The demo uses an invented author and invented covers. Yours would carry your books, your reviews, your dates.
A bookish, literary design for novelists, poets and non-fiction authors, built around the one thing that actually sells a book, which is reading a bit of it.
This isn't a theme you install or a file you download. There's no page builder to learn and nothing to configure yourself.
You pick this design, send me your covers, blurbs and an excerpt, and I build the site around it by hand, colours, type and sections adjusted to your books.
The build, a one-time fee covering design adaptation, building every page with your content, and launch. $500+ for this design, quoted in full before we start.
Hosting & care, a separate monthly cost that keeps the site online, secure and backed up. Quoted alongside the build so you see both numbers before committing.
The demo uses an invented author and invented covers. Yours would carry your books, your reviews, your dates.
The Process
Two to Four Weeks
Tell me this is the direction. We talk through your books, your publisher and how you sell signed copies.
Cover files, blurbs, review quotes, an author photo and the excerpt you want featured. I send a checklist.
I typeset your excerpt into the reader, load the backlist, and connect your newsletter and retailer links.
Domain connected, analytics set up, and a full handover of the finished site. After launch, any changes you want come straight to me and are handled as part of your monthly care plan.
Your opening pages, typeset properly, justified text, a real drop cap, and paged navigation with a progress bar. Readers turn pages on your site instead of bouncing to a retailer to use "Look Inside", and the button at the end sends them to buy while they're still in the story.
What It Costs
Quoted Separately
Design adapted to your books, excerpt typeset into the reader, backlist and events loaded, newsletter connected, and launch handled.
Quoted per project, it depends on how many books you have and whether each needs its own page. You'll have a fixed number before anything starts.
Keeps the site online, fast, secure and backed up, with software kept current.
Separate from the build, quoted at the same time so you see both numbers together. Adding event dates and new reviews is handled for you as part of the monthly care plan.
Good to Know
Before We Start
No. You're choosing a design direction. There's nothing to download or configure, I build the site for you using your books and your excerpt. You never touch a page builder.
You can, but for most authors it's the wrong call. Handling stock, postage and returns eats the time you'd rather spend writing, and readers already trust Bookshop.org and their local shop. The demo links out to retailers instead, which is what nearly every working author does. If you do want direct sales, usually for signed copies, I'll set that up with Shopify or Stripe and quote it separately.
Check your contract first, most publishing deals allow a chapter or so, but the limit is theirs to set, not mine. Where you have a free hand, the first chapter is the right amount: enough to get someone properly into the voice, short enough that they still need to buy it.
Your publisher will have high-resolution cover files, ask your publicist and they'll send them over. If you're self-published you'll already have them from your designer. What doesn't work is photographing a paperback on a table.
You send them to me and I update them. Event dates change more often than anything else on an author site, so they're covered under your monthly care plan. If you'd like a section you can edit yourself, we can set that up, just raise it on the onboarding call and we'll talk through the options and cost.
I connect whatever you already use, Substack, Mailchimp, Buttondown, ConvertKit. Those charge their own fee once your list grows, separate from anything I quote. If you don't have one yet, start one; for authors it's the single most valuable thing on the site.
Yes. The files, domain and content are yours. If you ever move to another host or designer, everything transfers.
No, I work anywhere in the US. If you're local we can meet in person; everywhere else we do it over Zoom.
Start Here
No Obligation
If none of the designs fit, I build from a blank page too. Same process, more discovery.
Let's Talk!