The Complete Guide to Making An Author Website

Now that you have your mailing list set up (did you ask your friends and family to sign up?), the next step is to establish your online presence in the form of an author website.

I'm quite often stunned at the number of self-published authors who don't bother with a website. But this should be rule number one.

Like the author mailing list, you shouldn#t be renting digital real estate, you should be owning it. Then make your fans and potential future fans come to you – not the other way around.

Why You Need a Website (a.k.a. Stop Relying on Zuckerberg)

Let me guess. You’ve got a Facebook page with a profile pic of your cat, a Twitter account where you scream into the void, and maybe — if you’re really serious — a TikTok where you wave your book around like a desperate QVC presenter.

And you think that’s enough, right? Wrong.

Social media is rented land. You don’t own it. At best, you’re a squatter in Mark Zuckerberg’s crumbling digital empire, praying he doesn’t change the algorithm tomorrow and make you invisible.

Remember when Facebook Pages actually reached people without paying protection money? Yeah, that’s gone. Now you’re basically paying Facebook for the privilege of showing your content to people who already asked to see it.

Twitter? (I refuse to call it X) That’s a dumpster fire run by a racist fascist billionaire who treats users like ants in his personal ant farm. TikTok? Great for cat videos and teenagers doing dances. Not exactly a stable home for your career.

An author website, on the other hand, is your fortress. Your turf. Your little piece of the internet no one can take away from you. It’s the one place where you control the layout, the branding, the message, and—most importantly — the data. A website doesn’t suddenly vanish because some tech bro decides to pivot his company into selling VR headsets or building rocket ships.

Think of your website as your digital HQ. It works 24/7, doesn’t get tired, doesn’t need therapy, and won’t suddenly DM you at 3am asking if you’ve "considered boosting this post for only $10."

It just sits there, quietly converting strangers into readers, readers into fans, and fans into people who will actually buy your books.

So no, Facebook is not "good enough." Twitter is not “good enough.” Instagram is not “good enough.” Your author website is the one non-negotiable. Without it, you’re basically an Uber driver trying to pick up passengers without a car. Good luck with that.

Be creative with the author website domain name

Alright, let’s talk domain names — the digital equivalent of your front door. You want it to say, “Welcome, reader, come in and buy my books.” Instead, a terrifying number of authors are standing behind a rusty gate with a spray-painted sign that says:

romance-stories-by-susan.example

That’s not a brand. That’s a hostage situation.

Instead, grab YourName.com and bask in the glory of your own little patch of internet real estate. That’s the Rolls-Royce of domain names: timeless, simple, and easy to remember. If that’s gone (and it probably is, unless you’ve got a name like Mortimer Snicklepants), then you need to pivot smartly.

You need to get creative. Instead of sulking because JohnSmith.com is taken by some retired dentist who hasn’t updated his site since 2004, try variations that still make you sound like a serious author rather than a dodgy SEO farm.

johnsmithbooks.com
janejonesauthor.com
johnsmiththrillers.com (because let’s face it, “johnsmithsexyromance.com” would raise eyebrows in the wrong circles).

Notice the pattern? All short and all obvious. All of them are screaming professional rather than "I just learned about the internet yesterday.”

If your main domain is taken, you can experiment with extensions beyond .com. For example:

.author (https://get.author) – niche and clean.
.io (originally for tech nerds, now cool by default).
.book (https://domains.google/learn/tlds/book) – perfect for authors, though a bit pricier.
.co (shorter than .com, though your mum will still ask why you “forgot the m”).

You can check availability and pricing at sites like Siteground or your website provider, if you already have one.

Register the domain in your own account.
Pay for at least 2–3 years upfront so you don’t accidentally forget to renew it.
Add domain privacy protection so your home address doesn’t show up in a WHOIS search and invite every psycho on earth to email you or visit you.

Golden rules when choosing an author website domain

Keep it short. Nobody wants to type TheAwardWinningRomanticThrillerAuthorJaneJones.com unless they’re being punished.
Skip the hyphens. They look unprofessional, they’re hard to remember, and if your reader forgets them, they’ll land on someone else’s site. Worst-case scenario: they end up buying their book instead of yours. Congratulations, you’ve just funded your competition’s coffee habit.
Make it brandable. If you’re planning on building a career, think long-term. A name like SmithWrites.com is flexible. A name like JohnsZombieErotica.com might lock you into some very awkward cocktail party conversations later.
Don't let someone else register your domain. Don’t. Ever. Do. That. If your “web guy” disappears, then you just lost your online identity. If your publisher registers it, you’re now legally their bitch. If you cheap out and don’t renew on time, some Russian spam farm will snatch it and turn your once-proud author site into “1000% Guaranteed Viagra!”

And finally, test it out loud. Say your domain name to someone. If they immediately say “Wait, is that with a hyphen? Two s’s? Dot net or dot com?” — ditch it. Your domain should be clear, memorable, and roll off the tongue like your favourite insult.

Remember: your domain is your front door on the internet. Make it easy to find, easy to spell, and a little bit you.

.com domains are not the be-all and end-all

Some people treat .com domains like they’re the Holy Grail of the internet.

Sure, they’re the most popular, but let’s be blunt: they’re also overcrowded, overpriced, and more picked over than a bargain bin at Primark. If you can snag YourName.com, congratulations, you’ve basically won the lottery of boring but effective branding.

But if not, don’t panic. The internet is overflowing with other perfectly good top-level domains (TLDs).

For instance:

.org – traditionally for organisations, but honestly, nobody’s checking your paperwork. I’ve got markoneill.org and no one has ever emailed me asking to see my official non-profit credentials.
.net – the backup singer of the domain world. Not flashy, but dependable. Think of it as .com’s slightly less cool cousin who still shows up to family parties.
Country codes – like .de (Germany), .co.uk (UK), or .ca (Canada). Perfect if you want to look proudly local — or just couldn’t afford the .com. Bonus: country domains are often cheaper and give your site a bit of geographic flavour.

Then there are the shiny new kids on the block:

.ai – trendy as hell thanks to the AI boom. It's great if you’re writing sci-fi or want to look futuristic. The downside is that your bank account will cry when you see the renewal fees.
.book (Google Domains .book) – on-the-nose for authors, and therefore appealing, but also ridiculously pricey. You’re paying extra for the smug factor.
.xyz – used by edgy tech startups and people who think punctuation is a personality. It's cheap and memorable if you can pull it off.
.cc – originally for the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, it's now used by everyone from churches to creative types.

Here’s the thing though: don’t rush into buying the first flashy domain you see just because it makes you feel cool. Ask yourself:

Will readers remember it after a glass of wine?
Does it look professional on a business card?
Can you say it out loud without someone mishearing it as porn?

And while we’re on the subject: if your name is a pain to spell, do yourself a favour and buy the common misspellings too. For example, if your name is Siobhán Murphy, then good luck to anyone outside Ireland typing that correctly on the first try. So grab shivonmurphy.com and redirect it to your real site. It’s cheap insurance against lost traffic and lost sales.

Think of domains as digital fishing nets: the more variations you own, the more likely you are to catch your readers before they swim off to someone else’s book.

Hosting: The Digital Plumbing

Web hosting is like the plumbing in your house. You don’t think about it until the toilet backs up and floods your living room. It's the same with websites: you only notice hosting when everything crashes right before your book launch and your site starts loading slower than a tortoise with arthritis.

Most beginner authors cheap out here. They’ll happily pay $400 for a fancy cover and drop $1,000 on Facebook ads, but when it comes to hosting, they pick the cheapest option they can find - usually something like $2.99/month from "Bob’s Discount Hosting" in rural Idaho. Spoiler: you get what you pay for.

The Hosting Options (From “Dumpster Fire” to “Actually Good”)

Free Hosting (Don’t Even Think About It)

If your site is hosted for free, you’re not the customer — you’re the product. Free hosts plaster ads all over your site, throttle your traffic, and will happily delete your entire site the moment you violate one of their “community guidelines.” Oh, and your web address will look like this:

myawesomenovel.freehostingplatform.com

Which is basically the digital equivalent of living in your parents’ basement.

Shared Hosting (The Crap Apartment Block)

This is where 500 websites live together on the same server, fighting over scraps of bandwidth like starving raccoons. Sure, it’s cheap. But if one site on your server gets hacked or goes viral, your site slows to a crawl or goes down completely.

Think of it as living in a dodgy apartment where your neighbour blasts techno at 3am and someone keeps stealing your mail.

Managed Hosting (The Adult Choice)

This is where things get good. Managed hosting companies (like SiteGround) handle the boring tech crap: updates, backups, and security patches. Your site runs faster, stays online, and you don’t spend three hours screaming at a blank white screen after clicking the wrong button.

Yes, it costs more—think $10 – 30/month. But that’s still less than what you probably blow on coffee and croissants each week.

VPS or Dedicated Hosting (The Fortress)

This is the “I’m a big deal” level. Virtual Private Servers (VPS) or dedicated hosting gives you your own slice of a server (or the whole damn thing). It’s powerful, secure, and fast. Totally unnecessary if you’re just starting, but if you end up running a huge site with thousands of visitors daily, this is the endgame.

What to Actually Look For (Without Dying of Boredom)

When you’re shopping for hosting, here’s what matters:

Speed – Nobody’s waiting around for your site to load. Every second of delay = readers gone.
Uptime – If your site is “down for maintenance” more often than a Windows 98 machine, you’ve picked the wrong host.
Backups – Your site will break one day. It’s not “if,” it’s “when.” Make sure your host backs things up daily.
Support – Tech support should be available 24/7. And no, “email us and we’ll get back to you in three business days” doesn’t count.
SSL Certificate – That little padlock in the browser bar. If you don’t have it, browsers will literally tells visitors: "This site is unsafe." Not exactly inspiring confidence.

Hosting isn’t sexy. You won’t impress readers by bragging about your blazing-fast server response times. But if you cheap out here, your entire author brand is built on a foundation of wet cardboard.

Spend the $10–15/month. It’s the difference between having a reliable digital home and living in a shack that burns down the moment you light a candle.

Choosing How to Build Your Site

You can use a hosted website builder, a self-hosted content-management system, or a static site. The right answer is the one you can maintain without surrendering ownership of your domain, content, mailing list, or backups.

Hosted builders: quick to launch and easy to edit, but you accept the provider's limits and ongoing fees.
Self-hosted systems: flexible and portable, but they require updates, security work, and regular maintenance.
Static sites: extremely fast and secure, but routine updates can require more technical work.

Pick the least complicated system that still gives you control. Your readers do not care what software produced the page; they care whether it loads quickly, works on their phone, and makes your books easy to find.

Getting the Right Design for Your Author Website

One thing you should NOT forget is a clear sign-up route for your author mailing list. That lets you offer a free book, collect email addresses with consent, and maintain a direct connection with readers.

Author considering website design options

Choose a design that is clean, readable, responsive, easy to navigate, and actively maintained. It should support the pages and forms you genuinely need without loading the site with decorative rubbish.

Simplicity and focus: keep the books and writing at the centre of the page.
Responsive design: test phones, tablets, laptops, and wide monitors yourself.
Useful templates: make sure you can create book, about, contact, article, and legal pages consistently.
Accessibility: use readable type, strong contrast, sensible headings, keyboard-friendly controls, and meaningful alt text.
Maintenance: choose a setup that receives security updates and can be backed up and restored without drama.

Essential Author Website Pages (and Why Half of You Forget Them)

You’d think this bit would be obvious, wouldn’t you? Yet time and again, authors manage to build a site that’s either missing critical pages or, worse, has the right pages but filled with absolute garbage.

Your website is your online HQ. Think of it as your digital house. Every house needs certain rooms, and if you forget one, the whole place feels unfinished. Imagine visiting someone’s home and realising they’ve got a kitchen, a bedroom, and a garden shed… but no toilet. That’s how readers feel when you skip the basics.

The Home Page

This is the front door. The place people land on first. What you don’t want is a ten-paragraph essay on your childhood or a photo of you holding your cat while gazing wistfully into the distance. The home page should say, in big bold letters: "This is who I am, this is what I write, and here’s how to get my books."

Keep it clean. Showcase your latest release, or if you’ve got a series, slap the first book cover right up front with a giant shiny button saying “Start Here.” Make it clear what genre you’re in. Readers want to know immediately whether you’re serving them steamy romance, gritty thrillers, or some niche about dragons who knit sweaters.

The About Page

Authors love to screw this one up. Half the time it’s a glorified CV: “I attended St Dunstan’s Primary School and won the Year 3 handwriting award…” Nobody cares. The other half of the time it’s full of irrelevant nonsense about your cat, your love of herbal tea, and how you’ve “always wanted to write a novel.” Again: nobody cares.

What readers want is a story. Something personal that connects them to you and makes them think, “Oh, I like this person, I want to read their stuff.” Keep it short, keep it warm, and sprinkle in some humour. If you can’t be funny, at least be human. The goal isn’t to bore them, it’s to make them like you enough to stick around and, ideally, buy something.

The Books Page

This one seems obvious, yet somehow authors still get it wrong. A “Books” page should be the jewel in your website’s crown. Every title should have:

The book cover (properly sized, not a pixelated blob).
Buy links (Amazon, Kobo, Apple, wherever).
Series order, if relevant, so readers know where to start.

Do not just dump a wall of text. Do not link lazily to your Amazon author page and call it a day. The Books page is where you guide readers. If you’ve only got one book, fine, but make it look good. If you’ve got ten, organise them sensibly. Nothing screams “amateur hour” like a random collage of covers thrown on the page like confetti.

The Contact Page

Why is it that half the author sites out there don’t have a contact page at all? What are you afraid of—being emailed by readers who actually want to talk to you? It doesn’t need to be fancy. A simple form, an email address, maybe a note about response times. Done.

And please, don’t hide it. If readers have to click through six menus just to find out how to reach you, they’ll give up. The Contact page is also where bloggers, reviewers, or event organisers might reach out. If you make it a nightmare to find, you’ve basically thrown free publicity in the bin.

The Legal Boring Bit (Yes, You Need It)

Nobody likes GDPR and privacy policies, but unless you’re keen on angry emails from the EU (and hefty fines), you need them. The good news is you don’t have to write them yourself — there are templates all over the internet, or ask ChatGPT to write them. Pop them on a separate page in the footer, job done. Readers might never look at them, but regulators definitely will.

Skipping these pages is like opening a restaurant with no menu, no staff at the front desk, and no way to order food. Readers won’t bother hunting around to figure out what you do. They’ll just leave.

Put these pages in place, make them clean, make them professional, and you’ll look like an author worth reading rather than someone mucking about with a half-finished hobby project.

Design: Stop Making It Look Like a Myspace Page

Some authors seem to think design doesn’t matter. “Oh, readers only care about the words!” they say, proudly unveiling a website that looks like it was last updated during the dial-up era.

Newsflash: if your site looks like crap, people will assume your books are crap too. Presentation matters. Always has, always will.

Fonts Are Not Your Playground

Step away from Comic Sans. No, really, or I'll have to stab you. That font has ruined more websites than malware. Ditto Papyrus, which only belongs on a cheap spa menu. Use something clean, professional, and legible. Serif fonts (like Georgia) for long text, sans-serif (like Open Sans or Montserrat) for headings. Done. Don’t get fancy. You’re not designing a ransom note.

And for the love of all things holy, make sure the text colour doesn’t blend into the background. Yellow text on a white background? What are you, sadistic? Readers shouldn’t need night-vision goggles to read your blurb.

White Space Is Your Friend

White space isn’t “wasted space.” It’s breathing room. It’s what keeps your website from looking like a hoarder’s garage. Every element — text, images, buttons — needs space around it. If your home page looks like you’ve copy-pasted your entire CV, book catalogue, and Instagram feed into one massive scroll, you’ve lost the plot.

Think minimalism. Clean layouts. Big images. Space between sections. Less is more. Unless you’re deliberately trying to blind people.

Colours: Subtle, Not Seizure-Inducing

You know that one uncle who redecorated his living room in lime green and burgundy? Don’t be him. Pick two or three colours and stick with them. Usually one main brand colour, one accent, and black/white/grey for balance.

And avoid the rookie mistake of making your entire site black with neon pink text because you think it’s “edgy.” It’s not edgy. It’s migraine-inducing.

Images: High-Quality or Nothing

If your book covers look pixelated, or your author photo looks like it was taken with a potato in 2004, fix it.

High-quality images only. Invest in professional cover art and display it proudly. Don’t use random stock photos that scream “generic.” And please, no cheesy clip-art of quills, typewriters, or, God help us, parchment scrolls.

If readers need a treasure map to find your books page, you’ve already failed. Your menu should have no more than 5–6 items: Home, About, Books, Blog, Contact, maybe Shop. That’s it. Anything else can live in dropdowns or the footer.

Don’t get clever with labels either. Calling your books page “Treasures” or your contact page “Reach Out and Touch Me” is cutesy at best, creepy at worst. Be clear and direct.

Mobile: The Bit You Probably Forgot

Over half of internet traffic is mobile now. If your site only looks decent on a big desktop monitor, you’re losing half your audience. Test it on your phone. If the text is so small you need a magnifying glass, or if images overlap like a bad game of Tetris, you need to fix it. Many modern website themes are responsive, but that is no excuse to skip testing.

Design isn’t about making your site flashy. It’s about making it readable, professional, and trustworthy. A badly designed site makes you look like a hobbyist. A good one makes you look like an author worth taking seriously. It doesn’t need to be award-winning. It just needs to not look like Myspace circa 2005.

Your author email list is more important than your Facebook, your Instagram, your Twitter, or whatever shiny platform the kids are dancing on this week.

Social media is fickle. Algorithms change, accounts get banned, billionaires throw tantrums and nuke entire platforms overnight. Your email list, on the other hand, is yours. Nobody can take it away from you.

But here’s the problem: most authors treat email signups like an afterthought. A sad little link buried in the footer saying “Sign up for my newsletter.” You’ve just offered readers the digital equivalent of a soggy lettuce sandwich. Nobody is biting.

You own it. Facebook owns your followers. Twitter owns your audience. TikTok owns your soul. But your email list? That’s yours, baby.
It’s direct. No algorithm stands between you and your readers. You send an email, it lands in their inbox. Job done.
It sells. Study after study shows email outperforms social media in actual sales conversions. If you want people buying your books instead of just liking your dog photos, email is the way.

The “Free Biscuit” Rule

People don’t give out their email addresses for fun. You need to offer something in return. This is where most authors screw up by offering “exclusive updates.” Translation: spam. Nobody wants to sign up for reminders about your dental appointments and how Chapter 7 is “going really well.”

What they do want is a freebie worth their time. A short story, a prequel novella, a deleted scene, a bonus epilogue — something with actual value that ties into your books. This is called a reader magnet. Think of it as offering a free biscuit to get people through the door of your café.

Examples that work:

Romance author? Free bonus epilogue or a short spicy prequel.
Thriller writer? A dossier file, a prequel mission, or a deleted interrogation scene.
Fantasy author? A lore guide, a map, or a side-quest story.

If it’s good, people will not only sign up, they’ll stick around.

Your email signup should be front and centre. That means:

Home page: above the fold, right where people see it first.
Books page: next to your shiny covers.
Blog posts: at the end, a little nudge to subscribe.
Pop-ups: yes, they’re annoying, but they work if done properly. Make it timed (appears after 30–60 seconds), not instant. Nothing says “bugger off” like a pop-up the second someone lands on your page. And please God, no exit intent popups.

And don’t make people jump through hoops. First name and email. That’s it. You don’t need their postcode, blood type, favourite colour, and shoe size.

Treat Your List Like Humans, Not ATMs

Once people sign up, don’t abuse the privilege. Your readers’ inboxes are sacred. Respect them. That means:

Consistency. Send emails regularly (weekly, fortnightly, monthly), not once in a blue moon when you remember they exist.
Personality. Write like a human, not a robot. If your emails read like a press release, they’ll get ignored.
Balance. Not every email should scream BUY MY BOOK. Mix it up with stories, behind-the-scenes snippets, or even random rants that make you likeable.

Because here’s the truth: people buy from authors they feel connected to. Your email list is where you build that connection.

If you take nothing else from this entire guide, take this: start your mailing list yesterday. It's the single best investment you’ll ever make in your writing career.

Everything else — your fancy fonts, your pretty colour schemes, your SEO wizardry — is secondary. Without an email list, you’re basically standing in the street screaming into the void, hoping someone hears you.

SEO Without Wanting to Jump Out a Window

Search Engine Optimisation. Even the phrase makes most authors’ eyes glaze over. It conjures up images of shady “gurus” with dodgy haircuts promising to make you “#1 on Google in 30 days!” while charging you the GDP of a small country. No wonder most writers would rather stab themselves in the eye than think about it.

But here’s the thing: SEO matters. Because if nobody can find your website on Google, what’s the bloody point of having one? It’s like opening a bookshop in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Sure, it looks nice, but nobody’s walking past.

The good news? You don’t need to become an SEO wizard. Forget keyword spreadsheets and backlink pyramids. You just need to get the basics right so Google doesn’t treat your site like a mouldy sandwich and shove it to page 27 of the search results.

Step One: Know What Readers Search For

Readers aren’t typing in “the authorial musings of Sir Nigel Featherbottom.” They’re searching for things like “best romantic suspense books” or “spy thriller author Scotland.” Think like a reader. What would someone type into Google if they wanted to find books like yours?

Use those words — sparingly — in your page titles, book blurbs, and blog posts. Not like a deranged parrot repeating the same phrase twenty times, but naturally. If you write cosy mysteries, make sure the words “cosy mystery author” actually appear on your website somewhere. It’s shocking how many authors forget that.

Step Two: Metadata Isn’t Scary

Every page on your site has a little behind-the-scenes snippet called a “meta description.” This is what shows up under your page title in Google results. Write it yourself instead of letting Google guess. Keep it short (about 150 characters), make it clear, and make it inviting. Think of it as your site’s elevator pitch.

For example:
Bad: “Welcome to my author site where I talk about my books and life.”
Better: “Award-winning thriller author John Smith. Read fast-paced spy thrillers packed with action, intrigue, and unforgettable twists.”

One sounds like a yawn. The other makes readers want to click.

Step Three: Alt Text Puts You on Google Images

Google can’t see pictures, it only reads text. Which means that gorgeous book cover you uploaded is invisible to the search engine unless you add alt text. Alt text is just a short description you add to images. It helps with accessibility (screen readers use it), and it tells Google what the image is about.

So instead of naming your image IMG_3737.jpg, name it something like spy-thriller-book-cover-john-smith.jpg and give it alt text like “Cover of Deadly Shadows, a spy thriller novel by John Smith.”

Boom. SEO brownie points.

Step Four: Speed Matters

Here’s a fun fact: Google ranks slow sites lower. If your site takes longer to load than a train to arrive in London, readers will bounce.

Use compressed images, a decent host (see Section 3), and avoid sticking a million plugins on your site. Every unnecessary widget you install is like shoving another potato into your car’s exhaust.

Step Five: Internal Links and External Links

Link between your own pages (for example, from your blog post to your books page). It helps Google understand your site structure and keeps readers bouncing around instead of leaving.

And link to external sources occasionally too. Don’t go mad, but referencing something credible shows Google you’re not living in a bunker writing conspiracy theories.

Step Six: Blog Smart

Regular content helps. Google loves fresh pages. That doesn’t mean you need to blog daily like a caffeine-fuelled teenager. But if you can post once or twice a month, you’re signalling “this site is alive and kicking.” And if your blog posts actually answer questions readers search for, even better.

Think less “my random musings on Chapter 4” and more “Top 5 Historical Romance Tropes Readers Love.” That’s the kind of thing people Google.

SEO isn’t magic. You’re not going to rank #1 on Google tomorrow. It takes time, consistency, and some common sense. But the basics — keywords, metadata, alt text, site speed — will already put you ahead of 90% of authors who can’t be arsed.

Do these simple things and Google will at least know you exist. Don’t do them, and you’ll be forever lost in the wilderness with the other forgotten author sites, shouting into the void.

Blogging (a.k.a. Why You Need Content, Not Just a Sales Pitch)

The word “blogging” gives some authors hives. They picture themselves chained to a keyboard, churning out daily diary entries nobody reads. Others go to the opposite extreme and think blogging means hammering out constant BUY MY BOOK posts. Both camps are wrong.

A blog isn’t a chore and it isn’t a megaphone. It’s bait. Done right, it brings people to your site, gives them a reason to stick around, and quietly funnels them toward your books. Done wrong, it’s digital clutter that makes you look like you’ve either lost interest or lost your mind.

Blogging Is Not Your Diary

Nobody wants to read “Today I wrote 700 words and had a chocolate biscuit.” Your mum might. Your readers don’t. Blogging as an author means creating content readers find entertaining, useful, or both. Think of it as the bonus material on a DVD (back when people actually bought DVDs).

Examples of what works:

Behind-the-scenes peeks: how you research, your writing rituals, or the weird places your books have taken you.
Fun extras: deleted scenes, character backstories, “what happened after the epilogue.”
Opinionated rants: tropes you love, tropes you hate, why every thriller needs at least one dodgy Russian arms dealer.
Lists: readers bloody love lists — “Top 5 Historical Romance Tropes” or “10 Books Every Spy Thriller Fan Should Read.”
Answering reader questions: if one person asks, a hundred are probably wondering.

What doesn’t work: endless moaning about writer’s block, political rants that alienate half your audience, or blogs that haven’t been updated since 2019.

Consistency Beats Frenzy

You don’t need to post every day like some hyperactive hamster on a wheel. Once or twice a month is fine — as long as you keep at it. A dead blog makes readers wonder if you’ve retired, died, or been abducted by aliens. Better to have fewer posts consistently than a frantic flurry followed by radio silence.

Make It About Them, Not You

Here’s the trick: write blog posts that benefit the reader. Sure, you can talk about your books, but spin it so it gives the reader something. If you write crime thrillers, do a post on “5 Real Cases That Inspired Fictional Detectives.” If you write fantasy, blog about mythological creatures. If you write romance, talk about why readers swoon for certain tropes.

It’s about entertaining or informing them, not just flogging your novel like a market trader with too many melons.

SEO Bonus Round

Blogging is one of the easiest ways to boost SEO without wanting to strangle yourself. Every post you write is another page Google can index. If you cleverly use keywords readers might search for, your site slowly becomes a magnet. Someone searching for “best Highland romance novels” could stumble onto your blog post, then – bam – end up on your books page.

Don’t Forget the Call to Action

Every blog post should nudge readers towards something. Not a desperate scream of “BUY NOW OR ELSE.” Just a polite shove in the right direction:

A link to the related book.
A signup form for your mailing list.
A suggestion to leave a comment or share the post.

Think of it as closing the loop. They came for your rant about vampire tropes; they leave on your email list.

Blogging isn’t mandatory, but it’s bloody useful. It shows you’re alive, gives readers reasons to visit your site beyond clicking “buy,” and slowly builds a web of content that works in your favour. Treat it as part of your marketing toolkit, not as a burden.

And if you’re thinking “But nobody will read my blog!” — guess what? Nobody will read your books either if they can’t bloody find you.

Tech Crap You Can’t Ignore (But Will Anyway)

This is the unsexy part of having an author website. Nobody dreams of becoming a novelist so they can spend their evenings tinkering with SSL certificates or compressing images.

But if you skip this stuff, your site will either look amateur, run like treacle, or collapse in a heap the first time more than three people visit it at once. Readers don’t stick around for broken links, clunky pages, or websites that scream “this author doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

Mobile Responsiveness

Here’s a shocking statistic: more than half of your readers are visiting your site on their phone, not a laptop. If your site looks like a Picasso painting when shrunk down to a mobile screen, they’ll bounce before you can say “Kindle Unlimited.”

Many modern website themes are mobile-friendly, but don’t assume. Test it yourself. Pull your site up on your phone. Scroll around. Can you read the text without zooming? Do images line up properly? Is the menu usable or hidden behind seventeen tiny icons?

If the answer’s no, fix it. A website that only looks good on your desktop is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Speed Actually Matters

People are impatient. If your website takes longer to load than a round of drinks at a Wetherspoons, they’ll click away. And Google notices too—slow sites get shoved down the search rankings.

How to stop your site crawling like a hungover snail:

Compress your images before uploading (there are free tools for image compression such as TinyPNG).
Don’t install a hundred plugins “just in case.” Every plugin adds bloat.
Use a decent website host, not the bargain-bin rubbish we talked about earlier.
Consider a caching plugin to speed up repeat visits.
Use Google’s online tool to test the site's speed (in their opinion.)

If you’ve ever screamed at a website that took forever to load, don’t inflict that misery on your own readers.

SSL Certificates and the Dreaded “Not Secure” Warning

You know that little padlock next to the web address in your browser? That’s SSL. Without it, Google will slap a giant “Not Secure” warning on your site like it’s a dodgy kebab shop. Nothing says “trust me, I’m an author” quite like your browser telling readers your site might steal their credit card details.

The fix is easy. Most hosting companies give you SSL for free these days. Turn it on, test it, and stop looking like you’re running a phishing scam.

**Backups: Because You Will Break Something**

At some point, you will click the wrong button, install the wrong plugin, or have your site hacked by some teenager in Belarus. If you don’t have backups, you’re screwed.

Set your site to back up automatically — daily if possible. Store those backups offsite (not just on your host’s server). That way, when disaster inevitably strikes, you can restore your site in minutes instead of starting from scratch and crying into your tea.

Security Is NOT Optional

No, you’re probably not important enough to be specifically targeted. Hackers don’t care who you are. They run automated scripts that crawl the internet looking for weak sites. If you’re unlucky, your author website will wake up one day selling discount Viagra.

Keep your site software and dependencies updated.
Use strong passwords (not “password123” or your dog’s name).
Use rate limiting or login protection wherever an administrative login exists.

That’s it. You don’t need MI5-level protection, just don’t leave the digital equivalent of your front door wide open.

Tech stuff may be boring, but it’s what makes your site reliable, safe, and functional. Ignore it and you’ll have a broken, sluggish mess that scares off readers faster than a 10,000-word prologue.

Author Website Examples — The Good, The Bad, and the Fugly

Nothing drives the point home like seeing what works and what doesn’t. And trust me, I’ve seen author websites that belong in a museum — not because they’re impressive, but because they look like ancient relics from 2003.

The Bad

Picture this: you click on an author’s site and immediately your eyes are assaulted by clashing neon colours, scrolling text banners, and a MIDI file of My Heart Will Go On auto-playing in the background. Yes, that sort of monstrosity still exists.

The books page is just a random wall of cover thumbnails, half of them blurry, none of them clickable. The “About Me” section reads like a Tinder profile: “I love cats, wine, and long walks on the beach.” There’s no contact page, no mailing list signup, and the last blog update was in 2017.

What does this tell readers? That the author either doesn’t care, isn’t professional, or is dead. None of those inspire confidence to spend money.

The Fugly

Worse than being outdated is being confusing. Some sites are so overloaded with widgets, pop-ups, banners, and social feeds that you don’t know where to look. The home page screams “Follow me on TikTok!” “Buy my book!” “Look at my Instagram feed!” all at once, and none of it actually tells you what the author writes.

You scroll around, clicking desperately for clarity, until you close the tab in frustration. That’s the digital equivalent of walking into a bookshop and being immediately rugby-tackled by a bookseller shouting in your face. Fugly sites don’t just fail to sell books — they actively repel readers.

The Good

Now, let’s flip it. A good author site is simple, elegant, and clear. When you land on the home page, you instantly know what the author writes. There’s a clean header image or banner showing off their latest release. The menu is obvious: Home, About, Books, Contact. The email signup is right there, offering something tasty like a free novella.

Click on “Books” and you get a neat grid of covers. Each one opens to a dedicated page with the blurb, buy links, and maybe a short excerpt. No fuss, no confusion. The About page tells you who the author is in a friendly, engaging way without oversharing their entire medical history. And everything works beautifully on mobile.

It doesn’t need to be flashy. Some of the best author sites are almost minimal — black text on white background, strong cover images, and a clear call to action. That’s all it takes to look professional and keep readers around long enough to hand over their email address or buy a book.

Why This Matters

Readers make snap judgements. If your website looks sloppy, outdated, or confusing, they’ll assume your books are the same. A polished site makes you look like you’ve got your act together, even if you’re writing in your pyjamas at 3 a.m.

In publishing, perception is half the battle.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, your domain name is like your underwear — nobody sees it most of the time, but if you get it wrong, it’s all anyone will talk about.

Keep it short, keep it clean, and make sure it doesn’t accidentally scream “adult website” when you’re just trying to sell cozy mysteries.

Don’t stress if the .com is gone — there are plenty of other perfectly good digital addresses out there. Just take your time, test a few options, and remember: your readers don’t care what extension you’ve got as long as they can actually find you.

So be smart, be memorable, and for God’s sake, don’t hyphenate.

Did you enjoy this article? Then help me write the next one by buying me a cup of tea!