7 Essentials of Author Websites
I’m going off-script again from my usual Marginalia or Tips from Tom’s inbox themes, because we get asked about this topic all the time: author websites.
There are dozens of articles and posts out there and a quick Google review showed opinions on author website must-haves ranging from five to thirteen items in their lists. The longer lists tend to get into design elements and content details. The problem with going down those rabbit holes, for me, is that different authors will have different needs in both areas.
With design, for example, many tell us to use a “clean, intuitive layout.” But what does that mean for authors in different genres? Should a website for a fiction author writing stories with dark witchcraft and sorcery look anything like one for a nonfiction author writing about personal growth and resilience?
Same with content. That fiction author may want to focus on her character ideas for the next novel in her series, with the primary goal of selling more books, while the nonfiction author writes blog posts or speaks on his podcast to engage with his target audience, with the ultimate goal of attracting clients for his coaching services.
Here, I want to focus on the essential functional elements of a website built to serve the goals of both types of authors.
#1 Essential of Author Websites: Have one!
This is probably the first and most frequent question we get from authors, “Do I really need my own website?” The answer: Only if you want to be taken seriously.
As we’ve repeated endlessly, writing a book for publication means you are starting a business.
We spend a good bit of time helping clients adopt the mindset of an entrepreneur, one who understands the necessity for building their audience and marketing their work — and their responsibility for making those things happen. For at least the last few decades, a website has become a key indicator of the quality and trustworthiness of any business.
Ask yourself, how often have you done business with a new person or company without checking out their website? Readers are no different.
Yes, it’s likely that some will buy your book or find your services based on a recommendation from someone they trust, in person or on social media. But even some of those will search your name on Google or Amazon to learn more about you, or find out what else you’ve written.
And what if they can’t remember your name and only search for part of your book’s title, or subject matter. Unless you have a website, you can’t apply search engine optimization (SEO) to help them find you and your book. The recommendation they’re trying to follow will lead to dozens of results with other authors’ books and who knows if they’ll find yours in the multitude.
For nonfiction authors who have other products or services to sell, this should be pretty obvious stuff. Most will have a website already and if their book is related to the skills and experience they’re selling, then adding some of the features that follow will be all they need to do.
#2 Essential of Author Websites: A Homepage
Listing the homepage may sound too basic, but I’m including it to mention a couple of pieces that you’ll need to make the homepage effective: your own domain name and your smiling face.
The first function of a homepage is to confirm for the visitor that they’re in the right place in the second or two after the page loads. Seeing your identifiable URL in the browser bar — preferrably with your name incorporated into it — will go a long way.
A split second later, they should see visual confirmation. And for an author, as well as most solopreneurs (coaches, consultants, creatives, and more) that means a quality photo of you.
You may also have a logo and other visual branding, but the core purpose of an author website is to build relationships with your audience. They want to know you. And you want them to know you, as a step toward getting to know as many of them as you can. (Learn more about our “Taylor Swift Model of Book Marketing” in The Indie Advantage post.)
Put your picture on the homepage.
#3 Essential of Author Websites: More You
Have I mentioned that the main purpose of your website it to foster relationships with your audience?
This makes your “About” page another essential piece. Write it in the first person. Why? Can you imagine meeting someone named John Smith at a party, or your book club, or at a business networking event, and when you ask them about their work, they say,
“John Smith is the founder and CEO of Smith Consulting, an industry leading [blah, blah] … ”
As you regain consciousness, you hear,
“John’s latest award-winning book [blah, blah] …”
Don’t let you about page sound like that. Tell a story about how you came to write your book. Tell another story about the work you do and the clients you serve.
Give them a taste of how it would feel to meet you in person.
And add another picture or two of you, you in action, you with your dog. You get the idea.
[One exception to the “first person” rule: if you want to be a guest on podcasts or other media, you need to have a short bio section written in the third person, so the host or reporter can read it about you without having to translate the “I/me/my” into “they/their” on the fly. But this is better handled with a Media/Press Kit page, as noted in the “Nice-to-Have” section below.]
#4 Essential of Author Websites: Books!
For the humans who came to find you and your book(s) — and for the search engines trying to help them find you and your book(s) — create a separate Book page, listed in the main navigation links.
That will make it easy for the humans to find, but it also creates an H2 (2nd level heading) tag that tells search engines it’s an important part of the site. Humans first, SEO a close second.
If you have one book (so far), that will be enough. You can put a detailed description of the book, along with buy buttons linked to online bookstores.
If you’re willing to handle shipping, you can add a buy button linked to your own checkout tool (e.g., PayPal, Stripe) and sell directly. This will also enable you to gather email addresses and interact with your fans directly. (Read that Taylor Swift Model post again.)
For authors with multiple books, the Books page should be a gallery of book cover thumbnails and titles with links to an individual page for each book. These individual pages will have the more detailed book descriptions and buy buttons mentioned above.
#5 Essential of Author Websites: Social Proof
Testimonials and book reviews from real people provide a huge psychological edge. When possible include photos, names, and credentials of the reviewers to add credibility. Those who can be labeled as “the Author of …” deliver added punch, for the same reason you get recognized as more authoritative for having written your book.
You should have a page devoted to them, labeled as “Testimonials” or “Reader Reviews” or some such listed in the website’s main navigation links. Make it easy for visitors to find them.
But you can also sprinkle a few special ones — say, a Kirkus Starred Review or one from a well-known celebrity or leader in your industry — around other pages, even on the homepage.
#6 Essential of Author Websites: Contact
You definitely want readers (or prospective clients, or podcasters, or agents, or publishers, or journalists) who want to connect with you to have easy ways to do so. A page with a contact form, your email address, and/or links to your most active social media profiles takes care of that.
#7 Essential of Author Websites: A Blog
This one might be just a little controversial. And I’ll admit, we’ve had clients that were so resistant to posting even sporadically (seems strange for writers) that we gave up and let them off the hook.
But simply put, there is no better tool for keeping fresh content flowing onto your site (not Zuckerberg’s), for creating SEO-friendly text simply by writing about your topic, and for blending in stories about you and your real life activities. You can even test out new ideas, whether for fiction or for the work you do with clients that may appear in your next book. All of those appeal to both humans and search engines.
You don’t have to post daily. A few times a week at the beginning to prime the pump and then once a week, or even once a month. The main thing is to develop a consistent schedule and promote the posts across your social media accounts.
Some Nice-to-Haves for Author Websites
Here are some add-ons that you may want to consider adding, depending on your individual business plans and goals:
- Videos – as a part of your blogging (“vlog” or podcast) and/or clips on Speaker and Media pages
- Speaker Page – with your schedule, sample videos of prior talks, and possibly fees and agency info
- Media/Press Kit – if you have or are looking to build a presence as a media expert resource
- Resources Page – generally free downloadable supplemental material related to your book
- Services Page – if you offer coaching, consulting, workshops, etc.
- Ecommerce integration – if you want to sell products or services directly to your readers
- Membership capability – to host a member area for your fans to interact with you and each other
Of course these are not all the possiblities. But hopefully the 7 Essentials have helped you understand some of the what’s and why’s of building your presence with an Author Website of your own.
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