Squarespace website design for authors: What your site needs to do (beyond selling books)
Authors are some of my favorite clients to work with. As an avid reader, I have a special place in my heart for the written word (I’m a blogger in the age of Tik Tok and Instagram, you get the gist!), so working with authors is an absolute dream for me.
Authors understand story structure intuitively, which means they already think about their website the way it needs to be thought about, as something with a beginning, a middle, and a reason to keep reading. What they often don't know is how that translates into a site that actually works for them.
Most author websites I've seen before a redesign have the same problem: they were built around the book launch and never evolved past it. There's a cover image, a buy link, maybe a bio, and not much else. That works for the first few weeks of a launch. After that, it's a dead end for anyone who finds it.
But an author's website has a longer job than a launch page. It's where readers go to feel closer to you after they've finished the book. It's where press and publicists look before they reach out. It's where the next opportunity — a speaking invitation, a collaboration, an interview — begins. Building it right means thinking about all of those at once, not just the moment of publication.
What does an author website actually need?
A well-built author website needs five things: an individual page for each book, a press and media section, an events page, a newsletter signup that earns its place, and an about page that reads like the beginning of a conversation.
The structure of a good author website is different from a service business or an e-commerce store, and most website templates aren't built with authors in mind.
Here's what actually matters when thinking about your website as an author:
A homepage that communicates who you are, not just what you've written. Readers buy books from people they feel connected to. Your homepage should give someone a sense of your perspective and your world and not just a list of titles. Think of it as the first page of a long conversation.
A dedicated page for each book. Not a grid of covers. A full page per title, the premise, who it's for, the emotional territory it covers, where to buy it, and ideally a section for what readers and reviewers have said. This page is what gets shared, linked to, and indexed. It does the work of a publicist on your behalf.
A press or media page. This is one of the most overlooked pages on author websites and one of the most important. Press, podcast hosts, event organizers, and publicists look here before they reach out. A well-built press page has links to notable coverage, topics you speak or write about, your press kit, including bio in different lengths (short, medium, long), a headshot in high resolution and contact information for booking. Think of this as a place your future collaborators come to to know if you are a good fit for their publication. If they have to hunt for information, they might loose interest.
An events page that shows past and upcoming. On Squarespace this is easy to build and easy to maintain. A lot of times authors just showcase upcoming events, but past events (specially if you’re a new author) matter they signal that you're active and that people show up for you. An events page that only shows future dates looks sparse between tours. Show both.
A newsletter signup that's actually positioned as valuable. Most author sites have a newsletter signup buried in the footer. The readers who join your list are your most loyal audience and they deserve a real section that explains what they're signing up for. A sentence that says "get news and updates" converts poorly. Something that says what you actually send, and how often, converts much better.
How does SEO work differently for authors?
Author SEO has two separate audiences: readers and press.
Readers typically search by book title or your name, which means your author name and book titles need to be prominent in your page titles and headings, not just in image alt text. Google should be able to read your site and understand immediately: this person is an author, this is what they've written, this is the genre or topic.
Press searches differently. A journalist or podcast host looking for a guest might search "author Seattle women's leadership" or "memoir writer Pacific Northwest" or your name alongside a topic you're associated with. Your press page, your about page, and any blog content you publish all contribute to whether you show up for those searches.
The pages that tend to rank well for authors are individual book pages (especially if you include the full title and subtitle), the press page if it's substantial, and any blog or essay content you publish. A homepage alone doesn't rank for much — it needs the deeper pages to do the topical work.
Is Squarespace a good platform for author websites?
Yes, genuinely. A few reasons that are specific to authors:
The templates handle text beautifully. Author websites are copy-forward — long bios, book descriptions, essays — and Squarespace's typographic defaults are cleaner than most platforms out of the box. A well-chosen template needs very little customization to look like it was designed for someone who takes words seriously.
Events are built in. Squarespace has a native events feature that handles past and upcoming events cleanly, without needing a plugin or third-party tool. For authors on book tour or doing speaking engagements, this is genuinely useful.
It's easy to update yourself. Book launches, press coverage, new events — these all happen on timelines you can't fully predict. Squarespace is approachable enough that most authors can make updates without coming back to a designer every time something changes.
Where it has limits: if you're selling signed books directly, running a Substack-style subscription model, or managing complex e-commerce, you'll hit Squarespace's ceiling. For a standard author site focused on readership and press, it's the right fit.
What makes a great author website stand out?
The author websites that work best share a few things I've noticed across the projects I've worked on.
They have a clear point of view even before you read a word of the book. The design, the tone of the copy, the imagery — all of it signals something about the writing before the reader clicks on a title. When the site feels consistent with the books, readers trust it faster.
They treat the newsletter as the primary conversion, not the book sale. You can't control whether Amazon surfaces your book. You can control your list. The authors who build sustainable readership over time are the ones who treat their newsletter signup as the most important button on the site — not an afterthought.
They're updated after the launch. A press quote from a new review, an event from last month still showing as upcoming — these are signals that a site is abandoned. Thirty minutes of maintenance after a launch tour makes a site feel alive for the next two years.
They don't try to do everything. The author sites that feel cluttered are usually trying to sell books, promote a podcast, link to a Substack, feature a course, and run a blog all at once. The best ones pick the one or two things that matter most and build around those.
I've had the chance to work with authors at different stages — from first-time debuts to established writers building out a more complete online presence — and the thing that always strikes me is how much good material they already have. The writing is there. The story is there. What the website does is give it a home that's worthy of it.
If you're an author who's been working off a launch page for longer than you planned, or building a site from scratch ahead of a book, I'd love to talk through what you need →
