Shipping...
So many of you are with me!
Friends! I’ve loved seeing so many of you join Parlor! It’s been the best to see familiar names popping up in the backend and to see so many of you start your sites! One thing I’ve been so grateful for is how many of you have written to share things that you’d like to see on the site and this week, my team and I shipped a bunch of updates that improve the experience so much.
First and foremost—I changed the pricing. No more build fee. It's now just $129/year, (Founder’s Price) full stop. I watched how people moved through the platform and decided the simpler the better and truly want to make sure this is an affordable option for you all. You shouldn't have to think twice about getting your author website live and I hope this pricing change will help!
Okay on to the good stuff—here’s everything new that just went live:
The wizard now has sample language throughout. Every field has examples and prompts so you’re not staring at a blank box having an existential crisis about how to describe yourself as an author or how one section differs from another. We don’t use AI to write for us, but examples always help.
A new Editorial template. Bold, gallery-style, huge type, full-bleed photos. This is the power play template!
More color palettes. Warm ivory, soft clay, plum, navy, marigold, teal, periwinkle—we expanded all three palette families so you have options!
Site analytics. See who’s visiting, where they came from, what they’re clicking. Right in your dashboard.
A share preview link. Send a private link to your agent, your spouse, your most honest friend—before you publish or pay a single thing. Get the feedback, THEN go live.
Book section redesign. Now books are full-width, your cover as the hero. More breathing room. Way more impact. And if you’re not published? No worries. You still have a great spot to share what you’re working on.
Endorsements for books. Add a blurb to each book description so people can see a review.
ISBN import. This ones fun. For those of you who’ve written 1 book or 12, drop in one ISBN, and Parlor will pull your whole backlist automatically.
Anyway—if you’ve been meaning to get your author website sorted and keep pushing it to next month, this is a pretty great week to just do it. Your site takes only a few minutes to publish once you’re in the wizard, and then you have an actual home base on the internet that belongs to you.
And hit reply if you have questions—I read every one.
Writing (and building websites) together,
Laura