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.
What readers see
A 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.
The sections of your page
The Your page card lists the sections: Top of page, Links and signup, Books, About me 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. Contact and socials also stays off the live page while it has no email and no social links, even when it is switched on.
Top of page
The Headline defaults to your pen 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 colour, a gradient with two colours 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 pen 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. 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 full description, covers alternating sides; Grid shows compact rows of covers with a short blurb, better for a large catalogue. 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.
Buttons and signup
The Links and signup section holds up to six buttons of two kinds. An Email signup button collects addresses: choose per button whether to Collect with BookSparker only or to Send to your mailing list as well, and give it an optional Popup message. A Link button opens any https address, such as a shop or a reader group. With a single button the section shows it directly, an email form or a link; with two or more the site shows the buttons stacked and opens a small chooser, from which a signup click leads to that button's form. The last button cannot be removed; hide the section instead.
Section heading is the text above the buttons and in the chooser. Header button text names the button in the site header, which does the same as the section: opens the one form, or the chooser. Hide the section and the header button goes too. Ask readers for their first name adds an optional name field to every form. Whatever you choose, every signup is also kept on your BookSparker account, where you can export it.
Look and feel
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 colours and fonts you had customised, 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.
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 pen name's own data, not copies. The About me text is the pen 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 pen name has one.
Saving and previewing
There is no autosave. Save Changes in the header stays grey 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 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 colours reset?
You picked a theme. Every theme click clears custom colours and fonts so the result is not a half-customised 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.