When you say you’re trying to market your book, you’ll be bombarded with “musts:”

“You must do TikTok.”

“You must get lots of social media followers.”

“You must advertise.”

Can all these things help? Yes. But if this is your first book, your first effort to find readers, there are only two things you really need—BEFORE you hit “publish” on your book.

1. An Author Website

Don’t underestimate the importance of this. It doesn’t have to be flashy and grand, but it has to look good and be functional. It’s not necessary to spend thousands getting a website designed either.

First get your domain name

You want to do this as soon as possible, even before you think about building your site. You can do this on a separate site that sells domain names, such as Domains.com, but your hosting platform might also have a way to register a domain. Try to get a domain that is your name, or your pen name. If those aren’t available, add something to them: [YourName]Author, or [YourName]Romance (or historical romance or steamy romance or whatever). Don’t use the title of your book, because then you won’t be able to use it easily for other books.

Second, choose a Web Platform

If this already sounds daunting, fear not. There are ways to get up and running fast. And with so many template options, you probably don’t have to spend the money getting a website designed for you.

I use WordPress because I’ve used it for about 25 years, and it’s capable of hosting my courses. There is a learning curve, but it’s the most flexible of all of the platforms I’ve tried out. The flexibility comes from being able to choose a theme (I use Divi) and add plugins to extend functionality.

There is a free version (link above) but it makes you have .wordpress in your domain name, and if you don’t pay a small monthly amount, you’ll end up with cheesy ads being served to your site.

The paid version is really the only choice, and you need to do that through a hosting platform. I use Dreamhost, which also gives me plenty of email addresses. There’s also Bluehost and GoDaddy, to name two popular options. To see some different hosting options ranked, go here.

But WordPress is not for everyone. If you’re not tech savvy or comfortable just testing things out, you have other options.

Squarespace

Squarespace has set itself up as a competitor with WordPress and tries to do everything it can do, but make it easier for the user.

You can also get your domain directly through Squarespace, which acts as the host of your site. Squarespace also has the advantage of being able to serve as your email newsletter provider.

Wix

Wix is definitely the easiest to use, but has more limited options.

Comparison chart

Below is a quick comparison of these three different website platforms.

You can see how they stack up against one another. There’s no wrong choice, there’s only the one you’ll feel most comfortable with.

Your Newsletter

One purpose of the website is to give you a way to collect names and email addresses for your newsletter. To do that, you’ll need to embed a form that allows people to opt in.

Yes, you MUST have one. You don’t have to barrage people with email, or try to think of something to say when you have nothing to say, but as time goes on, the people on your email list will be the ones who become your most loyal readers.

And you’ll be wise to treat them as such, by offering them things not available to people who aren’t on your newsletter, for instance, or making sure they’re the first to know about a new release. Give them access to deleted chapters, or prequel scenes. Ideally you’ll also have a free novella as a reader magnet—more about that coming.

Plus, it’s not easy to directly contact people who follow you on social media—the social media platforms own that information. Sure, you can use DMs, but those are one at a time. And if you unfortunately find yourself banned or blocked, you lose everything.

Readers who have opted in to your newsletter have given you permission to contact them directly. But to send bulk emails, you will need to use a service that complies with the CAN-SPAM act and other EU regulations.

Here you have options as well. As I mentioned, Squarespace has a built-in email list capability, which will probably increase the monthly cost to you.

You can also choose a third-party email service. I use Kit, but I need something with fancier features because of my teaching and coaching business. Other options are MailerLite and Mailchimp. All the web hosting options integrate with those services, although Squarespace I believe makes it hard because they want you to use their email newsletter feature.

Comparison Chart