​A website acts as a central hub for your work, providing a platform to showcase your books, share updates, and connect with readers. For small presses, a well-designed website can enhance visibility and sales. Here, we’ll explore why every author should have a website, key landing pages and design tips, and how platforms like Squarespace and Shopify can help create a website quickly and affordably. We’ll also cover ways to maximise search engine optimisation to ensure your website reaches the widest audience possible.
 
A Central Hub for Your Work
 
First and foremost, a website serves as a one-stop-shop for everything related to your work. Readers, journalists, and potential collaborators can easily find information about your books, upcoming events, and media coverage. It’s your digital business card, available to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Other benefits include:

• Control Over Your Brand. With a website, you have complete control over your brand and how you present yourself to the world. Social media profiles are important, but they’re subject to changes in platform policies and algorithms. A website, however, is entirely yours. You can customise it to reflect your personality and the essence of your work.
• Improved Credibility. A professional website enhances your credibility as an author. It signals to readers and industry professionals that you’re serious about your writing career. This can be particularly important for independently published authors who are building their reputation from the ground up.
• Direct Sales and Mailing List Growth. Your website can function as a direct sales channel, allowing you to sell books and merchandise without relying solely on third-party retailers*. Additionally, it’s a prime tool for growing your mailing list, enabling you to keep in touch with your audience and inform them about new releases and events.   *we’ll look at e-commerce tips and considerations in a future post

 
Preparing Your Website
 
When setting up your website make sure you’ve got these pages at a minimum:

• Home page. Your home page is the first impression visitors will have of your site. It should be visually appealing and clearly convey who you are and what you do. Include a brief introduction, your latest news or releases, and a clear call-to-action (CTA) such as “Sign Up for My Newsletter”.
• About Page. The about page is where you tell your story. Share your background, your journey as a writer, and what inspires your work. This helps readers connect with you on a personal level. Ensure you have a photo of you that can be downloaded in high res and used for media purposes or by event organisers.
• Books Page. Create a dedicated page for your books, with each title having its own sub-page. Include book covers, synopses, purchase links, and reviews. If you have several books, consider organising them by series or genre. Ensure your covers can also be downloaded (right click) in high res and for the love of God, put the ISBN, format, page count, and price on them. You wouldn’t believe how many people don’t put basic metadata on the book pages!
• Blog. A blog is an excellent way to keep your site dynamic and engage with readers. Share writing tips, behind-the-scenes insights, book reviews, and more. Regular updates can also improve your site’s SEO.
• Contact Page. Make it easy for readers and industry professionals to reach you. Include a contact form, your email address, and links to your social media profiles.

 
Maximising Search Engine Optimisation
 
A few more things to note:

• Keywords. Research relevant keywords for your genre and incorporate them into your website content. Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help you identify high-traffic keywords.
• Quality Content. Regularly update your site with high-quality, relevant content. This could be blog posts, book excerpts, or author updates. Search engines favour sites that are frequently updated with fresh content.
• Meta Descriptions. Use meta descriptions for each page on your site. These are the snippets of text that appear under your page title in search engine results. A compelling meta description can increase click-through rates.
• Internal Linking. Link to other pages on your site within your content. This helps search engines understand the structure of your site and can improve your SEO.
• Mobile Optimisation. Ensure your site is optimised for mobile devices. Google prioritises mobile-friendly sites in its search results, so this is crucial for your SEO strategy.

 
Some Basic Design Tips

• Keep It Simple. A clean, uncluttered design is often the most effective. Use a cohesive colour scheme and easy-to-read fonts. Ensure your site is mobile-friendly, as many users will access it on their smartphones. Sites like Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, Shopify etc have ready-to-use templates that can also be customised. Find what you like and structure your site accordingly.
• High-Quality Images. Use high-quality images for book covers and author photos. Poor quality images can make your site look unprofessional.
• Navigation. Ensure your site is easy to navigate. A clear menu structure helps visitors find what they’re looking for without frustration. An author’s website shouldn’t be overly complicated anyway.
• Calls to Action. Include CTAs throughout your site. Encourage visitors to sign up for your newsletter (if you have one), follow you on social media, or buy your books. Some of the online sites mentioned above have integrations with Mailchimp or inbuilt marketing apps that can make newsletters relatively easy to run.

 
A well-designed website is a powerful tool for authors and small presses. It serves as a central hub for your work, enhances your credibility, and provides opportunities for direct sales and reader engagement. Online platforms like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Shopify and others make it really easy to create a professional site quickly and affordably. By focusing on key landing pages, effective design, and strong SEO practices, you can maximise the impact of your website and reach a wider audience. Embrace the digital age and let your website be a testament to your dedication and passion for your craft.

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NOTE: Here at RM Marketing Services, we do websites for authors, small presses and industry organisations. We prefer Squarespace because it has a  user-friendly interface and elegant design templates. It offers a range of features including blogging tools, e-commerce functionality, and analytics. Squarespace also provides hosting and a custom domain, making it a comprehensive solution for building your author website. If you plan to sell books directly from your site, Shopify is an excellent option. It’s primarily an e-commerce platform, but it also offers a variety of website design tools. Shopify’s integration with payment processors and shipping services can streamline your sales process. We also have experience with Wix and Weebly so if you are looking to launch a new website, get in touch with us to discuss your project and our availability.

A number of months ago a good publishing friend - a director of an Australian press - told me I should have kept freelancing as more and more publishers need to call on experience and expertise, particularly in sales | marketing | distribution | operations - which is what I've essentially done for 27 years! With budgets getting tighter and tighter, and headcount always a bone of contention, having someone to provide the suite of services I do "on demand" was attractive because 1) financially the model makes sense (an hourly rate, 14 day account) 2) publishers, vendors and distributors know they can outsource tasks and projects to someone who knows what they are doing and 3) I had a great reputation in the marketplace for listening to what clients - and customers - wanted and delivering a professional service.

I thought about this for a while. The business had been very successful when I originally set it up and I had been regretting letting it dwindle, particularly in the past 12 months, while I worked full-time for a previous client. Once I went full-time, it was exhausting trying to do both for the first year or so but there was something attractive about freelance | contract | consulting work that appealed to me and I was beginning to miss the variety, the clients and the work. And then when not one, but two restructures (!) hit me, I knew it was time to go back.

Many publishers, booksellers, libraries, specialist resellers, authors, academics and professional associations know me and have worked with me in a variety of roles over the years I've been in the book trade. I'm probably most known for my work as publisher relations & marketing communications manager at James Bennett (a Baker & Taylor company), where I worked for 11 years. I had an amazing time there working not only on the library supply chain (primarily with academic publishers and digital vendors) but also on the wholesale/distribution side of Inbooks, which reported to me and was in many ways my "baby". I covered everything "e" and "p" and worked on some wonderful strategic projects with publishers. From distribution to marketing, ops and sales, I had a blast - getting to know publishers locally and internationally, from the small to the large, and distributors and vendors as far as the eye could see. It was a heck of a lot of work, particularly when I took on marketing on top of everything else, but I thrived in that environment -- and learnt a lot in the process.

So what can I do for you? What can't I do would be an easier question! (The answer is mass market publicity --- there are publicity experts out there with well established media contacts for your high profile authors. Oh, and I'm not experienced in video editing but am currently working on it using the apps I have through my Adobe Creative Cloud subscription). We can start at the very beginning - Writing, Proofreading, Editing - the basics are ingrained! Design. Flyers, brochures, POS materials. I like being creative. Digital Marketing - social media, email campaigns - I output campaigns with ease. Campaign Management. I love it. And let's talk Sales. Whether it's sales management or key accounts or even targeted business development, I know a lot of people and have a good network to call on. I've sold - and marketed - digital products for years and in my most recent role called on accounts directly for print as well. Double whammy! Library supply. In my blood. Special accounts. I love servicing the specialist resellers. Websites. How can you not love them? Planning and preparation, content management, design, analytics. Fun stuff! Operations. I'm not too shabby at the serious, back-end stuff and know my way around Bookmaster after more than 20 years of using it (oh remember those green screens!). Distribution. It's a tricky one (see my old blog post). I'm not doing it myself but I have worked with publishers on researching the market, getting feedback from customers, and making the right call on who they should use. These days it's a hard reality but the UK and US wholesalers do a pretty good job at reaching the ANZ market and if you can't get a local distributor to take on your list, let's talk about how to best use who does sell books successfully to this market. Once you've got the supply chain set-up, let's talk about sales and marketing. And re-read this paragraph to see how I can help you.

And lastly, don't take it from me. Go to LinkedIn to see what others say about me including all my years as a publisher relations manager. There's some wonderful recommendations and endorsements there. Then when you are ready, contact me.