Official Gordon Korman Web Site

I like the first one better because 1) it has a margin in the middle column and 2) no scrollbars. When I can get away with it, I prefer a home page to be a "front porch" (a welcome area.) Your front porch includes the living room and the kitchen I would include only the first paragragh of the middle column and link to the rest (or something to that effect.)

Minor nits:
Serif for print and sans-serif for the web is the general rule for readability, but since he's an author OF print you can get away with it here.

Lose the counter (or hide it if Bravenet still lets you do that.)

Move your web design ad to the bottom. (v1)

One rule that's definately being broken: no navigation/menu.

Why do all relative links open in a new window? That's sure to irritate some visitors.

On pages such as jake.htm, you really should narrow the column. It difficult to read such long lines of text.

I like the background and the banner.

Interesting book titles - "Your Mummy is a Nose Picker"? I'm sure that's a must read. Seriously, some of those series do look interesting. Are they all young adult oriented?

If you're going to use serif don't use TNR. Try Garamond or Georgia. Anything but TNR!

The new version doesn't look much different from the old one. Basically the same thing just with the frames added. I don't like all those scrollbars in there.

Oh, that's where I know this author! My sister used to read the Macdonald Hall books.

To be honest, I think this site needs a complete overhaul. I don't know what else to say. There is no navigation menu, the site is difficult to get around, the colour scheme is poorly defined, the background is distracting, links are always opening in new windows etc. etc. It looks like something that was created five years ago, to be honest.

Sorry I had to say that. I'm sure you put a lot of hard work into the site. Take a look around at what others are doing these days and go from there. Start at A List Apart or Jeff Zeldman

Since I was asking mainly for critiques of the homepage, itself, I gave you links directly to the homepage, instead of to the frame. If you just visit gordonkorman.com, instead of gordonkorman.com/toposite.htm, you'll see there is a navigation bar down the left hand side, to make it easy (or as easy as possible) to reach all the pages.

Though I'll admit, I am considering looking into iFrames, rather than regular frames, for the navigation bar ... yet another new technique to learn about. (Always something new to learn about, in web design.)

When I have time, I'll be looking into possibly setting up the entire site on style sheets (much of this was designed in 1997 or 1998, when most of the browsers couldn't do anything with style sheets), which will make it much easier to make sweeping changes to all 60+ pages.

Now understand, personally, I prefer Garamond to Times ... but how many computers now have Garamond on them? It used to be somewhat rare. Once I go to style sheets, however, listing Garamond as a first choice with times as one of the back-ups could be easily done.

I finally went with the scroll bars on the three columns because I have always hated how the three columns always extended different lengths down the page, especially in different browsers. If I stay with the scroll bars (there is no point in asking for opinions if you don't at least intently think about what you are told), should I consider a bit larger of margins?

In response to the banner ad, I may soon remove it all together, since even at rock-bottom prices, nobody has been showing any interest in having me design more web pages for them, but if it stays at all, on that version, it has to be near the top, as the columns all end at different points on the bottom.

Counter is included on the site because the author wants it there ... his site, his choice. Since it isn't a full-blown business-style site, I doubt it causes too much harm. And I think the pages opening in new windows have to do with them being called outside of their frame. When I call them from the main site, they always open in the proper frame. If you wish, take a look with the frame in place. (There's just no way to access the new version of the home page in the frame at this time.)

Anyway, thanks for the comments ... sorry about the frame confusion.

Frames can mess up your search engine statistics. If you really want to go with that frame thing, go with iFrames.
Forget bravenet. Go to statcounter.com and get a counter that you can hide or make it so it BLENDS IN with your website. Statcounter.com is the best counter site on the web.
Dont' center your links in the left frame (that's just me)
Put all the stuff in the tags in a .css file (googlebots like it better like that).
Dont' open up a new window for the forums. If you know HTML, just do this:
link (I think that is right).

Good luck
--Jason