Author Website Checklist: Books, Readers and Working Contact Forms

Make the home page answer three reader questions

Show your author name, the kind of books you write and the current book or starting point. A visitor arriving from a podcast should be able to confirm they found the right author without scrolling through a long introduction.

Choose a clear first action: read the sample, explore the series or see the current book. Other routes can remain visible, but five competing buttons leave the visitor to decide your priorities. Label buttons with their destination; “Read the first chapter” tells someone more than “Discover more.”

Choose pages by the task they support

The Authors Guild’s own website service organizes biography, books, retailer links, events and contact information. Support those functions, combining sections or creating pages as your material needs.

Give each book a dependable reader path

List the exact title and author name used on the book. Explain its story or useful promise in language a reader can understand. Put the description in readable text rather than embedding it inside a cover image.

Label formats and destinations clearly. “Paperback at the retailer” and “Read an ebook sample” are different actions. Open each link yourself and confirm the correct title, language and edition. If you serve readers in several countries, check whether your chosen links take them somewhere they can order.

For a series, give the reading order and say where newcomers should begin. For a revised nonfiction edition, identify which edition the page describes. A book-club guide, sources note or worksheet can be helpful when it matches the actual book.

Only publish excerpts and quoted endorsements you are authorized to use. Check any publishing or exclusivity agreement before offering downloadable book content. For the copy itself, use the book description worksheet to make the page specific without overstating results.

Make newsletter signup a clear invitation

A useful offer explains what readers receive and how often you expect to write. “A monthly letter about the archive behind my novels” gives someone a more informed choice than an unexplained “Join now.” Do not promise a regular publication you cannot sustain.

Ask only for information you need. Explain who will send messages, link to an accurate privacy notice and give readers an easy way to stop receiving them. A contact enquiry should not silently become a newsletter subscription. Check the requirements that apply to your audience and email provider.

Test with an address you control: submit the form, follow any confirmation step, receive the promised resource and try unsubscribing. A success message on the website does not prove the email arrived. If you have not connected a delivery service, remove a misleading signup promise until it works.

Keep your biography and contact routes usable

Write a short biography for readers, then add relevant background where it helps them understand the work. Describe credentials precisely. For press use, provide an approved author photograph with its credit and a short biography that can be copied as text.

Say which enquiries you welcome: reader messages, book-club visits, interviews or speaking requests. Ask for enough detail to respond, without requiring an event organizer to provide information unrelated to the invitation. Avoid displaying your private home address simply to make the page look complete.

Send a test enquiry and confirm a person can find it. Name who checks the inbox and how often. If you publish a phone number, test it too; update it wherever it appears when it changes. These are part of running the site, not tasks to leave until the next launch.

Check the site on a phone and with a keyboard

W3C’s accessibility checks cover areas including text alternatives, contrast, keyboard access and form labels. These initial checks can reveal barriers, but they are not a complete accessibility assessment.

• Read a book description and sample on a small screen without sideways scrolling.
• Increase text size and confirm that buttons and paragraphs remain usable.
• Use the Tab and Enter keys to follow links and submit a form; check that the selected item remains visible.
• Use clear headings and meaningful link labels, and provide useful descriptions for informative images.
• Make form instructions and errors readable; do not communicate an error through color alone.
• Provide captions and a useful transcript for spoken video material.

Keep samples available as readable page text where possible. A decorative image of a chapter makes the writing harder to enlarge, search and use with reading tools.

A fictional one-book website test

Imagine fictional author Avery Lane preparing a novel called The Last Tram Home. This is an invented example, not a client project. Avery writes three tasks for a friend who has not seen the site:

1. Arrive from an interview. Find Avery’s novel, describe its premise and open the sample.
2. Choose a format. Follow the paperback link and confirm it leads to the intended book.
3. Arrange a discussion. Find the contact route and send a test book-club invitation.

The friend can complete the first two tasks but cannot find a response confirmation after sending the invitation. Avery checks whether the message was saved and delivered, adds clear confirmation text and repeats the task. That specific repair is more useful than adding another page to an otherwise unfinished journey.

Support discovery and maintain the useful pages

Use your real author name and descriptive page titles, and link book pages from the main navigation or catalogue. Google’s SEO Starter Guide explains how useful content and links help search engines discover and understand pages. Submitting a sitemap does not establish that a book will appear prominently for a competitive query.

Share the relevant page when a legitimate reader or event opportunity arises. A link to a discussion guide should open that guide, rather than make everyone start at the home page. Follow each community’s posting rules and contribute something useful.

After changes and before each launch, recheck retailer links, signup delivery, contact details and event dates. Measure website visits separately from sample reads, signup completions, enquiries and confirmed sales. A retailer link click indicates interest; it is not a completed book purchase.

Connect these checks to your book launch plan. Greenfield’s book marketing support can be scoped around your audience and content. Discuss your author marketing plan with the pages and reader tasks you want help improving.

Questions about author websites