A dedicated website gives you a home no algorithm can take away. We design professional author websites for writers across Manchester and Greater Manchester, built to showcase your books, grow your email list, and support every launch that follows the first one.
Manchester has one of the most established literary identities of any city outside London, yet many local writers still rely entirely on an Amazon listing and a personal Instagram account to reach readers. That works until the platform changes its rules or an algorithm update quietly buries your posts. A website you own does not disappear overnight.
A proper author website gives Manchester writers three things social media cannot. It puts your full backlist in one place instead of scattered across separate retailer pages. It captures reader emails so you can announce your next release directly, without waiting for a platform to decide whether your followers see it.
And it gives you a professional page to send to literary agents, journalists, event organisers, and readers who search for your name after finishing your book.
If you are publishing from Manchester, whether you are connected to the city's publishing organisations or simply working on your own project, a professional website helps you present yourself with the same seriousness the city's publishing scene has built over decades.
Manchester's writing community spans fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, with a spoken word and performance poetry tradition running through the city, and your website should reflect your own genre rather than a generic template.
A fiction writer benefits from a site built around series navigation and reader immersion, with covers and blurbs doing much of the persuasive work.
A poet or spoken word artist often needs something built around performance clips, event listings, and excerpts rather than a standard book showcase.
Children's book authors publishing from Manchester often need a colourful, parent friendly structure, with information for schools and libraries about visits and readings.
Whatever you write, we start from your genre and your reader rather than adapting a one size fits all small business template.
Manchester's literary credentials are among the strongest of any UK city outside London. In 2017, Manchester was officially designated a UNESCO City of Literature, joining a small global network recognised for the depth of its writing culture, publishing activity, and literary heritage. The city counts Anthony Burgess, Jeanette Winterson, and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy among the writers who have called it home.
The city also has genuine publishing infrastructure most regional cities lack. Harper North, HarperCollins' dedicated northern imprint, is based in Manchester's Northern Quarter and was established specifically to find and grow northern writing talent for national and international audiences. Independent publishers Comma Press, Carcanet Press, and Cillian Press all operate out of the city, alongside Commonword, a long running writing development organisation supporting new and aspiring authors.
Manchester Literature Festival runs every October, bringing writers and thinkers from across the world into the city for a month of readings, talks, and commissions. A professional website helps you present yourself with the same seriousness the city's publishing scene has built over decades.
Partner with The Writers Central's author website team to build a site that showcases your work and grows your readership.
Every author website we build for Manchester clients is custom designed rather than pulled from a template.
Introduce you to readers, agents, and journalists in a way that reflects your genre and your voice.
Each title gets its own space, with cover images, a compelling description, and direct buy links to Amazon, Apple Books, or wherever your book sells.
Connected to whichever email platform you already use, so every visitor has an easy path to becoming a subscriber rather than a one time reader.
Keeps your site active between releases and gives search engines a reason to keep indexing new content.
Makes it simple for event organisers, including those behind Manchester Literature Festival and similar events, to reach you directly.
Page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, and image alt text, with mobile responsiveness tested across devices before launch.
Our entire process is built to work remotely, which suits how most author website projects actually run. You do not need to be based in the city centre. We work with authors across Salford, Stockport, Bolton, and the wider Greater Manchester area using the same discovery calls, shared feedback documents, and design reviews we use everywhere else.
Meetings happen over video call at times that suit your schedule, and feedback rounds happen asynchronously through email or a shared document, so you are never waiting on an in person meeting to move a project forward.
Most Manchester clients find this faster than working with a local agency that insists on in office visits. This also means you are never limited to designers who happen to be based nearby. You get a team that works exclusively in the author services space, rather than a general web design shop that treats a book website the same way it treats a plumber's landing page or a local restaurant menu.
From your first conversation to a live, launched site, with a clear structure and full support after launch.
We talk through your books, your readers, and what you want the site to achieve, whether that is growing an email list, supporting a launch, or giving you a professional home online for the first time.
We map out the full structure of the site before any design work begins, including navigation and where key elements like your newsletter signup and buy buttons should sit.
We design a visual mockup of your homepage so you can see the direction and give feedback before development starts.
We build the site, complete SEO setup, and give you a full walkthrough once it is live, with support for any revisions you need after launch.
Most of the author websites we build run on WordPress, which gives you ownership of your content and the ability to make small updates yourself without calling a developer every time. For authors who need something more specific, such as an unusual layout tied to a particular genre or series, we also offer fully custom development. We will recommend the right option once we understand what your books and your readers actually need.
Every site we build includes on page SEO fundamentals: keyword optimised titles and descriptions, properly structured headings, clean URLs, and fast loading pages. For Manchester writers specifically, that means optimising for searches that combine your genre or book topic with regional terms, alongside the broader national searches most readers actually use. We also set up basic analytics so you can see where your traffic actually comes from.
We are not a generic web design agency that occasionally takes on an author client. Author website design sits inside a full publishing services ecosystem that also covers book editing, book marketing, and author branding, which means the person building your website actually understands what a literary agent looks for, how a book launch page should convert visitors, and how your site fits into your wider author career.
For Manchester authors, that also means working with a team that understands the city's status as a UNESCO City of Literature, home to Harper North and a network of respected independent publishers, rather than treating you as a generic small business client.
Author website design is priced based on the number of pages, the complexity of the design, and whether you need extras such as ecommerce, a blog, or custom development rather than a WordPress build. A straightforward site with a homepage, book pages, an author bio, and a contact form sits at the lower end of that scope. A larger site with multiple book series, a media kit, and custom integrations takes more time and costs more.
Industry pricing for author websites in the UK varies widely. Specialist author website studios charge a fixed fee in the region of 1,800 pounds plus VAT for a standard build, while general web design agencies quote anywhere from a few hundred pounds for a template based site up to several thousand pounds for a fully custom design. The Writers Central positions in the professional mid market, giving Manchester authors a custom, genre appropriate website without the premium pricing of a boutique studio or the generic feel of a template site.
Most author websites take three to six weeks from the first discovery call to launch. You receive a clear, itemised quote and timeline before any work begins, so there are no surprises partway through the project.
Authors across Manchester and Greater Manchester share their experience working with The Writers Central.
My new website gave festival attendees a proper place to follow up after hearing me read, rather than just a social media handle scribbled on a flyer.
Daniel Okafor, Fiction Author, Manchester Literature Festival
The site captured my voice far better than the template I had built myself years earlier, with performance clips and event listings finally given proper space.
Grace Whittle, Poet, Manchester Spoken Word Scene
The remote process fit easily around my schedule, with feedback handled by email rather than requiring time off for meetings.
Imran Sheikh, Nonfiction Author, Manchester
Your Books Deserve a Proper Home Online
A free discovery call to talk through your books, your readers, and what your site needs to achieve.
