Sandvox Website Profile: “KOT Books: The Official King of the Trees and Creation Seekers Series Website”

The goal of my "KOT Books" website is to showcase my seven published YA novels in the "King of the Trees" series: Book I: The King of the Trees; Book II: Torsils in Time; Book III: The Golden Wood; Book IV: The Greenstones; Book V: The Downs; Book VI: Kyleah's Mirrors; and Book VII: The Birthing Tree.

Each title has a dedicated page with a cover image, plot synopsis, PayPal secure purchase links for obtaining autographed copies at discounted prices, and reader/editorial reviews. There is also a page offering the entire set of seven titles at a steep 32% discount.

Another page is dedicated to the first soon-to-be-published title in an entirely new series—"The Creation Seekers."

My website also features a high-quality video trailer for Book I; external purchase links to our e-books (Kindle, Nook, etc.); Home-school resources (Activity book, Study guide); Audio books; a page devoted to book reviews and testimonials from readers and editors; and an "About the Author" page.

Additionally, another page features "Plant Decks," which are decks of standard-size (playing) cards with photographs of edible and poisonous plants on one side and descriptions/uses on the reverse. These plant decks were originally published by my father, Calvin P. Burt in conjunction with his business partner, Ret. Colonel Frank G. Heyl and are still popular with hikers, foraging enthusiasts, amateur botanists, and the military. These decks come in two editions: a Western States edition (reflecting plants found mainly west of the Rockies) and an Eastern States edition.

The target audience for my website includes pre-teen, teen and young adult readers (girls or boys), as well as their parents and grandparents. Homeschoolers in particular enjoy my series. In other words, my website is designed for practically anybody who enjoys clean, uplifting fantasy tales.

Additionally, the Plant Deck products appeal to backpackers, survival enthusiasts, amateur botanists, and backyard foragers interested in collecting wild plants for food, tea, dyes, fiber, and other uses.

My website offers many advantages over other bookselling sites (such as Amazon): 1) Our book prices are better than customers will find anywhere else—including on Amazon and in brick-and-mortar stores; 2) We ship autographed copies, a service also found on no other website (we do sell new autographed copies on Amazon, but only as third-party sellers); 3) Our website is the EXCLUSIVE worldwide distributor of our home-school resources; 4) Very, very few other websites offer the unique Plant Deck guides to edible and poisonous plants; 5) No other commercial website features our video trailers; 6) When we publish new titles, our website is the first place they appear.

I must admit that I enjoy the sometimes challenging process of adding new content without having to ask a webmaster to make the change. I learn best by doing (and by making mistakes)—and I still have a lot to learn. My current design has earned me many online sales and compliments, although I don't have a contact form because of problems with spammers.

I chose this particular design mainly because of its simplicity and because I like the color blue! That particular shade goes well with my book covers.

Having just created a video trailer for my series, I wanted to find a way to incorporate it into my website. However, my version was so large (64MB) that it didn't play smoothly. It also slowed the loading of my website. Since I've found most software help menus to be very UNhelpful, I usually Google my Sandvox questions—which generally takes me to the Karelia website. At this URL: (http://www.karelia.com/support/sandvox/articles/video-sandvox-websites.html), I learned that I would need to export to an MPEG-4 version for maximum device compatibility and for reduced size (“.m4v” is the extension). After some struggling, I was able to successfully save my trailer in the proper format, and it now plays beautifully on my website as well as on other devices.