welcome…

…to all my secrets on life as a published author

(I’m 8 traditionally published books in and I’ve learnt some stuff 😉)

I blog weekly about author websites,newsletters and life as a writer…

New posts published every other Monday 😊

Want to learn more about me and my own publishing journey first?

(includes info on how I landed one of those mythical six-figure book deals!)

Read all about my own journey to publication →

Or scroll down to read all my other posts!

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Blog

5 things you CAN control as a traditionally published author

5 lessons I've learned about book marketing

5 things you must do when you get your first book deal

most recent posts

Charlotte Duckworth 9/9/24 Charlotte Duckworth 9/9/24

Why I use Squarespace (not Mailchimp!) for my author newsletter

Most of the authors I know use Mailchimp to send their newsletters. For a long time, it really was the only viable newsletter platform for complete beginners to email marketing. But in recent years, as people have come to see the incredible value in email marketing, more and more different platforms have emerged.

Charlotte Duckworth 8/26/24 Charlotte Duckworth 8/26/24

How to add links to your Squarespace author website

I know this might seem like a bit of a basic post, but I’ve come to realise that I spend a lot of time talking about links with my author website clients! So I thought it was time to dedicate a blog post to them, because it’s not actually as simple as it might sound...

Charlotte Duckworth 8/12/24 Charlotte Duckworth 8/12/24

How to build an author website: a step-by-step guide for authors

Create a professional author website with my step-by-step guide. Learn essential tips to enhance your branding and connect with readers effectively.

Charlotte Duckworth 8/2/24 Charlotte Duckworth 8/2/24

The most nerve-wracking thing I've EVER done? 😱

I think writing this post might be even more nervewracking than launching a book. Maybe. Maybe not. Even so, I am super nervous to share something very exciting today, that I’ve secretly been working on for months!

Charlotte Duckworth 7/22/24 Charlotte Duckworth 7/22/24

Project Spotlight: chrislloydauthor.com

As usual, it’s been too long since I shared a recent client project on my blog - and so I’m very happy to be sharing with you a recent website project of mine that was a real joy to work on from start to finish!

Charlotte Duckworth 7/15/24 Charlotte Duckworth 7/15/24

How to add text effects to your Squarespace author website

As authors, we often struggle to find good images for our websites. I find many of my author clients get in touch feeling worried that they don’t have any good photography for their website. Quite often they’ll only have their headshot, and their book’s cover, and that’s it.

Charlotte Duckworth 7/1/24 Charlotte Duckworth 7/1/24

5 amazing author website built by my students

I’m almost bursting with excitement to share this post with you! Since I launched the DIY Author Website Course last year, I’ve had some amazing feedback from students.

Charlotte Duckworth 6/17/24 Charlotte Duckworth 6/17/24

Behind the scenes: a mid-year studio update

I guess it’s a bit late for a spring update technically, as it’s already June (WHAT!) but I thought it would be nice (for me) and possibly interesting (for anyone reading) to do a little mid-year round-up of 2024 so far.

Charlotte Duckworth 6/3/24 Charlotte Duckworth 6/3/24

My number one Squarespace tip

I have a short and sweet trick to share with you in this post. One of the most useful features of Squarespace that I don’t think many people are aware of.

Charlotte Duckworth 5/27/24 Charlotte Duckworth 5/27/24

How to encourage visits to your author website

So, finally, your author website is live! Hurrah and hurray. No matter how you achieved this – whether through doing it yourself or getting someone else to help you or even handing over the whole project completely – you should feel very proud.

Charlotte Duckworth 5/20/24 Charlotte Duckworth 5/20/24

How to organise books on your author website

I work with a mix of authors, from debuts to longstanding writers with big backlists, but the majority of my work is with debuts, because it’s often when writers first get their book deal that they think ‘oh god! Now I need a website!’

Charlotte Duckworth 5/13/24 Charlotte Duckworth 5/13/24

3 author websites I made-over in a day

Earlier this year I introduced my new Author VIP Design Day, and I realised recently that I hadn’t talked much about this new service. So I thought it might be a good idea to share a little bit about what this package entails, and show you a few of the websites that I’ve given a makeover to using it!

Charlotte Duckworth 5/5/24 Charlotte Duckworth 5/5/24

The top 5 mistakes author websites make

Bit of a controversial post today, but I thought it might be helpful to summarise the top 5 issues I see with author websites. These are the things that crop up again and again, but thankfully they’re super easy to fix and will make a big difference to your author website if you address them!

Charlotte Duckworth 4/28/24 Charlotte Duckworth 4/28/24

Should I have a blog on my author website?

Ah, blogging! Where better to write about this massive topic than here, on my very own blog. Building websites means I get asked a lot of questions about blogs, and whether or not authors should have them.

Charlotte Duckworth 4/22/24 Charlotte Duckworth 4/22/24

How to add a browser icon to your author website

Here’s a neat little tip that will make your author website look truly pro. I quite often see author websites with missing browser icons, and it immediately marks them out as ‘home made’. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing - in fact, I’m all for authors building their own sites as it can actually be quite a fun creative project (yes really) and it’s very empowering!

Charlotte Duckworth 4/8/24 Charlotte Duckworth 4/8/24

Do authors REALLY need websites?

I thought I’d tackle a biggie this week! Believe it or not, I’m often asked if authors really need their own websites. Of course, I’m hugely biased, given what I do, but I’m still always a bit surprised when people say they don’t think they’re necessary.

Charlotte Duckworth 3/18/24 Charlotte Duckworth 3/18/24

5 historical fiction websites I built on Squarespace

I realised recently that I don’t share enough of my work on my blog. I have my Portfolio, which you can see here, but it doesn’t feature all my work (the page would be very long if it did!) And so I thought it might also be helpful to do some mini round-ups of different websites I’ve built, organised by genre.

Charlotte Duckworth 3/12/24 Charlotte Duckworth 3/12/24

How to block AI crawlers from your Squarespace author website

A quick video for you today to show you how to stop AI crawlers from using the content on your author website to train their language models. Check it out.

Charlotte Duckworth 3/4/24 Charlotte Duckworth 3/4/24

What is PLR and why should authors know about it?

A bit of an impromptu blog post today, but today I received one of the best emails an author receives all year - from the British Library, with a link to my PLR statement. And on the statement was the amount of money my books had earnt from libraries across the UK in the past year.

Charlotte Duckworth 2/19/24 Charlotte Duckworth 2/19/24

Should I add a pop-up to my Squarespace author website?

One of the frustrations that many of my website clients share is how to get people to sign up to their author newsletter / mailing list. With all the author websites I build, I add a newsletter sign-up box as standard (usually in the footer, as this means it’s visible on every page), whether or not the author wants me to.