5 historical fiction websites I built on Squarespace
I realised recently that I don’t share enough of my work on my blog. I have my Portfolio, which you can see here, but it doesn’t feature all my work (the page would be very long if it did!) And so I thought it might also be helpful to do some mini round-ups of different websites I’ve built, organised by genre.
To start off, I thought I’d share five websites I built for historical fiction authors - all of whom have written brilliant books - in case you too are a historical fiction author and you’re in need of some inspiration for your own author website.
As you’ll see, they are all very different, but they are all designed specifically to complement the design of the author’s covers, as well as appeal to their readership.
When it comes to historical fiction, I think there’s so much that can be done to conjure up the atmosphere of the time. Whether that’s through the use of vintage-inspired fonts, or historical photographs, or faded colours that echo a bygone era.
Historical fiction authors also often have the added bonus of having plenty of ‘behind the scenes’ stuff to write about, as their books often require lots of meticulous research.
So if you do write historical fiction, then it’s certainly worth considering starting a blog and publishing articles on the era you write about, to strengthen your connection with your readers and add extra context and depth to your storytelling.
Without further ado, let’s take a look at five of my favourite historical fiction author websites, all built by yours truly on Squarespace!
Catherine’s site is one of my favourites I have ever built.
She is the author of sweeping romantic novels set in the second half of the 20th century, and she has some truly, truly beautiful covers to go with them.
For her site, I kept a sepia colour scheme as the backdrop so that her gorgeous covers could really stand out. The typewriter font added an extra touch of nostalgia to the design.
Catherine wanted to add a section giving a bit more information about how she came to write each book, which included some wonderful vintage postcards and paintings she’d discovered during her research. I absolutely love these extra touches as they add so much meaning to her writing.
Paula Greenlees writes historical fiction set in exotic, far-flung destinations, and when it came to building her site, she really wanted to get this across in the design.
Hence we spent a long time finalising the colour scheme and photography for the site, giving a lush, opulent and intoxicating feel - no dull wartime London greys here!
Again, Paula was keen to share more about her inspiration on her blog, and she also ran a series of interviews with other historical fiction authors.
I absolutely loved working on Annie’s site! And in fact, it has been through two distinct design iterations since her first book was released.
Her debut novel, Cecily, had the most striking bold pink cover - it really was the sort of cover that made you sit up and pay attention. And Annie was very keen to carry that look through to her website. So the first version we built together had the same bright pink colour scheme. It was loud and proud!
But when her second novel, The King’s Mother, was announced earlier this year, we released we’d have to give the website a little redesign, so that its cover wasn’t fighting with the website.
We’ve still managed to keep the bright colour in places, to reflect her feisty and brave heroines, but we switched to a slightly more neutral background to ensure that both her amazing covers leapt off the screen.
Elaine was one of my very first web design clients, way back in 2019, and I’m happy to say I still look after her website today, managing her newsletter (she has an incredibly loyal fanbase) as well as keeping her site up to date with all her new books (Elaine is a prolific writer!).
Elaine had very definite ideas about what she wanted her author website to look like. I have never met another author who knows her readers as well as Elaine does, and she knew exactly what they would want from a website too!
A soft, vintage feel, with soothing colours and clear calls-to-action so that her readers know exactly what book is up next (she writes for several different series).
Elaine also likes to blog from time-to-time and provides lots of insight into the inspirations for her books, as well as interviews with fellow saga authors.
Last but not least, I thought I would include Matt Graydon’s website, because I built it in a day with my Author Website in a Day package, and I thought it might inspire you to see just what you can achieve on the wonder that is Squarespace in a short amount of time!
Matt’s book isn’t out yet, and so he didn’t have a huge amount of content to add to the site when he first approached me. So we worked together to find some amazingly atmospheric photography that suited the themes in his novel, then used this as the inspiration for the colour scheme on the website.
I think it worked out SO well, and I really love his smart but simple design.
So there you have it. I hope you like these author websites - and if not, I hope they give you food for thought!
As always, when it comes to designing your own author website, my biggest tip is to think about your readers, and design with them in mind.
