Do you send hundreds of emails to agents and publishers only to find an empty inbox? Or worse, you get a perfunctory: “thanks, but no thanks” reply. It’s one of the frustrating truths about writers and publishers—sometimes it feels like never the twain shall meet.
But don’t give up. You might just need to change your tact. A writer or editor website is the storefront that never sleeps. And just maybe, publishers will come to you.
This article explores how to attract publishers with your writing or editing website. Stop cramming emails with everything about yourself, and start relying on a website offering the perfect online platform for your wares.
Ready? Let’s go!
What is a Writer/Editor Website?
Think of your writer/editor website as a place to present your portfolio, 24/7. A basic platform typically includes a biography detailing your background, a list of projects you’ve worked on (if it doesn’t violate any signed NDAs), and a means to get in touch.
Some writers and editors include eCommerce stores, allowing visitors to purchase books and digital content.
However, that level of functionality usually requires a subscription website, which means an ongoing financial commitment. But for a basic “CV”-style site, a free website should provide everything you need.
Do I Need Coding Experience to Build a Website?
You typically don’t need any coding experience for a basic portfolio website.
Most website development tools are fairly straightforward, point-and-click affairs that let you work visually without requiring a single line of code.
In fact, if you can use a basic text-editing tool like Word/Pages/Google Docs (and let’s face it: you’re a writer, so of course you know how to use these), you have most of the skills a point-and-click website platform demands.
Which Website-Building Service Should I Use?
There are plenty of useful website-building services out there, which can make choosing the right one stressful.
One of the most well-known web-building platforms is WordPress, and while it’s relatively straightforward to use and offers a good free-level service, the interface can be a little bewildering.
A simpler alternative to WordPress
Wix.com offers a much simpler user platform, not dissimilar to basic desktop publishing software.
If you can point and click, you can create a professional-looking website with Wix. There’s even an AI creation wizard, which builds the website’s structure for you after you answer a series of questions.
Once your site is up and running, you can easily update your content manually.
WordPress is versatile and scalable.
If you are patient and willing to spend some time learning the platform, WordPress is an excellent option.
It offers a wide variety of:
- Free and subscription site templates dictating the look and basic structure of your site.
- In-house and third-party plugins for reliable and secure ecommerce sites, allowing you to generate revenue from your site.
- A massive range of formatting tools that give your site a professional look.
The interface is a little less user-friendly than Wix, but once you’ve got your head around it, it’s a super-versatile platform for web developers and novices alike.
Other examples of website hosting/building services include:
- GoDaddy.com: Free and subscription domain and hosting, and a range of AI-assisted design tools.
- Squarespace.com: Good expandability and excellent blogging/portfolio tools.
- IONOS.com: Plans from $1 per month, providing good scalable websites from templates and from scratch.
- DreamHost.com: Boasts AI-powered building with a 60-second site-launching promise.
What Should a Writer/Editor’s Website Include?
Before you begin to build your website, be clear about what you offer as a writer or editor.
Think like the person hiring: if you were a publisher, what would you want to see in the first 10 seconds of visiting your site?
For writers, your site could focus on:
- An individual novel or project or a collection of novels
- Copywriting or ghostwriting
- Journalistic writing or essays
For editors, your site could showcase:
- The types of services you offer, with a breakdown of what each one entails
- Which genres and disciplines you specialise in
- A portfolio of successfully completed projects, with a dive into how your services helped shape and improve the resulting product.
While it’s fine to demonstrate your range, aim your site towards the project you want them to buy into. Dedicate the homepage to your principal project; make it easy for a publisher to find what you want them to see.
Specialists beat generalists
Make your website as simple as you can to enable a potential publisher to know you as a writer or editor at a glance.
If you’re skilled in a range of disciplines, create several websites or partitions within your main site. For writers, have one for novel writing, another for playwriting, another for journalistic styles. For editors, have a page that demonstrates your approach for each of your specialisms.
Keep your focus on the homepage—specialists trump generalists. If you’re looking for a publisher, put your latest publication or project above the fold (what the viewer can see without scrolling down). If you have positive reader reviews/client testimonials and stats, display them prominently.
A website is typically a place to demonstrate brevity. Keep your text lean and focused on selling your skills to a potential publisher.
Is Writing Web Copy Different from Writing Narrative Prose?
Web copy differs from narrative storytelling—it needs to be scannable by anyone using your site. Write in short paragraphs and short sentences, and use clear headings, as we’ve done with this article.
Online readers typically skip long paragraphs and complex language, so avoid them. Your publisher might only give your site a minute of their time, which means, make every second count.
The Pages to Add to Your Writer/Editor Website
Think of your website as your professional calling card, which means there’s no room for modesty. Your content needs to sell you as a viable proposition, so it’s time to blow your own trumpet.
Your pages should include a professional biography, your portfolio, and a straightforward way for publishers to contact you. Pay special attention to the homepage, which is your principal storefront.
Let’s break that down:
What To Include On Your Writer’s Homepage
Try not to overwhelm your homepage with text, although you’ll need around 300 words or more over the whole webpage to improve your Search Engine Optimization (how publishers find your site).
Your homepage should include:
- Who you are
- What you write or the types of projects you’ve edited, and
- Your most recent or most prominent work
Let’s look at Leslie North’s website. Leslie is a bestselling author who releases her work through Relay Publishing.
Leslie North—romance and contemporary fiction
This is the “above the fold” section—the top of the page that loads when you first visit the site.
Note Leslie’s logo, including the lipstick kiss, which does a lot of heavy lifting, signifying Leslie’s niche as a romance novelist.
The large publicity image for a new novel is immediately eye-catching, and it carousels to several of Leslie’s most recent novels. Each image is a link, which takes you to a dedicated page for the relevant novel.
The “below the fold” content contains text-lite links to recent releases. All very clean and uncluttered, demonstrating that Leslie is an established writer with a range of titles on offer. Note the consistency of her book design here.
Then, we get a three-column grid with a short biography (note its brevity), a recent novel, and a newsletter sign-up Call to Action (CTA).
Below that, we have a Readers’ Reviews carousel, reinforcing Leslie’s position as a beloved author.
The ideal homepage for a new author
Leslie North is the pseudonym for an established author with hundreds of titles under her belt. But you might only have one or two completed projects.
Or perhaps you’ve ghostwritten for clients, and an NDA prevents you from publicly attributing the title to yourself. Check your contract—you may be permitted to use book extracts to demonstrate your writer’s voice.
But, just like Leslie, ensure that your work is the first thing that draws a potential publisher in.
The homepage for a lesser-known author
The example below is for a Manchester-based playwright turned novelist. This site is principally to establish his presence as a novelist.
The book cover image on the right links to a page about his latest novel, and a simple menu at the bottom of the page links to separate pages for books, plays, and press reviews.
And, of course, there’s also the all-important “Get in touch” link that allows a publisher to contact him directly.
While simple, this “above the fold” landing page is cleanly presented. There’s room for more description, of course, but this can come down the page, using Leslie North’s site as a template for development.
Adding work samples
If you’re a novelist, it’s a good idea to create a separate page for each of your publications, and add a sample. If you’ve self-published or there’s a Kindle version of your book, you can add a Kindle preview.
WordPress has a Kindle plugin that does all the hard work for you, presenting the word sample in a clean, web-based Kindle reader.
All your site visitors need to do is click Read Sample, and Amazon makes the first 20 or so pages available (as above).
Can I add a sample of a book I’ve ghostwritten?
This is a little more complicated. It’s likely that you’ll have signed an NDA, and your contract might prohibit you from publicly stating that you’ve written a book under your client’s name.
In this case, sharing excerpts is more difficult. But all is not lost.
The easiest way to share ghostwritten work is to get a clause written into your contract that permits you to use some of the content for your portfolio. You might have to share protected work on private pages on your website, accessible only with a password that you can share with specific industry professionals.
What To Include In Your Editor’s Website
You might be bound by an NDA that prevents you from sharing actual client content on your website. But if you do have access to share your work, focus on higher profile projects.
However, editors should use their site to focus on professional services.
The pages to include are:
An editor’s Homepage
Use your Homepage to tell your visitors who you are and what type of editing you do. Include the type of projects that make you tick, and who you can help.
A good professional headshot helps bring some strong personality to your homepage, offering an approachable, friendly touch.
Show the world that you’re serious and passionate about your work, and provide an insight into why you chose editing as a profession.
An About Me Page
This is where you can share details about your professional background, qualifications, and editorial experience. Mention what you love about working with text and why it’s important for you to help writers and publishers get the best out of their words.
If you’re starting out and you don’t have a lot of experience, focus on your training. Perhaps you majored in literature at university; talk about the writers who inspired you.
Maybe you have a particular interest in a particular form; explain what draws you to those forms, and discuss the writers or editors who made you want to be an editor.
An editor’s Services Page
This is your true calling card. List your specialties. Remember, specialties trump generalisms here.
Maybe you’re passionate about journalistic copyediting, or you offer competitive proofreading services. Discuss your approach to developmental editing.
Offer robust indications of your process for each service. This helps ground you as an expert in your field.
Portfolio or Testimonials page
Show how you’ve helped develop or oversee specific projects, notable publications, or articles.
Give a “before and after” of the work, explaining how you contributed. Provide examples of your feedback, and explain how it helped your writer realise their vision.
Your work might have been tightly restricted by an NDA. In these cases, request some access to excerpts with your clients—-they’re often willing to offer some use for professional development purposes. And in future contracts, ask for a clause that allows you to use some examples in your portfolio.
Make It Easy for Publishers to Contact You
Whether you’re a writer or an editor, you should make it easy for a publisher to contact you..
However:
Be cautious about adding personal details, such as your email, cell number, or home address, directly on your site. This is the perfect way to get spammed for the rest of your life.
Use a contact form plugin
Rather than adding your contact details directly, use a contact form so publishers can send you messages through the website.
The Contact Form plugin forwards messages into the Forms section of your site or directly to your email.
Be sure to test the form once you’ve installed it to ensure messages are arriving. And don’t forget to monitor the messages folder on your site’s backend.
Apply SEO Thinking to your Content
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is how people find you online. More specifically, it’s how search engines know to send queries your way when somebody searches for whatever it is your website provides.
While SEO rules evolve with time, the basic idea is to create content that naturally incorporates keywords that somebody might use to find your site.
Be specific (not broad)
When determining your keywords, consider your niche and be specific. For example, “werewolf horror romance” is better than “horror,” which is likely more saturated online.
Try out your search terms with your search engine of choice (never forgetting to check Google), and see what arrives on the front page of the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Spend some time exploring the sites at the top of the SERP. These sites have likely considered their SEO and can give you ideas about what to include on your site to compete.
Add your keywords carefully
The easiest way to determine whether your text hits its SEO zenith is to use a plugin like Yoast, which analyses your content for the right level of keyword use. The aim is to integrate your keywords naturally, avoiding overstuffing, which will get you a SEO penalty.
Yoast is a free WordPress plugin, and the free version is all you need for a simple website.
Avoid text like this:
“Lucy Biggins is a werewolf horror romance writer, and she loves werewolf horror romance because werewolf horror romance is her favorite genre.”
That’s overstuffing. Write for humans; not computers.
Don’t forget your metadata
If you include images on your site (and you definitely should), write keyword-related metadata to help search engines find your site.
Write a short, useful description of the image—it’s a valuable accessibility feature for visually impaired users who can set their browser to show the metadata rather than the image. Again, don’t stuff your metadata with unhelpful keywords.
It’s better to say “a werewolf roars at a screaming damsel” than stuff it with unnecessary information that doesn’t directly relate to the image being described on the page.
Reviews, comments, and feedback
A publisher is more likely to be interested if you already have a following.
For writers: Gather your Amazon (and other book site) reviews and stats, and include anything people have said about your work on social media. If you have video reviews/recommendations, even better. Add them to your site.
For editors: Client testimonials can make the difference between getting that foot in the door and still standing outside.
Show the world that you have appreciative readers and clients. And while it’s easy to invent dummy reviews. Don’t. It ruins your credibility if a publisher follows them up.
Create a blog
Adding keywords can help improve your chances of being found online, but—let’s face it—you’re competing with millions of other sites.
Search engines are really looking for usefulness. When Google refers a user to your site, it follows them and watches how they interact with your content. If the visit results in a quick look, then back to the search engine, your site is deemed not useful.
The trick is to keep the user on your site, and creating a blog is probably the most accessible way to do it. Write some blog articles offering insider insights or writer/editor tips. Every writer/editor has a specialty. Share it, and your visitors will stay on your site for longer (and search engines will reward you with higher rankings).
Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Your Writer or Editor’s Website
Here’s a checklist of common website mistakes:
- Don’t cram in keywords where they don’t fit. Write naturally for humans to read.
- AI can help with your website copy, but never add unchecked AI text. If your text contains claims or statistics, be sure to check them out for accuracy.
- Search engines penalize poor-quality text. If you use AI to build your copy, humanize it, avoiding long, meandering sentences and AI-common cadences.
- Have a plan in place before building your site. What do you want publishers to think of your work? How will they know where to place you in their client roster?
- Modesty. Your website is a storefront that never sleeps. If you’re rubbish at selling yourself, get someone else to write your text. You don’t want a vanity site, but don’t dismiss your talents and skills because you’re not sure how to present them on your website.
Relay Publishing Wants to Find You
We’re always on the lookout for ghostwriters and editors. Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to have a website, but if you do, share it with us.
We publish many books every year, and we’re always looking for new people to join the family. Check out our Recruitment pages and get applying. We can’t wait to hear from you.
Thanks for reading.