The 5 Pages You Need On Your Author Website
I hear a lot of authors ask whether they need a website if they have social media, an Amazon author page or a Goodreads page etc.
And the answer is YES!
Having an author website is a must in today's world. Wherever you are in your author journey, if you've already published multiple books or are getting ready to publish one - you need an author website.
Why? You may ask...
The main reason is that you own your own website and you don't own your social media channels.
At any point in your author journey you may lose access to your social media accounts or they may be shut down.
Whether because you've done something wrong or through no fault of your own, the end result is the same - you've now lost access to all of your readers and your business has taken a massive blow that's hard to come back from.
However, if you have your own website and email list then the fallout from losing your social media account is drastically reduced.
Would it suck?
Yes, absolutely. But it wouldn't cripple your business because you still have access to your email list that you’ve collected via your website and you’re still bringing in new subscribers too.
And with that email list you can still contact your readers and let them know about your books.
So instead of the question being “Do I need a website?”
I think we should be asking “Why wouldn’t you want a website?”
Why wouldn’t you want a place to host all of your content and make it easy for your readers to not only learn more about your titles but also about you.
One place where your readers can discover everything they need to know and makes it easy for them to find their next book they want to read.
That's what having an author website does.
Think of your website as your home base that houses all your author information: book titles, buy links, freebies, opt in to your newsletter, about page etc.
And your social media directs everyone back to your website.
So now that we've established that you need an author website, what exactly do you need to have on it?
Here are the 5 pages every author website must have:
1 | Home Page
Your home page is the main page that your website visitors will see when they type in your domain (your URL). It's usually the first page visitors see and it sets the expectations for your entire website and reader experience.
It's main purpose of your home page is to:
Introduce who you are and what you write
Give people an opportunity to sign up for your email list
Showcase your most important books (eg most popular series, first in series etc)
Have clear call to actions (CTA's) directing your website visitors to the most important information on your website.
2 | About Page
After readers have read one of your books and fallen in love with your words, they often go to a website to learn more about the author.
They want to see what they look like and get a little peek behind the scenes into their life.
Being a writer for a living is something that most people don't consider a real career so being able to see someone actually accomplish it and being able to see their world is something readers definitely want to experience.
Things to include on your about page are:
A photo of you - I know it's scary to put a photo of yourself out there but it does makes a reader feel more connected to you
A paragraph or two about you and your author journey. How you became an author, what you write etc
A few fun facts about yourself eg. Do you love tea or coffee? Dogs or cats? etc. Keep it simple and don't overthink it
Your official author bio - This is optional (you may not need it) but it's the paragraph of text you would give someone when they ask you to provide your author bio for speaking engagements, book promo's, other people's blogs, podcasts, marketing etc. It's usually more professional than the rest of your page and generally written in the third person.
3 | All Books Page
No matter how long you've been an author, whether you've been writing for years or you've only just published a few novels - you need an All Books page.
This page is one page on your website that showcases ALL of the books you've ever written.
What I recommend:
Make it one long scrollable page with every book on it. Don't break it up and make it multiple pages. You want to make it easy for your website visitors to see all of your titles at a glance without clicking multiple times to view more titles. The less clicks someone has to make, the better.
Showcase the covers of your books only. Don't include the blurbs for each book on this page. That would make it really long and difficult to scroll through (especially on mobile where a lot of people are looking these days).
Connect each cover to the individual book page for that book - that way someone can click on the cover to find out more if they're interested.
Break up the scrolling page into book series and standalones.
4 | Individual Book Pages and/or Series Pages
Individual Book Pages:
Each of your titles needs its own separate page on your website. These pages aren't listed in the main navigation of your website but can be accessed via the All Books page on your website.
Whenever someone clicks on one of the books in your All Books page to find out more about that title, they'll be directed to an individual book page for that title.
Each individual book page must have:
Photo of the book cover
The title
Series name and book eg. Love Calls Series Book 1 (if needed)
The blurb
Buy buttons or links to your retailers
Optional Extras:
Links to the other books in the series (if it is a part of a series)
Excerpt from the book
Links to any extras - bonus chapters, scenes, playlist etc
Series Book Pages (Optional)
These are just like individual book pages however, instead of only having one book per page, you would have all the series titles and their relevant information on the same page.
It will list each of the books in the series, in order, along with all their relevant information.
So everything that's included on your individual book page: book cover photo, title, blurb, buy links etc would be on the series page.
If you have a lot of series - this is a great way to showcase your titles so that readers can find all the info they need in one convenient place.
You can link to these from the All Books page. Plus if you have a lot of series you could also include a dropdown menu in your main navigation linking to the series pages for each book.
I highly recommend if you do decide to include a dropdown menu to make sure that your All Books page is located at the top before you list your series.
This is so any readers who aren't familiar with your work will know exactly where to go - the All Books page to find out more.
And the readers who are familiar with you and your writing, can head directly to the series that want to find out more about via the dropdown menu.
This way you're catering to both the new to you reader and your established fans.
5 | Contact Page
A page that can often be forgotten on your author website is the contact page.
As an author you may feel like you don't need a contact page but there are countless possibilities why someone may want to get in touch with you.
Someone may want to reach out about:
Reviewing your book
Having you as a guest on their podcast
Speaking opportunities
Selling your book in their store
Telling you they loved your book
Enquiring about being a beta/sensitivity reader
And many more. So a contact page is a must on your website.
What you'll need to include:
Contact form
Written email address (optional)
Social media links
FAQs - if you have an influx of email then adding an FAQ section above your contact form, where you answer the most common questions people contact you about, can help alleviate some of the issues.
Make sure to include these pages in your author website.
And if you need any help, my Squarespace templates are designed for the technologically challenged authors to help you get your website up quickly while still being something to be proud of. Head to the shop here to check them out.
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