# Draft Margin

> Free websites for fiction authors. An author adds their books, series, chapters and blog posts, picks a designed theme, and the site is live at yourname.draftmargin.com in about fifteen minutes. There is no paid plan and no advertising.

Key facts:

- Price: free for every author, with every theme and every feature. The platform adds one thing to an author's site: a "Built with Draft Margin" link in the footer, beside its privacy and report links.
- Made for fiction: books with covers, blurbs, buy links for each store, release dates and series positions; series in reading order; the next release on the home page with its preorder links; a blog; standing pages; a newsletter signup that links to the author's own email service.
- Whole books for readers who join a site as Members with an email address, released chapter by chapter on unlock dates, with read marks, a library, hearts and typo reports.
- Visitors get no cookies and are not tracked. An author can export everything (Markdown, JSON, a Members spreadsheet and every uploaded file) once a day.
- Every site has the same generous safety limits, set to stop abuse rather than to sell upgrades.
- Not yet available: custom domains (planned, also free). Never planned: a page builder, custom CSS or HTML, a shop or direct sales, or hosting mailing lists.

## Pages

- [Home](https://draftmargin.com): what a site is, how it is made, and how it compares with WordPress, Squarespace, Wix and Pub Site.
- [Why it is free](https://draftmargin.com/why-free): what it costs to run, what it asks in return, how to leave, the shutdown promise and the safety limits.
- [Themes](https://draftmargin.com/themes): every theme, with its accents, font pairings and light or dark.
- [Live demos](https://draftmargin.com/demos): working demo sites, including classic authors whose books are in the public domain.
- [Hosted sites](https://draftmargin.com/authors): real authors' sites, listed by their choice.
- [About](https://draftmargin.com/about): who builds it, and why it stays small.
- [Help](https://draftmargin.com/help): how each part of a site works.

## Guides

- [How to make an author website](https://draftmargin.com/guides/how-to-make-an-author-website): What a fiction author’s website needs, what it can skip, and how to get one live in an afternoon, whichever way you build it.
- [15 great fiction author websites and what they do right](https://draftmargin.com/guides/fiction-author-website-examples): Fifteen real author websites, from bestsellers to indie series writers, and the specific things each does that yours could too.
- [Pub Site alternatives (and how to choose)](https://draftmargin.com/guides/pub-site-alternatives): What Pub Site does well, what it costs, and the alternatives worth a look, including free ones, with an honest way to choose.
- [Author website: WordPress vs hosted builders](https://draftmargin.com/guides/author-website-wordpress-vs-hosted-builders): WordPress or a hosted builder for your author website: what each costs in money and time, and which suits which author.

## Policies

- [Terms](https://draftmargin.com/terms)
- [Privacy](https://draftmargin.com/privacy)
- [Abuse policy](https://draftmargin.com/abuse)