Tailor-Made, Semi-Custom Design Packages with Spirit
start with our "skeleton" websites, and we'll work together to build a haunting visual design and style
If the thought of starting from absolutely nothing is terrifying to you, then fear not! We offer a variety of best-practice-based “skeleton” designs to build on. Together, you and I work towards adding the meat: the branding, the visual design, the oomph, the whiz-bang — all on top of a solid, Noisy Ghost-designed user experience and WordPress integration.
tailor-made semi-custom author websites
what you're getting with each skeleton site
Our skeleton sites cover all the basics you need in an author website to help new readers discover your books, and learn more about you. They’ve been designed with best practices guiding the placement and hierarchy of page elements, and are geared to offering an easy-to-use interface recognizable across desktop, tablet, and mobile environments. All our skeleton designs include the following:
Responsive
Optimized
SEO-Ready
WordPress CMS
Branded
Built to Launch
book landing page website for authors
Announce your novel to the world with a book landing page designed to convert potential readers into buyers. It includes purchase links, blurbs, reviews, a mini biography, newsletter subscription, and news articles that you can update yourself. Ask us about including your video book trailer.
single-page author website design
Keep it compact with a single-page author website, including all the necessary components of a multi-page webpage on one scrollable page. The Single-Page Author includes a carousel header with up to three slides, book purchase links, your author biography, press information, blog post teasers, book reviews, and a contact form.
multi-page author website design
Your home on the web can be a penthouse with the Multi-Page Author Website. Featuring five pages to grow your author brand, the Multi-Page adds extra layers of depth to your homepage, book pages, author biography, press page, and contact, so your website can grow with your career as a writer.
Skeleton sites are made to be customized: during the design process, we add color, texture, typography, images, and update the site with your copy.
Need something special? We’re happy to help! Let us know what you’re dreaming of when you reserve your design and we’ll arrange a séance to discuss your options.
The Tailor-Made Design Process
how we work with a skeleton website design
With a Tailor-Made Skeleton website, all you need to do is pick the framework that fits your ambitions, and we’ll work together to develop your author brand’s visual presentation. It’s the mid-way solution between buying a ready-made website from Noisy Ghost, and going full-out totally custom. By working with a pre-designed structure, we can focus on your artwork because we know the user interface works.
select a skeleton site design
schedule your design time with us
tell us about your design vision
we design your website's artwork
you approve the website's artwork
we finalize the art and launch it
semi-custom author and book marketing website designs
our skeleton website designs can help you build a strong foundation for your author platform
- Book Landing PageStarting from$775
- One integrated landing page
- Book Summary
- Book Blurbs
- Purchase Links
- Author Mini Biography
- News Articles
- Social Media Links
- Contact Form
- MailChimp Newsletter Sign-up
- Optional WordPress Blog
- Built to grow with you
- Single-Page Author WebsiteStarting from$995
- One-page integrated website
- Anchored navigation links
- Carousel Hero with three slides
- New Book Announcement
- Books Catalogue with summaries
- Book Blurbs
- Book Reviews
- Purchase Links
- Author Mini Biography
- Press and Media Information
- Contact Form
- MailChimp Newsletter Sign-up
- Social Media Links
- Optional WordPress Blog
- Built to grow with you
- Multi-Page Author WebsiteStarting from$2645
- Five-page website
- WordPress-powered Blog
- Global navigation links
- Homepage and What's New
- Carousel Hero with three slides
- Books Page with purchase links
- Unlimited blurbs and reviews
- Full Author Biography Page
- Full Press Resources Page
- Full Contact Page with email form
- MailChimp Newsletter Sign-up
- Social Media Links
- Downloads Tracking
- Optional News Articles
- Optional Microsite support
- Built to grow with you
A Few Things You May Want to Know
frequently asked questions
Full pricing for a Tailor-Made website includes the pre-built wireframes and website structure, the WordPress integration, and the Visual Design time. In each site design, we always prepare SEO-ready formats, optimize your images, and provide responsive design for mobile and tablet.
The following items are NOT included in the total cost: copywriting, additional downloadable item design (i.e. PDFs of media kits and author biographies, as these are supplemental items that must be provided by the client), photography, newsletter design, blog post development, social media graphics. All of the aforementioned, with the exception of website copywriting, can be added as an add-on to your design time for a nominal fee. Do about it when filling out your quote, because oftentimes we can discount the costs of supplemental add-ons that fit within the scope of the brand when we’ve already built the resources for your site. (We’re practical like that.)
We refer to our Tailor-Made websites as “Skeleton Websites” because they already have the bones in place: the wireframes, which refers to the overall structure of the website, and the WordPress integration. When we talk about the “visual design” or the “graphic design”, we’re adding meat to the skeleton: the tone, the texture, the images, the photography, the book covers — all the visual aspects of your author brand and presentation.
Our Tailor-Made websites are offered as one-off services, wherein we have calculated the costs for the visual design for each Tailor-Made site and included it in the total cost. We do not accept retainers or deposits for Tailor-Made sites, as the total amount for the website must be paid in full prior to starting any visual design work. Please advise that once a reservation payment is made, it is non-refundable.
If you require more flexibility with your billing options, please don’t hesitate to ask. We accommodate different needs and use cases with our Bespoke website offerings too.
Fill out the associated quote with the design(s) you want, and we’ll contact you about your options, reservation, and payment schedule to set your design time up. Let us know if you’re thinking of combining Tailor-Made projects (for example, a primary author-branded site for you, and several Book Landing Page style microsite for your books), and we’ll be happy to work out the details for you.
Yes! We built our Tailor-Made sites so that it would be super fast to swap page elements and add new things in — like video book trailers, or different cover artwork, or image galleries, or your reference material, or pictures of your werewolf.
We can add pages, swap pages, take pages away, flip the order, add a microsite for your book’s characters — the sky’s the limit. Just let us know in advance what you’re dreaming of and we’ll be happy to figure out a solution. Some things take a bit more work than others, so we can discuss your ideas and see if it fits into the scope of a Tailor-Made site. (For really complex stuff, we might suggest looking at Bespoke options. The easiest way to get an answer as to whether something’s viable is to ask the question.)
Noisy Ghost Co. retains the rights to the preliminary works and working files, the original artwork, design tools, and reserves the right to use all mockups, sketches, wireframes, and drafts in promotional, portfolio, or as career furthering uses, unless otherwise agreed upon in advance of starting any design work with a client and in written agreement at the time of signing. Liquidation Rights may be arranged in advance of starting any design work for a percentage of the total cost of any works completed.
Third party materials used in the creation of a design by Noisy Ghost Co. for any client remains the property of the Third Party.
The deadline for you to provide your website copy to us for inclusion is one week prior to your reservation’s start date. We provide our clients with copywriting guidelines at the time of signing, and ample wiggle room to get it done on time. Granted, we understand that writing website copy is rarely an exact science, and we expect that revision is part of the build and approval process,. We do, however, require an as-close-to-complete draft to work with at the onset.
There are a few things you’re going to need to consider before reserving a website design, and we can help you out with a lot of these things along the way:
- Do you have a web hosting provider and domain registered for your site? We recommend SiteGround because they are ah-may-zing.
- Are you prepared to write your website copy?
- Do you have a gorgeous hi-resolution headshot?
- Do you have your hi-resolution book covers (front and back and spine)? All of them?
- Do you need to put together your media kit?
- Are your free chapter samples polished?
- Do you have an existing blog that needs to be transferred to your new home?
- Have you filled out our author brand questionnaire?
- Have you looked at your competition and analyzed what they’re up to with their marketing?
- Do you need a cookie? What about a logo?
- Are your social media platforms up to snuff? Do you want matching graphics for everything?
- Do you need advertising graphics for any super secret upcoming projects?
- Are you intimidated yet? Don’t be afraid. You’ve got this and we’ve got your back.
All applicable taxes, third-party service fees (i.e. PayPal, web hosting, domain registration fees, etc.), and supplemental charges for stock, type, and operational resources (i.e. supplemental WordPress plugins requested by the client or supplemental typography licensing outside of the Google Fonts catalogue, for example) are not included in the purchase price for our Tailor-Made sites.
The Noisy Ghost Co. Portfolio
frighteningly good design
When you’ve worked in the design industry for thirteen years, you amass a scary amount of work. Presented here is the heart-beneath-the-floorboards of my design practice — the very best in user experience, web design, graphic design, brand design, and mobile design.
Ready-Made Designs
ready-made, one-of-a-kind
designs
When it comes to our ready-made website designs, we never bring back the dead. Our pieces are one-of-a-kind and ready to implement on your WordPress site. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Tailor-Made Designs
semi-custom
design packages
with spirit
Start with a solid user experience: choose a Noisy Ghost-designed "skeleton" website, and you and I work together to add the meat — a haunting visual design and style.
Totally Bespoke Designs
ground-up,
custom design
services
Everyone’s needs are different and we can tailor a quote for you based on your specific requirements for design work. Bespoke designs can be as simple or extensive as you like.
The Noisy Ghost Blog offers training, tutorials, suggestions, tips, and anecdotes to help authors extend their brand and marketing.