From a simple Home/Books/About/Contact core to shop pages, press kits, and research archives — build your sitemap around what visitors actually need.
An author website does not need a fixed number of pages. A novelist with one book, a fantasy author with three connected series, a historian with decades of research, and a business author who also speaks and consults may all need very different websites.
For most authors, the foundation is relatively simple: Home, Books, About, and Contact. From there, pages such as individual book pages, Series, Newsletter, Shop, Media, Speaking, Research, Events, or Articles should be added when they perform a real job.
The best way to plan the site is to start with the people visiting it. What are they trying to find? What should they be able to do? The sitemap should answer those questions before it fills a navigation menu, and it’s the same question we start with whenever we plan a site for an author.
| Layer | Typical pages | Main purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Core | Home, Books, About, Contact | Establish who the author is and make essential information easy to find |
| Growth | Individual Book Pages, Series, Newsletter, Events, Articles | Support readership and an ongoing publishing career |
| Commerce | Shop / Buy Direct, Product Pages, Bundles | Turn the site into a direct sales channel |
| Authority | Media / Press Kit, Speaking, Research, Services | Support professional credibility and opportunities |
A career fiction author may need all of Core, much of Growth, and perhaps Commerce. A memoirist publishing one book may only need a focused Core site with one or two additional pages. The site should grow according to its purpose.
| Visitor wants to... | Best destination |
|---|---|
| Find the newest book | Home / Book page |
| See everything the author has written | Books |
| Understand reading order | Series |
| Buy directly from the author | Shop / Product page |
| Learn about the author | About |
| Stay in touch | Newsletter / Signup |
| Interview the author | Media / Press Kit |
| Invite the author to speak | Speaking |
| Explore research | Research / Publications |
| Ask a question or make an inquiry | Contact |
This approach also prevents unnecessary pages. If nobody has a useful reason to visit a page, it may not need to exist yet.
The homepage introduces the site, but it should not attempt to become the entire website. Jane Friedman’s author-homepage guidance recommends clarity around the audience and the work the author most wants visitors to notice, and cautions against filling the homepage with competing boxes and calls to action. A useful homepage usually answers three questions quickly: who is this author, what do they write or work on, and what should I do next?
| Author situation | Possible primary homepage action |
|---|---|
| New book launching | Buy or preorder the book |
| Fiction series author | Start the series |
| Audience-building author | Join the newsletter |
| Direct-sales author | Buy direct |
| Professional author | Explore expertise or speaking |
| Researcher / historian | Explore books, publications, or research |
A business author may lead with their expertise. A novelist may lead with the newest book. None of those choices is universally correct.
The Books page gives visitors an overview of the author’s catalog. For a one-book author, it may be extremely simple. For an author with several titles, it becomes a navigation tool. Jane Friedman recommends making it easy for visitors to find books, understand what they are about, and reach purchase options.
These serve different purposes. The Books page answers "what has this author written?" An individual book page answers "what should I know about this particular book?" and can contain larger cover artwork, endorsements, an excerpt, or bonus material, giving each title its own permanent destination that can be shared from ads, newsletters, or interviews.
If books belong to a series, readers should not have to guess the reading order. A dedicated Series page can organize the books in order and show reading order, individual books, and purchase options. For a standalone memoirist, this page is unnecessary. For a novelist with a seven-book series, it may be one of the most useful pages on the entire site.
The About page should help visitors understand who the author is in the context of their work. A fiction author might include background relevant to their stories and personal details readers may enjoy. A professional nonfiction author may emphasize career history and expertise. Jane Friedman recommends a concise professional bio as one of the foundational elements of an author site.
A visitor should not have to search social media to figure out how to reach the author. Jane Friedman has specifically noted that journalists often encounter author sites where contact information is difficult to find. The page can route different inquiry types, including reader contact, media interviews, speaking requests, and business inquiries.
For authors building an ongoing audience, email signup can appear throughout the website rather than existing in only one location: the homepage, footer, Books page, book pages, or a dedicated signup page. BookBub’s current Author Websites system supports a homepage signup form, popup, and standalone signup landing pages. The newsletter itself is optional — if there is no long-term communication plan, an author does not need to create one merely because other authors have newsletters.
For an author with one or two products, a book page with a Buy Direct button leading to checkout may be enough — Lulu Direct currently offers Buy Buttons and Direct Checkout Links that can be embedded into existing websites without requiring a separate full ecommerce store. Authors selling a larger range may need a proper Shop leading to product pages, a cart, and checkout. Offering direct checkout does not require removing retailer links; a book page can provide Buy Direct alongside Amazon and other retailers.
A Media or Press Kit page becomes useful once journalists, podcasters, or event organizers may need information about the author. Reedsy’s current author-website guide recommends gathering materials such as professional headshots, short and long author bios, book covers, and press coverage. The purpose is to reduce friction: a journalist who needs an approved photo and 100-word biography should not have to email and wait for them.
Professional nonfiction authors, researchers, and established public-facing authors may benefit from a dedicated Speaking page covering speaking topics, past appearances, and an inquiry button. A fiction author who never speaks publicly has no reason to add the page.
Some authors have a professional business around their expertise, offering consulting, coaching, or workshops. In that case, a Services page may be appropriate, supporting a path from book to expertise to professional inquiry.
Researchers, historians, and ideas-driven authors may need a completely different information architecture, using sections such as Research, Publications, Further Reading, Sources, or Lectures. These pages support the Archive / Intellectual Reach role established in our guide to whether authors need a website.
An Events page makes sense for authors who regularly participate in readings, signings, conferences, or workshops. If an author has no upcoming events and no meaningful event history, an empty Events page adds little value.
An author website does not automatically need a blog. Reedsy’s current author-site guide explicitly says blogging is optional. It makes sense when the author genuinely has something worth publishing on an ongoing basis. A website with no blog is perfectly legitimate; a neglected Blog page with its last update several years ago can communicate the opposite of the active professional presence the author wanted.
External credibility can appear in several places. A short endorsement might belong on the homepage or a book page. An author with extensive coverage may also use a dedicated Praise or Media Coverage page — though three testimonials usually do not require a separate section in the navigation.
Some pages exist because of what the website does rather than what the author writes: a Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, or Shipping Policy. A simple informational author site may need fewer supporting pages than a site collecting email addresses, processing customer data, or selling products internationally.
There is no useful universal number. A small author website may have only Home, Book, About, Contact, and perhaps Newsletter. A career novelist may have dozens of individual book pages but only six or seven primary navigation items. The question is not whether a site has five pages or fifteen. It is whether visitors can complete the tasks that brought them there.
A large site does not require a large main menu. The menu might simply say Books, About, Articles, Media, Events, and Contact, with deeper pages organized underneath. Clear navigation helps the site scale without making visitors decode the author’s entire career before finding a book.
A career fiction author might use Home, then Books, then Series, then individual book pages, then Shop / Buy Direct, then Newsletter, then About, then Contact. Optional additions include Reader Extras, Events, Articles / News, and Media.
A smaller structure may be more appropriate: Home, then Book, then About, then Reviews / Media, then Contact. Possible additions include Buy Direct and Events. A newsletter may add unnecessary work if the author has no ongoing publishing or audience-building plan.
A professional author may need Home, then Book(s), then About / Expertise, then Speaking, then Media / Press Kit, then Articles / Resources, then Services, then Newsletter, then Contact. Someone may arrive because of the book and leave by submitting a speaking inquiry.
A research-focused site might use Home, then Books, then About, then Research / Publications, then Resources / Further Reading, then Articles / Essays, then Media / Talks, then Contact. Here the website may function partly as a knowledge resource that extends the life of the author’s published work.
Start with the pages that solve immediate visitor needs — for many first-time authors, that means Home, Book, About, Contact, and Newsletter if an ongoing audience is part of the plan. Then add functionality when there is a reason: a second book means building a proper Books catalog; a growing series means adding a Series page; selling signed editions means adding direct sales.
The Folio Studios starts with the role the website needs to perform rather than assigning the same page list to every author. From there, the sitemap can remain compact or expand into a larger publishing and authority platform. Author website work can also be scoped independently if the website is the only publishing service you need.
Most published authors benefit from a clear Home page, information about their book or books, an About page, and an accessible Contact route. Newsletter, Shop, Media, Speaking, Blog, Series, and other pages depend on the author’s goals.
Not always. One-book authors can sometimes handle everything on one focused book page. As the catalog grows, dedicated pages become more useful for descriptions, reviews, retailer links, and search visibility.
If several books belong to a series, a Series page can make reading order and related books much easier to understand.
No. Reedsy’s current author-site guidance explicitly treats blogging as optional. It should exist when the author has a real content purpose and can maintain it.
There is no universal number. A compact author site may have four or five meaningful destinations, while a career author, direct seller, professional expert, or researcher may need many more pages organized under simple navigation.
Yes. Website scope can be matched to the author’s current needs rather than forcing every project into the same site size.
A good sitemap is not a checklist of pages copied from other authors. Start with their tasks. Then create the pages that help them complete those tasks clearly. For most authors, Home, Books, About, and Contact create the foundation. Growth, commerce, and authority pages can be added when the author’s work creates a reason for them.
If you are still deciding whether you need a website at all, read Does an Author Need a Website in 2026? Our How Much Does an Author Website Cost? guide covers how page count, ecommerce, custom design, integrations, SEO, and maintenance affect the scope and budget.
If you want help planning or building a site around your actual books, audience, direct-sales strategy, research, or professional goals, explore our author website services or tell us about your project.
