Whether you’re an experienced or first-time author, you’ve already embarked upon the long and sometimes scary road of publishing your book. With so many different elements involved, you’re probably thinking, “On top of everything else, is it really necessary for me to have a website?”

The short answer is yes.

In today’s digital age, you need an online presence, and while social media is an extremely powerful tool, it doesn’t work on its own. You need to be pointing people somewhere to learn more and eventually buy your book. Author websites are the perfect way to do this.

Here’s an example:

Say you’re very active on Facebook or Twitter, and you want to give your followers an incentive to buy your book. If you only have social media accounts and no website, all you can do is link to Amazon or Barnes and Noble. There’s nothing exciting or motivating about clicking on those links unless there’s a mega discount. However, if you have an author website, you offer a free download after they sign up for your newsletter or follow your blog, offer a giveaway or raffle, or have a “Book Club” page with discussion questions to be used. You can easily tie this back into social media by uploading an attractive photo, description, and catchy title, and linking back to your website where they can find that content and of course, links to buy your book.

What about this thing called SEO?

Have you ever searched your name in Google? What’s the first thing that comes up? Is it your personal Facebook page, or other content that doesn’t lead people to your books? By having an author website, you’ll be able to use SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to tell search engines to boost your author website over the other webpages that includes your name. To be the first result that pops up should be enough reason to have an author website.

What should you include in your author website?

First of all, you’ll want an exciting homepage with powerful images and reviews, and then a standard author bio page, book pages with a cover image, book excerpt, look inside, and links to buy the book. Besides that, you’ll definitely want a blog page. As a writer, you want to show off your skill. Give them continuous tastes of what they’ll get if they buy your books. Your blog posts can be anything from chapter snippets, interviews with yourself or other authors you admire, information about upcoming book signings, and much more. By writing in your blog, you’re continuously generating new content and giving people new reasons to check your website. One of the worst things an author can do is pay to have an author website and then not use it. Used properly, your website can be a powerful tool, but not if you forget about it and let it gather dust.

Do you need to spend a fortune on an author website?

Absolutely not. We’ll be honest with you: you can absolutely build an author website yourself. There are so many online tools such as WordPress and Squarespace that are so incredibly helpful and user-friendly. However, this requires a lot of your time, patience, and creativity. If you don’t have the time to do this, we offer two options for author websites: our Streamlined Website Plans, which are meant to be fast and budget-friendly, and our fully customized websites, which give you complete control over the design and functionality.

We create original author websites with one-of-a-kind designs based on your genre and books. Each author website comes with interactive flip-book style excerpts, custom slideshows and image galleries, automatic social media connections, and step-by-step instructions for adding blog posts and events.

Social Media Integration:

We don’t just stop with your website! Every website comes with full social media integration for Facebook and Twitter, including a custom-designed banner image and automated updates when you post to your blog.

Popular Elements:

Slideshows and Layered Sliders
Media Galleries
Event Calendars
Press Room
Book Clubs with Discussion
Blog Page with Automatic Connection to Social Networks

Looking for something that’s not on the list above? Don’t worry. Anything you dream up for your website, we can make into reality.