on a budget but need an author website?
you’ve come to the right place!
So you’re publishing a book?
CONGRATULATIONS!! 🍾
But now you need an author website?
And you have no idea where to start?
I HEAR YOU!
In fact, I know exactly how you feel.
Six years ago, I was in your shoes.
I’d just signed my debut book deal and I was OVERWHELMED.
And ecstatic, of course! 🥂
But suddenly there were so MANY THINGS I needed to do:
Set up new social media platforms.
Start networking with fellow authors.
Build myself a website so that the industry knew I was legit.
Start building a mailing list of readers.
Find an accountant.
Get some headshots done.
Write my perfect author bio.
Reach out to other authors to see if they would be kind enough to read a proof.
Oh, and then there was the small matter of the hundreds of rounds of edits on my novel to be done for my publisher...
And of course, I was trying to finish writing my second.
And did I mention I also had a part-time job and a one-year-old daughter at the time? 🤯
I knew I needed an author website, but I didn’t know where to start.
And so I Googled and I Googled, and after a lot of frustration and false-starts thanks to tons of out-of-date information online, I stumbled across a comprehensive course that would teach me how to use Squarespace, from the ground-up.
It was a lot of money (nearly a thousand pounds 😱) but I took the leap anyway, and just one year later, something unexpected happened.
I gave up my part-time job in content marketing to become an author website designer, alongside my writing!
Gotta love a plot-twist, right?! 😆
(Curious about how that came about? Step this way →)
Buying that course was the best decision I ever made in my career.
Now I’m not expecting you guys to end up building websites for other people.
But that online course was the short-cut to me falling in love with web design, and opened my eyes to all the possibilities available when you REALLY own your own little piece of the internet.
And after a year of building websites for clients paying me premium rates, I realised that there were SO many more authors I could help who didn’t have the budget for my custom design services.
And so the DIY Author Website Course was born!
The DIY Author Website Course includes EVERYTHING I wish I’d known when I first started stumbling my way through building my author website.
I’ve condensed the information I learnt on that expensive course, and sifted through it so that The DIY Author Website Course provides you, as an author, with ONLY what you really need to know to get your author website up and running in a matter of days.
That way I can keep it affordable and most importantly of all: speedy, so that you don’t waste time learning things you don’t need to know.
I know your time as an author is precious. I really do.
I’ve also thrown in all the insider secrets I’ve learnt from four years running my web design business building websites for bestselling authors such as Beth O’Leary, Lesley Kara, Sarah Vaughan, Harriet Tyce and more…
but don’t just listen to me….
taking this course will:
✓ Save you hours of agony stuck in Google hell trying to figure out how to use Squarespace by yourself.
✓ Enable you to grow an engaged email list of fans who will pre-order your next book the second it lands on Amazon!
✓ Save you ££££ that, as an up-and-coming author, you just don’t have right now to pay a web designer to build a site for you (I get it!)
✓ Empower you so that you never need to fear your author website again - say bye bye to that sense of dread when people ask if you have one!
✓ Teach you how to grow your website alongside your writing career - you’ll know exactly what you’re doing, and how to add to it in the future.
✓ Give you the reassurance that your author website is working as hard as possible for you - I promise you, I know what I’m doing - nothing will be missed!
✓ Let you into ALL the secret tips and tricks I use when building websites for my bestselling clients.
✓ Safe-guard your writing audience for the future - your author website is your home on the internet, the ONLY place you truly own, and you’ll finally feel in control of it!
✓ Ensure you never have to pay a web designer to work on your website again 😆
✓ Get your author website up and running in the shortest amount of time so you can tick it off the to-do list and get back to your writing.
“Charlotte is a marvel. Intuitive, enthusiastic, supportive and a total website goddess to boot.”
— KATIE MARSH, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE REST OF ME
Get lifetime access to more than five hours of exclusive video training, walking you through everything you need to know to build your own author website on Squarespace!
why Squarespace?
✓ Squarespace is super secure.
You will never have to worry about your author website being hacked, or getting locked out and having to pay £££ to an expert to fix it. Everything is backed up by Squarespace.
✓ Squarespace is easy to update.
Squarespace offers the simplest drag-and-drop editor I have ever used, making fully bespoke, customisable author websites easy-peasy to create - no matter what your level of tech experience.
✓ Squarespace sites are fully responsive.
Squarespace websites are beautifully designed and built with mobile-browsing in mind, meaning your site will look just as good on phones as it does on computers.
✓ Squarespace offers fantastic - and free - support.
Included in your hosting plan is unlimited, dedicated support from Squarespace’s excellent help team, meaning you are never stuck trying to fix an issue by yourself.
✓ Squarespace comes with built-in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Your Squarespace author website will show up on Google whenever anyone searches for you or your books (without you having to have a degree in SEO!).
✓ Squarespace has lots of amazing extra tools to help you in your author career.
From running your author newsletter and selling signed copies of your books online, to offering creative writing courses directly through your site… Squarespace offers everything you could need as an author, meaning your website can grow alongside your career!
“My heart sank when my web designer told me he was retiring. But thanks to Charlotte's course I was able to design my own website using Squarespace. Problem solved. Charlotte's top tip is enjoy yourself. Her course changed redoing my website from a major marketing chore to an enjoyable creative experience.”
– MICHAEL RIDPATH, AUTHOR OF THE MAGNUS ICELAND MYSTERIES
let me show you what’s inside…
the way I see it, you have three options…
😬 Option 1:
Struggle on through, Googling everything and anything to try to learn how to build your author website, wasting hours of your life only to end up with an amateur, sub-par site you’re embarrassed to tell people about…
🙃 Option 2:
Shell out a ton of money you probably don’t have right now (I’m an author too remember, I know those splashy six-figure advances aren’t the norm!) paying a designer to build your site for you, then have to pay again every time you want them to update it
OR
🥳 Option 3:
Take this course, learn everything you need to know about building the PERFECT author website simply and efficiently, get your shiny new site up and running in just a few days and then get back to the thing you REALLY want to be doing: your writing…
“This is such a cool, friendly, useful course. I am already pretty technical, but after reading Charlotte’s brilliant marketing materials I decided to spring for the course. Boy am I glad I did! I spent two intensive days watching the videos and taking notes and preparing my material, then put my site together in one day. Since then I've tinkered with it dozens of times, as one does, but the bones of the thing were up and running in just one day, and it's MUCH better than what I would have created without the course.”
— TONY STEWART, AUTHOR OF CARRYING THE TIGER
what’s included
In this course, I’ve covered EVERYTHING you need to know in order to put together your very own, beautiful author website using Squarespace, the leading website hosting platform.
And best of all - I’ve made it easy-peasy!
Here’s what you’ll learn:
🗒️ Content Preparation
✓ How to prepare all your content for your author website, including tips on what to include, how to source and resize images and more…
🎨 Styling Your Website
✓ How to choose fonts and colours for your author website, and how to set it all up, making sure the end result looks professional - so that your readers won’t know you built it yourself!
🚧 Squarespace How-tos
✓ How to get to grips with Squarespace’s functionality (it’s honestly easy once you know how), using extensive video walk-throughs that cover everything you need to know to make the most out of the platform.
you’ll also get:
👩💻 A Demo Author Website Build
✓ Watch me build an author website from scratch, showing you all the tips and tricks I use when I build websites for my bestselling clients!
🚀 Legal Stuff and Pre-launch Prep
✓ Info on all the legal and tech bits and pieces and how to set these up, as well as help with domain registering and setting your site live.
💥 FOUR exclusive BONUS TRAININGS – worth £200!
✓ Four bonus modules including: how to encourage visits to your website once it launches; how to create a 3D book cover; how to set up a social links page and how to set up a newsletter sign up page.
Enroll now
☆
Enroll now ☆
is this course right for me?
This course is perfect if you:
✓ Write fiction or non-fiction
✓ Are a complete beginner OR don’t feel hugely confident with technology
✓ Have tried and failed to master Squarespace in the past
✓ Need an affordable solution to create a professional author website
✓ Want to quickly and easily tick your author website off your to-do list so you can get back to writing!
but don’t just listen to me…
“My teaching session with Charlotte was fantastic. She is so patient, wise and super-duper knowledgeable. Thanks to her, I now finally have all the tools I need to turn my website into the platform of dreams!”
— ISABELLE BROOM, AUTHOR OF ONE WINTER MORNING
“Charlotte’s thoughtful, knowledgeable approach meant that within a matter of hours I had a beautifully refreshed author website that I could be immensely proud of.”
— POLLY CROSBY, AUTHOR OF THE ILLUSTRATED CHILD
“Charlotte’s expertise gave me the confidence to switch to Squarespace, and helped me turn my ideas into something that looks gorgeous. She combines fantastic technical and artistic abilities with the knowledge of what a website really needs to work.”
— KATE HARRISON, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE HOUSE SHARE & THE 5:2 DIET BOOKS
“The brilliant Charlotte Duckworth has just revitalised my much-neglected website and she has done it so efficiently and reasonably. I can’t recommend her more highly.”
— SARAH VAUGHAN, INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL
want to know more about me?
Hi! I’m Charlotte Duckworth, and I design beautiful Squarespace websites for authors.
I’ve built more than 50 author websites on Squarespace, many for Sunday Times bestselling authors. I love sharing my knowledge to help my fellow authors harness the power of technology to build their career dreams.
Oh and I’m also an author myself! I’ve had six novels traditionally published (one was a USA Today bestseller!), and have two more under contract.
So I know exactly what you need on your author website to make sure it does your writing career justice!
frequently asked questions
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The course will teach you how to build your own website on Squarespace, the leading website builder.
You can find out why I’m such a big fan of Squarespace for authors here >
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I was a die-hard Wordpress user for years. But five years ago I switched my entire website and blog over to Squarespace and haven’t looked back. There are many reasons I think Squarespace is superior - but the main reason is security. I had two Wordpress blogs, both of which were hacked at various points, even though I had numerous security plugins installed - one of which was costing me a hefty annual fee. Wordpress is a self-hosting platform, and the price of its flexibility is that it’s incredibly vulnerable. Squarespace host all their websites themselves, which makes them incredibly secure and safe. I’ve blogged about why Squarespace is the perfect platform for authors here.
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The course consists of five hours of pre-recorded video lessons, divided up into 8 modules. Most of the video lessons are under 10 minutes long, and I go right back to basics, ensuring you don’t get overwhelmed.
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This course doesn’t cover blogging, as I wanted to keep it short, simple and affordable, so that you can get your author website up and running as quickly and easily as possible.
During the course we will be talking about the four key pages that every author website needs: Home, About Books and Contact.
Obviously you are free to add more pages to your site (including a blog) as you become more confident using Squarespace! There is no limit to the number of pages you can add to a Squarespace website.
If you want to learn more about blogging as an author, I have a free training video here >
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You can easily complete this course in 2-3 days, but certainly within a week! By the end you will have designed and created your very own professional and beautiful author website, ready to share with the world.
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The course consists of 50 (short and sweet!) video lessons that you can complete in your own time. There's no live element. You'll get lifetime course access, so you can take it at your own pace!
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A computer and good wifi. And perhaps a few coffees! Also, before you start building your website, you'll need to spend some time preparing the content for it. So I do suggest waiting until you have any important assets from your publisher, such as your book cover.
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This is a self-paced course and I won't be able to offer feedback on your author website. All the information you need is included in the lessons. I'm confident that by the end you won't need me any longer!
However, if you would like some help with your author website afterwards, you can book my author website support service at a discounted rate of £75ph.
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I promise that if you're able to order a book online, you'll be able to understand this course! I go right back to basics and hold your hand throughout the process to make sure that you end up with a beautiful author website.
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Squarespace pricing plans start at just £12 per month. You can see the different pricing plans here >
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If your author website is on Squarespace then yes! You’ll still get tons of value from taking this course, and answers to all the questions you’ve no doubt been turning to Google to answer…
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I KNOW this course will help you! I am so excited about it, and so confident you’ll be thrilled, that I’m offering a no-hassle 14-day money-back guarantee.
If you are not satisfied for any reason, I’ll make it better, even if that means issuing a full refund.
If you have a question prior to purchasing I’d be happy to answer! You can reach me at charlotte@charlotteduckworthstudio.com.
Enroll now
☆
Enroll now ☆
Get lifetime access to more than five hours of exclusive video training, walking you through everything you need to know to build your own author website on Squarespace!
my promise to you…
I’ve spent the last four years working with authors just like you, and that’s how I KNOW this course is exactly what you need!
In fact, I am SO excited about it, and so confident you’ll be thrilled with it, that I’m offering a no-hassle 14-day money-back guarantee.
If you are not satisfied for any reason, I’ll make it better, even if that means issuing a full refund.