Your Author Website: Why Squarespace Is Ideal
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You have lots of choices for the technology that supports your author website, and the best option for you depends on your needs, your comfort with technology, and the stage you’re at in your writing career.
In this article, I’m going to assume:
You want an impressive, professional, attractive website
You’re not especially technical, and you don’t want to spend weeks making your site
Whether you create your website yourself, or get professional help, you’d definitely like to be able to make simple updates yourself
You hope your writing business will grow, and so you’d like a website that can grow with you
You’re ready to be taken seriously as an author, and you can invest a modest amount to make that happen
Why Squarespace is a great choice for your author website
Given the criteria above, my favorite choice for creating your author or writer website is Squarespace. I am a Squarespace Circle member, meaning I have extensive experience in designing and building high quality, effective websites on this platform. However, I’ve also created multiple sites using WordPress and Carrd, hence I can explain why I’m recommending a Squarespace website if your needs are as outlined above.
Squarespace is an elegant, modern platform. Websites built there — especially if you get design help from me or purchase a premium template — look beautiful and up to date. Unlike a WordPress site, where your initial choice of theme is a really big deal, on Squarespace you have much more flexibility to create what you need, as your business grows.
Your Squarespace subscription covers all the technology you need, including the “hosting” of your website, so there’s no need to buy separate pieces and install one thing on top of another. Some providers charge extra for your SSL security certificate (essential nowadays): again, with Squarespace, it’s not only included, but it’s done for you automatically.
If you don’t already have it, you can get your domain name (www address) from Squarespace too, and your first year will be free. So all the components are simple and in one place. If you already own a domain name, that’s fine: it’s easy to link it up to your new Squarespace website.
Squarespace is extremely flexible in the number of book pages you can create, how to structure them, and the menus you’ll need to give your website visitor an easy browsing experience. Whether you’ve published 1 book or dozens, whether you have different series, Squarespace easily gives you the pages you want. And it’s no problem at all to add pages later, as you release more work. Other websites for authors can lack this flexibility, especially if you picked a WordPress theme that boxes you in. Here’s why you don’t need to worry about which Squarespace template to start with.
Adding other services, like coaching or editing, to your business? No problem: with Squarespace, we’ll expand your website to include these. And if you’d like to offer online appointment scheduling, we’ll either incorporate an external tool like Acuity or Calendly, or we’ll use the scheduling feature offered by Squarespace.
If you’d like to build your author email list, it’s easy to embed a sign up form on your website. I generally work with Mailchimp, MailerLite or ConvertKit, but Squarespace has an internal email option too.
Want to add a media kit, book club discussion questions, or other resources? You can easily upload PDF files to your Squarespace site.
The Squarespace blogging feature is extremely versatile. You can, of course, use it to host your writer blog, but I’ve also set clients up to use the same underlying pieces to showcase their writing portfolio, podcast, poetry, or resource collection. So, if you’re not sure that blogging’s for you, I have plenty of ideas for how you can expand the scope of your website, without the regular commitment of blogging. You might like this article too, where I suggest 8 things you can do instead of blogging.
Want to sell books directly from your author website? We’ll discuss the best options for you, based on the number of books you’re likely to sell, but Squarespace makes it easy to create a simple online store, perfect for sending signed copies to your readers. Here’s an example for author and coach Zakiya Fatin.
Your website will be mobile responsive, meaning it will look good on tablets and phones. This is important not just for your reader’s experience, but Google takes it into account for search results, too.
Squarespace websites provide several built-in tools and options to configure your search engine (SEO) settings. There’s no need to buy, and learn, a separate plugin to handle your search efforts.
Unlike WordPress, where you (or someone you pay) needs to keep your website up to date and secure, this is handled for you automatically by the Squarespace team, at no extra charge. You can forget about technical worries and broken plugins, and get back to writing.
Unless you are a complete technophobe, you should be able to maintain and make straightforward website edits yourself. Squarespace is an intuitive, user-friendly platform with no coding required. You don’t need to learn about themes, plugins, or widgets, just create your pages and place content on them. The July 2022 release of a new drag and drop editor has made Squarespace even more intuitive. If you choose to work on a custom project with me, I include a personalized training session when your website goes live.
Alongside excellent written documentation, Squarespace provides 24 x 7 support for your questions, at no extra charge. (Compared to WordPress, how refreshing to have someone to turn to when you need help!)
If you do find you need professional help, there is a large worldwide community of experienced, accomplished Squarespace website designers who are ready to assist you. I’m based near San Francisco in California and I work with clients internationally.
For the features that are included, Squarespace is excellent value, starting at $16 per month. The next level up, $23, offers more features, including an announcement banner like the one you see at the top of this site. Other services might appear cheaper, but by the time you’ve bought all the add-on pieces you’ll inevitably need, you’ll likely wish you’d saved yourself the hassle. As a bonus for working with me, you’ll get 20% off your first year, too.
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Overall, I believe you’ll save time, money, and stress by choosing Squarespace for your author website.
My experience from working on websites for authors and trying other website tools is that you’ll spend less of your precious time and energy worrying about your technology, and more time writing your next book.
Want to explore other options?
I am a proud Squarespace affiliate and I stand behind it for every client website I create on this platform.
However, you do have other choices. I am also very impressed by Carrd.co for simple, cost-effective websites for authors, particularly if you’re just getting started with your writing career. I no longer recommend WordPress and you can read my WordPress concerns, which are mostly around security and complexity.
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How to plan your Squarespace author website
If you’re feeling happy that Squarespace is a great option for your writer website, there are some important planning steps you can take. These will be useful whether or not you choose to work with a web designer like me.
Don’t sign up immediately for a Squarespace trial. If you choose to build your website on your own, your free trial lasts only 2 weeks, so there’s work you should do before that to make the most of that time. If you work with a Squarespace Circle expert like me, the trial will last longer if your website developer starts your site from inside their own account. And you’ll get a generous discount on your fees from that approach.
Write down all the things that your author website should do for you. For example, sell books (directly or by linking to retailers?), build your author email list, schedule coaching appointments, offer writing samples, showcase your book reviews, house your blog, display upcoming events, link to your social media, and so on.
Make notes on who is your ideal visitor. This might be a reader, an educator, a literary agent, or a member of the media. Get clear on what is the ideal next action that they should take. This action needs to be central on every page.
When seen through that visitor’s eyes, what is the impression you want to give of your work, and of you? Note a few adjectives to help define the overall vibe of your site.
Start sketching out how many pages you’ll need and how they could be structured. If you’re early in your career, your website structure will be very simple. If you’ve published 20 novels in 4 different series, you’ll need more structure.
Start to gather words, images, photos, links, social media profiles, and testimonials/reviews you'd like to include.
Decide how you want to be contacted through your website, if at all.
If you work on your website on your own, this information gives you a good start. If you hire a professional web developer, they should ask you all of these questions, and more.
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Even with all the strengths Squarespace offers, building your own author website from scratch is not a trivial task. I recommend:
$ Option 1: Start with one of my premium templates, and simply replace the content with your own. The design and strategic planning has all been done for you, and full video tutorials are included so you’ll get your site done quickly and easily.
$$$ Option 2: If you’re ready to play bigger and get taken seriously, work with me to create a custom website. After careful preparation, I’ll design, build and launch your site in just 2 weeks. Learn more, and then schedule our free and friendly chat.