retainer of $100 for up to one hour of updates per month with additional hours billed at $150.
In terms of timing for the completion of the website, it usually takes 2-4 weeks for everything, depending on how complex the site is and if you have the content ready to go. From the time the site goes live, it usually takes another 2-4 weeks for the search spiders to crawl through and move you up the search return queue. If you have any other questions, please let me know.