Give an Author Website Sample an Accessible Reading Route

Let the page announce itself

A reading sample should say what it is before a reader spends effort finding it. Use a unique page title and a visible main heading such as ‘Read an excerpt from The Salt Archive’. Below it, name the edition or forthcoming status, translator where relevant, and the excerpt’s location: ‘Chapter 2, opening 1,200 words’. A reader should not have to infer whether the page is a review, an advertisement, or the text itself.

Build the excerpt as reading content

Use real heading and paragraph structure rather than a single image, a scrolling canvas, or line breaks styled as poetry by accident. Preserve meaningful scene breaks and indicate any omission with a short editorial note. If a PDF is offered, label its format and size where known, but keep an HTML route when possible. The sample is a small publication, not merely a marketing asset pasted into a landing page.

Name the links

After the final paragraph, write links that explain their destinations: ‘Read the first chapter in EPUB’, ‘View book details’, or ‘Request the audiobook from a library’. Avoid a row of identical ‘Learn more’ links beneath multiple titles. W3C guidance notes that link purpose should be available from text or context, and that meaningful headings provide a navigable outline. Those are useful literary habits as well as accessibility practices.

Work one compact page

For a novel sample, place the cover as a linked image only if the linked destination is named in the image alternative or adjacent text. Then use one H1, a short edition note, an H2 for ‘Chapter One’, the excerpt, and a plainly named next route. Test keyboard order from the page top through the final link. If a decorative quote card interrupts that route, make it supplementary, not the only expression of information.

State what the sample cannot do

An excerpt cannot stand in for the whole work, its content notes, or an accessible commercial edition. Do not promise that a reader will enjoy, buy, or be able to obtain the book. Check external retailer links periodically, and keep an alternate contact or library path when appropriate. The practical goal is narrower: a reader can identify the sample, read it in a usable structure, and choose a next step knowingly.

Before publishing, read the page with images disabled and with browser zoom increased. Confirm that the title, edition note, excerpt boundary, and final route remain available as text. If the extract includes verse, letters, or unusual layout, explain any necessary presentation choice rather than letting visual resemblance erase reading order. A sample can be handsome and still make its structure explicit.