Are you a writer? There’s a Squarespace template for you.

Here are eight of the best Squarespace templates for authors, journalists, and other writers.

By Simone Scully and Haley Henschel2020-12-17 14:28:57 UTC

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 for writers: It allows you to build a stunning, personalized website that fits your specific needs relatively easily. You don’t need any coding experience to bring your site to life — all you have to do, really, is use the right Squarespace template.

What kinds of templates does Squarespace offer?

From blogs to memberships to online stores, launch pages, and portfolios, there’s a Squarespace template out there for just about any kind of website. 

You’ll encounter two different types of Squarespace templates nowadays: those from Squarespace version 7.0 (which is still offered by the platform and very widely used) and those from the newly updated version 7.1, which came out in early 2020.

In Squarespace 7.0, any given template will let you play around with elements like layouts, pages, and navigation, but you’ll get additional customization tools and style options sprinkled in there depending on the template’s “family.” (7.0 templates are organized into 22 different families, and all templates within a family share similar design features.) For example, templates within the Montauk, Supply, and Flatiron families give you the option of creating stacked gallery layouts, while templates with image carousels are unique to the Forte and Ishimoto families.

Squarespace 7.1, meanwhile, merges all templates into a single family with the same underlying structure, style, and features. (For more information on the differences between versions 7.0 and 7.1, click here.)

It’s super important to do your homework before deciding on a Squarespace template, especially if you’re running version 7.1 — it doesn’t allow you to switch templates once you’ve selected one. (It’s possible to make one template look like another, but you’ll probably have to reset a bunch of settings and delete some or all of your content — there’s no one-click fix.) Version 7.0 is slightly more forgiving in that it allows you to swap designs at any point, but since certain features/parameters are exclusive to different families, it’s still much less of a hassle if you pick the right template to begin with. 

What should I look for in a template? 

Above all, you’ll want to look for a template layout that works for you and your website’s unique purpose; extra details like fonts and colors can be tweaked later on. If you’re a freelance writer looking to find editors to hire you, for instance, you’ll want a good portfolio-style template with contact forms and pages that showcase your best clips. If you’re a published author who wants to stay connected with your readers and fans, think about opting for a one-page, mobile-friendly site where you share your bio and information about upcoming book releases or events. If you’re a journalist interested in publishing long-form reported pieces, meanwhile, you’re probably better off with a highly customizable template that easily integrates multimedia assets.

Relatedly, keep in mind that that you don’t have to go with a photo-heavy template if you’re mostly showcasing written work (although populating your site with stock imagery from sites like Pexels is always an option). Many of Squarespace’s templates are optimized to make large chunks of text look visually appealing, so don’t force slideshow galleries, full-width images, and the like if you don’t need to — with the right design, your work can shine all on its own. 

To make this a little bit easier, we’ve rounded up a list of our favorite Squarespace templates for writers below. (Note that all but one of them is from Squarespace 7.0 — version 7.1 is still in development, and at the time of writing, it did not carry over popular features like parallax scrolling and cover pages.)