Welcome to my design studio!

My name is Charlotte Duckworth (in case you weren’t sure!) and my first novel, The Rival, was published by Quercus in 2018.

Since then I’ve published four more suspense novels: Unfollow Me, The Perfect Father, The Sanctuary, and The Wrong Mother; and in 2022, I landed a six-figure book deal in the US for my first bookclub novel, under the name Charlotte Rixon.

Before I published my first novel, I was a journalist for more than ten years, working for some of the UK’s leading interior design magazines. I won’t lie - it was a pretty awesome career. But as we know, this little thing called the internet came along and everything changed…

So I moved across to working on interior design websites, and eventually, set up my own business looking after design companies’ online presence, PR, social media and content marketing.

So, how did I end up doing web design?

I’ve always been a bit of a geek. And an ‘early-adopter’ of the internet. I knew about SEO way back in 2004, when I sat through many long training sessions on a web analytics platform called Omniture.

Over the years, I’ve worked on tons of different CMS and built lots of websites - from my own blog, to two for my partner (he’s a singer, and he’s amazing) and others for friends and fellow authors. Unlike most authors, I enjoy it.

Like writing, building a website is really creative but unlike writing, it’s also - usually - a quite quick and straightforward process. Which is very satisfying when you spend your days hoping that the next round of edits on your novel will be the last…

I absolutely love working with fellow authors - one of the best bits by far about being published is the supportive community of like-minded and lovely folk I get to work and interact with. Combining my love of tech with my love of my fellow authors is an absolute career dream!

What makes me different

I have a strong grounding in design thanks to my previous career as a design journalist, which means the websites I create are beautiful as well as functional.

I feel passionately that every author deserves a website that does their writing and unique creativity justice. Authors are fascinating people no? They don’t deserve boring (or ugly) websites, or - worse still - websites that look the same as everyone else’s!

I also believe that authors don’t need to waste hours of their lives swearing at their laptop as they attempt to build their own website. I love being able to take that weight off their shoulders and let them get back to doing what they do best - writing!

I’m an author, so I know how authors work

I know what you need on your website to make sure it works hard for you and your book 24 hours a day. I also understand that you probably don’t want to have to think about your site - you want it set up, working and looking great, without needing you to worry about it!

Oh, and I’m a Gold level member of Squarespace’s professional design community, Circle, and I’ve completed one of the leading Squarespace web design courses - so I know what I’m doing with your back end (ooh). Your site is in safe hands I promise!

Charlotte x