Case study · Independent author
Sherri Prins writes Christian children's books, including You Are So Loved, a picture book about God's unconditional love. A former teacher and mother of three, she had books to sell and readers who wanted them. What she did not have was a professional home for the work online.
The challenge
Marketplaces take a margin, own the customer, and put your book next to ten thousand others. A generic template site does not look like the work it represents. Sherri needed a place readers could buy with confidence, and that she could keep current without calling a developer every time something changed.
What we built
Custom design and a custom build, scoped to what an independent author actually needs: a way to sell, a way to be found, and a way to keep it alive.
A shop and cart with Square checkout, live shipping-rate lookup, and order confirmation. Readers buy from Sherri, not from a marketplace that takes a cut and owns the customer relationship. Her three titles, including the adoption story and the Spanish edition, each have their own product page.
Readers can leave a review on any book. Reviews land in a Supabase table and are held until Sherri approves them, so the site shows real feedback without exposing her to spam or anything she has not seen first.
Posts are Markdown files with an RSS feed, so publishing a new article is writing a file, not learning a CMS. The blog gives her a place to write for the parents and grandparents who search for faith-based children's books.
Structured data for the author, the website, the profile page, and each product. A sitemap with sensible priorities, canonical URLs, Open Graph images, and a Google Shopping product feed so the books can appear in shopping results.
Astro ships almost no JavaScript for the static pages, images are served in modern formats at the sizes each screen needs, and every interactive element has visible focus states. The site runs on Cloudflare, so it is served from the edge close to wherever a reader is.
The outcome
Sherri now has one home for her books that matches the quality of the work, and a link she is glad to put on a bookmark, a flyer, or an Instagram bio.
Every direct order is hers: the margin, the customer, and the review. Marketplaces are still a channel, but they are no longer the only one.
New books, new posts, and new reviews all have a path that does not require a developer. That is the difference between a site that stays alive and one that looks abandoned in a year.
“Working with Nate was a wonderful experience. He created a beautiful and user-friendly website that has helped me showcase and market my book business with confidence. I truly appreciate his professionalism, creativity, and dedication to bringing my vision to life.”
Sherri Prins
Author of You Are So Loved · sherriprinsauthor.com
Is this you?
The same shape fits a coach selling a course, a maker selling a product, or a ministry selling a curriculum: a site that represents the work, sells it directly, and stays current without a developer on call.
Projects like this fall in our website design and modernization range. Pricing is published on the pricing page, and you get a fixed scope and price before work begins.
The discovery call is free. We'll look at what you sell, how people find you today, and tell you honestly whether a custom site is the right next step.