Blog
Best WordPress Themes for Authors
May
Aiming for a Booker prize? Dreaming of becoming the subsequent Stephen King or Danielle Steel?
For any author attempting to construct an audience or attract skilled clients, an excellent writer website is crucial.
Many writers decide to create their digital presence with WordPress. It’s easy to make use of and optimized for publishing, in any case.
If you happen to determine to follow this path, you will want to pick out a design. But with hundreds of WordPress themes aimed toward authors and journalists, the choices can feel overwhelming.
To enable you narrow down the choices, we’ve got searched high and low for one of the best themes for writers. Listed below are our top picks!
Best Themes for Authors and Novelists
To begin our roundup, let’s keep it literary. The next themes are all good decisions if you wish to promote your writer brand and sell your latest books in style.
1) Astra: Best Creator Theme for Customization
Optimized for the WordPress Site Editor and third-party page builders, Astra provides a whole no-code design package.
The bottom theme may be very clean and readable, and Pro users can select their very own fonts and colours. If you happen to’re looking to save lots of time, Astra Pro features a library of 180 full-site templates.
One other key feature of Astra is performance. With a load time of half a second, you won’t keep your readers waiting.
Key Features:
- A number of customization options
- Works with hottest site builders
- Lightweight theme with strong performance
Price: Free, Astra Pro from $47/yr or $227 lifetime license
2) BookWise: Best Theme Template for Selling Books
BookWise isn’t strictly a standalone theme — it’s actually one in every of the default setups for the Thrive Theme builder. Very like Astra, this provides you the choice to construct out your personal design or select something from an unlimited template library.
The difference here is that the blocks and templates are aimed toward authors, so you’ll be able to create sections for reviews, characters, purchase links, and more.
This template’s focus is principally on selling books. It enables you to easily promote writer events, and arrange your personal online store.
Key features:
- Drag-and-drop customization
- Template library with designs aimed toward authors
- Events and e-commerce features baked in
Pricing: $99 as a part of the Thrive Theme Builder
3) MyBook: Best Theme for Promoting Your Latest Release
This theme has a homepage design that basically helps exhibit your latest title. It also includes an writer bio section, and an area for putting your affiliate ecommerce links (e.g. Amazon, Bookshop).
If you happen to prefer to sell your book via your personal site, MyBook is compatible with WooCommerce. As well as, a built-in email newsletter feature makes it easy to be in contact together with your audience, and reusable content blocks let you construct custom portfolio pages.
Key Features:
- Front page design that displays a book cover
- WooCommerce support for selling direct
- Newsletter integrations for constructing your email list
Price: $49 one-time purchase
Get Content Delivered Straight to Your Inbox
Subscribe to our blog and receive great content identical to this delivered straight to your inbox.
4) Book: Best Creator Theme for Promoting eBooks
Made for selling digital titles, Book is a premium theme that gives a visually appealing landing page design.
The default layout is made for promoting ebook titles, but you should use the built-in theme builder to create your design. This theme comes with FontAwesome and Google Fonts able to use, as well.
You will discover many more customization options behind the scenes. Given all these options, we appreciate the incredibly thorough documentation that comes with this theme.
Key features:
- Theme builder and customization options
- Strong landing page design with call-to-action
- Native support for Google Fonts, FontAwesome, MailChimp, and Twitter
Pricing: $59 one-time purchase
5) Read WP: Best Creator Theme for Readability
With a wonderful alternative of fonts and lots of negative space, this premium theme is ideal for any of the minimalists amongst us.
If you happen to end up wanting to alter things up though, Read WP provides access to 600 Google Fonts and three different layouts. Skilled writers will appreciate the portfolio feature, and the design is fully responsive — so it looks the part on all devices.
Key Features:
- Elegant typography that highlights your writing
- Three different blog layouts
- Dedicated portfolio section
Price: $49 one-time purchase
6) Book Creator: Best Theme for Self Publishers
There’s something in regards to the Book Creator theme that feels very Penguin Classics. Perhaps it’s the daring scheme, or the actual way through which at which the books are displayed.
Nevertheless, this theme is actually aimed toward self-publishing authors — particularly folks with multiple titles or a book series. The design is crisp, with six possible layouts, a sophisticated homepage slider, and the power to create a web-based catalog. Plus, you’ll be able to sell digital downloads of your various works.
Key features:
- Multiple layouts
- Huge array of cataloging and ecommerce options
- Easy to customize with colours and fonts
Pricing: $69 one-time purchase
7) Gindur: Best Theme for Online Novels
And now, for something a bit different.
Gindur features medieval inspired typography, however the design is cutting-edge — Built for publishing stories, this theme is each responsive and Retina-ready. It’s snappy as all get out, too.
Most elements of Gindur are customizable, so you’ll be able to easily swap out that ornate blackletter font should you’d like. Meanwhile, built-in search engine optimisation optimization could help offer you a head start on other writers in your genre.
Key features:
- Arrange for online publishing
- Responsive, Retina-ready, and fast to load
- search engine optimisation optimization
Pricing: $39 one-time purchase
8) Book Landing Page: Best Free Theme for Authors
If you happen to only want a straightforward one-page website to advertise your writing, the free version of Book Landing Page might cover your needs.
The design of this theme enables you to exhibit a single title alongside an enormous old buy button. Further down the page, you could have seven sections to play with, including a tabbed box for preview snippets. It feels best suited to non-fiction titles, but you may use it for any style of book.
While it’s not essentially the most visually distinctive template on this list, you actually can’t complain for the low low price of $0.
Key features:
- Seven home page sections
- Social media integration and search optimization
- Ready for translation
Pricing: Free, with Premium upgrade available for $59
9) Novela: Best Creator Theme for Readers
This revolutionary theme permits you to create immersive previews of your ebooks, complete with page-turning animations.
The default landing page is pretty striking, too, with an enormous background image and parallax scrolling effects. Just as importantly, you could have sections on your writer bio, and for introducing your characters.
On the business side, Novela permits you to arrange and sell digital downloads. In reality, the entire theme is basically optimized for ebook sales.
Key Features:
- Unique book-like preview mode
- Optimized for digital downloads
- Visually striking design with a great deal of customization options
Pricing: $59 one-time purchase
10) Leona: The Most Powerful Theme for Authors
Featuring a stunning assortment of shortcodes and widgets, Leona is probably essentially the most powerful writer focused theme on this list.
That’s not the one thing we like — this theme offers WooCommerce and MailChimp integrations, social media widgets, Google Fonts support, and a preview mode much like the one in Novela.
Just as importantly, the design of Leona is crisp, contemporary, and completely responsive.
Key features:
- A great deal of shortcodes and widgets in-built
- Integrates with MailChimp, WooCommerce, and Twitter
- Modern design and excellent documentation
Pricing: $64 one-time purchase
11) Bookory: Best Online Book Store Theme
If you happen to’re attempting to create more of a web-based store than simply one other writer site, think about using Bookory.
This theme permits you to pick from five handsome front page designs, each fastidiously honed for ecommerce. You furthermore mght get five product page layouts to pick from, and dedicated templates on your writer page.
Bookory enables you to get much more creative via the Elementor theme builder. That said, it is advisable to stick to the default options, as this theme has an excellent PageSpeed rating out of the box.
Key Features:
- Slick, responsive ecommerce store design
- Multiple front page and product page templates
- Works with WooCommerce and Elementor
Pricing: $69 one-time purchase
12) Auteur: Best Blogging Theme for Authors
Blogging may be an excellent option to promote your next book and encourage interactions with readers. But not all blogging themes are suited to selling books.
Auteur bridges this gap with 10 stylish blogging layouts and three commerce designs. It also has every thing you’ll expect from a dedicated writer theme, resembling email signup forms, individual book pages, and writer bio sections.
If you wish to go off-piste, Auteur enables you to construct layouts via the WPBakery Plugin. This makes it a bit more complex to make use of than another themes — and somewhat less performant should you go too wild with the page builder — but it surely remains to be very flexible.
Key Features:
- Layouts for books, blogging, and ecommerce
- Block-based theme constructing options
- Integrations with WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, and MailChimp
Pricing: $60 one-time purchase
13) ChapterOne: Best Page Builder Theme for Authors
For authors who wish to construct a web site that stands out from the gang, ChapterOne could possibly be an excellent purchase.
Although this theme is basically aimed toward publishers, there may be plenty to interest individual writers. The front page gives you ample opportunities to indicate off your recent book and older titles. You may as well arrange shop with support for digital editions and even audiobooks.
Flexibility is one other strength of ChapterOne, with over 800 Google Fonts, multiple blog layouts and header types, and lots of useful shortcodes.
Key Features:
- Several homepage designs, each optimized for promoting books
- Contemporary design that may be customized
- Powerful ecommerce templates including various media types
Pricing: $79 one-time purchase
14) Brooklyn: Best One-Click Theme for Authors
Although Brooklyn offers a bewildering array of customization options, this theme makes it easy to establish an writer site.
That is resulting from the 52 ready-made site templates that come free with the theme. Within the library, you’ll find some great options for constructing your site, and you’ll be able to install each design with only a click.
If you wish to make adjustments, Brooklyn gives you 60 blocks to play with and over 100 customization panels to explore. It even has a sophisticated slider maker.
All of it could be a bit overwhelming for first-time WordPress users, but power users will adore it.
Key Features:
- 52 ready-made site templates
- Block-based page builder with 60 elements
- Over 2,500 individual customization options
Pricing: $59 one-time purchase
15) Bridge: Creator Theme With the Most Features
Designed for creatives, Bridge is one other theme that packs in an exceptional variety of features. And as with Brooklyn, you could have loads of ready-made demo sites to pick from.
If you happen to prefer to construct something yourself, this theme works with two page builders. With over 200 individual elements at your disposal, it is best to have the ability to cook up something special.
This all comes along with e-commerce features, full integration together with your social media profiles, interactive tours, powerful search, and rather more.
Key Features:
- Works with two page builders, includes 200 elements
- 610 one-click demo sites
- Ecommerce, social media, and search features
Pricing: $69 one-time purchase
Best Themes for Bloggers and Journalists
After all, not every author desires to be a Recent York Times bestselling writer.
If you happen to’re more fascinated with blogging, journaling, or journalism, the next themes ought to be an excellent fit on your online presence.
16) Typology: Best Minimalist Theme for Writers
If you happen to really need your words to shine, Typology could possibly be the theme for you.
The design is rather more stripped back as compared to another themes on this list, but there remains to be loads of visual impact, due to daring color decisions.
You’ll be able to change those colours should you want, and the theme provides loads of control over typography. Plus, you’ll be able to’t forget the impressive performance.
Key features:
- Minimalist yet daring design with deal with written content
- Well suited to blogs, with ad units included
- Strong performance and search engine optimisation optimization
Pricing: $59 one-time purchase
17) Maktub: Best Magazine-Style Theme
At the opposite end of the online design spectrum, you’ll find Maktub. This colourful theme delivers content with some visual punch, although the main target remains to be on typography.
This can be a theme built for speed. It has an ideal PageSpeed rating of 100, and MakTub is optimized for AMP. This functionality could possibly be very helpful should you’re attempting to attract recent readers.
On top of this lightweight frame, you’ll be able to add 11 custom widgets and customize various parts of the theme — with just one plugin required.
Key Features:
- Daring color scheme and powerful typography
- Good performance
- AMP optimization
Pricing: $35 one-time purchase
18) Gutentype: Most Versatile Theme for Bloggers
Designed to work with the native WordPress site editor and Elementor website builder, this shapeshifting theme enables you to pick from 18 different premade page layouts.
While not explicitly designed for writers, Gutentype still delivers your written content in style. The design is clean, with loads of white space and excellent optimization for mobile devices.
Other than the layouts, this theme permits you to get creative with custom post types, social media integrations, dozens of shortcodes, and 7 widget areas.
Key Features:
- 18 different page layouts
- Clean, modern web site design
- Works with WooCommerce, Elementor, and WordPress’ site editor
Pricing: $69 one-time purchase
19) Starter: Best Minimal Theme for Bloggers
Considered one of the important thing selling points of the Starter theme is that it accommodates only 55 files.
Unsurprisingly, this implies you could have fewer preset layouts to pick from, but each of the available options are very easy on the eyes, and the theme delivers good performance due to clean code.
Even with the small size of this theme, you continue to get five post types, customizable colours and fonts, and a blog template that is extremely readable.
Key Features:
- Lightweight theme with clean code
- Very modern, minimal design with deal with readability
- Three post layouts (left, right, without sidebar)
Pricing: $49 one-time purchase
20) Gema: Best Minimalist Theme for Personal Blogs
Opening a site made with Gema is like flicking through the pages of a glossy magazine. It’s a kind of elegant fonts, white space, and huge images.
We particularly just like the header area of this theme. The name of your site is writ large, and the vertical menu is inset in order that it blends in nicely together with your latest posts.
As well as, Gema has features that can impress website visitors in other ways. Together with the standard color and font options, you’ll be able to create drop caps and introduce a lightweight hover effect wherever it feels right.
Key Features:
- Distinctive, minimalist front page design
- Interesting effects and typography
- Responsive, search optimized, good performance
Pricing: €115 (~$128) one-time purchase or €75/yr (~$83)
21) Jason: Best Theme for Independent Journalists
A distinct theme from the identical stable, Jason would work well for anyone who’s attempting to construct a private brand in journalism.
The design here is halfway between a straightforward blog and a digital magazine, with space devoted to pictures and nice touches of color throughout.
We particularly just like the built-in logo generator, which enables you to experiment with different typography to create something unique. Jason also has an excellent archive section, which implies readers can find posts on any topic without the assistance of a search engine.
Key Features:
- Vigorous design with large images and a sidebar
- Customizable colours and fonts, and built-in logo builder
- Works nicely with WordPress’ site editor
Pricing: €115 (~$128) one-time purchase or €75/yr (~$83)
22) Tove: Best Free Theme for Bloggers
This beautiful little theme from Swedish designer, Anders Noren, is totally free and full of personality.
Although originally designed for café and restaurant web sites, you’ll be able to easily adapt Tove for blogging. The default design is playful yet clean, with easy-to-read fonts and over 40 preset block patterns.
Because a lot of these elements include buttons, you may link to an external purchase page or one other writer platform.
Key Features:
- Playful, colourful design
- Over 40 block patterns
- Lightweight at under 200 kilobytes
Pricing: Free
Best Themes for Skilled Writers
If you happen to’re the style of writer who prefers to work for other people, you would possibly need a rather different style of website.
On this final section, we’re going to deal with themes that ought to work for skilled copywriters, ghostwriters, and content marketers.
23) Corner: Best Portfolio Theme for Writers
A key a part of securing work as a author is impressing potential clients together with your body of labor. Corner has a dedicated portfolio section for this purpose, with various layout options to pick from.
There may be nothing very flashy about this theme. The look is clean, refined, and polished. But with Elementor integration and lots of customization options, you’ll be able to easily make it your personal.
Key Features:
- Clean, skilled design
- Portfolio feature with several layouts
- Block editor support plus Elementor and Google Fonts
Pricing: $49/yr
24) Sydney Pro: Best Skilled Theme for Writers
All the things about Sydney Pro has been finely tuned with creative professionals in mind. This freemium theme enables you to pick from quite a lot of layouts, headers, and footers, each promoting your brand another way.
The design here is razor sharp and stripped back, although there are splashes of color for key elements. Sydney Pro also enables you to create a compelling blog, utilize pre-made sections, and construct multiple sidebars.
Plus, it really works with tools like HubSpot, Tutor LMS, WooCommerce, and Toolset.
Key Features:
- Refined, skilled design with pre-built sections
- Multiple homepage, blog, and sidebar layouts
- Works with a spread of third-party platforms
Pricing: Free version available, Pro from $69/yr
25) Neve: Most Flexible Theme for Skilled Writers
Utilized by a big selection of business owners, Neve is fast and versatile.
You’ll be able to pick from over 100 default layouts, all of which deliver good performance. Alternatively, you should use a theme builder of your alternative. Neve works with Beaver Builder, Elementor, Visual Composer, and plenty of more.
What’s more, Neve adds features to those third-party plugins — so that you get an prolonged version of Elementor and WooCommerce with this theme. It’s pretty nifty if you wish to make something unique.
Key Features:
- Fast, lightweight theme with 100 preset designs
- Works with Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and more
- Extends popular plugins like WooCommerce
Pricing: Free version with limited features; Pro version is €69/yr (~$77)
The way to Construct a Great Creator Website
Each of the themes mentioned above can provide an awesome start line for constructing your writer website.
But when you wish to maximize the impact of your recent site, there are just a few tasks it is best to complete before you launch. Here’s a fast step-by-step guide:
- Register a novel domain name — Use your name, your brand, and even your tagline; just ensure that it’s something memorable.
- Select a reliable host — At DreamHost, we provide 100% Uptime Guarantee to be sure that your readers can all the time access your writer site.
- Optimize the design for readability — Don’t worry about dazzling design; ensure that readers can enjoy your work.
- Include a call to motion in your homepage — Don’t be shy about selling your book; ensure that to place not less than one buy button in your homepage.
- Add social proof — Sharing testimonials is a proven option to persuade potential customers.
- Create a blog — Most of one of the best writer web sites include a blog, and publishing regular posts may be an efficient book marketing strategy.
- Ask people to opt-in — Start constructing your email list so you’ll be able to share news with readers, like a brand new book release or guest podcast appearance.
- Let your readers get in contact — Fans of your work might wish to send their appreciation or ask questions, so ensure that to incorporate appropriate contact information or perhaps a standalone contact page.
We hope this guide has given you some ideas on your website and the boldness to begin constructing your brand. Just remember: should you get stuck, we’ve got a team of expert web designers able to help!
