Use this author website checklist to plan the essential pages, publish a clear author bio, present your books, grow an email list, improve search visibility, and keep your site accurate before and after every release.
Overview
An author website is your owned home on the web. Social profiles, retailer pages, and event listings can help readers discover you, but your website gives you one stable place to explain what you write, display your books, collect newsletter subscribers, and direct visitors to the next useful action.
You do not need a complicated site to begin. A focused author website with a small number of well-maintained pages is usually more useful than a large site filled with unfinished sections. Start by deciding what a first-time visitor should be able to do: understand who you are, find the right book, join your email list, learn where to meet or follow you, and contact you when appropriate.
Choose the foundation
- Choose a domain: Prefer a name that is easy to say, spell, remember, and type. Your name is a natural choice if you expect to publish across several books or genres. If your name is unavailable, use a clear variation rather than a complicated string of numbers or punctuation.
- Select a manageable platform: Use a content management system or hosted website builder you can update without friction. Compare editing experience, templates, accessibility controls, backups, analytics, email-form integrations, and the ability to add pages as your publishing plans grow.
- Set up a professional email address: An address associated with your domain can make reader, media, event, and rights inquiries easier to organize. Create separate labels or folders for reader mail, newsletter notifications, and business requests.
- Plan the navigation: Keep the main menu short. A practical starting structure is Home, Books, About, Newsletter, Events or News, and Contact.
Build the essential pages
Home: State who you are and what you write within the first screen or two. Feature your current or most important book, include a clear link to learn more or buy it, and give visitors one secondary path such as joining your newsletter.
Books: Give every significant title its own section or page. Include the cover, title, series position when relevant, description, format information, publication details, retailer or library links, and a simple content note if your audience may need one. Keep purchase links easy to identify without making the page feel like an advertisement.
About: Write an author bio website visitors can scan quickly. Begin with a short version of two or three sentences, then add a longer biography for readers, event organizers, journalists, or booksellers. Mention relevant themes, places, previous work, and credentials only when they help readers understand your writing.
Newsletter: Explain what subscribers will receive and how often you generally send it. Set expectations before asking for an email address. Use a focused call to action, such as receiving release news, behind-the-scenes notes, essays, or a reader freebie. For a broader subscriber and publishing plan, see How to Grow a Newsletter as a Writer.
Contact: Provide a reliable method for appropriate inquiries. You can distinguish reader messages from event, media, rights, or collaboration requests. Avoid publishing personal details that are not necessary for contact.
News, blog, or events: Add this only if you can maintain it. A small, current news section is more useful than a long archive of outdated announcements. If you publish articles, organize them around topics that support your books and help readers discover your work.
Privacy and site information: If you collect email addresses, use analytics, publish forms, or embed third-party content, provide the notices and controls appropriate to your audience and location. Treat this as a maintenance task rather than copying a generic page without understanding what your site actually does.
Checklist by scenario
Before launching your first author website
- Register a readable domain and connect it to the site.
- Write a one-sentence description of your author identity and primary audience.
- Prepare a short bio, long bio, professional photograph or suitable author image, and book cover files.
- Create Home, Books, About, Newsletter, and Contact pages.
- Test every form, button, retailer link, and navigation item.
- Check the site on a phone, tablet, and desktop-sized screen.
- Set page titles, descriptions, readable URLs, and one clear main heading for each page.
- Connect a measurement method that helps you understand visits and important actions without collecting unnecessary information.
Before a book launch
- Create or update the book page with the final cover, description, series information, and available formats.
- Confirm that retailer, library, preorder, or direct-sale links lead to the correct destination.
- Add a clear launch date only when it is confirmed, and label changing information carefully.
- Prepare a newsletter signup or launch announcement that explains the benefit of subscribing.
- Publish a short announcement or launch page that can be shared from social profiles and email.
- Review the book description for clarity and consistency with your metadata. The guide to book metadata for self-publishing can help you check categories, keywords, descriptions, and platform fields.
Between releases
- Remove expired preorder, event, and temporary campaign links.
- Refresh the homepage so it reflects the book or project you currently want visitors to notice.
- Review the newsletter promise and make sure your recent emails match it.
- Publish useful evergreen articles, reading notes, or project updates only when they support your broader author platform.
- Update your bio, photograph, contact details, and event information when they change.
For a series or multiple pen names
- Make the reading order obvious.
- Give each series a distinct page or visual label.
- Separate pen names when their audiences, genres, or newsletter promises differ substantially.
- Use consistent navigation so readers can move from one title to the next without returning to the homepage.
What to double-check
Author website SEO
Search visibility begins with useful, specific pages rather than a list of repeated keywords. Give each book page a descriptive title and explain the book naturally in the page copy. Use terms readers may actually search for, such as your name, book title, series name, genre, or subject, where they fit the reader's needs.
Keep URLs short and stable. Use descriptive image file names and meaningful alternative text for images that convey information. A cover image may need alternative text that includes the book title and author; a decorative flourish may need no descriptive text. Use headings in a logical order, link related books and articles, and make sure important information is available as text rather than only inside an image.
Keyword research can be useful when planning articles or resource pages, but do not force search phrases into your bio or book descriptions. For a repeatable process, use this keyword research workflow for bloggers and adapt it to reader-focused author content.
Readability and accessibility
- Use body text large enough to read comfortably and provide strong contrast.
- Do not rely on color alone to communicate links, status, or importance.
- Give links descriptive labels such as “Read the book details” instead of “Click here.”
- Use descriptive headings, short paragraphs, lists, and plain language.
- Make forms keyboard-friendly and label each field clearly.
- Add captions or transcripts when you publish video or audio that carries important information.
- Test the site with zoom, keyboard navigation, and more than one browser or device.
For writing improvements that make pages easier to scan, see How to Improve Readability. A final edit can also catch broken sentences, inconsistent book titles, and unclear calls to action; the blog post editing checklist offers a useful model.
Common mistakes
- Making the homepage a biography: Readers usually need a quick orientation and a next step before they need your complete life story.
- Hiding the books: Do not make visitors search through menus to find the work they came to see.
- Using one generic call to action: A reader may want a book, a newsletter, event details, or a contact method. Label actions according to their purpose.
- Launching with empty sections: Remove unfinished blogs, galleries, and event pages until you have a realistic plan to maintain them.
- Linking to outdated information: Old launch dates, broken retailer links, and canceled events reduce trust quickly.
- Overdesigning the site: Animation, elaborate menus, and large media files can distract from books and make pages harder to use.
- Ignoring email signup testing: Submit your own form, confirm that the message arrives, and check the follow-up sequence before promoting it.
- Duplicating retailer copy without editing: Adapt descriptions for the website so they answer visitor questions and connect naturally to related books.
When to revisit
Schedule a light website review every quarter and a deeper review before each major release or seasonal planning cycle. The quarterly review can take less than an hour when you use a fixed checklist:
- Open the homepage, book pages, signup form, and contact page on a phone and computer.
- Click every high-priority link, especially retailer, event, newsletter, and download links.
- Check that book covers, descriptions, prices or availability references, dates, and series order are current. Avoid publishing details that may change unless you are prepared to maintain them.
- Review your analytics or search performance for pages that attract visitors and pages that need clearer titles, links, or calls to action.
- Read the site aloud or use a readability review to find dense paragraphs, vague headings, and repeated information.
- Test the signup form and confirm that the welcome message still reflects what subscribers will receive.
- Check platform, theme, plugin, domain, security, backup, and accessibility settings whenever your website software or workflow changes.
Before a release, create a temporary launch checklist with an owner and deadline for each update. After the release, remove temporary banners and announcements that no longer help visitors. Keep a simple change log so you know when the bio, book pages, forms, and major links were last reviewed. A maintained, readable author website does not need constant redesign; it needs accurate information, clear paths, and regular attention.
Start with the smallest complete version today: Home, Books, About, Newsletter, and Contact. Then return to this checklist before your next book, campaign, or planning cycle and improve the pages that support the reader's next decision.
