How to Manage an Author Website by Yourself: A Practical Maintenance Guide for Authors

You do not need to hire a web designer every time you want to update your author website.

Once the website is properly set up, many of the tasks an author needs to perform can be handled personally. You can add a new book, update your biography, change a purchase link, publish a new article, add a reader resource, check your contact form and keep important pages current without touching complicated code.

That is how I approach my own author website.

The important thing is not trying to become a professional web developer. It is learning the small number of website-management tasks that matter most to an author and creating a routine for doing them.

This guide is specifically about managing an existing author website yourself. It is not another tutorial on choosing a website builder or designing your first website. I have already covered those subjects elsewhere. Here, I want to show you what I would actually do after the website is live so that it remains useful, current and connected to my books.

You Do Not Need to Constantly Redesign Your Author Website

One of the first things I learned from managing websites is that maintenance is more important than constant redesign.

An author can spend weeks changing colours, moving buttons and looking for a new theme when the real problems are much simpler.

The book links are outdated.

The latest book is missing.

The author biography is three years old.

The newsletter form stopped working.

The contact email is no longer correct.

A book page says “coming soon” even though the book was published six months ago.

The homepage still promotes an old release.

Those are management problems, not design problems.

I would rather have a simple website that is accurate and working than a beautiful website filled with outdated information.

What Does Managing an Author Website Actually Mean?

When I say “manage your author website,” I am talking about the regular work of keeping the website useful.

That includes:

• adding new books
• updating existing book pages
• checking Amazon and other retailer links
• updating your author biography
• publishing articles or reader resources
• maintaining your email signup
• checking contact forms
• updating direct-sales pages
• replacing outdated images
• checking website security
• keeping plugins and software updated where necessary
• reviewing traffic and search performance
• fixing broken links
• improving pages that are no longer performing well
• keeping the website organised as your book catalogue grows

You do not have to perform all of these tasks every day.

Some need weekly attention.

Some are monthly.

Others may only need attention once or twice a year.

The key is having a system.

My Basic Author Website Management Routine

I think about website maintenance in four levels:

Every week: check the things that can affect readers immediately.

Every month: review books, links, forms, content and website performance.

Every few months: improve important pages and clean up older content.

Once or twice a year: review the entire author website as if you were a new reader discovering you for the first time.

That is much easier to manage than thinking, “I need to maintain my website.”

Let me break it down.

1. Keep Your Books Page Up to Date

For an author, the Books page is one of the most important parts of the website.

It is also one of the easiest pages to neglect.

Every time you publish a new book, the Books page should be updated.

That means adding:

• the cover
• title
• subtitle where applicable
• short description
• publication status
• formats available
• purchase links
• series information where applicable

When your catalogue grows, organisation becomes increasingly important.

You do not want a visitor looking at twenty or thirty book covers without knowing where to start.

I would organise the books according to the way readers actually need to navigate them.

For example:

Newest Releases

Featured Books

Book Series

Devotionals

Prayer Books

Christian Living

Publishing Guides

The exact categories depend on what you write.

The important thing is that a reader can quickly move from:

“I have just discovered this author.”

to:

“This is the book I should read first.”

For authors with multiple books or a series, I have written separately about managing a multi-book author website with Wix or WordPress.

That article deals with the structural question. This one is about what happens after the structure is already in place.

2. Update Every New Book Page Yourself

I prefer every important book to have its own page rather than putting every book into one giant catalogue page.

An individual book page gives you room to explain the book properly.

At minimum, I would check that each page has:

• correct title
• author name
• current cover
• useful description
• who the book is for
• what the reader will find inside
• format information
• purchase options
• related books
• relevant internal links

Do not create a page and forget it forever.

A book may change from:

Coming Soon

to:

Now Available

Then perhaps later:

Available in Paperback, Kindle and Direct Digital Edition

The page needs to change with the book.

This is one reason I like managing my own website. I do not need to send an email to somebody else every time I want to change “Coming Soon” to “Available Now.”

3. Check Your Book Purchase Links

This is one of the simplest tasks and one of the most important.

Every month, I would open the purchase links on my most important books.

Check:

Amazon

Your direct store

Paystack, Stripe or another payment provider

Apple Books

Google Books or other retailers

Whatever platforms you use.

Do not assume that a link is still correct because it worked when you created the page.

A book may have been republished.

The URL may have changed.

A product may have been removed.

A payment link may have been replaced.

A retailer page may now point to a different edition.

A reader does not know why the button failed.

They simply click it and leave.

For direct sales, the problem goes beyond the button itself. You need to check the complete journey:

Book page → payment → confirmation → delivery

I have written a separate guide explaining how I connect Stripe to an author website for direct book sales. The principle is the same with any payment system: test the complete transaction, not just the button.

4. Keep Your Author Biography Current

Your About page should not become a historical document.

Update it when something important changes.

For example:

You publish a significant new book.

You earn a relevant qualification.

You take on an important professional or ministry role.

You begin a new publishing project.

Your author focus changes.

Your website should reflect your current identity as an author.

At the same time, I would not rewrite my biography every month.

The purpose is not to constantly change your story.

The purpose is to prevent obvious outdated information from remaining on the website indefinitely.

I also recommend keeping two versions of your biography somewhere safe:

Short bio: about 50–100 words.

Full bio: a longer version for your website, media requests, speaking opportunities and professional profiles.

That saves time when someone suddenly asks:

“Please send us your author bio.”

You already have it.

5. Keep Your Author Photo and Branding Consistent

Your website does not need a new photograph every three months.

But the photograph should still look like you.

The same applies to your author name, colours, typography and basic visual identity.

Imagine a reader discovers your newest book from Google.

They click to your website.

Then they visit another book.

Then your About page.

The experience should feel like the same author throughout the website.

I would keep a master folder containing:

• author photograph
• book covers
• logos
• biography
• book descriptions
• social links
• retailer links
• press information
• important website graphics

That becomes your author website library.

It saves a surprising amount of time.

6. Manage Your Blog Without Turning It Into a Full-Time Job

You do not need to publish an article every day simply because you have an author website.

That is not how I would approach it.

I would publish content that has a clear relationship to my books, my expertise, my readers or the questions they are already asking.

For example, an author who writes Christian books might publish:

• prayer resources
• Bible study articles
• Christian living guidance
• devotional content
• answers to common reader questions
• practical faith resources

A romance author might write about:

• reading guides
• character themes
• book recommendations
• behind-the-scenes writing
• series order
• author updates

A business author might publish:

• practical business lessons
• case studies
• lessons from writing the book
• questions related to the subject of the book

The point is not simply to “have a blog.”

The content should have a reason to exist.

And when I publish something new, I look for older articles that can naturally link to it.

That creates a website where the pages support one another instead of becoming isolated posts.

7. Do Not Let Old Articles Become Digital Clutter

As an author publishes for years, the website can slowly accumulate pages that nobody needs anymore.

Old launch announcements.

Old event notices.

Temporary promotions.

Books that are no longer available.

Articles containing outdated information.

Old giveaways.

Pages created for one particular campaign.

I review those periodically.

Some pages should simply be updated.

Some should be redirected.

Some can be removed if they no longer serve a purpose.

I would not delete pages just because they are old.

Age is not the problem.

The question is:

Does this page still provide value to the reader?

If yes, keep it.

If it contains useful information but is outdated, update it.

If it exists only because of an old campaign that ended years ago, it may no longer need to remain.

8. Maintain Your Email Signup

For an author, an email list can be one of the most useful things connected to the website.

But putting a signup box on the homepage is not enough.

Test it.

Subscribe yourself.

Check whether the confirmation email arrives.

Check whether the welcome email still makes sense.

Check whether the free resource or reader magnet actually gets delivered.

Check where new subscribers are being stored.

I would perform this test periodically because forms can fail quietly.

A reader may fill out the form successfully from their perspective while something goes wrong behind the scenes.

You will not necessarily know unless you test it.

9. Keep Your Reader Magnet Relevant

A reader magnet is something useful you offer in exchange for an email signup.

It could be:

• a short ebook
• devotional
• prayer guide
• checklist
• workbook
• chapter sample
• reading guide
• writing resource

But don’t create one and forget it.

Ask:

Is the download still available?

Does the link work?

Does the title still make sense?

Does the content match the audience?

Does the welcome email still match the current author brand?

Has the reader magnet become too old?

Sometimes the best improvement is not creating another freebie.

It is updating the one you already have.

10. Add New Books to Older Relevant Pages

This is a small task that can make the website much easier to navigate.

Suppose you publish a new prayer book.

You already have five older articles about prayer.

Rather than publishing the new book and leaving it disconnected from everything else, go back to those relevant articles and add a natural link where it genuinely helps the reader.

For example:

Someone reads an article about night prayers.

The article discusses practical prayer resources.

A link to your relevant prayer book makes sense there.

That is useful internal linking.

Do not force links into unrelated articles simply because you want another internal link.

The question should always be:

Would this link help the person reading this page?

11. Review Your Homepage Whenever Your Author Career Changes

Your homepage is usually the first page a new visitor sees.

That makes it one of the pages I would review most often.

When I look at my homepage, I want to know that it represents the current version of my author business.

Ask:

Is the latest book visible?

Does the homepage clearly say who I am?

Can a new reader find my books quickly?

Is there an obvious path to the book catalogue?

Can visitors join my email list?

Are the main links still correct?

Is an old book getting more attention than a current project?

Your homepage does not need to change every week.

But it should evolve as your publishing career evolves.

12. Check Your Contact Form Yourself

Never assume a contact form works because it appears on the screen.

Send yourself a test message.

Then check:

Did the message arrive?

Did the notification arrive?

Was the sender’s information included?

Did the automatic response work?

Does the form work on mobile?

Can a reader actually contact you?

This matters even more if your website is also being used for:

• speaking enquiries
• media requests
• ministry invitations
• publishing enquiries
• book orders
• business opportunities

A broken form can quietly cost you opportunities.

13. Keep Your Website Secure

This is one area where you should resist the temptation to ignore your website because “nothing has happened yet.”

If you use WordPress, check the dashboard regularly for updates.

That may include:

• WordPress itself
• plugins
• themes
• security tools
• forms
• ecommerce components

But do not blindly click every update immediately on a live website without a backup strategy.

I prefer to know:

What am I updating?

Why am I updating it?

Is there a backup?

Could the update affect an important function?

You do not have to become a security expert.

You simply need to avoid treating maintenance as something that can be ignored indefinitely.

14. Keep Backups You Can Actually Restore

A backup is only useful if you can recover your website from it.

I would keep at least one reliable backup system and know where the backups are stored.

If something goes wrong with the website, you do not want your only response to be:

“I hope the hosting company has a copy.”

Know your recovery options before you need them.

Keep important author files separately too.

Your website should not be the only place where your book covers, manuscripts, biographies and product descriptions exist.

Your author business should have its own organised archive.

15. Check Your Website on a Phone

You don’t need an expensive testing process.

Pick up your phone and use the website like a reader.

Visit the homepage.

Open the menu.

Open a book page.

Click Buy Now.

Try the email signup.

Read an article.

Open a contact form.

Tap your social media links.

Check whether text is easy to read.

Look at the book covers.

Does anything appear broken?

Is a button too small?

Does a section take forever to load?

Does anything run off the edge of the screen?

I still find this type of test valuable because desktop editing can hide problems that become obvious on a small screen.

16. Watch What Google Is Already Showing You

You do not need to become an SEO specialist to manage an author website.

You can start by looking at the pages that are already receiving impressions and clicks.

Search Console can help you see:

• which pages appear in search
• which search queries are bringing impressions
• which pages receive clicks
• whether some pages are getting attention that you did not expect

That information can give you ideas.

Suppose an article about a specific prayer topic is receiving search impressions.

You might improve that article.

Then link naturally to a relevant book.

Suppose your author bio receives searches.

Make sure the page is strong.

Suppose an important book page receives almost no search visibility.

Review the title, description, page structure and internal links.

I don’t treat SEO as “add keywords and forget the website.”

I treat it as observing what readers are already responding to and improving the pages accordingly.

17. Keep Book Descriptions Consistent Across Your Website

Your website may contain a different description of the same book on:

• the Books page
• individual book page
• homepage
• blog post
• sales page
• reader resource page

That doesn’t mean every version has to be identical.

But the important facts should agree.

The title should be correct.

The author name should be correct.

The book’s subject should be accurately represented.

The format information should be current.

The purchase links should lead to the correct edition.

When you update a book significantly, check the other pages where it is mentioned.

That is especially important once you have many books.

18. Keep Your Direct Sales Pages Working

For authors selling directly, website management becomes partly an ecommerce responsibility.

You need to know:

What are you selling?

How much does it cost?

How does the customer pay?

How does the customer receive the book?

What happens after purchase?

Who handles delivery?

What happens if a payment fails?

What happens when a customer contacts you?

This is why I wouldn’t treat a direct-sales website as simply a page with a “Buy Now” button.

There is a system behind that button.

When I sell a digital book directly, I want the journey to be as straightforward as possible:

Reader discovers book → reads the sales page → pays → receives the book → joins the wider reader relationship

That is the kind of system worth maintaining.

19. Review Your Book Landing Pages

Every important book should have a page that gives the reader enough information to understand what they are getting.

Look at the page as someone who has never heard of you.

Can they understand:

What is this book?

Who is it for?

What problem does it address?

What will I find inside?

Why should I trust this author?

Where can I buy it?

What format am I buying?

I have a separate guide on how to design a high-converting book landing page. Once your sales page exists, the management job is different: keep the information accurate, the links working and the page aligned with the current book.

20. Keep Your Author Website From Becoming Too Complicated

This becomes important as the number of books increases.

Every new idea seems like something else that could be added:

Podcast page.

Video page.

Forum.

Membership area.

Online shop.

Private reader club.

Course section.

Events calendar.

Press room.

Downloads.

Community.

Before long, the author website becomes difficult to manage.

I have learned to ask one question:

Will this make the website more useful to my readers or more useful to my work?

If the answer is no, I don’t need to add it simply because another author has it.

A website that you can maintain consistently is more valuable than a complicated website that you barely touch.

A Simple Weekly Author Website Routine

You can keep the weekly routine very small.

I would check:

New enquiries

Did anyone contact me?

Book links

Are the important purchase buttons working?

New content

Does anything I have published need to be linked from another relevant page?

Website errors

Is anything obviously broken?

That’s enough for a quick weekly check.

A Simple Monthly Author Website Routine

Once a month, I would spend a little more time on the website.

Books

Have I published a new book?

Are the current books presented correctly?

Links

Do the most important retailer and sales links work?

Email

Does the signup form work?

Does the free resource still download?

Content

Which articles are receiving attention?

Which older articles should be improved?

Website

Are plugins and important software updated?

Are backups working?

Mobile

Have I tested the key pages on a phone?

This does not have to become a full-day project.

The discipline comes from doing a small amount regularly.

A Quarterly Author Website Review

Every few months, I would take a broader look.

This is where I stop thinking like the website owner and start thinking like a new reader.

Imagine you have never heard of the author.

You arrive on the homepage.

What do you understand?

Can you find the books?

Can you understand what the author writes?

Can you find the newest book?

Can you discover related books?

Can you join the email list?

Can you contact the author?

Can you buy something?

Can you find useful information?

Then look at the website on a phone.

That review often reveals things that routine maintenance does not.

An Annual Author Website Audit

Once or twice a year, I would perform a deeper audit.

I would review:

• author biography
• photograph
• books
• book categories
• series order
• retailer links
• direct sales
• email signup
• free resources
• contact forms
• social links
• old articles
• broken links
• website speed
• mobile experience
• search performance
• backups
• security
• analytics
• legal pages
• website ownership information

I would also ask a bigger question:

Does this website still represent the author I am today?

That matters because your website can remain online for years while your career changes considerably.

Keep Your Author Website Connected to Your Publishing Workflow

This is probably one of the biggest changes I would recommend as an author begins publishing more books.

Do not treat your website as something completely separate from publishing.

When a new book is published, the website should be part of the workflow.

For example:

Book completed

↓

Cover completed

↓

Metadata prepared

↓

Book published

↓

Book page created

↓

Books catalogue updated

↓

Homepage updated where appropriate

↓

Relevant older articles linked to the new book

↓

Email announcement prepared

↓

Social content created

Now the website is not an afterthought.

It becomes part of the publishing system.

My First-Time Author Publishing Checklist can help with the wider publishing workflow; the website comes into play when the book is ready to be presented to readers.

Keep Your Website and Your Book Files Organised

This sounds like a small administrative issue until you have many books.

Then it becomes important.

I recommend giving every book its own folder.

For example:

Book Name

• Manuscript
• Final PDF
• EPUB
• Cover front
• Full cover
• Author bio
• Book description
• ISBN
• Amazon link
• Direct sales link
• Promotional graphics
• Reviews
• Social posts

The website should not be the master storage location for all of this.

Keep your original files safely stored elsewhere.

The website is the public presentation layer.

Your private archive is where the master files belong.

What I Would Not Do as a Solo Author Website Manager

There are a few traps I would avoid.

I would not redesign the site every few months

A new theme will not solve a content problem.

I would not publish articles just to increase the number of posts

Useful content is more important than an impressive post count.

I would not add a new plugin for every small idea

Too much technology creates more maintenance.

I would not send readers to broken retailer pages

Check important links regularly.

I would not leave old announcements everywhere

Archive or update them.

I would not depend on memory

Keep your book information, links and website credentials organised.

I would not let Amazon or another retailer become the only place readers can find me

The website should remain the central home of the author brand.

I would not build features that I cannot maintain

A simple working website beats a complicated neglected one.

What I Would Learn to Do Myself

You do not need to become a programmer.

For me, the most valuable skills for an author to learn are practical.

I would learn how to:

Edit a page

So I can update information myself.

Add a new blog post

So I don’t need help every time I have something to publish.

Upload a book cover

So new releases can go live quickly.

Create and edit links

So I can keep retailer and sales pages current.

Manage a contact form

So I can verify enquiries are working.

Update the email signup

So I can maintain my reader list.

Check basic website analytics

So I know what readers are actually doing.

Perform basic SEO updates

So important pages remain understandable to search engines.

Make a backup

So I have some control if something goes wrong.

Those skills give an author independence without requiring them to become a professional web developer.

When Should You Actually Hire a Web Designer?

Managing your own author website does not mean you should do everything forever.

There are times when paying someone is sensible.

For example:

You need a complete redesign.

You want a custom feature you cannot build.

Your website has a serious technical problem.

Your ecommerce system is becoming complicated.

You need a custom integration.

Your website has a security problem.

You are migrating a large website.

You simply have no interest in technical maintenance.

I learned website design because I wanted more control over my own publishing and online sales process. That does not mean every author needs to learn everything I learned.

The goal is control over the everyday tasks.

Bring in specialist help when the job genuinely moves beyond what you can reasonably manage.

What I Would Check Before Asking Someone Else for Help

Before contacting a designer, I would document the problem.

For example:

“The contact form stopped sending email.”

is much more useful than:

“My website is not working.”

Or:

“The Amazon button on the book page returns an error.”

is better than:

“The book page has a problem.”

Take a screenshot.

Copy the affected URL.

Describe what you clicked.

Explain what you expected to happen.

Explain what actually happened.

That gives the person helping you something concrete to investigate.

Your Author Website Management Checklist

Here is the routine I would keep beside my desk.

Every week

☐ Check new enquiries

☐ Test important sales links

☐ Check anything recently published

☐ Look for obvious website errors

Every month

☐ Update Books page

☐ Check individual book links

☐ Test email signup

☐ Test important contact forms

☐ Review new website content

☐ Check mobile experience

☐ Check backups

☐ Review WordPress/theme/plugin updates where applicable

Every few months

☐ Review old articles

☐ Fix broken links

☐ Update important book pages

☐ Improve pages receiving search traffic

☐ Review homepage

☐ Review reader journey

Once or twice a year

☐ Update author biography

☐ Review author photograph

☐ Review branding

☐ Audit all major pages

☐ Check website ownership and account access

☐ Review security and backups

☐ Review analytics and search performance

☐ Remove unnecessary website features

☐ Check whether the website still represents your current author career

Managing an author website yourself is not about sitting in front of WordPress every day.

It is about knowing what needs attention and checking those things regularly.

When you have one book, website management can feel almost insignificant.

When you have several books, articles, email subscribers, direct sales and years of content, the website becomes an asset that needs some organisation.

The good news is that the work does not have to become complicated.

Keep your books updated.

Keep your links working.

Keep your contact information accurate.

Keep your email signup functioning.

Keep useful content connected.

Keep your website secure.

Keep backups.

Check mobile.

Watch what readers are finding.

Improve the pages that matter.

And remove things that no longer serve a purpose.

That is the routine I would rather follow than constantly rebuilding an author website from scratch.

Your job as an author is to write books.

Your website should support that work, not become another full-time job.

The more organised your website becomes, the easier it is to add the next book, the next article and the next reader without starting everything over again.

And that, to me, is the real advantage of learning to manage your own author website.

You do not have to wait for somebody else every time your publishing career moves forward.

You can make the change yourself.