Are you an author looking to create an online presence? Whether you’re a novelist, essayist, e-book author, or poet — WordPress can be a great platform for sharing your work with the world.
You just need to choose the right theme. However, with thousands of free and premium options available, that’s easier said than done.
With that in mind, we’ve handpicked the 13 best WordPress themes for authors. These options provide their users with the dynamic features required for professional writing and publishing. Start exploring below.
The 13 Best WordPress Themes for Authors
1. Book
Want to start selling your book in a fraction of the time? Start with a one-page website made with the Book WordPress theme.
You can choose between animated and static versions of the site. With the former, you’ll get smooth navigation between screens, landing page blocks, and reviews. This helps create a more pleasant and engaging customer experience.
Core features include:
- A fully responsive layout.
- Unlimited theme colors.
- Mailchimp compatibility.
- Pre-installed Google Maps.
- A live Twitter feed.
Best for: E-book authors who want a simple site that drives conversions.
Price: $59
2. Odrin
The Odrin theme is a beautifully designed way to sell your books and connect with fans. The theme also offers animated flipping pages and chapter previews.
With Odrin, you can create separate event pages for live book readings or meetings with fans. Plus, there’s a “Coming Soon” book timer to countdown your next masterpiece.
Features include:
- Responsive design.
- The Page Flip effect.
- 10 pre-built page templates.
- WooCommerse integration.
- An Upcoming book page.
- An Upcoming event page.
- Options for full-width pages.
- Free updates.
Best for: Book authors who want to astonish their readers with modern buying and engagement experiences.
Price: $64
3. 3D Flip Book
3D Flip Book isn’t a theme but a WordPress plugin we couldn’t pass by. Install it on your site and impress your readers with the most realistic reading experience.
3D Flip Book offers various impressive features for simulating the reading experience. You can set page thickness and page flipping sounds. You can create a 3D book opening. Readers can even earmark and annotate pages — just like in real-life books.
Core features include:
- A physics engine for a super realistic reading experience.
- Skins support.
- PDF, HTML, and image support.
- Automatical alignment of a book on a user’s screen.
- Brightness settings.
Watch the plugin demo video to see all these features in action.
Best for: Magazine, books, and whitepaper authors
Price: $39 a year or $119 for a lifetime. Free versions are also available.
4. Typology
Typology is a minimalistic theme that amplifies the significance of the text. What’s unique is that the theme requires no images.
In contrast, it focuses on beautiful typography and light layouts to draw readers into your poems or novels.
Core features include:
- A mobile-friendly design.
- Cross-browser compatibility.
- Unlimited fonts and colors.
- Customized font sizes and capitalization for text and headings.
- Several customizable layouts.
Best for: Novelists, poets, and authors who value clean text and sophisticated fonts over images.
Price: $49
5. Novela
Novela is a book reading and landing theme with a light, minimalistic design. This theme empowers a seamless reading experience. It offers flipping pages and a table of contents for online reading. There are also dedicated areas on landing pages for embedding text samples from a book.
Core features include:
- Fully responsive design.
- A smooth page flip animation.
- Selling options for your e-book.
- Advanced custom fields to fill out in one click.
- Threaded comments.
- Free support and updates.
- 600+ Google fonts.
Best for: Authors who favor clean design and light sites.
Price: $59
6. Book Publisher
The Book Publisher theme is a perfect choice for publishers, bookstores, book clubs, and indie writers. This theme comes with invaluable features for online bookstores. That includes about pages for authors, icons for writers’ social media links, and author’s books list.
With Book Publisher, you can also deploy a blog in addition to a store.
Core features include:
- About us, authors, products, and contacts pages.
- Customizable page layouts.
- Responsive design.
Best for: Book clubs, bookstores, publishing houses or agencies, and individual authors.
Price: Free
7. Author Portfolio
Author Portfolio is a clean and light theme for online bookstores and individual authors. It supports the WooCommerse plugin and is schema.org markup ready.
You can also add author pages to introduce the readers to new writers.
Core features include:
- SEO optimization.
- WooCommerse compatibility.
- The author pages.
- A book-category feature.
Best for: Individual authors and small bookstores.
Price: Free
8. Bookwise
Bookwise is a conversion-focused WordPress theme for indie authors and writer-preneurs. This theme is packed with invaluable features for introducing an author and their books to readers.
Examples include: Book reviews and upcoming events pages, a fully customizable author page, and author- or book-focused landing pages.
Its features include:
- Books pages.
- Characters and plot pages.
- Author- or book-focused landing pages.
- Purchase buttons to retailers like Amazon, Smashwords, Scribd, Audible, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books.
- Review pages.
- Event pages.
- A microblogging template.
Best for: Indie authors and writer-preneurs.
Price: $299 per year
9. Publisher
Promote and sell your e-books with the Publisher WordPress theme for writers. You’ll get author pages, order pages, product listings, blog layouts, and a built-in selling system for digital products powered by the Templatic Digital Downloads plugin.
- Theme setting options.
- Customizable design.
- eJunkie cart and Amazon integrations.
- WooCommerse integration.
- The Templatic Digital Downloads plugin.
- A coupon module.
- Order management and reporting.
Best for: E-book bookstores and authors selling their writing.
Price: $59
10. MyBook
MyBook is a one-page WordPress theme for launching your book sales. It requires zero knowledge of coding to deploy a website, thanks to its visual composer. This simple landing page provides customizable options for images, color themes, and pre-defined block layouts.
Unlike other themes, MyBook allows you to set affiliate links. Readers can then share your book and earn money from it.
Core features include:
- Automatic image resizing.
- A mobile-friendly design.
- Compatible with MailChimp, Feedburner, FeedBlitz, and Aweber.
- WooCommerce compatibility.
- WordPress SEO compatibility.
- Affiliate links.
- A book overview section.
Best for: E-book authors of any genre, novelists, and indie writers who want to start selling their pieces with little effort.
Price: $49
11. Author Writer
Author Writer is a simple WordPress theme for bookstores and book review sites. The theme includes essential features like integration with WooCommerce, Yoast, and MailChimp plugins, a customizable layout, and a one-click demo content import.
Core features include:
- RTL layout support.
- Unlimited sidebars.
- About pages.
- SEO optimization.
- Mobile-friendly design.
- Social media icons.
Best for: Authors in search of a low-code, customizable theme.
Price: Free
12. Book Author
Want to build a site tailored to authors’ needs in no time? The Book Author theme is waiting for you! It has a built-in “Easy Install” feature.
All you need to do is click a button. Then, you can start filling out your site.
You can also sell any digital products — including e-books, stock photography, audio files, videos, and DVDs. It offers a variety of payment getaways like Stripe, Scrill, and more.
Core features include:
- A category product slider.
- A blog builder with threaded comments.
- Product search.
- Product reviews.
- A color customizer.
- Yoast, WooCommerse, and Google XML compatibility.
- Catalog, grid, and list views.
Best for: Authors and publishers want to sell digital goods in no time.
Price: $69
13. eBook
eBook is a simply designed theme for showcasing your e-books. You can promote your book on the homepage and navigate users to a shop, if necessary. With eBook, you can add a book summary, create a review page, and launch a blog.
With the included coupon module, you can also set up promo codes and offer discounts on your books.
Core features include:
- Tax and shipping management from WooCommerce.
- Mobile-friendly design.
- Mega menu support.
- A customizable homepage.
- An integrated newsletter module.
- A PDF sample download section.
Best for: Selling your books at scale and promoting bestsellers and new arrivals right from a homepage.
Price: $69
Picking the Right WordPress Theme
When choosing a WordPress theme for selling your e-books or sharing your masterpieces for free, consider the technical aspects of each. List your requirements and compare them to the core features each theme offers. You can then find an option that matches your needs.
