Want the best author website? Don’t start from scratch.
• This article contains a few affiliate links •
The best author websites look great and work hard
Successful, serious writers know that the best author websites not only look attractive, they work hard too.
Even though you might be tempted to build your own website from scratch, if you get it wrong, you can seriously harm your credibility as a writer. Not only that, but you won’t sell as many books, either.
Too many authors chase after the next trendy way of finding readers, when the truth is, you haven’t even created a strong website to serve as your home base.
Here are 5 key reasons why you shouldn’t build your author website on your own, from scratch.
1. Author website design is a professional skill
Your book communicates its message though words, and the book cover shows the essence of what you’re offering your reader. Hopefully by now, you understand that professional cover design is essential!
Your author website is no different: you’re aiming to entice and engage your ideal reader with a combination of words and images.
If your web pages are dated, ugly, cluttered, or unprofessional, readers are going to assume your book sucks, too.
Appearances really do matter, especially online where you only have a fraction of a second to make a good first impression. A strong author brand represents both you and your book(s) in harmony.
On the other hand, I have years of experience in turning the book cover you love into a cohesive, attractive online presence. Depending on the book cover files that you have available, I will create mockups that make your book come to life, and/or use individual elements from the cover to make your website pop.
Related: Web Design Mistakes - 21 Ways I Spot Your DIY Website
2. A strong author website powers your book sales
There are 3 key ways that your author website will help you sell more books:
A visitor comes to your website, discovers your book (and the other books you have available) and makes an immediate decision to purchase.
A reader who already enjoys your work comes to your website and joins your email list. This gives you permission to show up in their inbox when your next book is released. This tactic of seeing your website as a mechanism to sell your next book, not the current book, is an important mindset distinction. It sets authors apart who are ready to play bigger, and think about their long term career.
Your website shows you as professional and accomplished, and gets you booked for an event where you then sell books and meet new readers. If you're hoping to be invited to book clubs, library events, or other author opportunities, a modern, credible website can make or break whether the host decides to take a chance on you.
And in order for these things to happen, your website needs to be designed and constructed with results in mind. This includes:
Your website needs effective Calls to Action
Every page on your website needs a primary Call to Action. That means: what do you want the visitor to do next? Depending where you are in your author career, this might vary.
Too many DIY websites are cluttered with competing Calls to Action and options for the visitor to choose. The best author websites narrow down what should happen next, and prioritize this above everything else.
Example Calls to Action for authors:
Buy my book
Sign up for notifications of new releases
Get a free resource (lead magnet or reader magnet)
Invite me to speak
Related: Are you ready to work with a website designer?
The best author websites are optimized for Search Engines
If you write fiction or memoir, your readers can tell you whether or not they use Google for ideas on what to read next. If you write nonfiction, there’s a high chance that your ideal reader is using a search engine to look for your subject matter expertise.
I’ve invested in professional development training for SEO so that I’m up to date with techniques and best practice to help your website get found.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to learn SEO for yourself, know that when you hire me, I’m looking out for details like page load speed, mobile responsiveness, SSL certificates, heading tags, page urls, image “alt” tags, and much more.
Some of the best value I add to your website is in things you don’t even see.
You might be your own worst enemy
As a writer, you’re skilled at producing words. Often, a lot of words! And one of the worst things you can do on your website is to fill it with too much copy.
These days, attention spans are short.
Your website visitor is in a hurry. They’ll be skimming, not reading carefully.
Often, they’re on a phone and will spend only a few seconds on your site.
To account for this, you need a smaller number of higher impact words on your website.
Your bio, for example, should be a few hundred words, not a few thousand.
Make sure you put something far more powerful than “Welcome to my website” at the top of your Home page!
Be sure to use sub-headings and bullet points, to get your key information across fast.
3. Your time is better spent on writing and engaging with readers
This is a vital consideration if you’re thinking about whether to build your own website, or pay someone else to do it for you.
Why waste hours (or weeks, or months) learning how to create an author website, when you could be writing instead? To become a successful author, you’ll need to play to your strengths while hiring help for the rest.
If you don’t consider yourself technically savvy, you’re not alone. My clients would all prefer to be writing than tinkering with domain settings, mobile responsiveness, and image resolution.
There’s no reason for your author website to take hundreds of hours for you to make. You have plenty of book marketing activities to keep you busy, and grappling with your website shouldn’t be one of them.
Simply put: I work much faster than you, and the result will be far stronger.
4. You may need to learn about other integrations, too
As if learning to build a website isn’t enough, have you even begun to understand the extra pieces you’ll need? For example:
What email list tool will you use, and how do you integrate it with your website? I work with email lists in Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Squarespace, Substack, and MailerLite. I’ll make sure your sign up form appears on your website, looks good, and works.
Will you use a service like Bookfunnel to deliver a book or sample to your reader? Again, I know how to integrate that for a seamless reader experience.
Are you an Amazon affiliate? Do you know how to create the correct links, so that clicks from your website earn commission? I’ll do that for you, too. And by the way: you need to include a snippet of legal wording, to disclose your affiliate status.
Talking of legal requirements, I’m not an attorney but I do aim to stay up to date with international laws that impact your website design and email marketing. Did you know you almost certainly need a privacy policy for your website? If you’re gathering email addresses without one, strictly speaking, you’re breaking the law.
You can relax about those other pesky technical details, too
Even when you’ve chosen a website tool, a template, and assembled your content, there’s plenty more that I’ll take off your plate. Building an author website requires checking off other technical tasks. For example:
If you’ve already purchased a domain name, it should be relatively easy to “point” that domain to your new website. But often, the devil’s in the details and this can be a tricky part of many projects. If your eyes glaze over when you read instructions about DNS settings, know that I’ve got your back.
What if you have an existing website? How do you move the content you want to keep to your new site? How do you even decide which pages to save, and which to lose? Depending on the scope of our custom project, you can leave this migration to me.
If you’re launching an improved website, how do you avoid a visitor seeing a broken link, when they try to visit an old page? You may need to set up page redirects, and that’s yet another thing that I’ll take care of on your behalf.
Related: Website Terminology - Author’s Guide
5. Without an accountability partner, you’ll procrastinate more
If you work with me on a custom website, we’ll plan carefully during our preparation phase. Then, once I start building your author website, we’ll create, refine, and launch it in just two weeks.
How long have you already been struggling with your site on your own? It’s not uncommon for me to see an author ask for website advice in an online forum, only for them to remain stuck, months or even a year later.
Has publishing a website been on your to do list for what seems like forever? Get out of your own way. Hire me to help you get this done.
Just because you hire me to build your website, it doesn’t mean you can’t update it yourself
One of the reasons I love to create author websites on Squarespace is it’s a relatively easy platform for you to make your own edits in the future:
Did you arrange a new author reading? Fine: in a few clicks, you can add the date and details to your Events page.
Is your novel now available for sale at a new retailer? Great: edit your Book page to include a new button and link.
Is blogging one of your book marketing tactics? At the end of our project together, I’ll teach you how to add your new posts to your Blog.
So, even though you’ll have my expertise for the initial website design and launch, you don’t then have to pay me for every small update. (Although, as a past client, you’re welcome to hire me if you prefer!)
And by building your website on Squarespace, you not only get 24x7 help and support from their team, but they take care of all updates and security fixes for you automatically, at no extra charge. In my opinion, this is a huge advantage compared to WordPress. There, either you or someone you pay will need to install regular updates and make sure plugins are still working.
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Would you like me to design and build your custom Squarespace author website?
As a professional specializing in author website design, I’m an expert in creating a home for your work that’s both attractive and effective. If you’d like technical expertise, book marketing advice, and all of the implementation taken care of, consider hiring me.
After careful preparation together, I’ll design, build and launch your site in just 2 weeks. Learn more, and then schedule our free and friendly chat.