welcome…

…to all my secrets on life as a published author

(I’m 7 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 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!

most popular posts

Blog

Some honest thoughts on the book that nearly broke me

Some honest thoughts on author publicity

Behind the scenes: a mid-year update 2025

Some honest thoughts on social media for authors

most recent posts

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 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.

Charlotte Duckworth 1/22/24 Charlotte Duckworth 1/22/24

Which Squarespace plan is right for authors?

One of the most frequent questions my author website clients ask me is which Squarespace plan they should be on. So in today’s post I am going to take a look at the two main options that my authors use: the Personal plan, and the Business plan.

Charlotte Duckworth 1/4/24 Charlotte Duckworth 1/4/24

Why Squarespace is the perfect web platform for authors

On some of my trawls of the internet researching author websites, I’ve found a few articles suggesting that Squarespace isn’t a good platform for author websites.

Charlotte Duckworth 12/6/23 Charlotte Duckworth 12/6/23

How to upload a file to your Squarespace author website

As you may know, I offer Author VIP Design Days to authors who’ve built their own website but would like a bit of help to make the most of the platform, or who aren’t quite sure how to do certain things.

Charlotte Duckworth 10/4/23 Charlotte Duckworth 10/4/23

How to build your own author website

One of the things that upsets me a lot is when I speak to authors who feel really discouraged, frustrated and downright angry with their author website. They don’t have the budget to pay a designer but they also have no idea where to start when it comes to building a site themselves.

Charlotte Duckworth 10/1/23 Charlotte Duckworth 10/1/23

What's the best website platform for authors?

Whether you’re a self-published or traditionally published author, you do need an author website. As an author, if you’re trying to sell copies of your books to people outside your immediate family, then you’re basically the head of a small business, and businesses in 2023 need websites!

Charlotte Duckworth 1/31/21 Charlotte Duckworth 1/31/21

Phishing scam alert

I’m sorry to have to blog about this one but thought it was worth a post as I get quite a bit of traffic on here - and the more people who are aware the better! I’ve had several clients contact me recently to say they have received an ominous message through the contact form on their website.