how to create an eye-catching website to drive book sales

As an author, your author website is a key part of your overall marketing strategy to promote your books or blog. it’s important to have an eye-catching website that piques the interest of your readers. your author website should not only have details about your work, but a personalized touch showcasing who you are. if you’re interested in setting up your first website or revising the content on your current one, here are four pages you should have on your author website, and the elements to include for each one.

Homepage

Firstly, let’s talk about the homepage of your author website. This should be an eye-catching page that feels personal and relevant to you and your writing. We ideally want as few clicks as possible for the best user experience. You should have a menu at the top of your website so people can easily navigate where they need to go, and a clear header of text introducing yourself or your writing. You can also add a photo of you toward the top to personalize this page and make your readers feel connected to you.

If you choose to introduce yourself or summarize who you are on this page, make sure it's very clear that you have books available if you are trying to sell your books. Don’t make it hard to find. You can add a block of text and a picture of your book with a button to go buy it that takes your reader to your personal store, to amazon, or wherever you’re selling.

Now let’s move down to the footer of the homepage. You can easily make a standardized footer so that every page of your website has the same key information. On mine, I have my social media platforms linked, a sign-up form for my email newsletter, my instagram feed, links to my contact page, another link to my books so that it can’t be missed, as well as a link to my services and courses since that’s something I offer, too. And you’ll also want to look into privacy policy laws and terms of service laws in your country because that might be something you need to have as well.

Book page/writing page

Let’s move to your book page, which is so important to have on your author website. if you’re not yet selling books, you should still have some of your work featured on your author website. Whether that’s a page labeled poetry, or labeled work, or writing, take us to a page that tells us about what you write about, show us a short sample or two, and where you want us to go next. even if you aren’t selling a book yet, or you’re not planning to, you should be using these website visitors to build up your audience in some way.

for those with books, show us the cover of the book, capture us with a bold headline that summarizes the book and speaks to your ideal reader directly about what it will do for them. entertain them and inspire them. put a summary of the book, and a clear button or link to buy the book. there can be multiple links or buttons if you are selling in multiple places.

About Page

Let’s talk about your about page. There’s a lot you can do with this page, but it’s definitely important you have a page that goes into more detail about who you are, your credibility, any awards, publications, and things you like to do other than write. remember, speak to your ideal reader and make them feel welcome, understood and eager to get to know you and check out your books. tell us about you and your hobbies and interests, why you write in general, or why you wrote the most recent book. on this page, you can also include a press kit (or this can be on a separate page). A press kit is typically one or two photos of you, a bio, and any information about past speaking engagements or publications you’ve done.

This page can also include your contact information or a contact form for people to easily send you a message.

Links Page

this brings me to the final piece of your author website puzzle and something I love encouraging other writers to have which is a links page. Perhaps you have heard of or use Linktree, or another website like that where you can create a page of links that you use in your social media bios to direct people where you want to go.

if you have your own author website and are paying for a domain and hosting, I highly encourage you to make your own links page on your website so that all of the traffic and clicks you’re getting on your Linktree are instead happening on your website. you can then see the traffic, where people are clicking, and what website copy is working well. plus, people will be brought directly to your website where they can now peek around at what else you have on the website.

If you are using a website host like Squarespace that has a drag and drop editor for web pages, this is very easy to create and maintain because you just drag and drop a bunch of buttons and add your links. If this isn’t something you think you can maintain and a website like linktree works for you, then please continue with that! the most important takeaway is that it shouldn’t be a scavenger hunt for your readers to find where they can buy your book, contact you, or learn more about you.

make it easy for them!

Here is what my link page looks like currently. I change this up every so often when I have something new I want to promote. I have an intro for people who are coming from social media and don’t know much about me yet, then I link my books first, and so on. you don’t have to make it just a page of links! you can add photos and a little more personality to yours. just make sure the links are prominent and obvious for your visitors to click.

setting up a website doesn’t have to be difficult, and there are many resources available for website support as well. by setting up a website, you’ll create a platform for yourself as a writer and will have the tools to effectively sell books to more readers.

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