Author Website Design Inspiration 5 Ideas to Build the Perfect Website

Author Website Design Inspiration 5 Ideas to Build the Perfect Website Author Website Design Inspiration: 5 Ideas From Bestselling Authors Author websites are the one place readers get to judge a book by its cover†¦ or in this case, the webpage. We’ve already written an extensive piece with tips for building an effective author website: 10 Tips to Build The Perfect Author Website,  but we thought we could go even further and offer you some actual  inspiration  and ideas to get started on yours.The main goal of your website is to allow you to connect with your readers, and help convert them into loyal customers. It’s obvious that authors are masters of language, but when it comes to the web, some don’t deem it necessary to have a strong internet presence. And that’s exactly where a dedicated reader can be made†¦or lost.  So the author website design inspiration you'll find in this post will be geared towards one main goal: creating loyal readers. Idea  #1: Adding teasers to your author websiteOnce an avid reader has finished a great book, they immediately want to read another; it’s an addiction. So when they make their way to your author website, the first thing they should see on your homepage is a feature on what you’re working on next. Readers want some exclusivity!Nothing is worse than finishing your new favorite book or the first book in a series and going to the author’s website to find out when the next one will be published and there’s absolutely zero information. It’s simply heartbreaking coming from a reader’s eyes and also from a marketing perspective.Case in point? If you're a loyal reader of George R.R. Martin's  A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka  Game of Thrones), you probably want to know when  Winds of Winter is going to be finished. So you head to the author's website, and†¦ you see this.We understand that being a published author means that you’r e extremely busy working on your next book, but creating a separate email account for the sole purpose of receiving feedback from your followers is extremely controlled and feasible. (And if you’re having a bad day, reading a little fan mail should cure that!)Similarly, designing the website so that the "Contact" page is immediately available from the menu is crucial. If people want to get in touch with you, your design should make  it as easy for them as you can.Also, if you’re feeling sociable, make it easy for your readers to find you on social media - Twitter, Instagram, Facebook  - with the help of push buttons. It will be easier to â€Å"like† what they tweet or tag you in and  if they tweet positive feedback, they’re marketing for you!Or you can try Nick Stephenson’s approach to staying in touch: homing pigeons 😉Idea  #4:  Make the best first impressionA reader coming to your website usually wants one thing: to know more about you. The first thing they'll do is click to your "bio" page. We know writers hate writing about themselves (unless you're a memoir writer!), but  you gotta give readers what they want, so feel free to  indulge yourself with  some healthy bragging.But  how do you write the ultimate author bio? The trick is to write more than one. As a writer, rewriting and re-editing comes with the territory. Write multiple versions of your bio blurb until you’ve broken down your shyness barrier and created a bio that truly defines you not only as an author, but also as a person. And continuing our point in idea  #2, continue to keep it fresh by updating it as you move along in your career.Now, since you're here for some inspiration, take a look at  Lindsay Buroker's bio page. It's  a great case in point  for being genuine and true to your  work. She’s honest, witty, and real in her bio blurb.Idea  #5:  The website as  an extension of your bookThere is one question we haven't addressed yet: how do you get  as many  readers as possible to actually go to your website?  The first thing  is to write a really really good book. The better the book, the more the author will want to learn more about you and your other work, and head to your website for that.Then, you need to make sure that you actually link to your website at the beginning and end of all your ebooks. You also need to make sure you pick a simple URL, like "firstnamelastname.com" or "seriesname.com." That way, your website will likely show up as the first result on Google when readers Google you.But the ultimate way to get authors to check out your site is to turn it into an extension of your book, by linking it to one of your characters, or places, or adding more to the story.  Not sure what we mean by that? You'll find some inspiration in ML Banner's story:"I had a character in the book who was a scientist and I thought: it’d be really cool if he had this res earch institute. So I created a persona for him online: a G+ profile, a Twitter account, and a website for the CMER Institute. The key was really to think from my character’s standpoint and see what I would do, in his place, to get the word out about this phenomenon that endangers the world.The beautiful thing about eBooks is the connectivity: you can embed hyperlinks. So I linked to this CMERI website where my character actually offered a free ebook called â€Å"The Apocalypse Survival Guide†. And I actually got over 1,200 downloads of that book. Some people even seem to believe that the CMERI is real, as I got a couple of media inquiries!"You have all the best practices in one: link to the website in the book, social media, free additional content, and a website that truly takes the story to another level. Of course, your author website's design should match the "branding" of your book or series, and ideally  feature  some of the imagery used on the cover. Our b est advice for that is to put  your author website design in the hands of a Reedsy professional.What are your favourite author websites out there? Which ones do you turn to for design inspiration? What other tips would you add to this list? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!