10 Tips on How to Make an Author Website (+ Bonus Checklist)

10 Tips on How to Make an Author Website (+ Bonus Checklist) 10 Tips on How to Make an Author Website (+ Bonus Checklist) In today’s competitive book market, making an author website that helps you sell more books and build your profile requires more than just a Blogspot page and a domain with your name in it. In this article, we’ve worked with experienced Reedsy web designers to whittle down ten top tips that will help you build the perfect author website.The first five tips are things that your site needs: pieces of advice that you cannot afford to ignore.Once you take those on board, we have five more tips that will make your site stand out from the crowd, helping you achieve your goals which are, if you’ve already forgotten, to sell more books and build your profile. And to finish up, we have a free checklist that you can download to make sure that your own website is up to scratch.Ready?How to Make an Author  Website 101: Five Essential Tips1. Make it easy for visitors to buy your bookâ€Å"I see so many author websites forget one of the most crucial elements: purchase links to major retailers,† says Jeremiah Tolbert, a designer who creates sites for bestselling authors like Michael Connolly. â€Å"Ostensibly, one of the driving goals behind an author website is to help sell your books, so not presenting purchase links to the major retailers in a structured, well-ordered way is costing you sales.†Liam Fitzgerald agrees. He’s a professional designer whose portfolio includes sites for Anthony Horowitz, Eoin Colfer, and Darren Shan.   He adds the caveat that you need not link to every retailer under the sun.â€Å"You should have a maximum of three retailers and allow the reader to choose the format at point of purchase. If you provide too many options, this could easily result in buyer paralysis and non-sale.†One clever hack to consider is the Universal Link from Books2Read. It’s a great (and, importantly, free) tool that directs readers to your book’s page on their preferred retailer with just a single link.2. T ell people who you are and where to find you Recommended resources:11 Author Websites That Get it Right: a post analyzing 11  famous author websites to offer some invaluable takeaways.Author Website Design Inspiration: more advice on author websites, looking at how they can turn your readers into lifetime fans.What are your favorite author websites out there? What other tips would you add to this list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!