Introducing Essential Author Website Forms

Introduction

I love forms.

A well written form is a rewarding experience for the visitor and a solid audience builder for the author. Done right a well crafted form can progress business opportunities, connect readers with authors and grow a mailing list 24/7 while providing a personal touch to define the relationship.

In this module we will build two core forms for authors.

• The contact form 
• And the mailing list sign up form

Contact Form

We will start with the contact form. All too often contact forms are an after thought but they deserve much more attention than that.

Contact forms are a real time connection between visitors and authors. These visitors could be new or long term readers with questions, comments or reviews. Contact form scan also be the medium for commercial queries about interviews, appearances, or purchase options on your books.

A good contact form makes the process clear to users, provides an instant response and makes it as easy as possible for you, the author, to take action.

Let’s look at the contact form for Dirk Volcano.

It is located on the dedicated contact page for the website. In the first section we have our page title, a short welcome message and a simple 3 field contact form.

In the next section we have information directing business queries and where to go for social channels.

Finally we have a third section on the page promoting the bestselling titles from Dirk. It’s important that every page offers an opportunity to either subscribe to the mailing list or sell a book.

When we fill out the form and click submit we are taken to a dedicated thank you page. This page thanks the visitor for contacting Dirk, sets an expectation when they will get a response and what will be in that response.

There’s also other sections on the page with links to the social channels, and the latest releases.

Adding these extra sections helps engage the visitor into taking another action to either connect with Dirk on different channels or buy a book.

When the visitor fills out and submits the form they are taken to a dedicated page thanking them for signing up. We are also using this page to encourage the new subscriber to take action, primarily to go and check their inbox but also take the chance to share timely information such as upcoming personal appearances, and a reminder of the books available from Dirk.

Mailing List Sign Up Form

A constantly growing mailing list is the back bone of a self-published authors career. It connects you the author direct to your reader to establish a one to one relationship that is unencumbered by the algorithms of social media or the mysterious, and usually expensive bidding process of online ads.

Subscribers to your mailing list can be lifetime readers of both your books and newsletters and that starts with your signup form.

Just like the contact form we are going to give our sign up form a dedicated page on the website.

There are a few reasons for that.

The main one being we are keeping this site as straightforward to manage as possible. That includes having a single sign up form for the newsletter that we will link to from around the site.

It doesn’t matter if I click on the button from the header, the home page, the footer or anywhere else they will all take me to the dedicated newsletter page.

This page is all about encouraging the reader to take the action to sign up and become a subscriber. When we get to the page the hero section has a reminder of what is on offer and a clear, simple sign up form for the visitors to complete.

If you think this page looks similar to the single books template you’d be right.  We are using the same principles of asking the visitor to take action right away, subscribe to the mailing list, and offering extra information with a books description, reader reviews, and an excerpt for those that need more information to confirm if this book is a fit for what they like.

These extra sections are a great way to filter your visitors not only for those that will download your book BUT ALSO read it and review it as well.

Newsletter Thank You Page

After submitting the form the new subscriber is redirected to the thank you page. This page has a request to check their inbox and click on the confirmation link (for double opt in).

There are also supporting sections for a promotion of an upcoming personal appearance and another section highlighting the books in the series.

Summary

I’ve covered the essential roles that contact and newsletter signup forms play in strengthening your author website. Understanding their purpose and benefits—whether it’s connecting with readers, encouraging subscriptions, or nurturing a long-term community—is the first step. With this foundation in place, you’ll be ready to confidently create and optimize these forms in future lessons, ensuring your author platform continues to grow and engage your audience.

Next Lesson

In the next lesson we will start building the contact funnel for our author website.