AuthorLoft

AuthorLoft is an all-in-one author website builder: it hosts your site and book catalog, sells direct through your own Stripe account, and collects newsletter signups and ARC reviews from one dashboard. It launched on June 1, 2026. Founder Anthony Bedford, a thriller author, says he built it because he couldn't find a platform made for indie authors. It also hosts courses and music playlists, but books are still the main focus.

What You Get#

• Book catalog and series pages: Covers, descriptions, per-format prices and retailer links, with series pages that list books in reading order. You can import books by CSV from Goodreads or a template.
• Direct sales through Stripe Connect: Readers pay into your own Stripe account and download ebooks right away. AuthorLoft says it takes no cut, so you pay only Stripe's fees (typically 2.9% + 30¢). Standard adds a multi-item cart, bundles, pre-orders and print sales. Premium adds audiobook (MP3/WAV) and flipbook formats.
• Newsletter and reader magnets: Every plan has signup forms and free-book-for-email downloads, and you can export your list at any time. Mailchimp sync needs Standard or higher.
• ARC and review collection: Every book page has a feedback form. Reviews wait in an approval queue, can sit alongside editorial pull quotes, and are marked up as star-rating structured data for search.
• AI tools (Google Gemini): Social Promote writes ready-to-paste social posts from Standard up. It doesn't connect to your accounts or publish for you. Premium adds an AI writing assistant (40 uses a month) and an SEO audit.
• AuthorLoft Bookstore: A shared catalog where you can opt your books in for discovery. It sends readers back to your own site to buy.
• Extras: A DOCX-to-ePub converter, media kit page, reader analytics, affiliate links and course hosting.

Who It's For#

• Authors adding direct sales: A storefront, checkout and email capture without joining up separate tools yourself.
• Debut authors on a budget: The free plan gives you a yourname.authorloft.com site with up to five books, no card required.
• Author-educators: Nonfiction authors can sell courses from the same site as their books.

Pricing: Free: 5 books, 5 courses, subdomain only, 100 MB storage, "Powered by AuthorLoft" badge. Standard: $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr. Adds 20 books, custom domain, cart, ARC tools, Social Promote and 5 GB. Premium: $39.99/mo or $399.99/yr. Adds unlimited items, AI assistant, SEO audit, audio and flipbook formats and 50 GB. The site says annual billing saves 20%, but the listed prices work out to about 17%. The pricing page offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, while the Terms of Service say refunds are case by case.

Strengths#

• No platform fee on sales: Money goes straight to your own Stripe account, so you keep the customer's email and purchase record.
• Author-specific features built in: Series pages, reader magnets, review moderation and Goodreads CSV import come standard. General builders need plugins for these.
• Cheap entry to a custom domain: Standard costs $9.99/mo ($8.33/mo billed yearly). You can now connect your domain yourself in Settings.
• Active development: Monthly release notes since launch, including self-serve domains and changeable subdomains.

Limitations#

• Very new, with no independent track record: It went live in June 2026. The founder called it a startup still "in our first quarter" in August, and no Trustpilot or other independent reviews turned up. The site's "thousands of indie authors" claim can't be checked, and the founder disclosed that visitor analytics showed zero traffic from launch until a summer 2026 fix.
• Pricing has changed several times: The GitHub README lists $12/$29. A June 2026 announcement quoted $19/$59.99 for Standard/Premium. Today's prices are $9.99/$39.99, so check before you commit.
• The site contradicts itself on plan limits: The feature matrix says the Free plan can sell ebooks through Stripe, but the direct-sales FAQ says it can't. The pricing card lists newsletter campaigns and a media kit on Free, but other pages put both on Standard.
• Missing features: There's no two-factor authentication, native mobile app or automated email sequences yet (all on the roadmap). For ARC file delivery, AuthorLoft itself suggests a reader magnet or a dedicated service. The Terms name no company entity or governing jurisdiction.

Alternatives#

Tertulia ($7.99–$9.99/mo) is the closest author-only builder, with ISBN/ASIN auto-import and a longer track record, but it has no native ebook checkout. Authors who want only direct sales and ARC delivery can pair any website with BookFunnel or Payhip.