Your book has a launch date. Your website should be ready before it — not the week after, when readers are already looking you up and finding nothing. The good news: an author website doesn’t need to be complicated. It needs to do a few specific jobs really well, and it needs to be live in time.
What an author website actually needs to do
Readers who hear about your book will search your name. When they do, your site should instantly answer: yes, this is the author; here’s the book; here’s where to get it; and here’s how to stay in touch for the next one. That’s it. You are not building a magazine — you’re building a clear, trustworthy front door.
- A simple home page with your name, your book, and a clear cover image.
- A ‘buy the book’ button that goes straight to where it’s sold.
- A short about page so readers feel they know you.
- An email signup — the single most valuable thing on the whole site.
A realistic timeline before launch day
8–6 weeks out: claim your domain (ideally yourname.com) and decide what the site needs to say. 5–4 weeks out: get the pages built and the email signup working. 3–2 weeks out: add your buy links, proofread everything, and test it on a phone. Launch week: the site is already done, so you can spend your energy on readers instead of fighting with tech.
The one thing most authors skip (and regret)
The email signup. A book launch creates a wave of attention — people who’d happily hear about your next book, your events, or a bonus chapter. Without a way to capture them, that attention disappears the day after launch. With a simple signup, your launch builds an audience you keep for every book after this one.
Don’t let the tech steal your launch
You’ve already done the hard part — you wrote a book. The website shouldn’t become a second full-time job in your final weeks. Done early and done simply, it quietly does its work in the background while you focus on the launch itself.
Ready to get online without the tech overwhelm?
I build your website, email list, and outreach — set up, working, and explained in plain English, so you own it all. Book a free 20-minute game-plan call and we’ll map exactly what to do first — whether or not you hire me.