6 Excellent Reasons Why You Need An Author Website

With the rise of social media, you might be asking yourself: Do I really need an author website? The short answer is yes. An author website is the cornerstone of your online marketing and serves as a central hub for your readers. Continue reading for six excellent reasons why you need an author website.

Why You Need An Author Website

1. Sell Books & Merchandise

A website is a great place to sell not only your books but any merchandise you might have like tote bags or coffee mugs, the options are endless. You can offer signed copies of your books for sale. If you’ve written a series, you can sell the books as a bundle. Create merchandise for your brand or that represents a certain book, and sell that too. Have merchandise? Put it together with a book and sell it together as a book box to celebrate that book’s release.

A great example is A.L. Jackson. Her website has a shop where readers can buy signed copies of her books, awesome merchandise, book bundles, and book boxes.

2. Showcase Your Backlist

Your social media channels are a great place to promote your work, but often it is newer releases that get priority. A new reader might discover your newest release on Instagram and then go searching for your backlist. Make it easy for them by having it on your website.

I can personally attest that is how I have discovered many of my favorite authors. I learned about a new author on Instagram through the promotion of their newest release and then, wanting more, went hunting to find other books they’ve written and I definitely appreciated when they had a website that listed all of their books for me to discover.

This is also a great way to organize your books if you are writing a series. Plus, you can provide your readers with the recommended or required reading order.

3. Build Your Brand & Credibility

A website will help reinforce your author brand and build credibility with your readers. Readers can learn about you from your social media channels, yes, but those platforms have their limits, literally (your bio for Instagram or Twitter can only be a certain number of characters) and figuratively. Reinforce your image from those social media channels on your website.

4. Build A Relationship With Readers

Build a relationship with your readers through a mailing list. You can incentivize signing up for the mailing list by offering sneak peeks at book covers or chapters, bonus scenes or epilogues, and more.

Readers who subscribe to your newsletter demonstrate a genuine interest in you, your brand, and books.

Your author website lets you place opt-in boxes throughout the site where readers can subscribe to your newsletter.

5. Keep Fans In The Know

Readers want to know when you have new books coming out, what they are about, and when they will be released. A website provides all this information to your readers. You can also inform them about any book signing or promotional events you might be attending.

6. All Your Information In One Place

That post you shared on Instagram about your upcoming release will eventually get lost in social media feeds and an end up at the bottom of your profile, as you post new content.

Save your readers time from having to scroll through social media feeds looking for a certain piece of information, which let’s be real, they’re likely not going to do, by having a website with your content all in one place.

Hopefully, I’ve convinced you to get a website of your own. If it has, learn how to set up your own self-hosted WordPress site here.

Elisabeth Wise

Elisabeth Wise is a fiction book editor and proofreader who offers developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading. She is a member of the Editorial Freelancers Association. Visit her business website That Bookish Brunette Literary Services, say hello on Instagram, and connect via Facebook and Twitter I Join Elisabeth's newsletter