Best WordPress Themes for Authors

Aiming for a Booker prize? Dreaming of becoming the next Stephen King or Danielle Steel?

For any writer trying to build an audience or attract professional clients, a good author website is essential.

Many writers choose to create their digital presence with WordPress. It’s easy to use and optimized for publishing, after all.

If you decide to follow this path, you will need to select a design. But with thousands of WordPress themes aimed at authors and journalists, the options can feel overwhelming.

To help you narrow down the options, we have searched high and low for the best themes for writers. Here are our top picks!

Best Themes for Authors and Novelists

To start our roundup, let’s keep it literary. The following themes are all good choices if you want to promote your author brand and sell your latest books in style.

1) Astra: Best Author Theme for Customization

Optimized for the WordPress Site Editor and third-party page builders, Astra provides a complete no-code design package.

The base theme is very clean and readable, and Pro users can choose their own fonts and colors. If you’re looking to save time, Astra Pro includes a library of 180 full-site templates.

Another key feature of Astra is performance. With a load time of half a second, you won’t keep your readers waiting.

Key Features:

• Lots of customization options
• Works with most popular site builders
• Lightweight theme with strong performance

Price: Free, Astra Pro from $47/year or $227 lifetime license

2) BookWise: Best Theme Template for Selling Books

BookWise isn’t strictly a standalone theme — it’s actually one of the default setups for the Thrive Theme builder. Much like Astra, this gives you the option to build out your own design or choose something from a vast template library.

The difference here is that the blocks and templates are aimed at authors, so you can create sections for reviews, characters, purchase links, and more.

This template’s focus is mainly on selling books. It lets you easily promote author events, and set up your own online store.

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop customization
• Template library with designs aimed at authors
• Events and e-commerce features baked in

Pricing: $99 as part of the Thrive Theme Builder

3) MyBook: Best Theme for Promoting Your Latest Release

This theme has a homepage design that really helps show off your latest title. It also includes an author bio section, and an area for placing your affiliate ecommerce links (e.g. Amazon, Bookshop).

If you prefer to sell your book via your own site, MyBook is compatible with WooCommerce. In addition, a built-in email newsletter feature makes it easy to keep in touch with your audience, and reusable content blocks allow you to build custom portfolio pages.

Key Features:

• Front page design that displays a book cover
• WooCommerce support for selling direct
• Newsletter integrations for building your email list

Price: $49 one-time purchase

4) Book: Best Author Theme for Promoting eBooks

Made for selling digital titles, Book is a premium theme that provides a visually appealing landing page design.

The default layout is made for promoting ebook titles, but you can use the built-in theme builder to create your design. This theme comes with FontAwesome and Google Fonts ready to use, as well.

You can find many more customization options behind the scenes. Given all these options, we appreciate the incredibly thorough documentation that comes with this theme.

Key features:

• Theme builder and customization options
• Strong landing page design with call-to-action
• Native support for Google Fonts, FontAwesome, MailChimp, and Twitter

Pricing:  $59 one-time purchase

5) Read WP: Best Author Theme for Readability

With an excellent choice of fonts and plenty of negative space, this premium theme is perfect for any of the minimalists among us.

If you find yourself wanting to change things up though, Read WP provides access to 600 Google Fonts and three different layouts. Professional writers will appreciate the portfolio feature, and the design is fully responsive — so it looks the part on all devices.

Key Features:

• Elegant typography that highlights your writing
• Three different blog layouts
• Dedicated portfolio section

Price: $49 one-time purchase

6) Book Author: Best Theme for Self Publishers

There’s something about the Book Author theme that feels very Penguin Classics. Perhaps it’s the bold scheme, or the particular way in which at which the books are displayed.

Nevertheless, this theme is certainly aimed at self-publishing authors — particularly folks with multiple titles or a book series. The design is crisp, with six possible layouts, an advanced homepage slider, and the ability to create an online catalog. Plus, you can sell digital downloads of your various works.

Key features:

• Multiple layouts
• Huge array of cataloging and ecommerce options
• Easy to customize with colors and fonts

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

7) Gindur: Best Theme for Online Novels

And now, for something a little different.

Gindur features medieval inspired typography, but the design is cutting-edge — Built for publishing stories, this theme is both responsive and Retina-ready. It’s snappy as all get out, too.

Most aspects of Gindur are customizable, so you can easily swap out that ornate blackletter font if you’d like. Meanwhile, built-in SEO optimization could help give you a head start on other writers in your genre.

Key features:

• Set up for online publishing
• Responsive, Retina-ready, and fast to load
• SEO optimization

Pricing: $39 one-time purchase

8) Book Landing Page: Best Free Theme for Authors

If you only want a simple one-page website to promote your writing, the free version of Book Landing Page might cover your needs.

The design of this theme lets you show off a single title alongside a big old buy button. Further down the page, you have seven sections to play with, including a tabbed box for preview snippets. It feels best suited to non-fiction titles, but you could use it for any type of book.

While it’s not the most visually distinctive template on this list, you really can’t complain for the low low price of $0.

Key features:

• Seven home page sections
• Social media integration and search optimization
• Ready for translation

Pricing: Free, with Premium upgrade available for $59

9) Novela: Best Author Theme for Readers

This innovative theme allows you to create immersive previews of your ebooks, complete with page-turning animations.

The default landing page is pretty striking, too, with a big background image and parallax scrolling effects. Just as importantly, you have sections for your author bio, and for introducing your characters.

On the business side, Novela allows you to set up and sell digital downloads. In fact, the whole theme is really optimized for ebook sales.

Key Features:

• Unique book-like preview mode
• Optimized for digital downloads
• Visually striking design with loads of customization options

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

10) Leona: The Most Powerful Theme for Authors

Featuring a dazzling assortment of shortcodes and widgets, Leona is perhaps the most powerful author focused theme in this list.

That’s not the only thing we like — this theme offers WooCommerce and MailChimp integrations, social media widgets, Google Fonts support, and a preview mode similar to the one in Novela.

Just as importantly, the design of Leona is crisp, contemporary, and completely responsive.

Key features:

• Loads of shortcodes and widgets built in
• Integrates with MailChimp, WooCommerce, and Twitter
• Modern design and excellent documentation

Pricing: $64 one-time purchase

11) Bookory: Best Online Book Store Theme

If you’re trying to create more of an online store than just another author site, consider using Bookory.

This theme allows you to choose from five handsome front page designs, each carefully honed for ecommerce. You also get five product page layouts to choose from, and dedicated templates for your author page.

Bookory lets you get even more creative via the Elementor theme builder. That said, you might want to stick with the default options, as this theme has a good PageSpeed score out of the box.

Key Features:

• Slick, responsive ecommerce store design
• Multiple front page and product page templates
• Works with WooCommerce and Elementor

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

12) Auteur: Best Blogging Theme for Authors

Blogging can be a good way to promote your next book and encourage interactions with readers. But not all blogging themes are suited to selling books.

Auteur bridges this gap with 10 stylish blogging layouts and three commerce designs. It also has everything you would expect from a dedicated author theme, such as email signup forms, individual book pages, and author bio sections.

If you want to go off-piste, Auteur lets you build layouts via the WPBakery Plugin. This makes it a little more complex to use than some other themes — and somewhat less performant if you go too wild with the page builder — but it is still very flexible.

Key Features:

• Layouts for books, blogging, and ecommerce
• Block-based theme building options
• Integrations with WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, and MailChimp

Pricing: $60 one-time purchase

13) ChapterOne: Best Page Builder Theme for Authors

For authors who want to build a website that stands out from the crowd, ChapterOne could be a good purchase.

Although this theme is really aimed at publishers, there is plenty to interest individual writers. The front page gives you ample opportunities to show off your new book and older titles. You can also set up shop with support for digital editions and even audiobooks.

Flexibility is another strength of ChapterOne, with over 800 Google Fonts, multiple blog layouts and header types, and plenty of useful shortcodes.

Key Features:

• Several homepage designs, each optimized for promoting books
• Contemporary design that can be customized
• Powerful ecommerce templates including various media types

Pricing: $79 one-time purchase

14) Brooklyn: Best One-Click Theme for Authors

Although Brooklyn offers a bewildering array of customization options, this theme makes it easy to set up an author site.

This is due to the 52 ready-made site templates that come free with the theme. In the library, you will find some great options for building your site, and you can install each design with just a click.

If you want to make adjustments, Brooklyn gives you 60 blocks to play with and over 100 customization panels to explore. It even has an advanced slider maker.

It all might be a bit overwhelming for first-time WordPress users, but power users will love it.

Key Features:

• 52 ready-made site templates
• Block-based page builder with 60 elements
• Over 2,500 individual customization options

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

15) Bridge: Author Theme With the Most Features

Designed for creatives, Bridge is another theme that packs in a phenomenal number of features. And as with Brooklyn, you have plenty of ready-made demo sites to choose from.

If you prefer to build something yourself, this theme works with two page builders. With over 200 individual elements at your disposal, you should be able to cook up something special.

This all comes in addition to e-commerce features, full integration with your social media profiles, interactive tours, powerful search, and much more.

Key Features:

• Works with two page builders, includes 200 elements
• 610 one-click demo sites
• Ecommerce, social media, and search features

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

Best Themes for Bloggers and Journalists

Of course, not every writer wants to be a New York Times bestselling author.

If you’re more interested in blogging, journaling, or journalism, the following themes should be a good fit for your online presence.

16) Typology: Best Minimalist Theme for Writers

If you really want your words to shine, Typology could be the theme for you.

The design is much more stripped back in comparison to some other themes on this list, but there is still plenty of visual impact, thanks to bold color choices.

You can change those colors if you want, and the theme provides plenty of control over ​​typography. Plus, you can’t forget the impressive performance.

Key features:

• Minimalist yet bold design with focus on written content
• Well suited to blogs, with ad units included
• Strong performance and SEO optimization

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

17) Maktub: Best Magazine-Style Theme

At the other end of the web design spectrum, you will find Maktub. This colorful theme delivers content with some visual punch, although the focus is still on typography.

This is also a theme built for speed. It has a perfect PageSpeed score of 100, and MakTub is optimized for AMP. This functionality could be very valuable if you’re trying to attract new readers.

On top of this lightweight frame, you can add 11 custom widgets and customize various parts of the theme — with only one plugin required.

Key Features:

• Bold color scheme and strong typography
• Good performance
• AMP optimization

Pricing: $35 one-time purchase

18) Gutentype: Most Versatile Theme for Bloggers

Designed to work with the native WordPress site editor and Elementor website builder, this shapeshifting theme lets you choose from 18 different premade page layouts.

While not explicitly designed for writers, Gutentype still delivers your written content in style. The design is clean, with plenty of white space and excellent optimization for mobile devices.

Aside from the layouts, this theme allows you to get creative with custom post types, social media integrations, dozens of shortcodes, and seven widget areas.

Key Features:

• 18 different page layouts
• Clean, modern website design
• Works with WooCommerce, Elementor, and WordPress’ site editor

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

19) Starter: Best Minimal Theme for Bloggers

One of the key selling points of the Starter theme is that it contains only 55 files.

Unsurprisingly, this means you have fewer preset layouts to choose from, but both of the available options are very easy on the eyes, and the theme delivers good performance thanks to clean code.

Even with the small size of this theme, you still get five post types, customizable colors and fonts, and a blog template that is highly readable.

Key Features:

• Lightweight theme with clean code
• Very modern, minimal design with focus on readability
• Three post layouts (left, right, without sidebar)

Pricing: $49 one-time purchase

20) Gema: Best Minimalist Theme for Personal Blogs

Opening a site made with Gema is like flicking through the pages of a glossy magazine. It’s a style of elegant fonts, white space, and large images.

We particularly like the header area of this theme. The name of your site is writ large, and the vertical menu is inset so that it blends in nicely with your latest posts.

In addition, Gema has features that will impress website visitors in other ways. Along with the usual color and font options, you can create drop caps and introduce a light hover effect wherever it feels right.

Key Features:

• Distinctive, minimalist front page design
• Interesting effects and typography
• Responsive, search optimized, good performance

Pricing: €115 (~$128) one-time purchase or €75/year (~$83)

21) Jason: Best Theme for Independent Journalists

A different theme from the same stable, Jason would work well for anyone who is trying to build a personal brand in journalism.

The design here is halfway between a simple blog and a digital magazine, with space devoted to images and nice touches of color throughout.

We particularly like the built-in logo generator, which lets you experiment with different typography to create something unique. Jason also has a good archive section, which means readers can find posts on any topic without the help of a search engine.

Key Features:

• Lively design with large images and a sidebar
• Customizable colors and fonts, and built-in logo builder
• Works nicely with WordPress’ site editor

Pricing: €115 (~$128) one-time purchase or €75/year (~$83)

22) Tove: Best Free Theme for Bloggers

This pretty little theme from Swedish designer, Anders Noren, is completely free and packed with personality.

Although originally designed for café and restaurant websites, you can easily adapt Tove for blogging. The default design is playful yet clean, with easy-to-read fonts and over 40 preset block patterns.

Because many of these elements include buttons, you could link to an external purchase page or another author platform.

Key Features:

• Playful, colorful design
• Over 40 block patterns
• Lightweight at under 200 kilobytes

Pricing: Free

Best Themes for Professional Writers

If you’re the type of author who prefers to work for other people, you might need a slightly different type of website.

In this final section, we’re going to focus on themes that should work for professional copywriters, ghostwriters, and content marketers.

23) Corner: Best Portfolio Theme for Writers

A key part of securing work as a writer is impressing potential clients with your body of work. Corner has a dedicated portfolio section for this purpose, with various layout options to choose from.

There is nothing very flashy about this theme. The look is clean, refined, and polished. But with Elementor integration and plenty of customization options, you can easily make it your own.

Key Features:

• Clean, professional design
• Portfolio feature with several layouts
• Block editor support plus Elementor and Google Fonts

Pricing: $49/year

24) Sydney Pro: Best Professional Theme for Writers

Everything about Sydney Pro has been finely tuned with creative professionals in mind. This freemium theme lets you choose from a variety of layouts, headers, and footers, each promoting your brand in a different way.

The design here is razor sharp and stripped back, although there are splashes of color for key elements. Sydney Pro also lets you create a compelling blog, utilize pre-made sections, and build multiple sidebars.

Plus, it works with tools like HubSpot, Tutor LMS, WooCommerce, and Toolset.

Key Features:

• Refined, professional design with pre-built sections
• Multiple homepage, blog, and sidebar layouts
• Works with a range of third-party platforms

Pricing: Free version available, Pro from $69/year

25) Neve: Most Flexible Theme for Professional Writers

Used by a wide range of business owners, Neve is fast and flexible.

You can choose from over 100 default layouts, all of which deliver good performance. Alternatively, you can use a theme builder of your choice. Neve works with Beaver Builder, Elementor, Visual Composer, and many more.

What’s more, Neve adds features to these third-party plugins — so you get an extended version of Elementor and WooCommerce with this theme. It’s pretty nifty if you want to make something unique.

Key Features:

• Fast, lightweight theme with 100 preset designs
• Works with Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and more
• Extends popular plugins like WooCommerce

Pricing: Free version with limited features; Pro version is €69/year (~$77)

How to Build a Great Author Website

Each of the themes mentioned above can provide a great starting point for building your author website.

But if you want to maximize the impact of your new site, there are a few tasks you should complete before you launch. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide:

Register a unique domain name — Use your name, your brand, or even your tagline; just make sure it’s something memorable.

Choose a reliable host — At DreamHost, we offer 100% Uptime Guarantee to ensure that your readers can always access your author site.

Optimize the design for readability — Don’t worry about dazzling design; make sure readers can enjoy your work.

Include a call to action on your homepage — Don’t be shy about selling your book; make sure to put at least one buy button on your homepage.

Add social proof — Sharing testimonials is a proven way to persuade potential customers.

Create a blog — Most of the best author websites include a blog, and publishing regular posts can be an effective book marketing strategy.

Ask people to opt-in — Start building your email list so you can share news with readers, like a new book release or guest podcast appearance.

Let your readers get in touch — Fans of your work might want to send their appreciation or ask questions, so make sure to include appropriate contact information or even a standalone contact page.

We hope this guide has given you some ideas for your website and the confidence to start building your brand. Just remember: if you get stuck, we have a team of expert web designers ready to help!