One of the major benefits of launching your author website is that you will now have an easy way to send out your media kit to potential podcasts, interviewers, conferences and more! If you’re new to the world of book marketing, you may not know what a media kit is! In sum: A media kit is a collection of promotional materials that provides information about an author to help reporters, bloggers, and other media outlets write articles.

In general, there are a few things that your media kit page should include:

1. Your Official Bio

2. Approved Photos

3. Book Reviews

4. Links to Interviews You’ve Done

5. Link to Your NewsletterOpt-in

6. Social Links

Let’s dive in and understand why each of these six sections of your media kit are important. I’ll be using screenshots from: The Atwood: Squarespace Author Template so you can see an example of an author media kit in action. Remember, you don’t need to have a huge and complex media kit when you first launch your website. You can add depth to this page over time. These six elements are a fantastic starting point!

Author Website: Media Kit Must-Haves

Author Media Kit: The Official Bio

The first element of a media kit is an official bio. As with any bio, you’re meant to do some bragging here! Go ahead and mention your publications and accolades. The most important thing though, is to keep this official bio brief. Some of the best I’ve seen are usually only around 5 sentences.

Wondering what information needs to be included on your author website homepage? Download the Author Homepage Checklist.

Author Media Kit: Approved Photos

The next section your author media kits needs is an approved photos section. Not only is including professional photos of you an excellent way to optimize your personal branding as an author, but it also demonstrates your professionalism and dedication to your craft.

If you don’t have the budget for professional photos, I am a huge believer in DIYing your photos until you can afford to have professional headshots taken. Confession: When I first started my website design business, I actually DIYed my website photos and didn’t update them for a few months until I started making consistent income. I ordered an IPhone tripod and used youtube to learn how to take professional photos on my IPhone and I think they came out great!

Need to DIY your author media kit photos? Here is the exact youtube video I watched:

Professional Headshots Using Portrait Mode On Your IPhone

Author Media Kit: Book Reviews

Be sure to include a handful of standout book reviews. You don’t need many though. Try to stick to no more than five. Three is plenty! If J.K. Rowling happened to write a positive review of your book, you’d definitely want that to live in this section. Even if major book celebrities have yet to read your book, I’m sure you have raving fans across the internet! Go ahead and grab some of those awesome reviews and/or comments from instagram / Tiktok and put a couple of them on this page.

Author Website Inspo

The Squarespace Author Templates (Media Kit Page Included)

Visit the Author Website Template Shop: TEMPLATE SHOP

Author Media Kit: Links To Interviews You’ve Done

If you’ve already been interviewed on a podcast or by a media outlet create a section with simple links to those interviews. This section does not need to be complicated. It can have a simple header and then the title of the interview hyperlinked.

**Make sure that you select having the hyperlinked text link “open in a new tab”. That way your website visitor doesn’t have to go hunting back through their web history looking for your website again after they finish listening to your interviews.

Author Media Kit: Link to your opt-in

I think it’s an awesome idea to leave a link to your opt-in on your media kit page. I’m sure you’ve created an exciting incentive for your readers, so why not share that with potential interviewers. As a bonus, you will now have potential interviewers on your email list and what better way to show how engaged you are with your audience than by dropping into their inbox a couple times a month.

Author Media Kit: Social Links

No doubt about it, we live in a time where publishers and journalist want to see what an author’s social media presence looks like. I’ve noticed many book marketers talking about how authors need to be building personal brands on social media and hence, having links to your social media accounts are a great way for journalists to get to know you better.

AUTHOR MEDIA KIT: Other Elements Worth Including

The great thing about having your media kit on your author website, is this can be updated and built out over time. You can add in more sections as you feel you need them.Here are a couple of examples of extra sections that you may want to include when you’re ready.

Firstly, another section dedicated to your book. So far we only have a "book reviews” section. But you may want to add a section to your media kit that includes your book cover image. Make sure this is a flat image, so journalists can download it. You can also include a link to a book excerpt if you have one to provide.

The second noteworthy section would be a nice addition below the “interviews”section of your media kit page. This section would be dedicated to sample questions and answers for potential interviewers. Why provide this? Well, unfortunately, not all interviewers will have time to read your whole book, so they’ll want a resource to be able to ask you questions that you’re excited to answer.

Check out Website Design Services here: Author Website Design Services

Looking for a website designer for your author website?

Let me guess… You’ve already spent hours piecing together advice from reading blog-after-blog explaining website design principles and yet you’re still unsure about what exactly should be on your website. You’re ready to connect with your readers and can’t wait to be featured at book readings, conferences and podcasts. Perhaps you’ve realized that DIYing your author website may not be for you. No worries, I’m here to help!

I hope that this breif blog post has helped you feel like you can get started with creating your media kit on your author website. If you haven’t launched your website yet, check out my Squarespace Author Website Templates. Each template includes 11-pages that are intentionally designed to create an author website that converts!

As always, don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions!

Check Out The Squarespace Author Templates

Visit the Author Website Template Shop: TEMPLATE SHOP