Creating Your Author Website: Your Three Main Options

Feb 27

Options for creating your author website

A colleague in the book publishing world sent me an author website query the other day, and I realized that I had at least a blog post’s worth of opinion to share, in answer to her question. :)

But before I can reasonably write that opinion piece, I see that I need to explain some nuance about how I work with clients. This distinction feels obvious to me now, but it has taken me several years to find this clarity. And from the nature of her question, I can see that it’s not obvious to other people that website designers can, and do, have very different business models for how we deliver our work.

So, let’s take a look at the three main choices you have, in how your author website gets created.

1: Build It Yourself

Let’s begin with the option that requires most effort and least financial expenditure from you, the author. The DIY approach means that you plan, design, create, optimize, publish, and troubleshoot your entire author website.

This is a perfectly reasonable approach for many people. It simply requires that either you’re already very comfortable with all of the skills you’ll need and the choices you’ll make, or you will spend time and energy learning.

In this broad category, I will also include taking a course in how to build an author website, and starting with a premium template that you adapt. In both these cases, you’ll get useful information that will save you some time, but:

Everything is ultimately on you

For the first few years of my business, I provided a LOT of information for authors building their own websites. And I do still offer a few resources that help DIYers. But I’ll be honest, much of what I publish is to attract the attention of search engines so that when a potential great-fit client searches for “author website”, they have a good chance of finding me. Occasionally, someone has chosen to work with me after pursuing the DIY route, but increasingly, my clients recognize that building a website themselves is not the highest and best use of their time.

This option equates to “cook lunch yourself”

Because I’m a writer, let’s add to this piece with an analogy. Imagine you want to host a special party at your house. Perhaps it’s a big birthday, or a wedding anniversary lunch. You’re having friends over, and you want to celebrate in style. This is the option where you plan the menu, research the recipes, make the grocery list, go to the store, buy the ingredients, come home, cook the dishes, and serve them. Your hosting checklist will also include getting your home shipshape, assembling tables, chairs, plates, and utensils. You’ll plan the music and where your guests will park. You’ll accommodate latecomers and food restrictions. You’ll be getting dishes out of the oven while chatting with your guests and pouring their drinks. And yes, you’ll be on clean-up duty, too!

This is a wonderful kind of party, if it’s how you want to spend your time and it fits your budget.

And there’s nothing wrong with building your author website yourself, if you decide it’s the right approach for you. But let’s look now at your second option.

2: Hire an Order Taker

The second option is to find someone to build your author website for you. There are no shortage of website designers for hire. Many of them do great work, and hopefully, you can find someone whose business process, pricing, and portfolio fit with what you’re looking for.

But even though you’re not actually clicking the buttons and moving the pixels, you will still be doing a lot of work. And it’s on you to specify the right website, or you won’t get the results you’re looking for.

You will still need to know what you need on your website, to support your author goals and book marketing preferences.
You’ll have to decide on your pages and content, and provide them to the person that you hire.
You might need to source and edit your own images.
For better or worse, you’re in charge, meaning you’ll need to learn about what makes an effective author website, what is right for you at this stage of your writing career, what pages and features make sense for your genre, and the features that support how you want to market your books.

Realistically, for this kind of project, the web designer’s business model (and price point) does not include time to offer you a highly personalized service. To make a living, they’re either sprinting to get your website done in a day, or they’re packing their calendar with multiple simultaneous projects, to make ends meet. They need to work fast, and

Your website needs to fit into their highly repeatable business process

This means you won’t get:

Personalized, strategic marketing advice
Multiple one-to-one project calls, where you can ask a lot of questions. You might even notice you’re getting hurried or vague answers to the emails that you send, too. Why? Your designer is max’d out and trying to protect their workload from spinning out of control.
Specific advice about what pages, features, tools, and integrations are likely to pay off in your situation and genre.
Suggestions for opportunities you haven’t spotted. They probably don’t specialize in author websites, so how are they going to know more than you about book marketing?
Cheerleading, another voice promoting your work, empathy when you have a confidence wobble, or supportive advice when you’re battling a mindset challenge.
Someone keeping an eye on your best interests, after the project finishes (that’s another blog post).

In many cases, using this approach, you’ll be doing some of the technical stuff too, like connecting up your existing domain name with the new website, figuring out which old subscriptions you can safely cancel, and teaching yourself how to use your new tool. In other words, you might still be floundering inside your website’s DNS records, worried about breaking something. (Confused? I have a glossary here)

This option is “pick up food from a restaurant and bring it home”

Back to our analogy. You’re not cooking the lunch yourself, but you need to know what type of party menu and how many portions will work best for you and your guests. You’ll pick from a limited catering menu at the restaurant or sandwich shop of your choice. There might be some variations available for special diets, but your party menu will be limited. And you’ll be choosing the wine, too. You’ll need to research options, make decisions without guidance, and probably run around sorting out desserts, and paper plates. Don’t forget that you’ll be cleaning your house before and after, too!

Again, this is a great party to host! But you’re the one making it happen, even if you’ve got help with the actual food.

When it comes to your author website, this second option is fine, if you’re choosing it consciously and you understand its limitations. But your project will be stressful, if you hire an order taker, when you’re actually looking for a partner. Your website designer, in turn, will resent you, if you’re making an order-taker investment but looking for the personalized attention and expertise of a high-touch specialist. In other words, it’s time to introduce your third author website option.

3: Partner With a Specialist

This third option is where I have deliberately chosen to position my author website design service. This is an intentional business relationship, where I’m coming on board as your strategic partner. I’ll guide you in what is right for you, recommend solutions, and assist in what preparation you need to do and when. I’ll tailor a totally personalized strategy that allows for:

Where you are in your author career
Your genre and whether you are selling related services
How you want to market and promote your work
How comfortable you are with technology
Your future plans for using the website, including whether you’ll have an assistant or not
And how we best protect your time for the work that only you can do

In this type of project, you don’t need to know what you don’t know. You don’t need to become a mini expert in author websites, just to be able to specify what you need. You’re bringing me alongside you as a team member for:

My deep expertise
Time-saving recommendations
Honest opinions
Willingness to do as much as possible on your behalf…

…so that you get your new website launched, and start to see benefit from it, with the least amount of hassle.

Whether you call this hand-holding, white-glove service, or a concierge approach, the fact remains:

Work with me, and we’re a team

No doubt I need to write a companion piece about the small and big ways that I support my clients, that they didn’t expect. But the short version is, I’ve got your back, and I care about your success. I don’t churn out author websites, taking your money in a hurry so I can move onto the next one. I work with one client at a time and I protect my energy fiercely, so that I can do my best creative work for a limited number of clients each year.

And yes, partnering with me is an investment

I don’t try to hide this. My clients value expertise and strategy. They want a partnership, not a pixel pusher. They want me to join their (usually tiny) team and highlight opportunities they might never have seen. They’re interested in a long-term return on their investment.

My project process now typically starts with a thoughtful strategy phase, to come up with the Author Website Blueprint to guide the implementation work that comes later. You can get a feel for your total investment in working with me, here.

This option is “hire a party planner to orchestrate an exceptional and memorable lunch”

For our analogy of the party-of-a-lifetime: you want a truly first class occasion, perfectly tailored for your personality and the enjoyment of your guests. But you don’t want to spend hours studying the art of event planning, menu design, and nutritional balance. (Nor do you want to get your wine sommelier qualification.) If you’re hosting this kind of bash, you bring in an expert, you give them your brief, maybe you sample a few dishes. But in general, you know that they are the best at what they do, and you’re delighted to let them guide you. Even better, they’ll make sure your house is clean and that the patio furniture is ready for guests wearing white jeans. They’ll run around buying the right quantity of the perfect wine, polishing the silverware, and choosing flowers that are stunning but not too scented. The menu will suit the occasion. The food will look and taste fabulous, in appropriately sized portions. And this miracle worker will not only arrange a professional team to serve your lunch, but they’ll clean up after themselves too.

Conclusion

The right approach to getting your author website launched depends not only on your available time and money, but the type of results you’re looking for. The more established you are as an author, or the more you charge for services related to your book, the more likely it is that you will see value in partnering with a specialist.

And I’m happy to discuss.

Are you ready to sell more books?

If you want an author website that engages your readers and sets you up for business results, let’s explore whether my strategic approach and project guidance is right for you. Learn more, and then schedule a complimentary chat with me.

Author Website Design