Website Building

Why I Am Treating WordPress as Its Own Author Platform

/ Author Simon Phillips / Leave a comment

I have been spending a great deal of time working out what my WordPress website is supposed to be. The obvious answer is that it is an author website, although that answer leaves most of the important questions untouched.

An author website can be little more than a collection of book covers, sales links, a short biography, and an occasional update. That structure is tidy and easy to understand, although it does not match the amount of work I am trying to bring together or the kind of relationship I want the website to have with readers.

The more I have worked through the site, the clearer it has become that WordPress needs to function as a platform in its own right. It needs to give the books permanent homes, make the Chronicles easy to follow, provide free ways into the fiction, support paid reading, and give me somewhere to explain what I am building as it develops.

A Static Website Was No Longer Enough

There is nothing wrong with a simple author website. For someone with a small catalogue and only occasional news, a few book pages and a purchase link may be all that is needed.

My own work has grown beyond that shape. I have several series in development, four Chronicle branches, free stories, paid material, book updates, and a growing amount of author-side writing that needs to sit somewhere sensible.

Putting all of that on a single blog feed would create a different problem. A reader interested in science fiction could easily find a historical Chronicle beside a publishing reflection, followed by a fantasy update and then a website post. Everything would technically be available, although very little would feel properly organised.

I wanted the site to help readers find the parts that interest them. That meant thinking beyond individual posts and asking how the whole platform should work over time.

The Books Need Permanent Homes

The books remain the main reason for the website. Every other section has to support them rather than compete with them.

A basic books page can show a cover, a description, and an Amazon link. That works for a small catalogue, although it becomes difficult once several connected books belong to the same series and each series has its own setting, reading order, themes, updates, and related material.

I am therefore treating each series as something that needs a permanent home. A series page should explain what the books are, show the current releases, make the reading order clear where necessary, and give readers a direct path towards buying or reading them.

Those pages should also remain useful between releases. When I publish an update, a behind-the-scenes post, a related Chronicle issue, or a piece about developing that series, the relevant material can appear on the series page automatically.

This matters because a series page should not feel finished once the sales copy has been added. It should continue to gather the work connected to that story world while the main description remains stable.

Giving the Chronicles a Clear Place

The four Chronicles create another layer of the site. The Forgotten Chronicle, The Future Chronicle, The Mythic Chronicle, and The Modern Chronicle each have their own identity, subjects, and style of presentation.

They need to be easy to recognise and follow, although they cannot be allowed to divide the website into four unrelated sections. The site still belongs to one author, and the books remain the centre of the work.

I see the Chronicles as reading and discovery branches. They give me room to publish substantial ongoing material, build regular points of contact with readers, and connect certain runs to the book series they naturally support.

That connection needs to be handled carefully. A Chronicle may introduce readers to a historical period, a speculative setting, a mythic theme, or a modern concern that leads towards one of my series. Even then, the Chronicle should retain its own identity while the related series remains clearly presented as the main body of fiction.

WordPress gives me the structure to do that through permanent Chronicle pages, clear categories, and filtered feeds. A reader can follow one Chronicle branch without having to search through every post on the site, while still seeing the wider author platform around it.

Free and Paid Reading Need to Sit Together

The previous Author Journey post looked at the balance between free and paid work. That decision affects the shape of the website as much as it affects individual stories.

I do not want every path through the site to lead immediately to a payment request. Readers need space to understand the books, sample the writing, read selected stories, and decide whether they want to continue.

At the same time, paid work needs a proper home. The Chronicles, archive material, and longer reading sections require time to write and maintain, and WordPress needs to support that work as part of the author business.

The solution is not to separate free and paid material into two disconnected websites. They need to sit beside one another in a way that feels clear and fair.

A free story can lead towards a related book series. A Chronicle opening can introduce the subject and atmosphere before a paid continuation. An author update can explain why a new archive section exists. A series page can show the books while also gathering related free posts beneath them.

When those parts are connected properly, the reader is given choices rather than being pushed in one direction. Someone can read freely, buy a book, follow a Chronicle, or support the paid archive according to their interest.

Building Around Reader Paths

One of the most useful changes in my thinking has been to stop looking at every page in isolation. A page may look complete on its own and still leave the reader with no clear idea where to go next.

I now think in terms of reader paths. Someone may arrive through a search result, a shared Chronicle post, a YouTube link, an Amazon author page, or the homepage itself.

The site needs to help that person understand where they have arrived and what is connected to the page in front of them. A Chronicle post should lead towards its Chronicle branch and, where relevant, a related book series. A series page should lead towards the current books and a small selection of connected posts. A free story should offer a natural route towards further reading.

This does not mean filling every page with links. Too many choices can be as unhelpful as having none.

The aim is to provide one or two sensible next steps. Readers should be able to continue with the subject they have already shown an interest in, rather than being sent back to the homepage to start again.

Keeping the Homepage Active

The homepage has also changed in my mind. I once thought of it mainly as a fixed introduction, with a short biography, a few featured books, and links to the main sections.

It still needs to introduce me and the work clearly, although it should also show what is active now. A returning reader ought to be able to see a recent Chronicle, a current book or series update, the latest Author Journal post, and a route towards free or paid reading.

The difficulty is keeping the homepage current without rebuilding it every week. That is where filtered post sections become useful.

Instead of manually replacing every item, the homepage can pull the latest posts from the correct categories. The main structure remains stable while the visible content changes as new work is published.

This allows the site to feel active without turning website maintenance into a second full-time job. The homepage can continue to introduce the overall platform while reflecting the work I am actually doing.

Keeping the Author at the Centre

With several series and four Chronicle branches, there is a risk that the website could feel like a group of separate publications sharing the same address. That would make the structure harder to understand and weaken the connection between the different parts of my work.

The author identity has to remain visible throughout the site. The Chronicles can have distinct visual styles, and each series can have its own atmosphere, although they still need to feel connected to the same body of work.

The Author Journal has a supporting role here. It gives me somewhere to explain the decisions behind the site, share progress, discuss publishing work, and record the practical steps involved in building a long-term catalogue.

That does not mean the Author Journal should take over the site. Readers are coming primarily for the books, stories, and Chronicles, and the author-side posts should help them understand that work rather than distract from it.

This is why the Author Journal will sit lower in the overall structure. It adds context and a human voice, while the fiction remains in the stronger position.

The Work Behind the Visible Pages

Much of this work is quiet and repetitive. Categories need to be decided, pages need to be connected, old posts need to be routed correctly, images need proper descriptions, and each series needs enough structure to remain useful as the catalogue grows.

None of those tasks produces a new book. It can therefore feel difficult to justify spending time on them when there is always more writing to do.

The problem is that an expanding catalogue becomes harder to use if the supporting structure is ignored. Books can disappear into a long list, older posts can become difficult to find, and readers may never discover that two pieces of work are connected.

I am trying to build the structure before that problem becomes larger. The site does not need every possible feature, and I am avoiding additions that would make it harder to maintain.

What it does need is a clear foundation. Pages need defined purposes, categories need to route posts correctly, and each section needs to lead readers towards the work that belongs there.

What This Means in Practice

In practical terms, WordPress is becoming the main organised home for my author work. The books will have permanent series pages, the Chronicles will have their own branches, and ongoing posts will appear in the correct places through categories and filtered sections.

Free stories will give readers direct access to the fiction. Paid material will have a clear place inside the same platform, with enough free reading around it for readers to make their own decision.

Substack will continue as a parallel publication and discovery channel. YouTube and shorter visual work will provide additional entry points. Amazon will remain the place where the books are sold.

The difference is that WordPress will connect those parts. It will explain the catalogue, preserve older work, show what is current, and provide a stable place that is not dependent on a single external platform.

Building It Slowly and Properly

The site is still developing, and some parts will take time to complete. There are many series pages to build, older material to organise, and several sections that need to work together before the structure feels settled.

I am trying to resist the temptation to rush through it simply so that everything looks finished. A page that exists without a clear purpose can create more confusion than a page that has not been built yet.

The slower work has helped me decide what each part of the site is meant to do. It has also made me remove ideas that sounded useful at first but did not support the books or the reader.

That is probably the most important change. I am no longer treating the website as a collection of things I should have as an author. I am treating it as a working part of the writing and publishing system.

What Readers Can Expect Next

As the structure develops, readers will begin to see clearer series pages, more organised Chronicle sections, regular free reading, and a paid archive that is easier to understand and follow. Each addition should make it simpler to move between the books, stories, Chronicles, and author updates.

The Author Journal will continue to record the practical decisions behind that work. Some updates will be substantial, while others will cover a small change that has taken longer to solve than expected.

The next stage is to keep building the permanent homes for the books and connect the ongoing posts to the correct places. I will continue adding updates as those sections take shape, and the latest free reading can always be found through the main story areas of the site.

The Work Behind the Books

/ Author Simon Phillips / Leave a comment

Why I Wanted to Start This Section

Most author websites naturally place the finished book first. That makes sense, because the book is usually the reason someone has arrived on the site. A reader wants to know what the story is, what kind of world they are entering, where to begin, and whether there is another book waiting after the first one.

I still want that to remain true here. The books, stories, series pages, Chronicles, free fiction, and paid archive are the main parts of this website. They are the reason the site exists. They are also the work I want readers to find, follow, and hopefully return to over time.

Even so, there is another side to the work that does not always fit neatly on a book page or a story page. It is the planning, the testing, the rebuilding, the slow decisions, and the small corrections that happen before a reader ever sees the finished result. That side is quieter, but it matters.

This Author Journey section is where I want to write about that part of the work.

What Readers Usually See First

By the time a book appears on a website, it can look fixed and simple. There is a cover, a title, a description, a purchase link, and perhaps a short note about the series. Everything seems clean because the messy part has already happened somewhere else.

The same is true of a Chronicle issue, a free story, or a new page on the site. The visible result is only the final layer. Behind it are choices about structure, timing, categories, images, links, tone, format, and how the piece fits into the wider author platform.

I have been thinking about that more as I rebuild the WordPress side of my author work. A website can easily become a list of books with a few links attached. There is nothing wrong with that in a basic sense, but it does not give much sense of the author behind the work, or the shape of the larger project being built.

I wanted a place where I could talk about that without turning every update into an announcement or a sales post.

The Work That Sits Behind a Finished Page

A lot of the work behind the books is not dramatic. It is often a matter of deciding where something belongs, what it connects to, and how a reader might find it later.

A story has to sit in the right place. A series needs a page that can grow over time. A Chronicle post needs to connect to the right branch without overwhelming the fiction it is meant to support. A free story should be easy to find, but it should not confuse the paid archive. A writing update should help readers understand what is happening without pulling attention away from the books themselves.

These decisions are small on their own, but they add up. They decide whether the website feels clear or scattered. They decide whether a reader has a simple path through the work, or whether everything becomes a pile of posts with no real direction.

That is one reason I have been treating WordPress as a serious part of the author platform rather than a spare noticeboard. I do not want the site to exist only as a bridge to somewhere else. I want it to hold the books, the story worlds, the Chronicles, the free fiction, the paid material, and the author updates in one organised place.

Building the Website Around the Fiction

The website is being built around the fiction first. That matters to me because it keeps the whole project honest.

The series pages are there for the books. The Chronicle branches are there to support discovery and give readers another route into the work. The free stories are there to let readers try the fiction without needing to pay first. The paid archive gives some of the longer material a proper home. The Author Journal sits beside those things, but it does not replace them.

That balance is important. I do not want the website to become a general blog where the books are pushed into the background. I also do not want every post to feel as though it is trying to sell something. Readers can usually sense that, and I do not think it helps build trust.

For me, the better path is to show the work clearly. Some posts will be about new stories or releases. Some will be about changes to the website. Some will be about what I am learning as I publish, organise, and keep going. The fiction remains the centre, but the process around it can still be worth sharing.

Why Every Update Should Not Be an Advertisement

A book advertisement has its place. A release post has its place. A paid archive update also has its place. Those posts are useful because readers need to know what is available and where to find it.

Still, if every update is only about buying, subscribing, or clicking through to something, the author begins to disappear behind the promotion. That is not what I want from this section.

I want some posts to feel quieter than that. I want room to write about decisions that are still forming, changes that have taken longer than expected, and practical lessons that might not sound impressive but are part of building something that lasts.

There is also value in admitting that not every part of the work is clean or fast. Some pages need rebuilding. Some ideas need sorting out before they make sense. Some stories take longer to place within the wider structure. Some plans look clear at the start and then need adjusting once the real work begins.

That does not mean the project is failing. It usually means the project is becoming more honest.

Writing Around Real Life

Another reason I wanted this section is that writing does not happen in a perfect empty space. It happens around work, family, tiredness, time pressure, and ordinary responsibilities. I do not want to turn that into the main subject of the website, but it is part of the truth behind the books.

There are days when the work moves quickly. There are other days when the most useful thing I can do is fix a category, update a page, make a note for a future story, or check whether the website still makes sense from a reader’s point of view. That kind of progress does not look impressive from outside, but it keeps the larger structure moving.

I have learned to take those smaller steps more seriously. A finished story matters, of course. A published book matters. A complete series page matters. Still, the quiet maintenance matters too, because without it the website becomes harder to use and the work becomes harder to follow.

The long-term goal is not to appear busy. The goal is to keep building in a way that readers can understand.

The Value of Small Progress

One thing I have had to accept is that slow progress is still progress when it is moving in the right direction. That sounds simple, but it is easy to forget when there are several books, several story worlds, different content streams, and a website that needs to hold all of them properly.

Small progress might mean writing a post like this. It might mean making the Author Journey section clearer. It might mean giving the Monthly Free Stories page a proper place. It might mean making sure a Chronicle issue links back to the right series page. It might mean writing a better excerpt, choosing a cleaner title, or deciding that a page should not try to do too many jobs at once.

Those things are not as visible as a new book cover, but they shape how the whole site works. They help the fiction feel less scattered. They also help me see the project more clearly as I build it.

That is one of the main reasons I want to write these posts. They give me a place to record the practical thinking behind the work while giving readers a clearer sense of what is being built.

What I Will Share Here

This section will mostly be about the writing life behind the books and the author platform around them. I expect to write about story progress, series planning, publishing decisions, KDP lessons, website building, WordPress changes, Substack reflections, YouTube experiments, mini-reads, free stories, paid archive updates, and the slow discipline of keeping a large fiction project organised.

Some posts may be simple progress notes. Others may look at a decision in more detail, such as why a page was added, why a series needs its own hub, or why free fiction belongs beside paid content. There may also be posts about setbacks, tiredness, false starts, and the problem of trying to build a writing career in real life rather than in theory.

What I do not want is a section full of empty advice. I am still learning many parts of this. I would rather write honestly about what I am trying, what has helped, what has been slower than expected, and what I am changing as the work develops.

That feels more useful than pretending everything was planned perfectly from the beginning.

Where This Fits on the Website

The Author Journey section is a support layer for the main website. It is here for readers who want to know more about the person building the books, the choices behind the site, and the practical work that sits around the fiction.

It should not take over from the books themselves. The series pages, Chronicle branches, free stories, paid archive, and main book pages remain the main paths through the site. This section simply gives those paths some human context.

I think that matters, especially with a site that is carrying several types of content. A reader might arrive through a free story, a Chronicle issue, a book page, or a post about the writing process. However they arrive, I want the site to feel connected rather than random.

That means building slowly, making careful decisions, and accepting that some of the less visible work is still part of the author life.

A Quiet Starting Point

This first post is not a major announcement. It is simply a starting point for a section I think the website needs.

There will still be book updates, story releases, Chronicle posts, free fiction, and paid material. Those are the main reasons the site exists. This section will sit beside them as a place for the quieter work: the planning, the lessons, the adjustments, the doubts, the useful mistakes, and the small steps that help the whole platform become clearer over time.

If you are here for the fiction, that remains the best place to begin. The books and stories are the centre of the site. If you also want to follow how the work is being built behind the scenes, this is where I will write about it.

I will keep adding updates as the site develops.