Author Website Domain Name Tips

Aug 27

• This article contains affiliate links for Squarespace •

Did you know that you can — and should — register your author website domain name, even before your book is finished?

In fact, the moment you suspect that you might go public with your writing one day, I recommend that you buy your domain name.

Here are 8 great reasons why:

Buying your author website domain name is fast and easy.
It’s also inexpensive; typically you’ll pay somewhere between $8 - $20 for the first year, and $15 - $20 in subsequent years.
You don’t have to be ready to publish your website, to buy the domain name.
You don’t have to decide which platform (tool) you’ll use to create your website. Although there are a few more steps, your domain name registrar can be different from your website host.
It’s usually an exciting and confidence-boosting step, to take that first small action where you identify as an author!
You can also choose to set up a “professional” author email address, that is, one that ends in your author domain name. This means there’s one less thing to take care of down the road, and when you start building your author email list, you’ll need this.
As long as you keep paying for your domain name each year, it’s yours. You can keep it and send readers to it for decades to come, regardless of where your website is actually hosted.
Registering your name means nobody else can beat you to it!

What author domain name should you choose?

Let’s say your name, or indeed your chosen pen name, is Olivia Twist. Here’s what I recommend:

First choice: oliviatwist.com
- Or, substitute your country’s domain ending, if you only want to be famous there! Examples: oliviatwist.co.uk ; oliviatwist.ca
- Owning your name also has the advantage that you can use it for any kind of online presence, whether or not your author career takes flight.
Strong second choice: olivia-twist.com
- If your name looks confusing or strange with the letters running together, this hyphen in the middle can help. For example, emateason.com might be better as ema-teason.com
- Don’t choose an underscore character: when your domain name is linked, it will often be underlined, and the underscore will effectively disappear.
Great choice: oliviatwistauthor.com
Worth considering: oliviatwistbooks.com ; oliviatwist.net ; olivia-twist-author.com ; oliviatwist.info
And so on.

Should you register your book title along with your author domain name?

Keeping in mind it’s inexpensive to buy a domain name, many authors do in fact register their debut book title.
In the event that your book gets turned into a movie or optioned by Netflix, it can be a handy business asset…
…However, realistically, not many authors end up making great use of their book title domain name. I always recommend that you share and promote your main author domain name, since you’ll almost always want to brand yourself, not the book.
For many of my clients, I simply forward the book domain name to the appropriate Book page on their website.

I did, in fact, get excited and register my debut novel’s domain, savingsaffronsweeting.com. When I pivoted to become a full-time author website designer, I started to use that for my author (books) website, leaving my name, paulinewiles.com, for my primary business.

So it doesn’t do any harm if you register your book title, but I wouldn’t go out of your way to do so.

Where to register your author website domain name

Firstly, relax, it doesn’t much matter. However…

If you already have a preference for the platform where you (or a professional like me) will build your author website, life will be easier if you purchase it there. Connecting your domain name to your website pages will take just a few clicks.
- How to register a domain name with Squarespace.
- Then, still using Squarespace, you can even create a nice “coming soon” page, for free, using the Lock Screen feature.
- When you’re ready to publish your Squarespace website, save 10% off your first year’s website subscription with code PAULINE10
If you feel you’re several years away from launching your author website and want the most cost-effective registration option, I like the search feature at Name Cheap.
If you register your domain name with one company, but want to use a different provider for your website, you’ll be able to do this by editing the DNS settings associated with your domain. Follow the instructions from your website platform, when it’s time.
Don’t buy hosting at the same time as you register your domain name. You don’t need hosting until your author website is underway, and many providers (like Squarespace and Wix, for example) now include hosting in your monthly subscription. So that’s one less thing to worry about.

In 2023, Squarespace did a deal with Google Domains to acquire the registration of all domains purchased and registered by Google. Like many, I held my breath, but, now that the dust has settled, I do feel Squarespace has done a great job of making domain management simple, with the same options that customers previously enjoyed through Google Domains.

Bonus points: create a free forwarding email address for your author persona

Once you register your domain name, both Squarespace and Name Cheap allow you to create a free forwarding email address. (Here’s the Squarespace info for how to do it.)

For example, Olivia could create olivia@oliviatwistauthor.com , or news@oliviatwistauthor.com, and set it up to forward email to her current email address (which might be something like oliviatwistauthor@gmail.com).

You won’t be able to send from this email address without purchasing and setting up your email account, but it’s a handy way to start feeling a lot more professional!

Conclusion

I feel it’s never too early to grab your author website domain name. It really is an easy but very satisfying first step!

•

Want to give Squarespace a try? Save 10% off your first subscription of a Squarespace website (not your domain name registration) by using the code PAULINE10

•

Are you ready to sell more books?

Although I firmly believe that my clients should own their author website domain names, once that’s done, I’ll step in and handle the rest of your website project.

If you want an author website that delights your readers, grows your audience, and helps you to sell more books, let’s design, build, and launch your online home in just 2-3 weeks. Learn more, and then schedule a complimentary chat with me.

Author Website Design