Author Websites
Author Website Design
An author website is more than just a domain and some pretty pictures. It’s a hub for all things surrounding your author business. Author websites can serve as the primary platform for showcasing your books, staying connected with your readers, and establishing your identity in the publishing industry.
From featuring your new release and announcing upcoming events to providing exclusive content for fans, a well-planned author website can help foster meaningful connections and drive book sales.
Whether you’re a debut novelist or a seasoned author, investing in a professional and user-friendly website is key when it comes to maximizing your online presence and reach.
Do Authors Need a Website?
While it is possible to have a successful publishing career without a website, there are certain perks you’d be missing out on if you decided to skip a website altogether.
One of the biggest benefits of having your own author website is that you have complete control. With your author site, you decide how your work is presented, what information you share, and how you interact with your audience.
Your website becomes your centralized platform where readers, publishers, and media professionals can find information about you and your books. It’s a professional portfolio that not only enhances your credibility as an author, but may open doors to collaborations, speaking engagements, and media opportunities.
Having your own website also allows you to collect vital insights and information about your audience. Using analytics to see who is visiting your website and what they click on can provide a glimpse into what your readers are looking for.
An author website is also a versatile marketing tool. Through blog posts and multimedia content, you can attract organic traffic to help improve your search engine visibility. Increased visibility can also help you establish yourself as an authority in your genre or niche.
Navigating the world without a website isn’t impossible, but having an author website provides multiple advantages that can help benefit your author career.
Website Design Templates
We believe every author should have a beautiful website that reflects their brand. And, it’s our goal to make the web design process as painless and affordable as possible. One of the best ways we can help keep design costs down for authors and writers is by providing customizable templates that provide a solid website structure while reflecting who you are as an author.
What Our Author Website Templates Include:
Eye-Catching Home Page
Your homepage should catch a potential reader’s attention fast. It should bring them into your world and help them understand what they can expect from both you and your books at a glance.
About the Author Page
An about page allows your readers to learn more about the person behind the books. It’s also a great way to let your readers know where they can follow you on social media and how to reach you.
Book Series Page
A book series page puts all the important information about your series in one convenient place for your readers. Help guide them from one book to the next and offer purchase options.
Blog Page
Your blog page should relay important information about current and upcoming books, events, and more. It’s your way to keep your readers up-to-date on your books and writing process.
Explore Our Live Website Template
Our live author website template is designed to draw readers in while keeping things simple. It includes features such as:
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- Floating Logo & Menu
- Newsletter Sign-Up Bar
- Book Review Slider
- Progress Bars
- Book Gallery
- Auto-Updating Footer
- …and more!
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Every bit of this author website template is meant to make it easy for readers to find what they’re looking for while being low-maintenance for the author. The simple, sleek design is enticing without being overly styled and can be easily viewed on a variety of screen sizes.
Website Design Pricing
Here at Sixth Moon Publishing, we strive to find a balance between building a great site and keeping costs within your budget. To match function, design, and affordability, we create all of our websites using WordPress. This allows us to streamline workflows to provide great author websites without spreading ourselves too thin across multiple website platforms. We also encourage authors to purchase their own domain, and provide their own logo, images, and other website content. However, we do offer these services for an additional cost if needed. Our current author website packages include:
Pre-Made Website Template
Customization- If you’re looking for something simple, this is the package for you. We will customize one of our pre-made templates with your logo, images, and colors to create a polished website that matches your author brand.
- This includes:
- → Home Page
- → About/Contact Page
- → 1 Book/Series Page
- → Blog Page
- Our build also includes a global header & footer, responsive web design, basic foundational SEO, and page templates so you can easily clone and modify additional book / book series pages and blog posts.
New Author Custom Website
Unique Build- Perfect for new authors and writers just getting started. Pick the elements you want on your website from an extensive list of features. We’ll compile the elements you choose into a custom layout using your logo, images, and colors.
- This includes:
- → Home Page
- → About/Contact Page
- → 1 Book/Series Page
- → Blog Page
- Our build also includes a global header & footer, responsive web design, basic foundational SEO, and page templates so you can easily clone and modify additional book / book series pages and blog posts.
Comprehensive Web Design
And Strategy- For authors wanting more, our comprehensive web design and strategy package includes more pages, more options, and a website strategy call to help you start your website out on the right foot.
- This includes:
- → Home Page
- → About/Contact Page
- → 3 Book/Series Pages
- → 2 Specialty Pages (Reading Guide, Timeline, Map, etc.)
- → Blog Page
- → Strategy Discussion for Future Development
- Our build also includes a global header & footer, responsive design, basic foundational SEO, and page templates so you can easily clone and modify pages and blog posts.
Add-On Services
For the busy book author who just doesn’t have time to master the learning curve of website development, we do offer additional services to take more off of your plate so you spend more time focusing on writing your next novel. With any of our author website design services above, you can also choose to add any of these additional services as needed.
Website Hosting Service
To support the websites we build, we offer managed hosting. We use secure Ubuntu servers so our sites load fast and perform well. Hosting plans include monthly website backups and 99.99% uptime
Hosting is available for $99/year.
Monthly Management
Does your publishing schedule keep you busy? No time to add that latest release or update your blog? We can do that for you. Fill out our update form and provide the needed information and we will add your updates to our schedule.
Updates are billed at $45/hour. (1-hr min)
Blogging Services
Have a Podcast or Youtube channel? We can take your podcasts and videos and convert them into an SEO-friendly blog format for your website. We can also add images (stock or screenshots) at your request.
Blogging is billed at $45/hour. (1-hr min)
Author Website Design FAQ
What do the best author sites have in common?
The best author sites are those that provide a great user experience while conveying genre (be it science fiction, fantasy, thriller, horror fiction, or another genre), and contribute to your book marketing strategy. They are built with search engine optimization in mind to appeal to your target audience.
Accessibility and navigation should help visitors to your site easily find what they are looking for. This includes the option to sign up for your mailing list and follow you on social media (Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, X (Twitter), etc).
Readers also want to know where they can find and review your books. Links to retailers such as Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google Play, Draft2Digital, Goodreads, and more. It’s also a good idea to feature the formats in which they can enjoy your work including ebook, paperback, hardcover, audiobook, and subscription services you may offer (each with a great description/blurb and call to action). Some authors even choose to feature a book trailer on their home page.
A section for reviews can provide social proof to further encourage your target audience to take action and dive headfirst into your universe.
Your readers want to also learn more about you. Each indie author is unique. Showcase this in your biography. They want to know what things inspire you, if you’re a bestseller or aspire to be, and how to become a member of your community.
Where can I get a domain name and what should it be?
There are multiple domain registration websites where you can purchase a domain for various website platforms. We typically use GoDaddy or Namecheap to purchase domains. We do encourage authors to purchase their own domain name.
We recommend using your pen name as your domain name when possible. This is great for both branding and search engine optimization. Try to follow these additional tips if you can:
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Try to get a .com domain if possible
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Try to avoid using numbers and hyphens, unless they are part of your brand.
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A shorter domain name is better than a longer domain name.
If you’re unable to get a .com domain name for your pen name, you can include a keyword at the front or end such as “author” or “writer.” You may also consider including a genre term such as “fantasy,” “science fiction,” “scifi,” “horror,” “thriller,” etc.
Be careful that you don’t make the domain name too complicated. Shorter domains are easier to remember. Also, if someone has the domain you want, using a variation of that may result in a bad user experience. For example, if your name is Stephen King then you won’t be able to get stephenking.com. But, using stephen-king.com or stephenking.net is very likely going to be an uphill battle.
Does your website design process include SEO?
Sixth Moon Publishing is well-versed in SEO practices. Jennifer Stowers, the founder, has over 10 years of knowledge and experience in web development and search engine optimization for small businesses. While the typical indie author doesn’t often need hard-core SEO to rank for things such as their pen name or book or series title, appearing in search engines for genre-specific terms can be much more challenging.
We build author websites with search engine optimization in mind. Each of our web development packages includes base SEO to make sure your website is set up to get you started off right. From the navigation bar to optimizing each of the features, we strive to balance brand aesthetics and user experience with search engine optimization.
We do not offer ongoing SEO services at this time, but we are constantly doing research to see which aspects of search engine optimization benefit the typical indie author the most.
Is WordPress one of the best sites for writers?
There are a lot of website platforms available these days. We tend to gravitate toward WordPress over other website platforms for numerous reasons, including the ease of search engine optimization. We build our websites using the Divi Theme, which has a slight learning curve, but allows for a lot of customization and automation when it comes to websites.
Divi is one of the most popular drag-and-drop WordPress themes. It’s a great website builder that offers a variety of templates and modules to make web development easy. Author website designs can be customized in the drag and drop builder with font options, a custom navigation bar, and even some custom html, javascript, or CSS. Divi also makes responsive web design a breeze with the ability to quickly switch between desktop, tablet, and mobile device views to make sure everything looks great for your website visitors.
Can I integrate my online store into my author website?
While we currently do not build out e-commerce website platforms at this time, it is certainly possible to incorporate your online store with your website. This is typically done through either a subdomain, embedding a purchase call to action in the web page itself, or using links or buttons to direct web traffic to your sales page. In any case, it’s a good idea to maintain consistent branding across all web pages and e-commerce platforms to provide a smooth user experience.
