I happen to be rather lucky.  I’m trying to be an author and I’m already alright at web design.  (This web page is not exactly my best work, but it’ll be getting tweaked soon.)

Websites really are a necessary resource these days.  Authors in particular need a medium to communicate new projects to their audiance.  For authors that stay within certain genres maybe it’s less vital, but any author that has books in a few different sections of the bookstore needs some way of pointing their audiance where to work.

In the case of George RR Martin and Michael Stackpole (the two author’s whose sites I visit the most consistantly) they always have some note on what their doing, what conventions their going to, writing samples, outside projects etc etc.  As a fan it’s fun and informative and kinda cool.  For the author’s it’s building up a brand, just like every other product and service.