If you’re a writer, what kind of website do you need? The answer depends a little on what kind of writer you are. A book author, for example, needs a very different kind of website than a freelance copywriter.
That’s why we love Squarespace as a website building and hosting service: It allows writers to build stunning, personalized websites to fit their needs relatively easily — and you don’t need any coding experience at all to do it. All you have to do is find the right template.
What kinds of templates does Squarespace offer?
Squarespace templates are organized into "families," with each template being a variation on a template family (such as "Brine"). Most Squarespace templates allow users to do some basic things, like create pages, blog posts, or galleries of images. You can also customize any template’s design to make it feel like your own. That said, there are some features and parameters on templates that can't be adjusted because of how they’re designed. That’s why it’s important to pick the right template for your goals. (Of course, you can always change templates down the road — but it’s easier if you pick the right template to begin with.)
What should I look for in a template?
If you’re a freelance writer looking to find editors to hire you, you'll want a good portfolio template. If you’re a published author who wants to stay connected with your readers and fans, maybe opt for a one-page site where you share your bio and info about your upcoming book releases or events. If you’re a reporter looking to publish a longform piece, meanwhile, you might want an interactive, highly customizable page. And here's a tip: before choosing a template that's photo-heavy, keep in mind that you'll need photographs to populate it. If you don't need or have photos to show off, you'll want to pick a template that's more about text, such as Foundry (below). But if you still want to go the visual route, you can also always find photos on stock image sites such as Pexels.
To help make this all a little bit easier, here are some of our favorite Squarespace templates for writers:
Best Overall
Image: squarespace
The Good
Versatile, classic design • Easy navigation
The Bad
Needs strong imagery to work • Headers aren’t customizable
The Bottom Line
While not necessarily designed for writers specifically, this versatile template can work well for a variety of different kinds of writers’ goals.
1. Bedford
This versatile template is a writer’s best friend, with the capabilities to be an excellent author page, portfolio, promotional site, blog — or all of the above.
Bedford isn’t necessarily the first template you’d think of when designing a writer’s template — it’s usually a favorite for businesses — but it’s actually a very good general-purpose template. It features an intuitive layout, a blog, simple navigation and it scrolls nicely. You can include different sidebar content on every page and thanks to its headers, you can easily draw attention to featured posts. For a writer, the template is customizable enough so that you can use the template to build a portfolio of your work, an author page, or promote your upcoming book launch. It also works well as a longform journalistic template for a reported article.
Best Author Page Template
Image: squarespace
The Good
Stacking, single-page design • Scrolling • Modern, sleek design • Doesn’t rely on imagery to make an impact
The Bad
Somewhat limited in customizations
The Bottom Line
This one-page template is a great choice for published writers looking to market themselves to their readers.
2. Sofia
This one-page template is a great choice for published writers looking to market themselves to their readers
If you’re a published author, you might not need your site to do much but sell you. If that’s what you’re looking for, Sofia is a great choice. Thanks to its scrolling, one-page layout, the focus of this layout really is on you, allowing you as the writer to introduce yourself and your work, like an interactive biography. The clean, modern layout also doesn’t require a ton of high-quality photography to look good either — perfect if you’re more of a wordsmith than a photographer. It’s also easy to link to your social media accounts and display praise, reviews and testimonials about your work.
Best Writing Portfolio Template
Image: squarespace
The Good
User friendly • Sleek, modern design • Features a blog
The Bad
Not as flexible as other templates
The Bottom Line
Avenue is one of Squarespace’s classic portfolio templates for good reason: it’s sleek, elegant and engaging.
3. Avenue
Avenue is one of Squarespace’s classic portfolio templates for good reason: it’s sleek, elegant and engaging.
Avenue is one of Squarespace’s older template designs, but it’s stuck around this long because of its classic, timeless design. While it is on the simpler side, the grid layout is perfect for a journalist’s or copywriter’s writing portfolio. It has a clean, easy to use navigation, features large images, and it has a blog with right-side navigation.
Best Interactive Template
Image: squarespace
The Good
Flexible • Stunning Design • Index page • Parallax Scrolling
The Bad
No sidebars • Requires strong visuals
The Bottom Line
A member of the Brine family, Mercer is a versatile template that brings the wow factor.
4. Mercer
A member of the Brine family, Mercer is a versatile template that brings the wow factor.
If you’re a longform journalist who’s been working on an in-depth project, you want a template that helps tell your story. With one-page scrolling (and parallax scrolling), Mercer can do that for you. You can create banners and stack blocks of content, including photography, videos or audio clips, in an easy-to-read scrolling layout. Navigation is simple and the overall feel of the template is clean and sleek.
Best for Blog Writers
Image: squarespace
The Good
Category tags • Grid layout • Special navigation arrows • Text focused
The Bad
Asymmetrical look only works with different sized-images • No ‘feature’ spot for blog posts so all posts look the same
The Bottom Line
Highly customizable and a nicely designed magazine layout, Tudor is a solid template choice for writers who want a blog to be a prominent part of their site.
5. Tudor
Highly customizable and nicely designed, Tudor is a solid template choice for writers who want their blog to be a prominent part of their site.
Tudor is an easily customizable template that puts text first, thanks to its mosaic-style blog layout. It also features loading animations for that extra wow factor.
This template is particularly good for prolific bloggers that write about multiple topics because posts can be categorized, allowing for visitors to easily find posts on a certain topic. There is also a progress indicator so readers can get a sense of how far along in the post that they are.
One possible downside, though, is that all blog posts look more or less the same on the blog landing page because there is no “feature” spot to highlight or draw special attention to a particular piece. This is a drawback for writers who want to highlight a new or favorite post.
This template is particularly good for prolific bloggers that write about multiple topics because posts can be categorized, allowing for visitors to easily find posts on a certain topic. There is also a progress indicator so readers can get a sense of how far along in the post that they are.
One possible downside, though, is that all blog posts look more or less the same on the blog landing page because there is no “feature” spot to highlight or draw special attention to a particular piece. This is a drawback for writers who want to highlight a new or favorite post.
Best Template for Book Events
Image: squarespace
The Good
Scrolling layout • Simple design • Flexible
The Bad
Blog landing page is simplistic
The Bottom Line
For the published author that wants to promote their upcoming book launch or tour, Cruz is a sophisticated template option.
6. Cruz
For the author who wants to promote their upcoming book launch or tour, Cruz is a sophisticated template option.
For a template that can be both an author page and a promotional site, Cruz is a great option. While the template was originally designed with bands in mind (hence the "music/bands" you'll see at the above link), it works equally well for authors looking to sell themselves, their books, and their upcoming book tour/events to their fans. It features a one-page scrolling layout, a stacking index with different color backgrounds, and easy navigation. It also allows you to share upcoming events with your audience — a helpful tool if you’re about to head out on the road (or virtual "road") promoting a newly released book.
Best Template with No Images
Image: squarespace
The Good
Text-focused • Clean design • Built-in Social icons
The Bad
Fairy limited design
The Bottom Line
If you want the focus to be solely on your words, then this is the template for you because its default blog page features no images at all.
7. Foundry
If you want to keep the focus solely on your words, this is the template for you.
Squarespace emerged around the same time the internet was getting much more visual. So, most templates on Squarespace rely on at least some good photography for the design to work — but if photography really isn’t your strong suit, or you don’t feel like using a bunch of stock imagery on your blog, then this is the template for you. The design is centered around text instead, with a mosaic-style grid of blog posts.
Topics: Tech, Apps-and-software, Mérida, Vandam, Harman, Myhra, Suhama, Manual, Degraw, Agaro, Tepito
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