Free WordPress Themes for Writers and Authors (2026)
By Mark Fail · · Updated
A writer's website has a short job list. It needs a page for each book with buttons to Amazon, Bookshop.org and the audiobook. It needs a newsletter signup so readers hear about the next one. The body text has to be comfortable to read for 2,000 words, and freelancers also want a page of published clips an editor can scan in a minute.
It has to load fast on a phone too. That's where most people land after tapping a link in a social post.
Search the free WordPress.org directory for "writer" or "author" and you get hundreds of results. Most have 100 to 300 active installs and no reviews at all. We skipped those and went looking for free themes with a real track record, checking installs, ratings and update dates through the WordPress.org API on 28 September 2026. Six free themes made it. Two paid author themes follow at the end, clearly marked, for anyone who wants a finished book-selling site.
Comparison table: eight themes for writers and authors
| Theme | Price | Editor | Best for | Active installs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Twenty Twenty-Five | Free | Block (site editor) | Book page with buy links | 1,000,000+ |
| Author | Free (Pro $49/yr) | Classic + blocks | Long-form reading | 3,000+ |
| Lovecraft | Free | Classic + blocks | A traditional writer's blog | 8,000+ |
| Author Landing Page | Free | Customizer | Launching one book | 500+ |
| Eksell | Free | Classic + blocks | Freelance clips portfolio | 600+ |
| Chaplin | Free | Classic + blocks | Choosing your own fonts | 2,000+ |
| Odrin | Paid, $69 | Elementor | Selling several books | 2,307 sales |
| Bookwise | Paid, from $299/yr | Thrive Theme Builder | Indie authors building a list | Not published |
Twenty Twenty-Five
The default WordPress theme is the surprise here. Its pattern library has a "Landing page for book" layout with a hero, pre-order links, where-to-buy locations, FAQs and a newsletter block. A second pattern, "Call to action with book links", has buttons already labelled Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Bookshop.org and Spotify. Swap in your cover and your URLs and the book page is done.
You also get a CV/bio page pattern and a text-only blog homepage for people who want nothing but titles and words.
It has two weak spots. The newsletter pattern is a heading and a Subscribe button with no form behind it, so you still need a mailing plugin. It's also a block theme, which means everything is edited in the Site Editor instead of the old Customizer. Its three 2-star reviews on WordPress.org complain about the editing tools, mobile layouts and support. Version 1.5 was updated on 20 May 2026. It has more than 1,000,000 active installs and holds a 3.9 out of 5 rating from 13 reviews.
Pros
- Ready-made book landing page and retailer button patterns
- Ships with WordPress and is maintained by the core team
- No page builder or extra plugin needed for the layouts
- Text-only blog template for a very plain reading site
Cons
- The newsletter section is only a button, so you add the form yourself
- Site Editor has a learning curve if you are used to the Customizer
- Needs WordPress 6.7 or newer
- A 2-star review from 2025 complained about mobile layouts and support
Author
Compete Themes built Author around the Van de Graaf canon, a page-proportion rule from book design, and you can see it on the page. The navigation sits in a dark sidebar on the left. Posts run down a single centred column set in Rokkitt headings and Lato body text. It carries the accessibility-ready tag, which only 104 of the directory's roughly 8,600 themes have. It also supports WooCommerce if you later want to sell signed copies.
The free version gives you no control over colours or fonts. Custom colours, Google Fonts choices and extra widget areas are in Author Pro, which costs $49 a year for one site.
The WordPress.org reviews are almost all short five-star notes about how simple it is to set up. Author has 3,000+ active installs and a 4.9 out of 5 rating from 101 reviews. Version 1.57 came out on 29 June 2026.
Pros
- Reading column based on book-page proportions
- Accessibility-ready tag on WordPress.org
- 101 reviews, 94 of them five stars
- WooCommerce support if you sell direct
Cons
- Colours and fonts are locked unless you pay for Pro
- No book page layout, so you build one from blocks
- Loads its fonts from Google's servers
- The dark sidebar look will not suit every genre
Lovecraft
Anders Norén's Lovecraft is the closest thing on this list to a printed literary magazine. Headings are in Playfair Display and body text is in Lato. Both fonts come bundled in the theme instead of being pulled from Google. That helps with speed, and with privacy rules in the EU.
A wide header photo runs across the top of the homepage. On single posts the post's own featured image takes its place, and a sidebar on the right holds your signup form and a short bio.
It's a blog theme first. There's no book template, so a novelist would make a Books page by hand and keep the sidebar for the newsletter. Every one of its 17 reviews on WordPress.org is five stars, and most of them praise how tidy it looks. Lovecraft has 8,000+ active installs, and version 2.1.2 was updated on 24 June 2026.
Pros
- Classic serif-and-sans pairing made for long posts
- Fonts are self-hosted, so no calls to Google Fonts
- Sidebar is a natural home for a newsletter form
- 8,000+ installs, second only to Twenty Twenty-Five in this list
Cons
- No book or portfolio layouts
- Few design settings beyond an accent colour
- Two-column layout feels dated to some readers
Author Landing Page
If you have one book to push, this Rara Themes child theme gives you a single scrolling sales page.
The demo starts with a book cover on a shelf and a headline. Below that come a features block, testimonials, a video review, numbered sample pages, an introduction, an About the Author panel and a price block, with a newsletter signup at the bottom. You switch the sections on and fill them in through the Customizer. It works with WooCommerce if you sell the ebook yourself.
It's a child of Book Landing Page, so install both. A 3-star review from 2020 noted that homepage sections are built from posts, which clashes with running a normal blog. The same reviewer found that renaming the "About Admin" label needed the paid version. Author Landing Page has 500+ active installs and a 4.6 out of 5 rating from 5 reviews. It was last updated on 31 March 2026.
Pros
- Whole book-launch page ready to fill in
- Sample pages and testimonial sections already in place
- Newsletter section included in the layout
- Reviewers repeatedly praise Rara's support
Cons
- Built for one book, so a backlist needs another approach
- Homepage sections are driven by posts, which gets messy with a blog
- Some label and layout changes sit in the paid version
- Only 5 reviews to judge it by
Eksell
Freelance writers need a clips page more than a book page, and Eksell handles that well. It shows posts or Jetpack Portfolio items in a grid. A category filter above the grid swaps the results without reloading the page. Set up each published piece as a post, put the publication in the category and link out to the original. An editor can then click "The Guardian" or "Trade press" and see only those clips.
The official screenshot is full of paintings, which undersells it for text. You can calm it down with the colour settings, though.
There's a separate dark-mode colour scheme and a Blank Canvas template for a plain About or Hire Me page. All 13 reviews on WordPress.org are five stars. Eksell has 600+ active installs and version 1.9.7 was updated on 26 August 2026.
Pros
- Filterable grid suits a portfolio of published clips
- Dark-mode colour scheme option
- Blank Canvas template for a plain landing page
- Updated within the last month
Cons
- Built around images, so text-only clips each need a featured image to look right
- Portfolio post type needs Jetpack
- Small install base
Chaplin
Chaplin is here for one reason. You can pick any Google Font for headings and body text from the Customizer, and the editor shows the same fonts as the live site. So you can set a book-like serif without touching code or paying for an upgrade. It also has ten preset colour schemes. Its cover-page template, with a full-screen image and title, works as a simple book announcement.
As the screenshot shows, the default look is an agency site. A writer will spend some time turning it into something quieter.
Anders Norén keeps it current, and version 2.6.10 came out on 17 September 2026. Chaplin has 2,000+ active installs and 36 reviews on WordPress.org. Of those, 35 are five stars and one is four.
Pros
- Free control over every font, which most free themes charge for
- Editor preview matches the front end
- Cover template for an announcement or pre-order page
- Updated this month
Cons
- Default look is corporate, not literary
- No book or newsletter layouts
- Google Fonts are loaded from Google unless you change that
Odrin (paid)
Odrin by Subsolar Designs is the theme to look at if you have several books and want them to feel like products. Its first demo opens straight into a chapter reader with a page-flip effect and a chapter list. That's how you'd give away the first chapter. The second demo is a single-book page with the cover, the price and a Read the Book button.
On top of that you get 25+ Elementor widgets for book grids and upcoming releases, a Mailchimp signup widget and an events calendar for readings and signings. WooCommerce handles direct sales, or you can link out to retailers.
It needs Elementor, and the ThemeForest reviews aren't all glowing. Some mention installation trouble and an outdated bundled copy of Advanced Custom Fields Pro. Odrin is paid, at $69 for a single-site Regular licence. It has 2,307 sales and a 4.39 out of 5 rating from 95 reviews, and was last updated on 20 May 2026.
Pros
- Chapter preview reader built in
- Book grids, events and newsletter widgets ready to drop in
- Sells direct through WooCommerce or links to retailers
- Long sales history for an author-specific theme
Cons
- Paid, and one site per licence
- Requires Elementor
- Reviewers report setup problems and an outdated bundled plugin
- Elementor plus 25+ widgets is a lot more to load than a plain theme
Bookwise (paid)
Bookwise is a set of author templates for Thrive Theme Builder. It isn't a stand-alone theme. The demo opens with a full-height author portrait, your name in a large serif and a reader quote underneath. Its book pages have buttons for Amazon, Smashwords, Scribd, Audible, Barnes & Noble and Apple Books. There are also templates for reviews, events and email opt-ins, and the opt-in pages show Thrive's roots in list building.
You can't buy it on its own. It comes with Thrive Suite, which is paid at $299 for the first year and renews at $599 a year, or $149 a quarter.
Thrive doesn't publish sales or ratings, but its changelog shows Theme Builder was last updated on 15 September 2026.
Pros
- Retailer buttons for six major stores on book pages
- Opt-in and lead capture templates from a list-building company
- Visual editing without code
- Updated this month
Cons
- Only available inside a yearly subscription
- Renewal price is double the first year
- Ties your site to Thrive's builder
- No public sales or review figures
Final Thoughts: which theme should a writer use?
A novelist with one or two books should start with Twenty Twenty-Five. The book landing page and retailer button patterns cover most of what an author site needs. It costs nothing and it will be maintained for years. Add a newsletter plugin and you're done.
A blogger or essayist who mostly publishes long posts has two good choices. Author gives you a single, carefully proportioned column. Lovecraft adds a sidebar and a more traditional magazine look with self-hosted fonts.
A debut author launching one title gets the full sales-page layout for free from Author Landing Page, as long as the blog isn't the main event.
A freelance writer pitching editors should use Eksell, with each clip as a post and the publication as its category.
Anyone fussy about typefaces will get on with Chaplin, because it gives full font control without an upgrade.
An author with a backlist who wants a shop can pay once for Odrin at $69. Bookwise suits indie authors who want Thrive's email tools and accept a yearly bill that doubles after the first year.
Sources
- WordPress.org theme API for Twenty Twenty-Five, Author, Lovecraft, Author Landing Page, Book Landing Page, Eksell, Chaplin, Hemingway and Writee: active installs, ratings, versions and update dates. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Twenty Twenty-Five 1.5 pattern files: book landing page, book links and newsletter patterns. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Twenty Twenty-Five reviews on WordPress.org. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Author reviews on WordPress.org and Author Pro pricing. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Lovecraft reviews on WordPress.org. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Author Landing Page reviews on WordPress.org, including the 3-star review about post-driven sections. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Eksell and Chaplin on WordPress.org: features and reviews. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Odrin on ThemeForest: price, sales, rating, update date and reviews. Demos at Subsolar Designs. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Bookwise, Thrive Suite pricing and the Thrive Themes changelog. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Novelist, Kit and MailPoet plugins on WordPress.org: installs and update dates. Checked on 28 September 2026.
- Kindlepreneur: Best WordPress Themes for Authors, for which paid author themes working authors recommend. Checked on 28 September 2026.
