A landing page, or squeeze page is simply a webpage with a single focus or objective. The objective of the page, ie, selling your book, is what is known as the “call-to-action.” Aside from products, an author may also want to sell services relating to their book, such as professional life or burnout coaching services.
Explore the fundamentals of an author website?
Landing Pages for Fiction vs Non-Fiction Authors
Whilst relevant to both authors of fiction and non-fiction, it’s normally easier for authors of non-fiction to clarify and then collect the ingredients required for an effective landing page design.
Landing Page vs Website
Here’s how a landing page differs from a typical author or writers’ website.
- A landing page is a single page, whereas a website is typically several webpages.
- A landing page should have a single focus or call-to-action, whereas a website has multiple.
- A landing page is focussed and clear where a website will have many menu items, sidebars and other distracting elements, reducing the “conversion rates” of online visitors.
- A website can contain several landing pages for different products or services.
Hope this now means we are on the same page 😉
Here’s my suggested author landing page template. Use the parts that are relevant for you, leave the rest.
Your Hero Section
First thing a visitor should see as your landing page loads, also known as being “above the fold.”
- Main Headline with a sub-headline. Usually the author’s name, followed by a sub-headline such as “Best-Selling Author of xxx” or “Certified Life Coach”.
- Visually clear and engaging. Not the same as being visually “busy”.
- Include a professional portrait picture of yourself to help increase trust, together with your sales conversion rate. For those authors not fond of showing their faces, a book cover mockup will suffice.
- Contains a clear call-to-action – what should your website visitor be doing?
- “Buy my book.”
- “Book a coaching session.” etc
Problem and Solution
What problems are your readers currently struggling with? For writers of fiction, perhaps this is boredom. For non-fiction writers, the pain-points of your readers are varied.
- How does your book help readers address their frustrations?
- What makes your book different from other books written on the same topic?
- What makes you uniquely qualified to write this book?
About the Book
Showcase the book cover, again I recommend making use of a cover mockup. The book’s back cover text should also work well here – assuming it’s been given a thorough inspection by your trusted manuscript editor.
- Your book blurb or back cover description should be short. (Less than 300 words.)
- It should be direct and engaging.
- It shouldn’t be a dry summary.
For non-fiction authors, consider including a table of contents here to further clarify your books value proposition.
About the Author
Briefly introduce author. I recommend that a professional portrait photograph is paid for and accompanies the author’s bio text. Please don’t be tempted to use your Sunday afternoon selfie.
- The text about you should be written as it related to the book’s content. Avoid simply summarising your CV.
- Include relevant qualifications, work experience or awards. (Again, relevant to the books’ topic.)
- Consider including links to any relevant social profiles. (LinkedIn, GoodReads etc)
Social Proof
Help convince and convert visitors to your landing page through a mixture of reader reviews, video testimonials or pictures of happy readers in the wild.
- Where you place these reviews matter. Aim for places where a decision needs to be made – near your call-to-action for example. (The placement of reviews is not limited to a single section of your page.)
- Don’t go overboard, listing too many reviews in a single location. (I normally work in 3’s.)
- Avoid overly wordy reviews consisting of more than a few sentences. Consider only showcasing the most poignant sentence or two from a wordy review.
- For a testimonial video, consider editing the video lightly for brevity and then also showcasing the video alongside the most powerful sentence or two.
Your Process
For non-fiction authors who sell services linked to their book, what should the website visitor do next? Or consider listing how your onboarding process works. This works well for authors of business or life coaching books.
Step1, Step2, Step3…
Buy Your Book
Showcase your book, together with prominent purchase link/s.
- How much does your book cost?
- Is it available from multiple outlets? (Consider linking to a single page containing all your book purchase links using the free Books2Read platform.)
- What book formats are you selling? (eBook, Paperback, Hardcover, audio.)
- Do you accept payment via the website? (If not, how does payment work?)
- Consider repeating your call-to-action. (Buy Now!)
FAQs
Ask and then answer succinctly, the questions your readers are likely asking.
- Handle potential objections pre-emptively.
- Consider creating and then linking to cornerstone content (either pages or blog posts) on your website within the FAQs, where you answer specific questions in more depth.
- Add “upsell” questions that promote products or services that may not be obvious to the visitor.
- Do you offer any guarantees?
- Wear your SEO cap when writing these FAQs. Keep them shorter, including a mix of your top 3 targeted keywords for your product or service.
Other Titles?
Have you written other books? Perhaps you can include a teaser for your upcoming release?
Other Design Considerations
A few other pointers gleaned from my years under the hood of author websites that will help you build a better and more effective landing page to convince and convert new visitors into readers.
- Distractions should be removed. Any non-essential elements should be hidden, the focus always being on your prominent call-to-action button or links.
- ALL text should be written with your SEO cap on.
- When designing a landing page for a specific book or service, the link/ URL should contain your focus keywords. www.myauthorwebsite/life-coaching-book
- (These next few are slightly more advanced for the geekier among you.)
- Ensure your page works well and looks good on a mobile screen.
- Images should all be optimised to reduce file size. (Include ALT tags too.)
- Include a relevant metadesc and social share image.
My Favourite WordPress Template for Book Authors?
For those of you wanting to know what I use to design most of my author websites, I use the free WordPress CMS together with the paid-for Divi template from Elegant Themes. (This is my affiliate link.)
Examples of Author Websites?
You can see examples of my author website designs here.
Written by a well-caffeinated human| Buy me a coffee to say thanks?
