You might be marketing your book through: social media, Pinterest, email newsletter, podcasts, Book Bub and other marketing channels, ads, and through retailers.
But where do all those marketing efforts ultimately lead? Ideally, back to a place you own: your website.
Your author website should be one of the hardest-working parts of your marketing toolkit. Social media platforms come and go. Algorithms change overnight. Your website is the one place you fully own and control. When it’s set up well, it becomes your marketing headquarters. Your author website isn’t part of your marketing sales funnel, it’s the infrastructure. Your author website strategically brings together your mailing list, events, and book promotion in a way that feels cohesive and helps your books get found!
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What Role Does a Website Play in an Author's Marketing Strategy?
An author website acts as a central hub for marketing by giving readers one place to learn about the author, discover their books, join their email list, read their content, and take the next desired action.
Your website is your brand’s headquarters.. Everything else (i.e. social media, newsletters, podcasts, guest posts) should lead people back to it. For authors, your product distribution is run out of so many other places, so your website becomes a crucial, central home for your business.
When readers arrive, they should be able to:
- Understand who you are and what you write
- Discover your books and buy them easily
- Sign up to hear from you again
- Find events, launches, and upcoming news
Y’all this isn’t something that’s just nice to have and pretty. It’s essential. No matter how you publish, you’re going to be at the helm of your marketing. The good news? Your website can do a lot of that heavy lifting for you.
Ways Your Website Supports Your Author Marketing Efforts
Grow Your Mailing List
Your mailing list is one of the most powerful tools you have as an author. Unlike social media, it gives you direct access to your readers’ inboxes over and over again. And this is where your message is far more likely to be seen. Your website should make joining your list feel both obvious and worthwhile.
Where to include sign-up forms:
- A sign-up on nearly EVERY page (included in my author website templates)
- A dedicated newsletter or freebie page (included in my author website templates)
- At the end of blog posts (included in my author website templates)
- A subtle pop-up for new visitors (and, you guessed it, included in my author website templates)
It Should Feature Your Reader Magnet
“Join my newsletter” isn’t enough. It’s vague and easy to ignore. Instead, offer something specific. I have an entire post (Best Reader Magnet Ideas for Authors) that you can read to get ideas for what would work best for you!.
Clarity drives action. The more tangible the benefit, the more likely people are to subscribe.
Promote Your Events
Social media is great for promoting events in the moment—but your website should be the permanent record. Whether you’re hosting signings, attending festivals, running workshops, or doing online Q&As, your site is the place to keep everything organised.
Plus, as mentioned in the SEO guide that comes with my author website templates, including the link to the signing’s location or event page is great for your SEO. And if you can have them link back to your website, even better!
Your Events Page Should Include
- Dates and times
- Locations or platforms
- Booking or ticket links
Keep it updated, but it doesn’t need to be complicated. (Another reason we love Showit as the best website platform for authors! In my tutorial videos, I show you how easy it is to copy and paste a section of your website. Thus, making it easy for you to add lots and lots of author events.)
And, a gorgeous, strategically designed events page is included in all of my author website templates. Psst – you can get a discount code to use on your Author Website Template HERE!
Keep Those Past Events
Past events build credibility. They show you’re active, engaged, and experienced.
After they’ve happened, consider making a blog post of them that includes photos, write-ups, and testimonials. Then link that event to the blog post so people can see all that good stuff.
This is especially valuable if you offer talks or workshops, and it also gives you great content for blog posts.
Create Dedicated Pages for Your Books
Every book deserves its own space on your website. A dedicated book page becomes your go-to link whenever you’re promoting a new release.
What to include:
- Cover and blurb
- Release details and formats
- Buy or pre-order links
- Early reviews or endorsements
- Book Club Guide
These pages can evolve over time—from “coming soon” to “out now” to “available in paperback”—which keeps them relevant for both readers and search engines.
Find Ways To Connect This To Your Mailing List
On each book page, encourage readers to sign up for:
- Launch updates
- Bonus content
- Post-release extras
This turns one-time visitors into long-term readers.
Link to Your Social Media
This sounds obvious, but it’s surprisingly common for author websites to miss it or to weirdly just forget to add the link. Y’all that means this is an easy fix! Make it easy for readers to find and follow you elsewhere. It is truly wild to me how often I click on an Instagram icon on a website and the link is broken.
Keep it simple:
- Add clear links in your header, footer, or contact page
- Avoid clutter and just make them easy to spot
Think of these as signposts. If someone enjoys your work, they may want a more casual, day-to-day connection and social media is often where that happens. You can get personal in ways that you don’t elsewhere so we want that two way street between your website and your socials.
Bring your content onto your site
If you use Instagram regularly, embedding your feed can be a great addition.
It allows visitors to:
- See your latest posts
- Get a feel for your personality
- Follow you without leaving your site
It also keeps your website feeling fresh and up to date.
Add a Press or Media Page
A press page is often overlooked, and yet it is incredibly useful. It acts as a ready-made toolkit for journalists, bloggers, podcasters, and event organisers. A strong press page can seriously increase your credibility. Pitching to be on a podcast? Linking your Press page gives a level of credibility and social proof other authors won’t have.
Guess what? It’s also included in all my Author Website Templates.
Include:
- Book covers and blurbs
- Press releases or announcements
- Links to interviews or features
- A Link To Your Media Kit: This makes it easy for others to write about you without needing to ask for materials.
Use Blog Posts to Drive Traffic
Blogging remains one of the most effective (and underrated) ways to attract readers to your site. While SEO practices have changed every year, blogging is still considered a consistent way to increase your SEO.
It helps you:
- Bring in new visitors via search engines
- Link to your books and mailing list
- Share behind-the-scenes content
- Answer questions readers are already searching for
This kind of internal linking helps both readers and search engines understand your site and keeps people clicking around.
Coming up with blog content can feel overwhelming, so I usually encourage clients to invest in their other marketing methods first and come back to blogging when they have those systemized and easily repeatable.
Start Thinking Bigger
Most authors start their author platform journey on social media, which makes sense to an extent. It’s a low cost way of starting to grow an audience. But because of its lack of stability, authors then find they need a website. This makes more sense because you can do so much more on a website.
Your website should be the start of your author platform journey because your website should act as your Marketing Headquarters.
Your website will be an incredible workhorse for your business, freeing you up to spend more time writing. But a website does something else, it helps you start to think bigger about your business. When you become a published author, you become an entrepreneur. So it’s time to think like one.
As you start to think bigger about your business, maybe you decide you want to include more affiliate marketing. Your website can do that. Or maybe your last book was a bestseller and you want to sell a line of merch. Your website can do that. Maybe your experience has younger writers looking to you for help, so you’ve decided to offer writing coaching services. Your website can help with that.
Your website isn’t just to help you where you’re at. It’s meant to help you grow.
Start Small (But Start)
You don’t need to do everything at once. If you’ve got a website you love already, try tackling edits a little bit at a time.
If you’re looking for a website that makes you look great, is crazy easy to customize, and is budget friendly, I encourage you to check out my author website templates. I made them with you and your needs in mind!
(Plus, you can sign up for my newsletter and get a discount code…)
Frequently Asked Questions
How does an author website help sell books?
An author website can help sell books by giving potential readers a central place to learn about your books and easily find where to purchase them. It becomes the infrastructure to your marketing efforts.
Most importantly, your website reduces the number of steps between discovering you and discovering your books. If someone finds you through social media, a podcast, an interview, or a search engine, they have a place to go to learn more and decide what to read next.
Do authors need a website if they have social media?
Yes. An author website and social media serve different purposes, so having social media does not eliminate the need for a website. Social media can help you reach and interact with readers, while your website gives you a central online presence that you control.
Social media platforms can change their algorithms, features, and policies, and your reach can fluctuate. Your website provides a stable home for your books, biography, email signup, blog, media information, and other content.
How can I use my author website to grow my email list?
The most effective way to use your author website to grow an email list is to give readers a clear reason to subscribe and make signup easy to find. Instead of simply asking visitors to “subscribe to my newsletter,” explain what they will receive by joining.
Your website can then turn visitors who discover you through search, social media, podcasts, or other marketing channels into subscribers you can communicate with directly.
Does an author website help with SEO?
Yes, an author website can support SEO by giving search engines useful, organized content about you, your books, and the topics you write about. A well-structured website can help your content appear when readers search for your name, books, genre-related topics, or questions connected to your expertise.
If you’d like direct tips to learn how to show up more in SEO rankings, download The Author Visibility Checklist.
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