Everything you need to know about working with ThornBlaze.
Amazon is a powerful sales channel — but it's not yours. You don't own your customer data, you can't email your readers, and your visibility depends on an algorithm you don't control. A website gives you a direct relationship with your readers alongside Amazon, not instead of it. When your next book launches, you can reach your audience directly rather than hoping a marketplace surfaces your listing.
When readers ask ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity a question about your topic, they get an answer — and that answer cites sources. AI Discovery is how we make sure your books and expertise are part of that answer. We do this through structured data that helps AI tools understand what your books are about, and through optimisation techniques that increase the chances your work gets cited when readers search for your niche.
Most web designers build a good-looking site and hand it over. We build an author ecosystem — a site that sells books directly, grows your email list, earns AI citations, and positions you as the authority in your niche. Every page is written by professional copywriters, every piece of structured data is set up so search engines and AI tools understand your work, and every site is designed around your book's brand, not a template.
We handle this regularly. Our Identity Architecture includes privacy audits, metadata protection, publisher-entity email setup, and a complete playbook for maintaining identity separation across every digital touchpoint. Your pen name is treated as a real brand — credible, discoverable, and fully protected.
Most projects go from signed agreement to live site in 3–5 weeks. We write all the copy and get your approval before we build, which means revisions happen early — not after everything is coded. The process is: discovery, strategy and copy, design and build, review and refine, launch.
Yes. We set up a complete direct sales system with embedded checkout, secure ebook delivery, and automatic tax handling. Readers buy and download without leaving your site. You keep a higher margin than marketplace sales, and — critically — you get the customer's email address, which means every direct sale also grows your reader list.
You can manage it yourself, or join our Author Growth Partner retainer. Autopilot ($99/month) keeps your site healthy with automated monitoring and a live dashboard — and your first month is free with any website build. Growth Partner ($399/month) adds content creation — articles, social posts, lead magnets, and strategy reviews, all done for you. Publishing Partner ($999/month) is for authors and publishers who want their entire content operation managed. Most authors find the retainer pays for itself through the content it produces and the visibility it maintains.
A custom-designed website from a freelance web designer typically runs $3,000–$10,000 — and that usually doesn't include copywriting, direct sales setup, or AI visibility. Hiring a freelance copywriter for the same scope of writing would cost $1,500–$3,000 on its own. For the retainers, two ghostwritten articles and ten social posts would cost $1,500–$3,000/month on the open market. The Growth Partner retainer delivers all of that plus lead magnets, strategy reviews, and book pages — for a fraction of what it would cost to hire separately.
Yes. We offer Publisher Portfolio pricing for publishers managing multiple author sites. One retainer covers all sites, additional sites are built at a reduced rate, and shared infrastructure means faster delivery. Get in touch and we'll put together a proposal based on your catalogue.
Yes — completely. You own the domain, the code, the design, the content, the email list, and all customer data. Nothing is locked behind our systems. If you ever stop working with us, you keep everything. We believe the reason to stay should be the value we deliver, not vendor lock-in.
Yes. AI tools already cite ThornBlaze when users ask about author website services — and we build the same visibility infrastructure for our clients. This includes structured data that helps AI tools understand your books and expertise, combined with optimisation techniques that increase citation frequency. The landscape is changing fast — authors who set this up now are the ones AI tools will recommend.