10 Best WordPress Themes for Writers [2023]
If you are a writer and do not already have a website, you are missing a fantastic opportunity to connect with your readers. While social media is important, you simply cannot reach your entire audience there. Therefore, you want to create a centralized location where you will keep your readers apprised of what is going on with you and your book. Which is why we are bringing you the Best WordPress Themes for Writers. Your followers will be interested in:
- upcoming book signings
- readings
- meet and greets
- media interviews
- current and future projects
By maintaining an active website or blog, you have the ability to engage with your readers in a meaningful way. Furthermore, this increased engagement translates directly into loyalty by cementing your brand in the minds of your audience long term.
WordPress is preferred, twelve to one, over other CMS platforms and 22% of all new domains run WordPress. Perhaps it is so popular because it is an open source platform that gives developers free reign to create companion products, like themes.
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Choosing the Best WordPress Themes for Authors
Finding the best theme for your website will involve asking few important questions. First, is the style or overall aesthetic and pleasing to you? Second, is the environment created, conducive to reading? Third, considering your personal skill set, is the theme’s design too complicated or confusing? Fourth, will the theme respond the same across multiple platforms, various devices, and different screen sizes? Finally, is there customer support available should you or your reader run into trouble?
1. Literatum-Just Write by RafaelMartin: Graphically Stunning
There is nothing else quite like the Literatum theme on the market. The visually stunning landing page is an attention grabber. The pages for each post are clean with wide, open spaces making this theme a terrific choice for those specializing in long-form content.
Design
The landing page is made up of tiled background images or videos that display details about the corresponding post. Since it was created for writers, with the reader in mind, you have features like a word count tool. Literatum automatically counts how many words in each article to give the reader an idea of its length and displays the time it will take to give it a read. Aesop Story Engine can be used to convert your content into interactive stories. You can also create parallax content that features full-width videos, images, interviews, and even podcasts.
Usability
The theme is easy to use and is stable, though because of the graphic intensity it may be slower to load for some devices. Sadly, the creator of Literatum is no longer actively developing or supporting the theme. Though if you like it in its current iteration, this is a reliable and inexpensive choice. The theme is highly responsive, interactive, and compatible with all CURRENT social media platforms.
2. Preface by Mean Themes – Top Pick for Veteran Writers
The Preface theme was created with authors like you, in mind. It is not only a great place to showcase your writing and reach your readership, but it also features a robust design interface that supports WooCommerce. By using this plugin, you can, quite literally, set up shop —selling books and other merch. This feature is particularly useful if you intend to feature your entire collection. Creating a book marketplace is as easy as posting your books and then placing buttons to buy. WooCommerce will handle the rest. Of course, even if you are not interested in selling your books from your website, you will still want to upload details about your book like cover art, descriptions, and other information.
Design
One of the standout features of the Preface theme is the book launch landing page. Quickly update readers to what you are working on or the subject matter for your newest book, all the while, building interest and excitement for your brand. The responsiveness of the Preface theme is evident in features like “book filter” which improves the reader’s experience by helping them find quickly, the content they’re interested in reading.
The Preface theme offers plenty of customizations. You can change around some or all of the colors to reflect your brand. Social media buttons, located at the very top of the homepage, prompt visitors to find and connect with you elsewhere on the web.
Usability
The navigation bar is prominent yet not distracting and sits at the top of the page. Just below that is a book cover slider. This can feature a revolving selection of all your titles. The slides are responsive, therefore, if someone sees something they are interested in, they can click for more information.
3. The Novelist by theMOLITOR: A Real Page Turner
This theme was built especially for authors seeking to put their work on display. It features an interactive design where users access the content through the lens of a book.
Design
Cleverly designed, The Novelist theme simulates the experience of reading a hardback book by flipping pages to transition from one post to the next. The menu bar is unintrusive and access by clicking a box in the upper right corner the screen. A drop down menu then slides down to display a welcome message, the tabs widget area, and the archives widget. This theme supports widgets for added customization. Unfortunately, as far as branding options, there aren’t many. The style and design are mostly static. However, with fewer design elements, the style remains clean and attractive.
Usability
The Novelist theme has both an intuitive and responsive interface, making it a cinch to use. The theme provides readers the perfect environment to lose themselves in the pages of your latest book on any size device from the browser of their choice. The standard license comes with six months of support from the developer.
4. Author Pro by StudioPress – Unique Branding
We love this theme just like it is, simple yet distinctive. However, it is easily customizable with custom colors, font styles, and various background options. With Author Pro, you have the opportunity to create a unique branded website that sets you apart from the herd of other authors out in the world.
Design
The custom header features a beautiful hero image area, along with containers or modules for calls to action, information, and various widgets. The landing page is the perfect spot to describe your latest book in detail. This feature will improve your conversions by showcasing featured excerpts, synopsis, and reviews.
Usability
The theme is user-friendly, providing powerful customization tools and plenty of theme options that do not require any coding. Uploading an eBook cover image is a snap. You can also categorize your books, grouping them into a genre, which allows your readers to find their favorites quickly. Be sure to link to all of your social media accounts as this will improve your follower counts.
5. BuzzBlog by Hercules_Design: A Popular Choice
This theme comes with built-in versatility. There is no need to search for plugins or scraps of code to achieve a custom look. The result is a fully branded design that is uniquely your own. BuzzBlog can provide you readers with a truly immersive reading experience.
Design
BuzzBlog comes loaded with an impressive array of features:
60 or more, homepage variations
Unlimited styles
Five built-in headers layouts
Four posts layouts
Nine custom page templates
Image gallery
Multiple content layout options and various containers and widgets.
Nine post formats
Custom banner
Custom fonts and icons
With features like those listed, coupled with the responsive and beautifully designed aesthetic, it is no wonder that BuzzBlog by ThemeForrest is the #1 best selling WordPress theme.
Usability
Thanks to a well-planned out admin panel the writer doesn’t get lost in the massive number of bells and whistles. The end user experiences a clean, elegant interface that is quite easy to navigate. The theme is actively developed and according to numerous testimonials, offers some of the best customer service and support available.
6. Fable by Elegant Themes: Top Kid-Lit Pick
Marketed as “perfect for blogging,” Fable may not be the obvious choice for an author’s website. However, it has some very compelling features that help make a case for its use. Praised for its responsive design and whimsical storytelling capabilities, Fable is perfect for children’s book authors.
Design
Fable offers full-width posts, which makes it ideal for showcasing long form content. Each post is displayed boldly with generous spacing. The format makes each post easy to read. The brightly hued color combinations offer endless possibilities for creating fun and engaging content.
Usability
Fable is actively developed and well supported. Customer service is a priority for Fable’s creators, ElegantThemes. The interface is highly intuitive and responsive making the theme a delight to use on any platform across every device.
7. Divi by Elegant Themes: Top Pick for Easy Design
Design a powerful, intuitive, and responsive website with point and click ease using the Divi theme. Whether you are a veteran or this is your first rodeo, Divi theme is an excellent choice. Writers seeking to increase engagement and connect with readers will appreciate the intuitive, easy to use interface and elegant design.
Design
Let’s face it; writers are visual creatures. We have an image in our minds and write the words to express that. With Divi Builder, writers can use a natural artistic process to design their website. Part of the install package, Divi Builder, acts as a front-end development editor that is both fast and intuitive.
Divi offers 46 different content elements that when used in combination, can create limitless design possibilities. The ability to create on the fly by typing directly onto the page is the perfect way to delight your readers with fresh content. In addition, there are over 20 pre-made layouts that are ready to use, plus an array of design customizations for promoting your branding.
Usability
If Divi Theme is fast and easy to use on your end, it is exceptionally so for the reader. The theme is responsive, displaying beautifully on any device, every time. You need not worry about support and updates, Divi is a flagship project for Elegant Themes and thus fully supported and actively developed.
8. Florence by Solo Pine: Top Chick Lit Pick
Billed as “blog theme,” Florence theme is surprisingly adaptive to showcasing long form content. The overall look of the Florence theme is an airy and feminine with certain romantic characteristics. If simplicity was the goal, the design succeeds. Therefore, don’t expect a lot of bells and whistles. This theme allows you to focus on providing your readers with great content and interaction.
Design
This theme features both sidebar and fullwidth layout options. The essential features include:
Multiple post formats – Standard long or short form, video, image, and music or audio
Custom “About Me” widget
Custom social widgets
Customized latest post slider
Supports Contact Form #7
Theme options via the WordPress’ Customizer
Hide or show for most elements
Sticky Navigation
Full-Width Page Template
Customizable colors – for branding!
Usability
This simple theme is a pleasure to use. It is responsive and adapts to any device with easy. It is actively developed and supported by a fantastic customer service team.
9. Lucid by Elegant Theme: Sleek and Modern
The Lucid theme is sleek and modern. It gives the reader the feeling they’re reading a glossy magazine. The clean lines allow a lot of content to be displayed without overwhelming. Resulting, is a feature loaded theme that is not only easy to use but also stunning to behold.
Design
The Lucid theme is perfect for displaying long-form content in a fashionable way with lots of white space set off with a pop of your brand’s color. There are many page templates to choose from, making it easy to feature your content in a variety of pre-made and custom styles.
Because this is an Elegant Themes product, you have access to ePanel. Easily, you can control the website without applying or changing any code. Furthermore, it allows you to easily toggle on or off most features, adjust the layout, manage ads, customize colors and precisely optimize your content for SEO. ePanel integrates seamlessly with WordPress’ dashboard, appearing automatically when you install the theme.
Usability
Use of this theme results in a website that is a pleasure for your readers to use. Fully responsive and adaptive, Lucid theme looks great on every screen —no matter its size. Since the theme is actively developed and supported by Elegant Themes, you can be assured of excellent customer service.
10. The Thinker by AnarielDesign: Simple Pleasures
Deceptively simple, this theme is feature-packed but remains subtle, regarding the detail it displays. If you’re content needs no gimmicks, this might be the theme for you. Therefore, you can offer your readers a focused, yet pleasant, environment to enjoy your work.
Design
Featuring the full version of the Soliloquy slider, The Thinker is a great theme for displaying your library of cover art. As well, fully integrated with WooCommerce, it makes selling your work, autographed copies, or other merchandise a snap. Post Formats, a WordPress feature allows you flexibility in the way you display certain content, such as video, music or audio, quotes or interviews.
Many interesting options exist for customization and branding. The landing page features a large hero image or several smaller images and includes the option for parallax views and video. Page templates take the guesswork out of design and allow you to create a beautiful website with drag and drop ease.
Usability
Never overwhelmed, your readers will adore the simplicity of the style while taking advantage of the many features the website offers. Because it is fully responsive, it adapts perfectly to every size screen, across multiple platforms, and on any device. Importantly, standard license comes with six months of support from the designer, who remains active in The Thinker theme’s development.
There you have our top ten WordPress themes designed especially for authors. Did we leave out any of your favorites? Connect with us today to let us know your thoughts.
