Author Website Case Study: Building sandrabourke.com for To Save a Beach

The brief

Sandra needed a website ready for the book’s launch on 10 October 2026 at CPAC in Brisbane. In her words: “This was no ordinary book website. It needed to showcase the book while bringing together an extensive bibliography, maps, photographs, and detailed information about the people, communities and stories featured throughout the manuscript.”

That meant one site with three jobs: sell the book, tell the story behind it, and give readers the research to explore it themselves.

What we built

• Home. The book first: the cover, the story in a few lines, buy buttons, and quick links to the chapters, the people, the foreword and the maps.
• The Book. A chapter-by-chapter reader with short summaries, profiles of the people whose stories the book tells, the foreword by Chris Uhlmann and reviews.
• Resources. An interactive map of Australia: click a state for its renewable energy zone map and the community groups from the book. A searchable directory of 173 community groups, the book’s national snapshot as a PDF, and a bibliography of more than 1,000 sources as a downloadable PDF.
• Photographs, About Sandra and Two Tree Hill. A gallery, her story, and a page for her next book, Two Tree Hill.
• Book Sandra. Speaking and media enquiries with a media kit. Every enquiry is emailed to Sandra and saved in her dashboard.
• Shop. Signed copies sold through her own Stripe checkout, alongside the publisher’s link for standard copies.
• Site search across the chapters, posts, downloads and community groups.

Built for Sandra to run

Sandra has her own dashboard for the page copy, chapters, people, photographs, appearances, reviews, media coverage, community groups, downloads, enquiries and email signups, with backups running in the background. She updates the site herself, and we are there when she needs a hand.

“I have access to the website dashboard, so I can manage and update the site while still being available whenever I need assistance. That combination of independence and ongoing support is invaluable.”

Built to be found on Google and in AI search

Every page carries structured data that describes the book, the author and the page. The site has a sitemap that includes its images, an llms.txt file for AI assistants, and a robots file that lets the major AI crawlers in. Fonts are self-hosted and images are sized for each screen, so the pages load quickly on a phone.

We tested the live site with Google Lighthouse on mobile on 13 October 2026. The homepage scored 97 for performance and 100 for accessibility, best practices and SEO. The Resources page scored 100 in all four.

“I was particularly impressed by their understanding of the importance of optimising websites for mobile devices, search engines and emerging AI search platforms.”

The timeline

• 15 September 2026. Kick-off call, and the first draft live the same day.
• 18 September. Live on her own domain, sandrabourke.com.
• 22 September. Handover check on the live domain and the site opened to search engines, eight days before the deadline.
• 10 October. The book launched at CPAC in Brisbane.

What Sandra said

“Within just 24 hours, OneAdsphere delivered an exceptional first draft. The speed was remarkable. They incorporated my existing images, built the apps and functionality I needed, and brought a substantial body of content together into a professional, accessible online platform.”

“They delivered well beyond my expectations, and I am pleased with the result.”

Sandra Bourke, author of To Save a Beach, in a five-star Google review, 13 October 2026. See OneAdsphere on Google.

What other authors can take from this

• Put the book first. The cover, a few lines on the story, where to buy it and the launch date belong at the top of the homepage.
• Give the media what they need. A media kit and a speaking enquiry form save journalists and event organisers an email.
• Turn your research into something readers can use. Maps, directories and downloads keep readers on your site and give them a reason to share it.
• Sell signed copies yourself. A simple checkout on your own site sits happily alongside your publisher’s link.
• Own it and run it. Your name on the domain, and a dashboard you can update without waiting on anyone.
• Make it readable for search and AI. Structured data, a sitemap, an llms.txt file and fast mobile pages help Google and AI assistants understand the book and the author.

Author websites: common questions