A free, beautiful website for authors — set up in minutes, hosted forever on GitHub Pages.
No coding required. Seriously.
AuthorPage gives you a professional author website with your books, bio, blog, and contact info. Pick a theme, fill in your details, and you're live. Free hosting via GitHub Pages — no monthly fees, no subscriptions, no catch.
There are two ways to get started. Pick whichever feels comfortable:
- The Terminal Way — For folks who are comfortable with a command line. Fast and automated.
- The Browser Way — For everyone else. You never leave your web browser. No software to install.
Both paths end up in the same place: your author website, live on the internet.
This path uses a setup script that walks you through everything interactively.
- Git installed on your computer
- GitHub CLI (
gh) installed and authenticated
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Clone the template and create your repo:
gh repo create my-author-site --template YOUR-TEMPLATE-ORG/authorpage --public --clone cd my-author-site -
Run the setup script:
./setup.sh
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Follow the prompts. The script will ask for your name, tagline, bio, and which theme you want. It fills in the config files for you.
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Push and you're live. The script commits your changes and pushes. GitHub Actions builds your site automatically.
That's it. Your site will be available at https://YOUR-USERNAME.github.io/my-author-site/ within a couple of minutes.
You can set up your entire site without leaving GitHub's website. No software to install, no terminal, no command line.
- A GitHub account (sign up here — it's free)
At the top of this repository's page, look for the green "Use this template" button. Click it, then choose "Create a new repository."
- Give it a name like
my-author-site(or anything you want) - Make sure it's set to Public (required for free GitHub Pages hosting)
- Click "Create repository"
In your brand new repository:
- Click the Issues tab (near the top of the page, next to "Code")
- Click New issue
- Select "Set Up Your Author Site"
- Click Create
- This is your step-by-step checklist — follow it from top to bottom
The issue walks you through everything:
- Picking a theme
- Adding your name, bio, and photo
- Adding your books
- Uploading cover images
Each step tells you exactly which file to edit and what to change. You can check off each task as you complete it.
Once you've completed the checklist, go to Settings > Pages in your repo — your live URL is shown at the top. It may take a minute for the first build to complete.
AuthorPage comes with four themes. You can always switch later.
Clean, literary, lots of white space. Serif fonts give it a bookish feel. Perfect for literary fiction and poetry.
Bold and eye-catching. Your book covers take center stage. Great for genre fiction — romance, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy.
Dark and moody with a retro vibe. Monospace fonts and vintage textures. Ideal for horror, noir, or anyone who wants personality.
Bold and playful with geometric accents. Purple and coral palette with bouncy animations. For authors who don't take themselves too seriously.
Open config.yaml and change the theme: line to one of: inkwell, paperback, typewriter, or mandatory-fun.
theme: "paperback"Save the file (or click "Commit changes" if you're in the browser), and your site will rebuild with the new look.
Open data/site.yaml to edit your personal information. Here's what each field does:
- name — Your full name as you want it displayed on the site
- tagline — A short line shown under your name on the home page (e.g., "Author of The Midnight Garden")
- bio — A paragraph about you, shown on the About page
- photo — Path to your author photo (upload the image to
static/images/and set this toimages/your-photo.jpg) - social — Links to your social media profiles. Delete any you don't use.
- contact_email — Your email address, shown on the Contact page
Open data/books.yaml to manage your book catalog. Books appear on both the home page (if featured: true) and the Books page.
See Adding a New Book below for a copy-paste template.
Blog posts live in the content/blog/ folder. Each post is a Markdown file (.md) with a small block of metadata at the top.
See Writing a Blog Post below for a copy-paste template.
Copy the block below, paste it at the top of data/books.yaml (right after the comment lines), and fill in your details:
- title: "Your Book Title"
# Path to the cover image (upload to static/images/ first)
cover: "images/your-cover.jpg"
# A short one-line hook
tagline: "A story about..."
# A longer description (2-3 sentences work well)
description: "What your book is about. This shows up on the Books page."
# The year your book was published
published: 2025
# Where people can buy it (add as many links as you want)
buy_links:
- label: "Amazon"
url: "https://amazon.com/dp/your-book-id"
- label: "Bookshop.org"
url: "https://bookshop.org/p/books/your-book-id"
# Set to true for the ONE book you want featured on the home page
featured: falseNewest books should go at the top of the file. To remove a book, delete its entire block (from the - to the next -).
Create a new file in the content/blog/ folder. Name it something descriptive with dashes, like my-new-release.md. Paste this template and fill it in:
---
title: "Your Post Title"
date: 2025-01-15
description: "A short summary shown in post listings."
---
Write your post here. You can use **bold**, *italics*, and all the usual
Markdown formatting.
## Subheadings work too
Just use ## for sections. Keep writing, and when you save (or commit),
your site updates automatically.Posts show up on the Blog page sorted by date, newest first.
Can I use my own domain?
Yes! Here's how to set it up:
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Buy a domain — We recommend Cloudflare Registrar. They sell domains at cost (no markup) and include free DNS, SSL, and DDoS protection.
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Set up DNS — In your domain registrar's DNS settings, add records pointing to GitHub:
For a subdomain like
www.yourdomain.com, add a CNAME record:Type Name Target CNAME www yourusername.github.ioFor an apex domain like
yourdomain.com(no www), add four A records:Type Name Value A @ 185.199.108.153A @ 185.199.109.153A @ 185.199.110.153A @ 185.199.111.153 -
Connect it in GitHub — Go to your repository's Settings > Pages > Custom domain, type in your domain, and click Save. GitHub will verify the DNS and provision a free SSL certificate (this can take up to 15 minutes).
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Enable HTTPS — Once the certificate is ready, check the "Enforce HTTPS" box on the same page.
That's it — your author site is now live at your own domain. GitHub has a more detailed step-by-step guide if you get stuck.
Can I switch themes later?
Yes, just change the theme: line in config.yaml. Your content stays the same — only the look changes.
How do I preview my site locally?
Install Hugo and run:
hugo serverThen open http://localhost:1313 in your browser. Changes show up instantly.
How do I delete a book?
Open data/books.yaml and remove the entire block for that book — from the - line all the way to just before the next - line.
Something broke!
No worries — open an issue and describe what you see. We'll help you sort it out.
Want to create a new theme? Every theme must implement the same set of layouts and partials defined in the theme contract. See themes/README.md for the full specification, including required directory structure, template variables, and the theme manifest format.
Themes are auto-discovered from themes/*/theme.yaml — drop in a folder that follows the contract, and it just works.
Built with Hugo. Hosted free on GitHub Pages.