by Jenna Kalinsky.
If you are an author and do not have an author website, let this be your tough-love wake-up call. In our online-dependent climate, if you are a writer and do not have an author website, at the worst, you do not appear to exist, and at the least, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to engage with audiences, build relationships, and establish yourself firmly in readers’ consciousnesses, critical for any writer who wishes to connect with audiences and sell books.
You may think you don’t need an author website because you don’t have publications or a book out yet, fear the tech involved, or assume your presence on others’ pages or social media will suffice, but the fact is an author website is the most valuable tool an author needs to have in their marketing arsenal because it’s the center from which everything you do springs.
In our Internet age, when we want to know something, we Google it. It’s always satisfying to find what you’re looking for, isn’t it? Alternatively, when we search for something and don’t find it, it’s disorienting and easier to discount that the thing we were searching for is important or even exists.
When a person hears your name, sees it on a book jacket cover, reads it in a magazine, meets you at an online writers’ conference, or even chats with you in line at the supermarket, the first thing they will do to learn more about you as an author is Google you.
When you have a website, you are automatically verified as a writer of note. When you don’t? They figure you’re an amateur.
Because your site is the virtual extension of your physical self, being present on the web gives others a solid and embodied sense of you as a human and as a writer.
If you do not have a website, people may wonder why you’ve chosen to eschew connecting with your audience. They may feel slighted or even affronted and wonder why you feel you’re above such pedestrian things as engaging on the web, discounting you or your work as a result.
True, if they search for your name and you’ve published work, your name will come up on other websites, but such instances are due to publication happenstance and are not a representation of you.
Even Elena Ferrante, if that really is her name *
(*it isn’t)
and whose whole schtick is to maintain anonymity has a website!
In all cases, when a reader can’t find you, they can’t engage or develop a relationship with you, and soon they will forget they were interested in you or your work in the first place.
Without an author website, where you could have given them something, you gave them nothing. If you’re in the business of purveying ideas, stories, or books, that’s a substantial lost opportunity.
Some authors cite their Facebook/Instagram/LinkedIn page as their primary presence.
A social media page is a good first step if you’re just starting out, but it’s not nearly as effective as a website.
Social media fads come and go, and people aren’t always on those platforms either regularly or at all.
Also, because you’re borrowing on someone else’s platform, you can’t customize how you come across or what you include. And when the platforms experience outages, such as X faltering in May 2025 or X going dark in March 2024, you stop existing for the duration.
Your author website allows you to invite visitors into the equivalent of your online living room, a space that’s set up exclusively to:
As an example, check out the author websites for these members of our creative team:
Bringing in new visitors and turning them into loyal followers is a lot easier when you have a built-in opportunity to create a warm and inviting space where you exist as an author- and a person.
You can share as much or as little personal information as you’re comfortable with (some authors share intimate details of their lives while others provide only the business details of their public persona), but details notwithstanding, your “you-ness” can still shine in how you present yourself visually and thematically.
Image above: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s author website (a perfect example of a beautiful and well-organized site)
The colors, layout, logo, images, and your bio will all give off a wonderful sense of your personhood.
(Shasta Grant’s site, for example, has adorable (and memorable!) illustrations).
If you go a step further and write a blog, that’s where your essential self can shine (or your “curated” essential self for the public sphere) and nurture reader relationships.
How you host your publications, links, reviews, etc. also invites further reading and intimacy. While there are publication repositories where you can store your clips, if you want to direct someone to engage in your work, directing them to your very own website rather than to someone else’s where hundreds of other authors also store their work will give them the chance to engage with only you, which is ultimately what they’re looking to do if they’ve taken the trouble to check you out in the first place.
Nowadays, unless you’re a household name, your publisher is limited in how much they can market and publicize your books. A more interactive author website is your opportunity to take the literary bull by its horns.
Once you have a website, you can build in interaction and engagement opportunities to foster loyalty and enthusiasm in your readers. Again, you’re building a relationship by
a) existing
b) existing warmly and extending yourself into your community.
Emailed newsletters (that contain blogs or information about you and your writing) invite your website visitors to keep connecting with you and visiting your site.
In exchange for their email address, it’s common to offer them something for free: a tip sheet, a mini-course, an e-book, or the first few chapters of your published book.
Once you have their address, you can stay in touch with periodic personal emails or a newsletter. This keeps your already “warm” audience up to date on what you’re doing, offering, and thinking.
(See what I did there? :))
There are numerous email providers who provide free plans up to a certain number of subscribers and reasonable paid plans once your numbers grow (Mailchimp, SendinBlue, and MailerLite *
(If you go with MailerLite, which is what we use at One Lit Place, here’s a link to save $20).
These services allow you to send out attractive brand-specific emails to share information, invite a feeling of connection and community, and sell products and books.
Many authors nowadays also keep Substack newsletters, which is another great way to engage (and even monetize that engagement by charging a nominal fee).
If you’re selling books or have upcoming appearances, seminars, or workshops, not only can you advertise these from your site, but you can run iterations through your site itself, building in an in-house way to connect with people and serve them intimately yet further.
WordPress has numerous plugins that make teaching and membership possible, you can use an all-in-one website that allows for teaching, membership, emails, numerous integrations, and more such as Kajabi, Kartra, or Podia, or you can keep your own site basic and link to a teaching site such as Teachable or Thinkific.
If you’re new or emerging and haven’t published yet or have only one or two publications to your name, getting a website sooner than later invites the success you intend to achieve.
Research Other Author Websites: Look at author websites of writers you admire to begin researching what you like, what you don’t, and how you would distinguish your own “brand” elements to set your author website apart.
Make a Vision Board: Pinterest and Instagram are also good for identifying elements you may like such as a logo, colors/mood, and other tonal qualities like modern or vintage, etc.
Determine Your Site’s Features/Functionality: Your site can be simple and clean and serve as a “Hello, here I am” home on the web, or if you wish to use your site as a means to an end (teach courses, have a member community, showcase your work services), you can look into platforms that offer such functionality.
This comprehensive article details the 10 essential elements every author website needs in order to be attractive, searchable, and user-friendly. Use it as a checklist to make sure you’ve covered your basics.
Ultimately what matters is that you are present on the web and therefore exist.
Because an author website is the most valuable tool you need now and in the future, getting it up and available will ensure your readers remain loyal and enthusiastic for everything you do- for life!
If you plan to DIY your site design, these resources will walk you step-by-step through what do to do get a website on different platforms, how to manage the tech, and what items to include.
Website design not in your wheelhouse? Fair enough. We’re here to help. Together, we’ll help you determine your “brand” elements so the look and feel of your site best showcase your authorial personality and publications. Then we’ll build it for you to do whatever you need it to do.
Author Website Design: We offer 2 packages for basic and custom sites. We will help you conceive, design, build, and maintain a site for you from simple to sophisticated.
Copy editing and copy writing: We help authors either by writing your website content for you or editing your drafts to make sure your pages’ copy is compelling, clean, and cohesive.
Or contact us any time for a free consultation to talk about your website and what you’d like to do!
Our 4-month Mentored Book Programs, Online Courses, & Writing Coaching and Editing Hours. From November 21-27, 2023