Author & Book Websites
Pubblish can build a public website from data you already hold. A site can promote an author, a single book, a series, or an imprint’s catalogue. You pick a design, add or edit pages, then publish the site to its own web address. This guide covers making a site, editing its pages, and choosing a theme.
Finding the Websites section
Websites is in the main navigation sidebar, under Marketing. It has a globe icon.
Clicking it opens the Websites list. This lists every site you have made. Each row shows the site’s name, type, web address, status (Published or Draft), page count, and creation date. Use the eye icon to preview a site, or the settings icon to manage it.
If you have no sites yet, the page shows a No websites yet message with a Create Site button.
Creating a site
Every site is made with the Quick Site wizard. The wizard reads your existing data. Add the author, book, series, or imprint before you start the wizard.
To start, click Create Site on the Websites list. This opens the Create a Website page.
Step 1: Choose a site type
Pick one of four types:
| Type | What it makes |
|---|---|
| Author Site | A personal website for an author. Pages: Home, About, Books, Blog, Contact. |
| Book Landing Page | A single page for one book, with its cover, blurb, editions, and author bio. |
| Series Microsite | A site for a book series. Pages: Home, Reading Order, and a page per book. |
| Publisher Site | A full catalogue site for an imprint. Pages: Home, Catalog, About, Contact. |
Click a type to continue.
Step 2: Choose the item
The wizard shows a list of matching items. For an author site it lists your contributors. For a book site it lists your titles. For a series site it lists your series. For a publisher site it lists your imprints.
Click the item you want the site to be about.
If the list is empty, you have nothing of that type yet. For example, a book site needs at least one title, and a series site needs a series.
Step 3: Configure the design and options
The Configure Your Site page has three parts.
Design & Colors shows the theme cards. Click a card to choose a design. A Recommended badge marks the design that suits your site type. Below the cards, Primary Color and Secondary Color override the design’s own colours if you want different ones.
Content Options has two checkboxes. Include blog page adds a blog section. Include newsletter signup adds a signup form. When ticked, a Newsletter Form field lets you pick which signup form to use.
The Summary panel on the right lists the site type, the item, and the pages the wizard will create. Tick Publish immediately to make the site live as soon as it is built. Leave it unticked to keep the site as a draft.
Click Generate Site. The wizard builds the site and opens its management page.
Managing pages
The site’s management page has a Pages section. It lists every page with its title, type, web address, whether it shows in the site navigation, and its order.
To add a page, click New page. Enter a title on the New Page form, then click Create page. Pubblish opens the page editor so you can add content.
To edit a page, click its title or the Edit button. The page editor has these sections:
- Content — a formatting toolbar sits above the text area. It has Bold, Italic, bullet and numbered lists, Heading and Subheading, a link button, and a Toggle HTML source button for editing the raw HTML.
- Navigation & visibility — Show in nav decides whether the page appears in the site menu. Nav order sets its position. Is published controls whether visitors can see it.
- Search engine listing — Meta title and Meta description are the text search engines show.
Click Save page when you are done. Use the Preview button to open the page in a new tab.
To reorder pages, use the up and down chevron buttons in the Order column of the pages table. To remove a page, click Delete. Pubblish asks you to confirm.
Choosing and switching themes
Pubblish ships five themes:
| Theme | Style |
|---|---|
| Default | Clean, bright, and modern. Suits any book. |
| Folio | Literary and understated, with ivory paper and classic serifs. Suits literary fiction and memoir. |
| Ember | Bold, dark, and cinematic. Suits crime, thrillers, and action. |
| Hearth | Warm and welcoming, with soft colours and rounded corners. Suits romance and children’s books. |
| Midnight | Dark and atmospheric, with deep indigo and gold detail. Suits fantasy, horror, and science fiction. |
In the Quick Site wizard, each design card except Default has a See a full preview link. It opens a sample page in that theme in a new tab. Use it to see the design before you commit.
To change the theme of a site you have already made, open its management page and click Settings. In the Branding section, the Design dropdown sets the theme. Primary Color and Secondary Color override the theme’s colours. Changes save as you make them. To check the result, click Back to site, then use the Preview button.
The Save as a theme panel at the bottom of the Settings page keeps the current design and colours as a reusable theme. Saved themes appear under Your themes in the wizard when you make your next site.
Publishing your site
On the site’s management page, a status card shows whether the site is a Draft or Published.
Click Publish Site to make it live. The site becomes available at its own address, yoursite.pubblish.website, and a View Live button appears. Click Unpublish to take it offline again.
You can preview an unpublished site at any time with the Preview button. For exporting a site or connecting it to a hosting service, see Publishing your website.