How to organise books on your author website
I work with a mix of authors, from debuts to longstanding writers with big backlists, but the majority of my work is with debuts, because it’s often when writers first get their book deal that they think ‘oh god! Now I need a website!’
And that’s when they get in touch with me 😁
When you’re a debut author, it’s pretty simple to structure your website. You have one book to shout about, one book to pour your heart and soul into promoting, and so it often follows that your author website will be highly reflective of this one book.
Usually, a picture of your book’s cover will be the first thing that people see on your homepage.
Usually, you’ll also have a page called ‘Books’ on which you’ll host everything about your debut book - the cover, blurb, choice testimonials and those all-important links to buy.
So when it comes to structuring your author website as a debut author, it’s quite straightforward and logical.
But what if you’re not a debut? What if you’ve published two, three, four or more books?
What if you write in multiple series?
How do you organise all the different titles on your website to make sure that each book gets its time in the spotlight?
How do you organise your Books page if you have eight books to shout about?
Do you just list them all on one page, or do you separate them out?
The simple answer is that it’s completely up to you.
Sometimes, less is more when it comes to author websites. You don’t necessarily need to reproduce the blurb for each book next to the cover, you could just have a link to buy the book underneath, with maybe the tagline too.
For example, Sophie Ranald (who has written 16+ books) was happy to have a one-page website, with just her book covers and links to buy for each.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is to have the cover up there, plus some kind of easy way for readers to click through and purchase the books.
However if you want a little bit more info on your author website, here’s how I would suggest structuring your author website, depending on how many books you have written.
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If you have between 1-3 books
If you’ve published between 1-3 books, then I suggest keeping things simple, with just a single ‘Books’ page.
Less is always more on websites and this way you can make sure that visitors to your site can quickly and easily see all the books you’ve published.
It’ll also be quicker to put together your website!
On your homepage, you should have your most recent release at the top, ABOVE the fold (the point at which you have to scroll down to see more of the website).
Your most recent release is the one that you want to promote the most, so it’s important that this is immediately visible whenever anyone visits your website.
Then, below this section, I suggest having a new section for any other books, going in reverse chronological order of publication.
On the Books page, you can repeat the same structure - the most recent release on top, then the one released before that underneath etc.
This will keep it nice and simple and ensure the maximum number of visitors to your author website get to see all the books you’ve had published.
If you have more than four books
This is the point at which I suggest changing things up slightly, or you run the risk of having a very long homepage, and a very long Books page!
So, on the homepage, I’d stick to the same suggestion as above - making sure that the most recent book takes centre stage on the top section above the fold.
However, as you scroll down, if you have more than four books, it makes more sense to arrange your other book covers into a gallery.
In Squarespace you can do this by using a Gallery block, and ensuring that you link the book covers in the gallery block to the corresponding page about the book.
You can see examples of this structure on Harriet Tyce’s author website →
and my own →
In these cases, rather than having a single Books page, each book has its own dedicated page, and the covers in the gallery block on the homepage links to its corresponding page.
You can also arrange the book pages underneath a dropdown link called ‘Books’ in the main navigation.
The dropdown navigation on my author website
Organising books within a series
If you’ve published lots of books across different series, or ‘brands’, it can make sense to group them all together on their own dedicated ‘Series XX’ page.
So on the homepage, we’d still have the same situation - the most recent release should always come up top, but then further down the page we can have an individual gallery block for each series, which links to a dedicated series page, with all the books in that series on that page.
It’s up to you!
Of course, these are just my suggestions, and it’s completely up to you to structure and organise your author website in a way that makes sense to you.
However, it is definitely worth taking some time to think about how best to display things to ensure that a casual visitor to your author website gets to see the full breadth of your work, without getting lost or missing some of your books.
Remember: simplicity is key. Don’t try to be clever with your navigation links - make sure they have straightforward and obvious titles (like ‘Books’!).
Some thoughts on colour schemes and photography
When you’re a debut, as I mentioned earlier, it makes sense to take inspiration from your book’s cover to influence the look and feel of your author website.
However, as your list of publications grows, you might find that the imagery you used when you built your site no longer reflects your next book’s look or feel.
I do always advise keeping your author website’s colour palette as neutral as possible, unless you are happy to redesign it each time you add a new book (which is totally fine, because some authors - like me! - really enjoy doing this!)
However, if you aren’t confident with this kind of thing, even a black and white website can look really smart and simple. Adding a pop of colour with a bright accent can be all it needs to bring it to life.
So don’t get carried away trying to use graphic elements from your book’s cover, or background images or swirly fonts!
Keep it simple, and let your books do the talking 😉
