If you’re in the planning stages of a new website, it can be hard to visualize what you want your new site to look like, and even harder to communicate that to a designer. Noting what you like or dislike about other sites (even if you aren’t exactly sure of the why) can help a web designer understand what you’re looking for.
On a second pass, it can be helpful to put a why behind your likes and dislikes, and to note which elements in particular stand out at you. Is it the design? The content? The functionality? Separating these out can help you in the planning stages.
Below are some of my favorite examples of author sites.
Vocabulary Review
CTA: Call to action. An instruction that invites the user to take an action.
Hero: A large banner section at the top of a page.
Brand: Your brand is your identity as an author. This can be communicated visually (with elements such as logos, images, colors, or fonts), in the style and tone of your content, or in the genres, themes, and subjects of your work.
The Visually Vibrant
Some sites with an impactful visual design.
Maureen Johnson
URL: maureenjohnsonbooks.com
Genre: Young Adult
With its bright colors and art deco font, this site has a strong voice that’s memorable without being overly complicated.
Claire Legrand
URL: claire-legrand.com
I love the illustrated design of this site.
Rena Barron
URL: renabarron.com
Genres: Middle Grade/Young Adult
Brené Brown
URL: brenebrown.com
Genre: Nonfiction
Brown’s website incorporates the same visual branding that spans her book covers.
The Balancing Act
Author sites that include portfolios or other work
Authors are talented people, so it’s no surprise that author’s sites often showcase work in additional mediums. These authors have chosen to include other work as a part of their author band.
Maggie Stiefvater
URL: maggiestiefvater.com
Maggie Stiefvater’s website is one of my favorites. The beautiful design reminds me of a literary magazine, and it does a great job at showcasing not just her books, but her art and music in a unified way.
Eric Smith
URL: ericsmithrocks.com
Eric Smith is an author and a Literary Agent, and both roles are featured harmoniously on this minimalist site.
Michelle Wilson
URL: michellewilsonwrites.com
Genres: Inspirational Nonfiction, Children’s, Women’s Fiction
Michelle Wilson’s brand encompasses a lot—children’s, women’s fiction, inspirational nonfiction, two blogs, and an editing business. By keeping her blogs and a pen name on separate websites, she’s able to keep her primary site more focused, and establishes her brand through tone and voice.
Olivia Stephens
URL: olivia-stephens.com
Olivia Stephens is a graphic novelist, illustrator, and writer. Her website’s simple design serves as both a showcase for her books and a portfolio for her other work.
Saadia Faruqi
URL: saadiafaruqi.com
Genres: Children’s, Middle Grade, Adult
This beautiful website establishes Saadia Faruqi as a “author and interfaith activist.” It includes a great press page about her activism, as well as a page of articles she’s written.
Mark Oshiro
URL: markoshiro.com
This site takes a different approach by inviting users to choose between his books and other work right from the home page.
David Yoon
URL: davidyoon.com
This site showcases work in multiple mediums.
Jason Pamment
URL: jasonpamment.com
This simple site showcases both books and illustration.
Jamie Littler
URL: jamielittler.co.uk
The Hybrid Authors
Sites that span multiple genres
Holly Black
URL: blackholly.com
Holly Black has established a strong visual brand that unifies her work across multiple genres.
Jewel Parker Rhodes
URL: jewellparkerrhodes.com
Genres: Children and Adults
This site’s home page points you to two different sub-sites for Adult and Children, which allows for a totally different design on adult pages than for children. However, I don’t think this would work as well for authors who don’t have quite as many books published.
Leigh Bardugo
URL: leighbardugo.com
I love the hero images on this home page. And while this site’s visual brand seems geared towards the Grishaverse, it still works well for Bardugo’s adult novels.
More Author Websites
For the lightning round: here are some more examples of author websites.
Hanna Alkaf
URL: hannaalkaf.com
Genres: Middle Grade and Young Adult
Hanna Alkaf’s site makes use of beautiful illustrations across the site that help establish tone.
Victoria Aveyard
URL: victoriaaveyard.com
Genre: Young Adult
Sabaa Tahir
URL: sabaatahir.com
Genre: Young Adult
Janae Marks
URL: janaemarks.com
Genre: Middle Grade
Katherine Applegate
URL: katherineapplegate.com
My favorite page on this site is the About page. The hero at the top of the page establishes a voice that carries through the rest of the layout.
Rebekah Weahterspoon
URL: rebekahweatherspoon.com
Genre: Romance
Ash Van Otterloo
URL: ashvanotterloo.com
Genre: Kidlit
This whimsical homepage incorporates illustrations on an unconventional homepage.
Emily R King
URL: emilyrking.com
Genre: Fantasy
The beautiful and dramatic header on this site wouldn’t work for everybody, but I love it on this site.
Taylor Tyng
URL: taylortyng.com
Kelly Yang
URL: kellyyang.com
Eric Carle
URL: eric-carle.com
Carle’s iconic illustration style is incorporated into his site’s overall design.
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