This free 7-part email course walks you through the process of buying an author website.

Each week, I’ll send you a new chapter

  1. How to set your website’s purpose and goals
  2. How to define your website’s audience
  3. Planning content and 10-Point Savings Checklist
  4. 5 must-have website features
  5. Writing a brief
  6. How much should a website cost? Free sites, designer types & prices
  7. Into the future (Bonus Chapter)
  8. Glossary

The Author Website Buyer’s Guide is a free 7-part tutorial designed:

For: authors, academics, and writers of all stripes.
Who: want someone to walk them through the entire process of buying an author website
That: is written especially for authors, and tailored to their unique requirements and goals.
Because: authors need fundamentally sound, objective advice, to be warned of common pitfalls, and want tips they can immediately use.
So that: they’re set up for a successful website project, to build their author brand.

Why do authors and writers need a guide?

Put simply, setting up a website, getting your profile online, and marketing yourself is a daunting prospect.

Whilst the promotion of their books is partially handled by the publisher, the promotion of the author is the responsibility of the author – strategically, practically and financially.

Then there’s the cost

Authors are creative talents putting out their work for the love of literary creation. Authors aren’t yet small businesses with even a modest marketing budget, and they certainly aren’t corporations with a bottomless pit of money to spend.

It’s especially tough for new authors

New authors have just reached the once seemingly impossible task of getting published, only to find that they have to now learn marketing and promote the book themselves.

What about social media?

Maybe you’ve got an author page, but the truth is that anyone can do that. Plus building your online presence on Facebook is building on rented land. You don’t own your audience, Facebook does. Social media is the vehicle, not the destination.

Building your name as a brand

Although authors and writers would rather be penning than promoting, there’s an understanding there that online marketing and being professional involves more than just setting up a Facebook page.

It means creating an asset that you own and leveraging it to build your personal brand: to build a following; attract more book deals; be invited to literary festivals and speaking events; become better known by schools and librarians; heighten anticipation for your work – and, of course, sell books.

The most powerful tool you’ll have to build your brand is a website.

How much should an author website cost?

There are so many ways to get yourself online. Should you try to create a simple free WordPress site yourself, or should you engage a professional to create one for you?

This guide answers these common questions. I provide the Pro and Cons of DIY, freelancers, and agencies, along with the typical prices and rates of each.

Subscribe now

Click ‘Access now’ on the form above, and I’ll immediately send you Chapter 1: Setting your website’s purpose and goals, which includes:

  1. a really simple, but powerful way to think about your marketing, and
  2. a list of the six most common authors’ website goals to get you started