How to Create a Sales-Boosting Author Website
Photo by Kristen Kieffer
To succeed in the business of writing and selling books, you’ll need an online headquarters — a place that readers can visit to learn everything they need to know about who you are, what you write, and where they can purchase your books. In other words, you’ll need an author website.
The most effective author websites are simple and professional. They establish your credibility as a novelist, communicate necessary information to readers, and serve as the foundation of your online book marketing efforts by encouraging readers to subscribe to your email list.
What information should an author website include? How does one go about creating an author website, exactly? When is the right time to create and launch your online headquarters?
Let’s answer each of these questions in turn in today’s article, writer. 👇
The Six Types of Content Every Author Website Should Include
Every author’s website will look a little different. The information an author chooses to include on their site will depend upon the genre(s) they write, who they write for, and how experienced they are in their writing careers.
That said, let’s take a look at the six key types of content every novelist’s website should include:
#1: A Home Page
When readers visit your website, your homepage will be the first thing they see.
To make a positive first impression, avoid stuffing this page with a lengthy bio or book descriptions. Instead, use your homepage to introduce readers to who you are and what you write, then redirect them to pages where they can learn more (e.g. about the author page, individual book pages, subscription page).
#2: About the Author Page
Your “About the Author” page is where you’ll tell readers a bit more about who you are and what you write. But in reality, this page isn’t about you; it’s about your readers. Specifically, your “about” page should encourage readers to pick up your books by telling them all about what makes your work unique.
While it’s okay to share a few key details about your life (e.g. where you live, whether you have kids, what hobbies you enjoy), I recommend skipping a list of fun facts about yourself in favor of sharing how you can serve your readers.
In addition to your bio, your “about” page should also include your author photo. In time, you may also wish to add links to any interviews, articles, or book reviews that might help you build credibility with your audience.
#3: Book Descriptions
It should come as no surprise that you should talk about your books on your author website. Most authors choose to create one main page that provides an overview of all of their published books, which in turn includes links to pages where readers can learn more about each book individually.
Individual book pages should include the book’s cover, back cover copy, and links to where the book can be purchased online. You may also wish to include excerpts from book reviews, author blurbs, and other notable praise.
#4: Contact Page
Your website should also include a contact page through which readers can get in touch. Ideally, this page will include an email form — or, at the very least, an address that readers can use to email you.
The email address you use to contact readers should be professional and unique to your creative work. If possible, consider setting up an email address using your domain name (i.e. your website’s unique web address), such as:
authorname@authorwebsite.com
If you’re unable to create an email address using your domain name, then I recommend creating a Gmail account using your author name instead.
In addition to a contact form or email address, you may also wish to include a quick list of FAQs on your contact page. These FAQs can answer questions such as where readers can purchase your books or when you plan to launch your next release.
#5: Social Links
If you maintain a social media presence for your creative work, then you’ll want to include links to your accounts on your website. Most authors choose to include social links in their website’s header and/or footer. Some also include social links on their “about” page, contact page, or their website sidebar.
#6: Newsletter Sign-Up Page
No one subscribes to receive more email unless they genuinely believe they’ll find value in what they receive. That’s what makes an author’s email list such a powerful tool. It’s their direct line of access to their most ardent fans.
Including an easy newsletter subscription page on your website is just one of many ways to encourage readers to sign up for your email list.
Should you include a blog on your author website?
You may have noticed that I didn’t mention anything about blogging on your author website — and for good reason.
Many writers hesitate to create their websites because they fear that creating content for a blog will take valuable time away from their book-writing efforts, and they’re not wrong. Blogs are incredibly time-consuming to maintain with any consistency.
The good news is that you absolutely don’t need to run a blog through your author website. In fact, I would discourage you from doing so.
Maintaining an author blog would not only eat into your writing time. It would also serve as a poor book marketing tool. Why? Because the type of information that you would typically share on a blog (e.g. updates on your writing progress, sales and discounts, excerpts from upcoming books) is all the same information that you could be sharing exclusively with your email list.
Given that an email list offers a direct line of contact to your most ardent readers, it’s by far one of the most valuable book marketing strategies you can cultivate. But if you’re already sharing your most valuable and exciting insights publicly, then why would anyone want to sign up for your list?
For most novelists, the only reason to consider creating a blog is to keep website visitors apprised of their most important updates — news like upcoming book launch dates and ongoing sales that you’d want to share as far and wide as possible. But if you already have a strong social media presence and email list, then sharing this news via a blog post likely isn’t necessary.
Some novelists enjoy using a blog to share writing advice or tidbits of book research. If you’d like to do the same, then I encourage you to take a moment to consider the cost. Maintaining either of these types of blogs can be fun, but it’s rarely a strong book marketing strategy.
Are you willing to put in the time and effort, even if running such a blog doesn’t translate into any notable book sales? If not, then it’s likely best to forgo a blog on your author website for now.
How to Create a Quick, Easy, and Effective Author Website
Creating an author website may seem like a huge task that involves a lot of technical know-how, but that doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, most authors should be able to set up their websites in one quick and relatively painless weekend by following these five steps:
#1: Choose a Host + Website Builder
To create a website, you’ll first need to choose a web host (i.e. a company that will store your site files on its servers and connect them to the web), as well as a website builder (i.e. the platform you'll use to actually create your site).
Don’t worry if this sounds a bit complicated. Many companies, such as Wix and Squarespace (my personal choice!), offer both services in one easy package.
#2: Purchase a Domain Name
A domain name is your website's unique web address (e.g. well-storied.com).
For an author website, you'll want to choose a domain name that’s both simple and professional, preferably one that features your author name. For example, you might choose a domain name that follows one of the following formats:
yourauthorname.com
firstname-lastname.com
authornamebooks.com
worldofauthorname.com
authornameromances.com
Avoid choosing a domain name that centers around the title of your debut book or series, as these likely won’t be your only books for long. The last thing you want to do is switch domain names after establishing your author platform.
If you're having trouble finding an appropriate domain name that’s available with a .com ending, then you might consider .net or .co instead.
#3: Design Your Website
Quality design is key to your site’s credibility and readability. Fortunately, you don’t need to hire a professional designer to create a beautiful site for you.
Instead, you can easily create a well-designed site yourself using an editable, pre-made template provided by your website builder. That’s exactly what I did to create this site using a Squarespace template called Brine.
If you do decide to tweak the template you choose for your site, remember to do so with author branding in mind. In other words, consider how you can design your site to appeal to your ideal readers. You probably won’t sell many horror novels with a bright pink website design, for example.
On that note, if you aren’t too familiar with basic graphic design theory, then I encourage you to tweak your template sparingly. The last thing you want to do is make your website difficult on the eyes with a bad color combo or a pretty font that’s unfortunately difficult to read. Been there, done that!
#4: Add Your Content
With your basic website design in place, it’s time to add content to your site.
Bear in mind that professional copy is key to your site’s credibility and success as a marketing tool. Keeping things professional doesn’t mean sanitizing your tone, but it does mean that every word on your site should serve a purpose — and don’t forget to proofread while you’re at it.
If you’re looking for inspiration, then here are a few examples of well-designed and effective author websites:
Talia Hibbert (Romance)
Ilona Andrews (Fantasy)
Mark Dawson (Thriller)
#5: Launch Your Site!
With design and content complete, it’s time to share your author website with the world. Consider adding links to your website in your social media bios, on the about-the-author pages in your published books, and in your email footer.
If there’s a place where readers might look to learn more about who you and what you write, then that’s where you should readily share your website!
When should you create your author website?
If you’ve already published at least one book, then you’ll want to create an author website as soon as possible. It’s a key aspect of every successful independent author’s book marketing efforts. But if you haven’t yet published, then you might be wondering when you should create your website.
Some authors will advise you to do so as soon as possible, saying that it’s never too early to begin marketing your work. I suspect that what these authors really mean is that it’s never too early to begin cultivating external interest in your work. As an unpublished author, you’ll find this much easier to do by sharing your writing process on social media than by launching a website.
Given that maintaining a website is also a business expense, I personally don’t think it makes sense to create an author website until you’re gearing up to launch a book. It’s only when you’re investing in production expenses like editing, formatting, and cover design that it also makes sense to invest in a book marketing tool like a website.
But in the months leading up to your debut book launch, you can use a website to not only establish your professional credibility but to implement a number of pre-launch marketing strategies, such as planning a pre-order campaign or building a launch day “street” team for early reviews and hype.
I’ll be creating and sharing an author website for my own fiction when I’m no more than six months out from the launch of my debut novel. Until then, I’ll be cheering you on as you design your own!
