There is no shortage of professional WordPress themes for making a website in 2020, for every niche imaginable!
Whilst you can use almost any theme for your writer’s website, there are some text-based WordPress themes out there that are better suited for anyone who wants to showcase their writing skills.
Whether you’re a writer trying to break out into the world of freelancing, an established author looking to create a platform to promote and sell your ebooks, or a pro blogger ready to take your website to the next level and grow your audience; your website should have a professional design with features focused on highlighting the written word.
What to Look for in Great Writing Themes in 2020?
When you set out to find the best WordPress theme in 2020 for your online writing platform, consider the following features:
- Clean and Optimized Typography: A WP theme with strong typographic features will ensure your content is always legible no matter which device your visitors are using.
- Responsive and Minimal Design: Consider foregoing flashy design elements in favor of a minimalistic design to allow your content to shine.
- Portfolio/Gallery Support: If you’re looking to attract new clients, a portfolio or gallery support is a must to present your content in a visually appealing way.
- WooCommerce Support: WooCommerce will allow you to create a beautiful shop where you can sell your ebooks. If that is one of your goals, make sure your chosen theme includes support for WooCommerce.
In today’s post, we bring you a curated selection of the best WordPress writer themes for authors, journalists, and pro bloggers, which are available on ThemeForest in 2020:
With a great WordPress writer theme, you can make your online presence stand out, so your home base online is easy to find, navigate, and promote your writing.
A great writer website can help you land more gigs if you're a blogger, showcase your best writing as a journalist, or sell your books and promote your profile as an author.
Now let's jump into the most popular coaching and consulting WordPress themes from ThemeForest.
Best WordPress Themes for Writers, Authors, and Pro Bloggers (2020)
It's time to make the most of WordPress for writers and authors. Here are over fifteen text-based WordPress themes for 2020, designed especially for promoting your professional writing:
1. ChapterOne - Bookstore and Publisher Theme
ChapterOne is one of the most creative WordPress themes for authors and writers out there. Its visual design is different, original, and even a bit eclectic, making it the perfect WordPress theme for writers and authors who want to make their personality shine.
ChapterOne comes with a variety of different pages, including one for sharing your audiobooks or audio samples directly on your website (shown in the screenshot below). Stunning, simple, quite different from most other themes, yet a supremely elegant way of presenting your writing.
2. Auteur – WordPress Theme for Authors, Reviewers and Publishers
In the words of its makers, Auteur is “a gracefully crafted WordPress theme”, which you’ll no doubt agree with from the screenshot above. It comes with a variety of home page concepts, including one for book reviews, one for a book store, another for introducing a book, and one more which focuses on the author.
With ten different blog layouts, various online store layouts, sliders, page builder features, and lots more, Auteur will put your books, and your writing, front and center in a professional way.
3. Gutentype | 100% Gutenberg WordPress Theme for Modern Blog
The introduction of the Gutenberg editor to WordPress 5.0 has made a big impact to the way content creators use WordPress; some have warmly welcomed it, others have been less enthusiastic. Either way, it’s important that your chosen theme has taken Gutenberg into account, and Gutentype promises just that.
Coming in a range of flavors, this theme is open, clean, and minimal; all aspects which are perfect for authors. It includes enhanced block styles, and several custom shortcodes specifically for use with Gutenberg. Learn more about Gutenberg on Tuts+:
WordPressFirst Look at WordPress Gutenberg
WordPress GutenbergThe Best Gutenberg-Optimized WordPress Themes, Available Now
4. WordPress Author Theme Blog for Writers - With Bookstore
This author WordPress theme has a modern and functional design. It can easily be installed with one click to cut down on setup time. You can choose between three different homepage layouts which can also be edited with the help of Visual Composer.
The best part about this Wordpress theme for book authors is the integration with WooCommerce, which makes this theme a great choice for anyone who wants to sell their ebooks through their website. On top of that, Revolution Slider allows you to create beautiful slideshows to highlight your most popular articles.
Use this theme to make your new author site in 2020 and start selling your ebooks. Learn how to quickly setup and customize this theme:
6. Katelyn | Creative Gutenberg Blog WordPress Theme
Katelyn is one of the best WordPress themes for writers for two reasons. First, there is the visual design, which is clean and minimal, giving it an updated and fresh look and feel. The designers of Katelyn truly put the focus on the experience of the theme's visitor and reader with its visual design.
The second reason that Katelyn is one of the best WordPress themes for writers is all the features that come with it. This includes 100% Gutenberg integration, 30+ design blocks exclusive to publishing, an intuitive and user-friendly drag and drop design integration, optimized loading speed, and screen size image optimization to name a few...
7. The Issue - Versatile Magazine WordPress Theme
The Issue is a very light, simple, and stylish WordPress theme for writers and authors. Don’t let the retro design fool you; it’s a well-loved theme that’s been awarded only 5-star reviews since March 2019 on ThemeForest. The Issue is regularly kept up to date and has a fast customer support response time too.
Of course, you’re free to customize The Issue as much as you’d like. It comes with an incredible selection of layouts, including various widgets such as ones for social integrations. The sky is the limit here since The Issue comes with over 8,000 (you read that right) layout variations and a vast selection of features. Some of those features include custom advertising slots, GDPR compliance, infinite article loading, WooCommerce integration, improved image loading for page loading speed, and even an integration for sponsored posts.
8. The Thinker - Simple Blogging WordPress Writer Theme
The Thinker is another elegant author WordPress theme with just enough features to create a powerful writer website without making your audience feel overwhelmed. This theme was updated in 2020. It also supports WooCommerce which is perfect if you want to sell your authored work directly from your website.
Page templates such as Projects and Showcase allow you to easily feature articles published on other websites, to highlight your best writing or freelance work. The Thinker includes support for the Jetpack plugin which allows you to add sharing options to your website to promote your content far and wide.
9. Overflow - Contemporary Blog & Magazine WordPress Theme
Overflow is an absolutely beautiful WordPress theme for writers looking to make an amazing impression on their readers in 2020. Overflow’s design features large images, elegant typography, and generous white space. It comes with a great selection of layouts to choose from.
Additionally, it comes with AMP support; a Google technology for accelerated page creation that allows for mobile optimization and dynamic content. AMP is a wonderful way to take your writer’s Wordpress site over the edge in 2020.
10. Squaretype - Modern Blog WordPress Theme
What makes Squaretype one of the best WordPress themes for writers? There are many factors to consider, such as its heavy focus on the content. It’s also been one of Envato’s Hand-Picked themes. It comes with a variety of different concepts to better suit your specific niche audience needs or reading styles. More so, it embodies an easily customizable hero section, sidebar, background, and typography. You can even integrate a YouYube video as your background–with or without the controls.
Squaretype has a very light and reading friendly design that's filled with small, little design details that make it a highly professional WordPress theme for writers. You can create your own shop to sell your books along with running your blog or online magazine. Squaretype just about has it all.
11. Movement - Personal Blog WordPress Theme for Writers
If you fancy a grid-based layout, look no further than the Movement theme. It’s a great way to present your writing clips in an organized fashion along with the ability to highlight certain posts to make them stand out.
This WordPress theme for authors and free writers is built on top of the Redux Framework that has plenty of design options and you can further customize the theme thanks to the inclusion of Visual Composer plugin.
On top of that, this WordPress article theme has a responsive design, translation-ready files, and Slider Revolution to create stunning slideshows of your best content. You can make your writing stand out and look beautiful online!
12. Leona - WordPress Theme for Book Writers and Authors
Leona is an exclusive WordPress theme for authors and book writers, making it a fantastic theme to use as a writer’s profile, a blog, or to share book samples. Leona’s feature set was also developed specifically for authors and writers. This includes a portfolio showcase, upcoming event announcements, the ability to sell books directly on your website, and offer samples.
You can display your detailed writer portfolio or author profile while running a blog and promoting online workshops. Leona is easy to install and customize (as all WordPress themes should be) and it comes with a large selection of shortcodes as well as a drag and drop design interface.
13. Nord - Minimal WP Blog Theme With Great Readability
Consider the Nord theme if you’re on the lookout for a simple text based WordPress theme for authors with a high focus on readability. The minimal design allows you to present your writing in the best possible way in 2020, along with bold featured images and a clean layout.
It has several page templates as well as support for various post formats. You can easily customize the fonts, colors, backgrounds, and more. Nord is fully responsive and cross-browser compatible. The clean design allows your writing to stand out on its own merit—distraction free.
14. Johannes - Multi-concept Personal Blog & Magazine WordPress theme
Johannes is a powerful and well-praised WordPress theme for authors. It’s one of the highest-rated writer themes on ThemeForest, racking up a 4.85-star rating. Johannes comes with a large and wonderful list of features that will help you customize this theme to fit your needs perfectly. You can take advantage of the built-in translation integration, RTL support, or anyone of their included custom widgets.
“I love that it has related posts and sticky sidebar. They keep the bounce rate low as what I've experienced when I started using this theme. The homepage is to die for. You can put a welcome section (where you indicate what your site is all about). I also love that the design is so flexible. As you can see in the demo, there are several ways to make it look different. The layout is perfect perfect perfect. And most importantly, my google page score is high (90). It loads fast!”
Johannes is also responsive and GDPR compatible, for those with audiences in Europe. It comes with easily integrated banner ads for those of you interested in further monetizing your website.
15. Soledad - Multi-Concept Blog Magazine WordPress Theme
If you’re looking for an absolutely massive theme, then look no further than Soledad. It comes with over 6,880 homepage demos that can be reused throughout your whole WordPress site to suit your needs. It’s one of the biggest WordPress themes for blogs and online magazines out there. This specific theme has been around on ThemeForest since late 2015 and is updated regularly and highly praised by many satisfied customers.
Soleded complies with GDPR policy and is compatible with AMP, BBPress, BuddyPress, and WooCommerce. It comes with a detailed installation guide and documentation, as well as video tutorials. It has just about every feature imaginable to go along with its giant list of blocks, elements, and demo pages.
16. SmartBlog - Minimalist WordPress Theme for Blog Writers
Consider the SmartBlog writer theme if you want a variety of homepage layouts and plenty of customization options. It's quite a bit more professional than even the best free WordPress themes for writers.
This simple author WordPress theme also includes various page templates, post galleries to feature your work, advanced typography controls, and several archive layouts to easily organize your content. Sharing counters are also included which encourage your visitors to share your content on social media networks.
17. Carrino - An Exciting Gutenberg Blog Theme
Up next we have Carrino; a bold and vibrant theme that’s full of color and energy. It features creative imagery and wonderful typography that’s easily customizable to your needs.
It’s a beautiful Wordpress theme for writers looking to create an exciting website with a blog or an online store to go along with it.
“I have to say that I am really enjoying this theme so far. It's probably my favorite that I've tried so far. It's got the looks and the speed. Also the customer support is top notch thanks to Steve.”
18. Thype | Personal Blog WordPress
The last WordPress theme for writers and authors on this list is Thype. It’s well-documented and includes a good variety of pre-built demo pages (over 20) to start you off on the right foot. Additionally, it comes with over 50 standalone content blocks and an further 25 headers and footers.
The awesome thing about the Thype theme is that it’s fully responsive and comes with a large selection of free and premium plugins. Since it includes Visual Composer, it’s easy to edit or create pages for anyone who doesn’t know how to, or simply doesn’t want to code a WordPress website. One of its coolest features is the adaptive images that resize images automatically for better optimization on various devices such as laptops, tablets, or phones.
How to Promote Your Writer’s Website in 2020
Setting up your website with a gorgeous theme is only the beginning. If you want your work to get noticed, you’ll have to put in some work to grow your blog and promote your work. Here are four tips to get you started in the right direction.
1. Build Up Your Social Media Profiles
Increase the visibility of your brand by creating social media profiles and make sure to fill them out completely as well as provide a link back to your website. Share your content regularly but also share content that is related to your niche that your audience will find valuable.
For best results, take advantage of a theme such as SmartBlog to include social sharing buttons and social media icons on your website. Notice the persistent social media buttons showcased in the theme's menu (shown highlighted below):
2. Join Industry Related Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, and Writing Communities
Participate in industry related groups and take advantage of LinkedIn’s publishing platform to drive traffic to your website. The same applies to Facebook groups where you can offer valuable advice, share opinions, and position yourself as an expert.
Offline writing communities are also another place to build connections and cross-promote your work and website with others. They give you access to new audiences and help grow traffic to your site.
3. Use the Power of Guest Posting
Guest posting is one of the best ways to increase your visibility and draw new audiences to your website. In most cases, you will get a chance to include your author bio which should link to your website where interested readers can check out more of your work. You can link to your portfolio page such as that included in The Thinker.
4. Use Calls to Action
Use a theme such as Leona or Squaretype to include calls to action throughout your website to drive traffic to other pages on your site, such as your online store or your portfolio. Learn more about creating effective calls to action in this quick Tuts+ course.
5. Collaborate With Others
Instead of seeing other writers as your competition, consider teaming up with them and creating a joint webinar or a workshop to share valuable knowledge and increase your audience as well as your website traffic.
Create Your Writer Website in WordPress
Creating a website to promote your writing is necessary if you want to land new clients or increase the sales of your books and ebooks alike in 2020. Learn about how to make your writer's portfolio website in WordPress:
With a carefully selected WordPress theme and a little bit of clever promotion, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful writing career. Also, if you're on a budget, you can still get a premium website design with one of our free WordPress themes.
Editorial Note: Our staff updates this post regularly—removing older WordPress themes and adding new examples with the best, trending designs.
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