If you’re an author wondering “How do I build a simple author website?”, then you’ve come to the right place! Having spent over four years building websites across a variety of platforms, I know the ins and outs of creating a great digital experience.
Every author needs a home base online, somewhere readers, reviewers and (eventually) publishers can find you that you actually own. Social platforms come and go, algorithms change overnight, and an account can vanish without warning. Your author website is the one corner of the internet that’s truly yours.
The good news? Building one in 2026 is easier and cheaper than it has ever been. You don’t need to code, you don’t need a designer, and you don’t need to spend a fortune. This guide walks you through it step by step.
How To Build A Simple Author Website In 2026
Step 1: Plan Your Site
Before you pick a platform or a colour scheme, decide what your site actually needs to do. Most authors fall into one of three buckets:
The one-page “calling card”: A single, scrollable page with your bio, your book covers, buy links and a newsletter signup. Perfect if you’re just starting out, have one or two books, or simply want a clean, professional presence without any ongoing upkeep. This is the right choice for the majority of new authors.
The blog-style site: A multi-page site where, alongside your books and bio, you publish posts, release announcements, behind-the-scenes notes, deleted scenes, reader Q&As. Worth it if you genuinely enjoy writing posts and want to grow organic search traffic over time. A content-driven site is a long-term SEO asset, but only if you keep feeding it.
The shop / ecommerce site: A site where you sell directly, signed paperbacks, special editions, merch, or ebooks delivered straight to readers. This is more work to set up and maintain, so only go here if direct sales are part of your plan. Many authors start with a calling card and add a shop later.
Quick tip: Be honest about how much you’ll maintain. A beautiful blog you never update looks worse than a tidy one-pager. Start smaller than you think you need, you can always grow.
Step 2: Choose Your Platform
Here’s how the main 2026 options compare. All monthly prices below are for annual billing (the cheapest way to pay); month-to-month is usually a little higher.
| Platform | Starting Price | Free Plan? | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carrd | $19/year (Pro Standard) | Yes (3 sites, branded) | One-page calling cards |
| Wix | $17/month (Light) | Yes (with ads/branding) | All-rounders who want design freedom |
| Squarespace | $16/month (Basic) | 14-day trial only | Beautiful, polished sites |
| WordPress.com | $9/month (Personal) | Yes (limited) | Blog-heavy, content-driven sites |
| Lovable | $25/month (Pro) | Yes (5 daily credits) | Custom AI-built sites & tools |
Let’s break those down for authors specifically.
Carrd (best for a simple one-page site)
If all you want is a clean single page, Carrd is unbeatable on price. The Pro Standard plan is just $19 a year, yes, per year, and lets you connect a custom domain, remove branding, and add forms for newsletter signups. There’s a free tier too (with a yoursite.carrd.co address and a small footer credit).
The catch is in the name. Carrd builds one page only. No separate blog, no multiple navigation tabs. But for a polished author calling card with your bio, covers, buy links and a mailing-list form, it’s hard to beat.
Recommended for: new authors, anyone with one to three books, anyone who wants “set it and forget it.”
Wix (best all-rounder)
Wix is the flexible middle ground. Its Light plan is $17/month (annual) and removes ads while letting you connect a custom domain, fine for a straightforward author site. If you ever want to sell directly, you’ll need the Core plan at $29/month, which unlocks ecommerce. There’s a free plan, but it shows Wix branding and won’t let you use your own domain, so it’s really just for testing.
Wix gives you enormous design freedom with drag-and-drop editing, and it can do a one-pager, a multi-page site and a shop. The trade-off is that all that flexibility can feel overwhelming at first.
Recommended for: authors who want room to grow and like to fiddle with design.
Squarespace (best for looks)
If you care most about your site looking effortlessly stylish, Squarespace is the design favourite. The Basic plan starts at $16/month (annual) and is aimed squarely at content-focused sites like portfolios and author pages, it includes solid built-in SEO tools and unlimited storage. Note there’s no permanent free plan, just a 14-day trial.
Squarespace’s templates are gorgeous out of the box and very hard to make look bad, which is exactly what a lot of authors want. It handles a blog comfortably too.
Recommended for: authors who want a beautiful site without hiring a designer, and who may blog occasionally.
WordPress (best for blogging and SEO)
If your plan is genuinely content-driven, regular posts, deleted scenes, a growing library of articles readers find through Google, WordPress is the long-game choice. WordPress.com’s Personal plan is $9/month, though to install plugins (for things like advanced SEO) you’ll need the Business plan at $40/month.
Alternatively, self-hosted WordPress.org is free software, and you simply pay for hosting (around $3–10/month) plus a domain ($10–15/year). It’s the most powerful and flexible option, and the best for serious SEO, but it has the steepest learning curve of everything here.
Recommended for: authors committed to blogging and building organic search traffic over years, not weeks.
Lovable (best for a custom AI-built site)
The newest option on the block. Lovable lets you describe the site you want in plain English and the AI builds it for you, no templates, no drag-and-drop, just a conversation. The Pro plan is $25/month, with a free tier that gives you a handful of credits a day to experiment.
It’s brilliant for something a little different, an interactive reading-order page, a quiz, a custom landing page for a launch, but it’s more of a “build an app” tool than a traditional website builder, so there’s a bit more thinking involved.
Recommended for: tech-curious authors who want something bespoke or interactive and enjoy tinkering.
So which should you pick?
- Just want a professional presence, fast and cheap? → Carrd
- Want it to look gorgeous with no effort? → Squarespace
- Want flexibility to grow and maybe sell later? → Wix
- Planning to blog seriously for SEO? → WordPress
- Want something custom or interactive? → Lovable
Step 3: Get Your Own Domain Name
Whatever platform you choose, buy your own domain, ideally yourname.com. It looks professional, it’s portable (you can move it between platforms), and it’s the single biggest upgrade over a free yoursite.wixsite.com-style address. Domains cost roughly $10–15 a year.
- If your exact name is taken, try variations like yournamewrites.com or yournameauthor.com.
- Keep it short, easy to spell, and easy to say out loud, readers will type it after hearing it on a podcast or seeing it on a book’s back cover.
Step 4: The Pages (Or Sections) Every Author Site Needs
Whether it’s one page or ten, make sure you cover:
- Home / Hero: your name, what you write (e.g. “romantasy with morally grey love interests”), and a clear photo or logo. Tell visitors in five seconds who you are.
- Books: covers, blurbs, and buy links for every retailer. Make these impossible to miss.
- About: a short, warm author bio. Readers connect with people, not products.
- Newsletter signup: the most important element on the whole site. Social followings are rented; an email list is owned. Offer a freebie (a bonus scene, a novella) to encourage signups.
- Contact: a simple form or email so reviewers, bloggers and rights enquiries can reach you.
Step 5: Connect Your Books
Every book on your site should have clear buy buttons. Link to wherever readers actually shop
- Amazon
- Your own store
- Bookshop.org
- Your publisher’s page
- Book2Read
If you’re an affiliate, you can use your own links here too. If you’re an indie author in the romance and romantasy space, listing your books on discovery platforms (like Darling Reader Book Finder) alongside your own site widens the net, your website converts the readers who already know you, while directories help new readers find you in the first place.
Step 6: Cover the SEO Basics
You don’t need to be an SEO expert, but a few small things help readers find you on Google:
- Page titles: Include your name and what you write (e.g. “Jane Doe | Dark Romance & Romantasy Author”)
- Meta descriptions: Write a one-sentence summary for each page; it’s what shows up under your link in search results.
- Image alt text: Describe your book covers and photos. It helps accessibility and image search.
- Real text, not just images: Make sure your bio and blurbs are actual text on the page so search engines can read them.
- Mobile-friendly: Most readers will visit on their phones. Every platform above is responsive by default, just check it looks right.
If you go the blog route, each post is a fresh chance to rank for what your readers are searching, so write about the tropes, themes and comparisons your audience genuinely looks up.
Let’s Build Your Site!
You can launch a simple, professional author website this week. If you’re not sure where to start, here’s the shortcut: buy your name as a domain, sign up for Carrd, and put up a one-page site with your bio, your books, your buy links and a newsletter form. Total cost: under $35 for the whole first year.
You can always grow into something bigger later. The important thing is to plant your flag, own your corner of the internet, and start building the email list that will carry your career no matter what happens to any social platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can build a simple one-page author site for under $35 a year using Carrd (around $19/year) plus a custom domain ($10–15/year). Fuller website builders like Wix and Squarespace start at roughly $16–17/month on annual billing, while a self-hosted WordPress site runs about $50–135 a year once you factor in hosting and a domain.
It depends on your goal. Carrd is best for a simple one-page calling card, Squarespace for a beautiful design-led site, Wix for flexibility, and WordPress for serious blogging and SEO. For most new authors, a one-page Carrd site is the easiest and cheapest place to start.
Yes. Social accounts are “rented”, algorithms change and accounts can be suspended without notice. A website is something you own, and it’s the best place to host the one asset no platform can take away: your email newsletter list.
Start with one page unless you genuinely plan to blog regularly. A single page covering your bio, books, buy links and newsletter signup is enough for most authors and far easier to maintain. Add more pages only when you have a real reason to.
No. Every platform in this guide, Carrd, Wix, Squarespace, WordPress.com and Lovable, is built for non-coders. Lovable even builds your site from a plain-English description.
At minimum: a home/hero section, a books page with buy links, an about/bio section, a newsletter signup, and a contact form. These can all live on a single page or be split across several.
