In today’s post I want to talk about author websites and what to include on your author website. I talk about what I think are the essentials or must haves for your author website. I plan to do another post about which optional additions you can add to your website.
What to include on your author website
- Books. Having all pf your books listed somewhere on your website is important so people who visit your website can find out which books you’ve written so far. In most cases I think it makes sense to add things like the genre or your books, the cover and the book description as well, so visitors can find all this information on your website.
- Buy links. Another thing that’s a must have for your author newsletter is the buy links to your books. You can add these to an all books page or individual book pages for each book depending on how your website is set up. Most authors include buy links to all the bigger vendor sites, but some also add specific buy links for either the paperback or audiobook version if they have those. You can also use a link like Books2Read where all the buy links are listed. Or even a combination of all of these. There are various ways you can handle this.
- About me. Having an about me page or an about me section on another page of your website makes it easy for visitor to learn a bit about you. You can also add your author picture here if you have one.
- Contact. I recommend having some way for readers/ visitors to contact you on your website. This can be a link to social media, a contact form or your email address. That way visitors with questions or comments can easily get in contact with you.
- Newsletter sign up. If you have a newsletter (and in most cases I think it’s a good idea you do) make sure to display the newsletter sign up in a prominent position on your website. Usually authors either have a newsletter or subscribe page on their website, a pop-up or a sign up widget in the website side bar. Or often a combination of these.
- Social media links. If you’re on social media make sure to include links to the platforms you’re active on somewhere on your website. I often see this somewhere on the home page, often towards the top or bottom of the site. Another place I see social media links is on a contact or about me page. You can use logo’s or text links for this.
- Privacy policy. It’s important to also include a privacy policy on your website. On internet you can find templates for this and some websites even have their own templates for privacy policy pages. There are laws that require you to have a privacy policy like the GDPR and the CCPA, so it’s important to make sure you have one on your website.
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