One Writer’s Look at Writing a Website for a Bestselling Writer.

As a copywriter, there’s always added pressure when working on projects with other writers. Especially when that other writer is the client. And especially if the client happens to be a professional writer. And super especially if he’s a New York Times bestselling author.

Did I also mention that this was my first project at Moncur?

Brad Meltzer is a modern day renaissance man. He’s a bestselling author of thrillers like “House of Secrets” and “The President’s Circle,” and also created the children’s book series “I Am…” which highlights heroes from American history. Brad also hosted Lost History on the History Channel and Brad Meltzer’s Decoded on H2, where he investigated some of the coolest and most mysterious aspects of our country’s past. He’s also written for comic books like Justice League, given a TED Talk, and been an all around inspirational role model all around the world.

When Team Moncur first talked with Brad and looked at his old website, the challenge was obvious. How do we take all of these awesome aspects of his media personality and neatly piece them together into a cohesive presence. Political thrillers don’t usually tend to fit alongside an illustrated children’s book about Lucille Ball, but we had to find a creative piece of string to weave through his personal brand.

And perhaps ironically, our eventual inspiration was inspiration.

When the team dove into his books, his talks, his shows – the emotion we kept coming back to meetings with was one of ‘inspiration.’ The characters and stories he focused on were all chasing something: chasing the truth, chasing history, and the nature of the chase fueled our creativity. Inspiration was now at the top of our hierarchy of communication, and the idea of inspiration would need be to closely linked to Brad Meltzer before trickling down into the details of all his work.

This breakthrough was only the first minor step in a massive creative process. We then had to capture Brad’s inspirational in-person essence. Team members flew down to Miami and photographed Brad in his home, finding that the inspiration from his work bled over into his personal life as well. His personal office in particular was filled with letters from classrooms that have read his books, his military backpack from visiting troops sitting on the floor, personalized gifts from his Mom — all these things connected back to our idea of showcasing inspiration.

With new photography of Brad and a clear idea of how we wanted to connect all of his amazing work, the next challenge was in organizing all of his content. Since his thrillers launched his career and are still a main focus, we wanted to make sure his thrillers had their own section on the site to capture their individual feeling and focus. Kids books and TV shows followed a similar structure but included additional works that could easily live alongside them. This is why we included Kids Books “& other goodness” or TV Shows “& videos.” We’re hinting at the depth of content. A true Brad Meltzer fan could spend hours and hours on this new website, jumping from write-ups on his thrillers to one of the many inspiring videos.

Did I also mention that this all came together in four weeks? The team worked at a breakneck pace, thanks in part to close collaboration between programming and creative to ensure the website came together in a very creative and executable way.

The new Brad Meltzer website resets the bar for what an author’s website can be: a flexible, interactive, and (most importantly) inspiring experience that engages visitors in a similar way one of their bestselling novels does.

Visit BradMeltzer.com to view the new & improved, Moncur-made website for yourself.

And if you looking for help on refreshing your brand’s web presence you know where to find us.