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.
Some sites with an impactful visual design.
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.
URL: claire-legrand.com
I love the illustrated design of this site.
URL: renabarron.com
Genres: Middle Grade/Young Adult
URL: brenebrown.com
Genre: Nonfiction
Brown’s website incorporates the same visual branding that spans her book covers.
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.
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.
URL: ericsmithrocks.com
Eric Smith is an author and a Literary Agent, and both roles are featured harmoniously on this minimalist site.
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.
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.
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.
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.
URL: davidyoon.com
This site showcases work in multiple mediums.
URL: jasonpamment.com
This simple site showcases both books and illustration.
URL: jamielittler.co.uk
Sites that span multiple genres
URL: blackholly.com
Holly Black has established a strong visual brand that unifies her work across multiple genres.
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.
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.
For the lightning round: here are some more examples of author websites.
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.
URL: victoriaaveyard.com
Genre: Young Adult
URL: sabaatahir.com
Genre: Young Adult
URL: janaemarks.com
Genre: Middle Grade
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.
URL: rebekahweatherspoon.com
Genre: Romance
URL: ashvanotterloo.com
Genre: Kidlit
This whimsical homepage incorporates illustrations on an unconventional homepage.
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.
URL: taylortyng.com
URL: kellyyang.com
URL: eric-carle.com
Carle’s iconic illustration style is incorporated into his site’s overall design.
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