Your author website is built the moment you create it, and the builder is where you make it yours. Everything you change shows at once in the Live preview on the right, and nothing reaches readers until you press Save Changes. This article walks through each card in the Content and Settings tabs. Creating, publishing and your web address are covered in setting up your author website.
Customize your author website
The sections of your page and how to order and hide them, the top of the page and featured book, the Books layouts, the newsletter signup with an optional free book, links, news posts, themes, colors and fonts, custom styles, the settings, and what is shared with your author profile.
Last updated October 20, 202612 min read
J.R. Blackwood
Small-town mysteries with a big heart.
I write cosy mysteries set on the Cornish coast.
Join my newsletter for new releases and news.
Your email addressJoin my newsletter
Books
Harbour Lights
A lighthouse keeper vanishes the night before the festival, and only the new vicar seems to care.
Get the bookTea, Cake and Trouble
The village bake-off ends with a poisoned sponge and a suspect list as long as the queue.
Get the bookA site is one long page: a top section with your name or a featured book, then the sections you have turned on in the order you set, and a footer with your legal links. The preview shows exactly this page in the Desktop or Mobile width you pick, and clicking a section in the builder scrolls the preview to it. Your site also has a page for each series and, once you post news, a News page and a page for each post. The menu beside Live preview opens any of them, and clicking a link in the preview opens its page there too.
The sections of your page
Your page
Click any part of your page to edit it. The preview jumps to it. Drag the handle to change the order.
Top of pageAlways firstJ.R. Blackwood · Small-town mysteries with a big heart.
Newsletter signupJoin my newsletter · Collects signups to Readers of J.R. Blackwood
Books2 books shown
News2 posts on your site
About meHiddenI write cosy mysteries set on the Cornish coast.
Show this on my site
Readers won't see this part until you turn it on.
Links2 buttons
Contact & socialsNo contact details yet. Add an email or social links.
The Your page card lists the sections: Top of page, Newsletter signup, Books, News, About me, Links and Contact and socials, in that order for a new site. Top of page is always first and cannot be hidden. Drag the handle on any other row to reorder it, and open a row to find Show this on my site, which hides a section without deleting its content; a hidden row carries a Hidden badge. The line under each name summarises what is in it and turns amber when something is missing. News, Links and Contact and socials also stay off the live page while they have nothing to show, even when switched on: no published post, no buttons, or no email and no social links.
Top of page
The Headline defaults to your author name and the Tagline to a welcome line; each has a switch and a text field. Below them a Short bio switch shows the first lines of your About me text. Background offers the theme default, a solid color, a gradient with two colors and an angle, or an image up to 10 MB, which gets a dark wash so text stays readable. Show your profile photo needs a display picture on the author name.
Featured book changes the whole top: the cover, the book's description and a Get the book button take over, with your name as a byline. A long description shows its first lines, with Read more for the rest. Choosing a book turns the headline and tagline switches off, and clearing the book turns them back on; you can toggle them again either way. A book not yet on the site is added to your Books section. With a featured book you also get a Featured book text field that replaces the description, and a Cover size slider.
Your books
How your books are shown offers two layouts. Showcase gives each book a row with its description, covers alternating sides, and a long description shows its first lines with Read more for the rest; Grid shows compact rows of covers with a short blurb, better for a large catalog. Drag books to reorder them, remove one with the cross, and pick more under Add books. Each book can carry a blurb of up to 2,000 characters that replaces its description on this site only. Feature, on a row, promotes that book to the top of the page.
Group books by series turns any series with two or more books on the site into one item that links to its own series page, sorted by volume, and shows a Series descriptions box for each; those descriptions belong to the series itself and save the moment you press their own Save. A book with no purchase link shows no buy button and its cover is not clickable. An amber box under such a book takes a link and saves it to the book, so the fix applies everywhere the book appears, not only here.
Newsletter signup
Newsletter signup puts an email form right on the page: readers type their address and press the button, with no popup and no second page. Heading is the text above the form and Button text names its button; left as it is, it reads Join my newsletter, or Get my free book while you give a book away. Give away a free book for signing up offers one of your reader magnet landing pages for a book under this author name: its cover sits beside the form, a short line under the heading says what the book is, and the signup runs through that landing page, so readers get the book by email and join that page's mailing list. Without a free book, choose under Where signups go whether to Collect with BookSparker only or to Send to your mailing list as well. Ask readers for their first name adds an optional name field to every form on the site. Header button text names the button in the site header, which opens this signup in a popup on every page of your site; hide the section and the header button goes too.
Every signup is confirmed before it counts. A reader who gets a free book confirms by opening it; anyone else gets an email from us and taps its link. Until then they don't reach your mailing list and aren't in your subscriber count or export; the Subscribers card in Settings shows how many are still waiting. AWeber lists are the exception: AWeber sends its own confirmation email, so readers go to AWeber straight away. Every confirmed signup is also kept on your BookSparker account, where you can export it.
Links
Buy links, your reader group, your ARC team: add what readers can do. Links open in a new tab. A list signup opens its form in a popup and sends signups to the list you pick.
List signup
Join my ARC team
Send to your mailing list
Collect with BookSparker
Link
Buy on Amazon
Link URL
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0EXAMPLE
Add link Add list signup
Links holds up to five buttons of two kinds, shown on your site as cards under the heading More from and your author name. A Link opens any https address in a new tab, such as a shop or a reader group; its card shows an arrow and, under the button text, your optional Text under the button or else that address. A List signup collects addresses for another list, such as your ARC team: its card shows an envelope, and tapping it opens its signup form in a popup. Pick per button whether to Collect with BookSparker only or to Send to your mailing list as well, add optional Text under the button that tells readers what they get, and optional Popup text to say more in the popup. Remove every button and the section shows nothing.
News
News is where you share what is happening: a Cover reveal, a New release, an Event or a Bonus scene, or any other News. Open the News row and pick one under Write a post; each kind asks only for what it needs. A Cover reveal or a New release is about one of your books: pick the book and its cover becomes the post's picture, with a Pre-order or Get the book button that leads to its shop. An Event takes a date, an optional time and a place, and readers see the time in your time zone. A Bonus scene or News post is text with an optional picture.
Every post has a title, text, an optional picture of its own (JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 10 MB) and an optional button with your own link. While you write, the Live preview shows the post as its page will look. Publish puts it on your site at once, Save draft keeps it to yourself, and a published post has Save changes and Move to drafts. Your posts lists them all, drafts first, to edit or delete. Posts save on their own, so they do not wait for Save Changes, and readers see them once your site is published.
Your three newest posts show in the News section of your page, and each post gets its own page at /news/ followed by its title. With more than three, an All news link opens the News page, which lists every post. News in your site's menu opens the News page too. To keep your posts off the home page, switch off Show my newest posts on my home page in the News row: News stays in the menu, and readers find every post on the News page. A post's page ends with a button to your newsletter signup, so a reader who enjoyed the news can sign up for the next.
Look and feel
Author Name
Stories readers can't put down
Get the booksIvory Editorial
Warm paper white with literary serif headings
Author Name
Stories readers can't put down
Get the booksMidnight
Deep night blue with soft gold accents
Author Name
Stories readers can't put down
Get the booksGradient Studio
Contemporary dark canvas with a vivid gradient hero
Button shape
SquareRoundedPill
Three themes set the whole palette and typography: Ivory Editorial, warm paper white with serif headings and the default; Midnight, deep blue with gold; and Gradient Studio, a dark canvas with a violet gradient. Choosing a theme resets any colors and fonts you had customized, so pick the theme first. Colors and fonts then lets you override the Accent color, Base color, Text color and Card color, choose a Headings font and a Text font from thirteen typefaces, and set the Button shape to Square, Rounded or Pill; Reset clears all of it. Header logo, further down the card, replaces your name in the header with a PNG or JPEG up to 5 MB.
Custom styles
The Custom styles card, under Look and feel, changes how your site looks beyond what the theme offers. Describe a change in your own words, such as make the book covers rounder, or paste CSS, then press Try it. The change is added to Your changes and shows in the Live preview right away. Not quite right? Say what to change in the same box, such as a bit smaller, and your newest change is adjusted; anything else you ask for is added as a change of its own, so nothing you ask for gets lost. Undo last request takes back what your last request did. When a request works better as a theme setting, such as a new headings font, you get Apply to theme instead, and a request that is not about how the site looks, such as new text or images, is declined.
Each change has a switch to turn it off, Edit CSS and Remove, and when two changes style the same thing, the later one wins. You can have up to 30 changes. Like every other edit, they reach your live site when you press Save Changes; until then each new or changed one is marked Not saved yet. Styles can change colors, fonts, sizes, spacing, borders, shadows and the layout, add gentle effects and hide some parts of the page. They apply to every page of your site, series and News pages included, but never to the privacy page: pick a page in the menu beside Live preview to check one. They never reach your privacy and legal links, and a change that hides or covers the line under a signup form, which tells readers how their email is used, is switched off right away.
Written requests are counted each month: 3 on the free plan, 25 on Growing Author and 75 on Pro Author. Only requests that produce a change count, follow-ups such as a bit smaller included, so a declined or failed request is free, and pasting CSS is unlimited on every plan. Undo last request does not give a request back. Your changes go live on every plan, and changing plans never removes them: a smaller plan only means fewer written requests. Written requests are processed by an AI model to write the CSS and are stored with your account.
Settings
Your web address and Custom domain are covered in their own articles. Search and sharing holds the Short description, up to 300 characters, that search engines and social previews show, and a Share image given as a link to an image, ideally 1200 by 630 pixels. Under Legal, every site gets a privacy page at /privacy in the visitor's language, and the Legal notice link field adds a footer link to an Impressum page you host elsewhere. Subscribers and Delete this site round off the tab.
What is shared with your author profile
Three things on the site are the author name's own data, not copies. The About me text is the author name's bio, the Contact email is its author email, and the Social links are its social links; editing them here changes your author profile everywhere, and the builder says so under each field. The profile photo works the other way: the site can only show it once the author name has one.
Saving and previewing
There is no autosave. Save Changes in the header stays gray until something changed, and a bar at the foot of the page reminds you while edits are unsaved. Closing the tab loses them without a warning. Before saving, the builder checks for an invalid contact email, a social or button link that is not https, a background set to image with no image, a share image that is not a full address, a button with no text, and a blurb over the limit, and names the problem instead of saving. Series descriptions and the book link fix save on their own, outside this button.
Common questions
Why doesn't a new signup show in my subscriber count?
The reader hasn't confirmed yet. They count, and reach your mailing list, once they open their free book or tap the link in our confirmation email. The Subscribers card in Settings shows how many are waiting.
Why did my headline and tagline vanish?
You featured a book, which switches both off so the book leads. Turn their switches back on in Top of page if you want them as well.
Why is Contact and socials not showing?
It has nothing to show. The section appears only once it has a contact email or at least one social link, whatever its switch says.
Why did my colors reset?
You picked a theme. Every theme click clears custom colors and fonts so the result is not a half-customized mix. Choose the theme first, then adjust.
Where is the buy button on a book?
That book has no purchase link and no ASIN. Paste a shop link into the amber box under it; the link is saved to the book itself.