Web Design for Authors
A stunning web design is easy with DesignHoot for Authors. We have three options (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced) to fit your stage of the author journey and budget. And beyond a great looking site, DesignHoot for Authors offers powerful out-of-the-box tools to drive engagement with your readers. We focus on integrating with tools that matter most to indie authors, like BookFunnel, leading email list providers, and platforms to sell books direct to readers.
No matter what option you select, your dream website is made easy with DesignHoot for Authors. Even better, if you start with either a Beginner or Intermediate site option you can upgrade to the next level site when you’re ready and only pay the difference between the two design options as an upgrade price. Read more about each website option below.
Author Web Design Options
Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced
Prices reflect the Indie Author Magazine reduced rates (25% savings).
Beginner Author Website
A DesignHoot Beginner Author Website is perfect for those just starting out on their author journey. This offers emerging and new authors a low-cost one-page website to get readers onto your mailing list and promote your first book (or two, or three).
Design Price starts at $150 and varies based on the number of books (up to 3) and desired design and feature elements for the page. No-interest, no-fee payment plan available.
What’s included:
- One page website
- Custom author branding
- 1 to 3 books (cover, blurb, links to retailers)
- Brief About the Author section
- Basic newsletter signup*
- Integration with BookFunnel*
*Requires plans with 3rd party platforms.
Pairs with Basic Managed Hosting ($7/month).
Complete our design information form and we will promptly reply with a price and design timeline.
Intermediate Author Website
A DesignHoot Intermediate Author Website offers authors who have a growing list of books to promote a more content rich experience and engagement with your readers across your book series (or multiple series).
Design price starts at $500 and varies based on the number of books, series, and desired design and feature elements. No-interest, no-fee payment plan available.
What’s included:
- Multi-page website
- Custom author branding
- Base Pages: Home page, About the Author page, Main Books page, Newsletter page, Contact page, and Individual Book Pages
- Newsletter signup forms*
- Integration with BookFunnel*
- Can include an author blog, author news, and author events pages
*Requires plans with 3rd party platforms.
Pairs with Standard Managed Hosting ($11/month).
Complete our design information form and we will promptly reply with a price and design timeline.
Advanced Author Website
A DesignHoot Advanced Author Website takes the intermediate site and integrates the ability for you to sell books directly to your readers. Whether you want your own online bookshop or integrate a Merchant of Record, the DesignHoot Advanced Author Website has you covered.
Design price starts at $950 and varies based on the number of books, series, and desired design and feature elements. No-interest, no-fee payment plan available.
What’s included:
- Multi-page custom author branding
- Integrate direct sales to your readers
- Base Pages: Home page, About the Author page, Main Books page, Newsletter page, Contact page, Bookshop page, and Individual Book Pages
- Newsletter signup forms*
- Integration with BookFunnel*
- Can include an author blog, author news, and author events pages
*Requires plans with 3rd party platforms.
Pairs with Premium Managed Hosting ($19/month).
Complete our design information form and we will promptly reply with a price and design timeline.
Web Design with Authors in Mind
Intuitive Editor
BookFunnel Integration
Built-in Marketing
Responsive Pages
Sell Books Direct
Update with Intuitive Visual Editor
Our intuitive editor puts website updates in your hands. Change colors, fonts, images, layouts, and content with confidence. Click into text on your website and just start typing! It’s easy to edit the content on your website because everything is done on the front-end. If you can use a document editor, you can use our website editor. Click or drag, drop, and done.
Free licensed access to the Intuitive Editor is included for web design clients when you select any DesignHoot hosting plan.
BookFunnel Integration
BookFunnel has become an essential tool for indie authors. DesignHoot for Authors is experienced with integrating BookFunnel across websites from first-time authors to best-selling authors, and every author in-between.
Grow and Engage your Audience
Every DesignHoot website comes with feature-rich online marketing and optimization tools. Easily collect information from site visitors with our customizable contact forms. Grow your email list with customizable email optin modules that integrate with all the leading email marketing platforms. Even conduct A/B split tests and review built-in conversion analytics.
Responsive Design Layouts
Your website will look great no matter the device with responsive design layouts built into every website. While responsive sites are in the DNA of our designs, we test to ensure that your website looks great across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. And if you make updates to your website you have full control to quickly check responsiveness across platforms and easily make adjustments if needed.
Sell Books Direct to Your Readers
DesignHoot for Authors can integrate a book shop with your website using leading sales platforms popular with indie authors, such as: WooCommerce, Shopify, Gumrod, Payhip, Thrivecart, and more. And if you have a BookFunnel account, we can setup the complete integration between the sales platform and BookFunnel e-book delivery.
Accessible Designs that Benefit All Users
At DesignHoot we follow design best practices to ensure every website we design are accessible to all users. We follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) as the international standard for web accessibility. If you purchase a DesignHoot website you are assured it meets the latest WCAG standards.
Managed Hosting
DesignHoot Managed Hosting provides you with a one-stop-shop for all your website needs. Our hosting packages combine with our design services to provide the best user experience on both the front and back ends.
This means a great design is paired with blazing fast site loading, reliable uptime, and protection from harmful malware and bot attacks. With DesignHoot Managed Hosting we keep servers, WordPress core files, plugins, and the Intuitive Visual Editor up-to-date and functioning as they should.
Managed Hosting from DesignHoot means full-featured website hosting that offers everything you need in hosting without any of the stress — all for an affordable price.
DesignHoot Managed Hosting: Easy on you and your wallet.
Discounted hosting costs $7/month for Basic Managed Hosting, $11/month for Intermediate Managed Hosting, and $19/month for Advanced Managed Hosting.
Full-Featured Hosting
Easy Website Management
- We add your domain, install WordPress and the Visual Editor, and setup security, backups, caching, and all the other backend tools to optimize and protect your site.
- Free licensed updates of the Visual Editor so you always have the newest features and most secure version.
- Automatic software updates
- Daily website backups.
- 24/7 server monitoring so you can focus on other things.
Faster Performing Websites
- Enjoy hosting that is 85% faster than industry average.
- We enable NGINX Direct Delivery for all sites on our servers, which means that certain items, e.g. your images, will load faster from the memory of the server.
- Full-page caching for all applications on our servers, which has proven to speed up sites between 50% and 500%!
- Improved load time with free Content Delivery Network (CDN). This means we deliver copies of your website stored on servers closer to user locations for faster site loading.
- Built-in image optimizer renders images faster without any detectable loss in quality.
More Reliable & Sustainable Hosting
- Enjoy 99.9% uptime with our Google Cloud Storage, one of the most reliable global hosting networks.
- Benefit from Solid State Drive (SSD) persistent storage, which has multiple redundancies to keep your site online.
- Server-monitoring system checks server status every 0.5 seconds to detect issues and fix them immediately. It is also programmed to foresee and prevent a multitude of problems automatically.
- Automatic geo-distributed daily backups provides peace of mind with 30 backup copies stored in separate geo-locations for optimal redundancy.
- 100% Renewable Energy Match: Google’s cloud storage matches 100% the energy consumed by their global operations with renewable energy and maintains a commitment to carbon neutrality.
Security-First Approach
- Smart Web Application Firewall (WAF) means our servers and your applications have a wall of defense against attacks.
- Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is pre-installed for free so you can build trust in your brand, process client information securely, protect sensitive data and your business reputation.
- Smart AI-powered anti-bot system effectively blocks 99% of malicious traffic before it even reaches your site.
- All-inclusive and free security plugin for WordPress adds an additional layer of protection for your website.
- Cybersecurity experts keep track of application vulnerabilities and continuously patch against exploits.
Free Email and More
- Build credibility with free email accounts at your own domain, including spam protection and webmail access.
- We can transfer your current email to DesignHoot hosted account for free.
- Transfer existing domain and even an existing website to DesignHoot hosting for free.
- Integration with essential author tools, like BookFunnel.
- Free domain name with annual billing on all hosting plans.
- DesignHoot web design clients get the Visual Editor included with the purchase of any of our hosting plans.
Intuitive Visual Editor
Our intuitive visual editor puts website editing in your hands. Easily take control with drag and drop and click to edit features.
Change colors, fonts, images, layouts, and content with confidence. Visualize your updates as you edit on the front end without ever needing to touch a line of code. If you can edit a document, then you can edit your website with the visual editor.
The visual editor is included with the purchase of any managed hosting plan for our web design clients.
2025 is bringing even more exciting changes with a complete update to the visual editor that will make website editing even easier. With DesignHoot, website editing is made easy.
Website Case Study: Jason’s website drives his author business
Meet indie crime thriller author Jason Richards and discover the success he has found with a DesignHoot for Authors website.
Join the happy customers at DesignHoot for Authors.
A wise choice when you give a hoot about your author website.
