How to Create an Author Blog: The Step-by-Step Guide

Welcome to Annuaire littéraire! In this practical, no-nonsense guide, I'm going to walk you through my method, my tips, and my little habits for building an author blog from scratch.

This guide contains a number of affiliate links. These links let me treat myself to a little something extra (like my Starbucks frappuccinos), give you a way to support me, and cost you nothing extra.

In short

• An author blog comes together in 12 steps: editorial focus, domain name, hosting, DNS, WordPress, theme, plugins, pages, SEO, security, newsletter, and first posts.
• Self-hosted WordPress.org is the best choice for an author who wants control over their online image.
• Starting budget: between 60 and 100 € a year (domain name plus hosting).
• Estimated time: a full day for a working blog, a few more hours to polish it.
• Every technical step comes with an interactive demo: you can practice here, at your own pace, before doing it for real on your own site.

Got all that? Let's start with the foundation everything else rests on: your editorial focus.

Step 1: Choose your editorial focus

Estimated time: 30 minutes

I know, you want the technical stuff. It's coming, I promise. But without a clear editorial focus, your literary blog is going to sprawl in every direction and you'll give up within three months. I've watched it happen to dozens of people.

Ask yourself three simple questions:

• What's my theme? Your writing world, your genre, your creative process, your influences?
• What's my tone? Personal and intimate? Informative? Offbeat?
• How often will I post? One post a week is an excellent pace. One a month is enough to get started. What matters is sticking with it.

One crucial point: an author blog and a reader blog are two different missions. You're not there to review other people's books (unless that's your angle). You're there to build your author image, make people want to read you, and turn readers into people who follow you specifically. Every post should serve that mission.

Now let's move on to your address on the web: the domain name.

Step 2: Register a domain name

Estimated time: 20 minutes

I don't know if it's an old-web-guy reflex, but I never keep my domain name and my web hosting in the same place.

Why? For security reasons. If your hosting gets cut off and your domain name is in the same spot, there's a good chance you'll lose everything. Some people will say: sure, but the odds are tiny... Are you really going to bet months or years of work to save a few extra euros? Whereas if your domain name is registered elsewhere, all you'd need to do is grab a backup to rebuild your site with another host.

For registration, I recommend PlanetHoster or Namecheap: two solid registrars, with clear interfaces and domains for just a few euros a year.

For Namecheap, here's the step-by-step tutorial: How to register a domain name with Namecheap?

Now, what name should you choose? Three formulas that work well for an author:

• First name + last name (e.g., marie-dupont.com), ideal if you publish under your real name
• Pen name (e.g., thewildquill.com), if you write under a pseudonym
• A title or world (e.g., northernchronicles.com), if your blog centers on a specific universe

My advice: go with .com if you want the broadest reach, or a country-specific extension if you're targeting one particular market. And pick it once and for all. Changing your domain name later costs you time and search ranking... trust me on that one, hahaha

Now let's move on to hosting.

Step 3: Choose a web hosting plan

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Hosting is the ground your blog gets built on. Without it, your blog doesn't exist anywhere.

Out of nearly twenty web hosts I've tested over 15 years, here are two I recommend to authors:

Hostinger: a very popular host, with optimized WordPress hosting plans starting at 2.99 € a month. What I like about them: 24/7 support by chat, servers built for WordPress, and a price-to-value ratio that's hard to beat. For a first author blog, this is my main recommendation.

Infomaniak: a Swiss host, well regarded for its reliability, automatic backups, and quality support. Ideal if you want a European-based provider. And the cherry on top: it's one of the most environmentally committed hosts in Europe. Pretty cool, right?

Both offer an automated WordPress install from their control panel. We'll come back to that in step 5.

Quick reminder from step 2: when placing your order, indicate that you already have a domain name (the "existing domain name" option or equivalent). Your domain lives with your registrar, your site lives with your host. Each in its own place.

Now let's connect the two.

Step 4: Point your domain name to your hosting

Estimated time: 15 minutes (plus propagation)

This is the step everyone dreads, and yet it's the shortest one. All you're doing is telling your domain name where your site lives, by changing its name servers (NS).

Here are the name servers for the hosts I recommend:

With Hostinger:

• NS 1: ns1.dns-parking.com
• NS 2: ns2.dns-parking.com

With Infomaniak:

• NS 1: ns1.infomaniak.ch
• NS 2: ns2.infomaniak.ch

(Double check your host's welcome email anyway, since that's the authoritative source.)

And here's how to do it with your registrar:

1. Log in to your Planethoster or Namecheap account
2. Select your domain name
3. Look for the Name Servers (or DNS) section
4. Replace the current servers with your host's
5. Save

And that's it! Propagation isn't instant: you might have to wait up to 48 hours for it to work everywhere on the planet. But honestly, that's the official version. In practice, it's usually much faster.

Want a pro tip? Go to What's My DNS, enter your domain name, select NS from the dropdown, and check. Once every country shows the name servers you just added, you're good.

Next step: installing the famous WordPress.

Step 5: Install WordPress

Estimated time: 10 minutes

First, an important clarification, because the confusion here costs some authors years: there's WordPress.org and WordPress.com.

WordPress.org is the free, open-source software you install with your host. You own 100% of your content, you have access to thousands of themes and plugins, and your site can grow without limits. That's what we're using in this guide.

WordPress.com is a hosted version with significant limitations on the free plan: reduced customization and an address that reads "mysite.wordpress.com." For an author building a professional image... that's not the message you want to send, let's say.

The good news: at both Hostinger and Infomaniak, WordPress.org installation is automated. You click "install WordPress," choose your username and password (a real password, not your cat's name, hahaha), and 10 minutes later, your blog exists.

Now it's time to choose your theme.

Step 6: Choose a theme that looks like you

Estimated time: 1 to 2 hours

Now this one is personal to everyone. The theme is what your visitors see first. A writer's blog should be readable, elegant, and reflect your world. Personally, I've always liked themes that are simple and nearly plug and play.

Three free themes that suit an author perfectly:

• Astra: lightweight, ultra-customizable, the most versatile of the three
• Kadence: modern starter templates, a professional look with no extra effort
• GeneratePress: minimalist, fast, perfect if you want a clean design

And if you want a blog with a bit more personality, check out the themes from EstudioPatagon (Breek, Veen, Maktub): themes designed for bloggers, with real character. I have a soft spot for them.

For your visual identity, three decisions are enough:

• Colors: 2 or 3 max, consistent with your world. Dark for crime fiction, pastel for romance, sepia for historical... you get the idea.
• Typography: one font for headings, one for body text. Readability above all. Your readers already spend their days reading, don't make their life harder.
• Logo: your stylized name is plenty. Canva lets you create one for free in 15 minutes.

Now let's move on to plugins.

Step 7: Install the essential plugins

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Plugins are essential for a WordPress site, but it's easy to get lost among the thousands of extensions out there. That's why I'm giving you my short list, the one I install every single time:

• SEOPress: the SEO plugin. I'll explain why this one and not Yoast in step 9.
• Wordfence: your site's security. We'll configure it in step 10.
• WPS Hide Login: changes your site's login address to discourage bots.
• UpdraftPlus: automatic backups. Your digital life insurance.
• Contact Form 7: a simple, reliable contact form.
• ShortPixel: compresses your images (your book covers will love it).
• Akismet: the anti-spam filter for comments.
• Easy Table of Contents: adds a table of contents to your longer posts.
• Site Kit by Google: connects your blog to Google Search Console and Analytics in a few clicks.

Nine plugins, not fifty. An author blog doesn't need more than that, and every extra plugin just means more slowdown and more security risk.

We now have a domain, hosting, WordPress, a theme, and plugins. Time to create your pages.

Step 8: Create the 6 essential pages

Estimated time: 1 to 2 hours

A well-structured author blog rests on six pages every visitor expects to find:

• Home: who you are, what people will find here, and your books visible right from the first screen
• About: the most important page on your site (more on this just below)
• My Books / My Work: your publications, with covers, blurbs, and purchase links
• Blog: the list of your posts, organized by category
• Contact: a simple form, essential for journalists, booksellers, and event organizers
• Legal Notice / Privacy Policy: required in many places once your site is professional or collects visitor data. Requirements vary by location: France has its own LCEN disclosure rules, the UK and EU require GDPR-style privacy notices, and the US has its own patchwork of state laws. Check what applies to you.

Two pieces of advice that make a real difference.

On the About page: this is the page journalists and curious readers read first. Tell your story as an author, what led you to write, what you publish. Add a photo. Be human. You know how to tell stories, so tell yours.

On the My Books page: add a purchase link for every book. And if you're self-publishing on Amazon, sign up for the Amazon Associates program: you'll earn a small commission on your own sales that come through the blog. Being an affiliate of your own books, pretty cool, right? hahaha

Now let's move on to basic SEO.

Step 9: Set up basic SEO

Estimated time: 45 minutes

I'm not going to turn you into an SEO consultant, that's not the point of this guide. But a few settings made from the start will let Google find your posts, and that's not something to pass up.

First, the basics of the basics: change your permalinks.

1. Once logged into your admin panel, click Settings
2. Then click Permalinks
3. Under Permalink Structure, select Post Name

Your addresses will go from "mysite.com/?p=123" to "mysite.com/my-post": cleaner for Google and for your readers.

Second, configure SEOPress, installed in step 7. Why SEOPress instead of the market leader Yoast? Because SEOPress's free version beats Yoast's: more features and a simpler interface to get the hang of. It's an easy call. Click the button to configure SEOPress and follow the guide.

Third, my favorite tip, and one almost nobody does: set a different title tag for SEO versus for social media on each post.

Why? Because it lets you have one title tailored to Google search and a different, catchier title for Facebook, Instagram, and the rest. "How I Wrote My First Novel" for Google, "I Threw Out 200 Pages Before I Figured This Out" for social. Every platform has its own language.

Fourth, set noindex on pages that don't matter for SEO, like your contact page and legal notice. They have no business being in Google.

Fifth, fill in the ALT tags on your images, especially your book covers. That's how they'll show up in Google Images when someone searches for your title.

Now that Google can find you, let's make sure hackers can't find anything.

Step 10: Secure and back up your blog

Estimated time: 45 minutes

An enormous number of WordPress sites get hacked. A lot of it comes down to negligence (old versions, updates never installed, weak passwords), but sometimes, even if you're careful, it's not enough. So we add protections and, more importantly, we keep backups.

First, configure Wordfence, installed in step 7. The free version is more than enough for an author blog: firewall, malware scanning, brute-force attack blocking.

Second, turn on two-factor authentication for your admin account. Wordfence offers this under Login Security: you scan a QR code with an app like Microsoft Authenticator or Google Authenticator, and that's it. Even if someone steals your password, they're not getting in.

Third, turn on WPS Hide Login to change your site's login address. The bots attacking "mysite.com/wp-admin" will run into a door that no longer exists.

Fourth, set up automatic backups with UpdraftPlus: choose a weekly frequency (daily if you publish a lot), and send your backups to cloud storage (Google Drive, Dropbox...), somewhere other than your host.

And keep 30 days of backups. Why 30 days? Because sometimes hackers wait a while after breaking in before infecting a site. If you only have a few days of backups, you might not have enough of a window to go back to a clean version.

Your blog is solid now. Let's talk about the part authors neglect the most... and the part that pays off the most.

Step 11: Build your reader list

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Here's the truth I wish someone had told me sooner: your Instagram followers don't belong to you. Your email list does.

A visitor comes to your blog and disappears. But if you capture their email address, you can reach out to them again the day your next book comes out. It's the single most powerful reader-retention tool an author has, by far.

For this, I recommend MailerLite: free up to 1,000 subscribers, a simple interface, and plenty for years to come. By the time you hit 1,000 subscribers, you'll have other nice problems to deal with, hahaha

The recipe, three ingredients:

1. Create a MailerLite account and a sign-up form
2. Offer a reader magnet: an unpublished short story, the first chapter of your novel, a bonus about your world... something that gives a taste of your writing
3. Embed the form on your homepage and at the end of every post

"Get my unpublished short story when you subscribe" will always convert better than "subscribe to my newsletter." Offer something to read, that's what you're there for.

We're almost at the end! All that's left is the most important part: your posts.

Step 12: Publish your first posts

Estimated time: 2 to 3 hours (writing included)

Don't launch an empty blog. Prepare 3 to 5 posts before opening to the public: it gives an impression of solid content from day one, and it proves to yourself that you can keep up the pace.

Five launch post ideas for an author blog:

1. Who am I? (a longer, more personal version of your About page)
2. Why I write (your relationship with writing, what started it)
3. Introducing my book or my current project
4. My writing process (your rituals, your schedule, your tools)
5. My literary influences (the authors who shaped you)

These topics feel natural and authentic, and they let new readers get to know you quickly. Nobody but you can write them, and that's exactly what makes a good author blog.

To publish: Posts, then Add New. The WordPress editor works like a word processor. Add a featured image, fill in your title tag and meta description in the SEOPress box (you know how, by now), and click Publish.

What next? Attracting readers to your blog

Creating your blog lays the foundation. But a blog with no readers is a manuscript in a drawer: it exists, but it hasn't met its audience yet.

The first concrete actions:

• Share every post on your social media, with your catchy title from step 9
• Add your blog to your email signature and your social media bios
• List yourself in literary directories to gain visibility and pick up your first backlinks. Which, conveniently, brings us here: you're on a literary directory right now, hahaha List your blog for free here: list your blog in the directory
• Check Google Search Console (connected via Site Kit in step 7) once a month to see which searches you show up for

Organic search takes time: expect 3 to 6 months before the first results. Consistency is your best ally. One solid post a month for two years beats ten posts in January followed by silence. You're an author, you already know the value of writing discipline: it's exactly the same here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you have to pay to create an author blog?

Yes, a little. The domain name and hosting cost between 60 and 100 € a year. WordPress itself is free. Fully free solutions exist (WordPress.com, Blogger), but they limit your customization and your professional credibility. Spending around 100 € a year to own your space is the best investment in your career as an author.

WordPress.com or WordPress.org?

WordPress.org, by far. With the free version of WordPress.com, you don't own your site, the features are limited, and your address contains "wordpress.com." For a professional author, that's not the image you want to send.

How long does it take to create your blog?

A full day for a working blog with the essential pages. A few more hours to polish the design. Writing your first posts is usually what takes the longest... but that's your job, hahaha

Do you need to be technical to build a blog with WordPress?

No. Installation is automated at the hosts I recommend, and the WordPress editor works like a word processor. If you know how to use Word, you know how to use WordPress. And every technical step in this guide has an interactive demo to practice before you do it for real.

How often should an author blog post?

One post a month at minimum, one a week if you have the time and the ideas. Consistency matters more than frequency. A solid post once a month for two years beats one a week for two months and then nothing.

Aren't Wix or Squarespace simpler?

Simpler to start with, yes. But you're renting: a more expensive subscription in the long run, a difficult migration if you leave, and limited customization. WordPress takes a day to learn and makes you the owner for life. For someone building a career, that math works out fast.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You've finished my guide on how to create an author blog.

You now know how to:

• Define an editorial focus that serves your author image
• Register a domain name separate from your hosting (the old-web-guy reflex)
• Choose a quality host
• Point your domain and install WordPress
• Choose a theme and a visual identity that match your world
• Install the 9 essential plugins, and not one more
• Create the 6 pages every visitor expects to find
• Set up basic SEO and security protections
• Build a reader list that belongs to you
• Launch your blog with 3 to 5 posts that sound like you

I hope you enjoyed my little (hahaha) guide. If you did, feel free to share it with an author who's still on the fence about starting, it helps me enormously. And once your blog is live, list it in the Directory: it'll be your first backlink, on the house.