What Do You Need on Your Author Website?

Whether you're published traditionally, seeking representation, self-published, or just thinking about writing a book, you should have a website. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated. All you need is a place that is uniquely yours outside of a third-party social media site. 

One of the biggest reasons to have a website is to make it easy for potential readers, agents, and publishers to find you. It's your chance to show exactly who you are as a writing professional and share your thoughts.

Regardless of whether you build your website yourself or hire someone else to build and maintain it, there is certain content you'll want to have. 

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• A bio: When you write fiction, this can be short and sweet, but you should go into more detail if you're writing in an area where you have deep subject-matter expertise. (For example, you're a doctor who writes medical thrillers or a federal agent who writes crime novels.) Nonfiction writers should talk about the qualifications, education, and experience that led to writing a book.
• Information about the kind of books you write: Even if you haven't published anything or are keeping mostly quiet because your book is on submission, you can still say something like, "I write romantasy, space operas, and nonfiction about poisonous plants." You could also share your favorite books in the genres you write in, which supports your author community.
• A headshot: Although this is not an absolute requirement, readers like to put a face to author names. Using the same headshot for your website and all your social media will help your brand recognition, and it will help assure an agent who reads your book or proposal that they're looking at information about the right author.
• Links to your social media, especially if you don't use the same handle across all platforms. This reinforces your brand.
• News and updates: You don't have to update your website every day, but you'll want to add or edit new content regularly to keep your site fresh. You could keep a blog as part of your website or integrate your social media so your readers can see what you're sharing. 
• Contact information: Some authors share a specific email address they have set up for website inquiries. Others have a form readers can fill out and send. The choice is yours, but you will want to have a way for people to contact you. If you are represented by an agent, provide your agent's preferred contact information for rights inquiries.
• Book covers, if you have them: You don't have to create potential covers for books that haven't been published, but if you have them, you should display them.

What's one thing you shouldn't have on your author website? Long excerpts of your book. A few paragraphs, even a page? Sure. But the more of your book you make available on your site or a place like Wattpad, the less likely a publisher or agent will be to pick it up. When too much of the book is freely available, it's hard for them to add value and convince readers to pay for it.

This post was composed by ​Carlie Webber, a certified professional editor and former literary agent currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration at Pepperdine University. Her favorite genres to read and edit include MG, YA, mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, and contemporary fiction. ​Carlie is part of the social media staff at Writing Day Workshops.

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