There are, of course, hundreds – or perhaps even thousands – of websites about William Shakespeare, his works, his biography, including sales pages. In all honesty, another website for him might be unnecessary, and I will not even attempt to do that. My own websites are enough to keep me busy 😉 But what if Shakespeare had his own website? One that looks as if he had built it himself?
In the below video (please scroll down for the video), the creators of Bookwise by Thrive Themes have done just that – build a completely new website from scratch with the Bookwise theme for William Shakespeare. The end result looks incredible!
The video shows you step by step how to do it, so you could do the same for your favorite author, or perhaps better for yourself. 🙂
Memories of Shakespeare
Although I haven’t seen every single play or read every sonnet ever written by Shakespeare, I love his work. My favorite sonnet is My Mistress´ Eyes. I just love that one! I have read it many times and I could do so again and again. The raw honesty of it and the more realistic approach to the adulation of his woman gets me every time.
Many years ago – when I was as a teacher in high school – a fellow teacher and I united our 10th graders to bring Midsummer Night’s Dream to the stage. It was a lot of hard work and we ran into several obstacles. Moreover, one of our teenage actors considered the small role of one of Nick Bottom’s actor friends too “embarrassing” to play 😉 (“Everyone will seeee me!”) and it took us a while to find a “brave” volunteer to take over that role.
Our date approached, and – after months of preparation and rehearsals, laughter and stress, frustrations and victories – our students performed the play.
AND IT WAS A SMASHING SUCCESS!
The audience loved it! They were on the edge of their seats, and raucous laughter filled the air for much of the evening. Parents were engaged, even shouting praise and comments – much like in the pit in Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, lol. It was fun and it was amazing!
[[File:Shakespeare’s Globe, London, UK (Ank Kumar, Infosys Limited) 03.jpg|
We were so glad when it was over 🙂 It was a beautiful achievement. I will never forget it.
A Website for Shakespeare
When Thrive Themes came up with the idea of building a website for Shakespeare, I was curious to see how it was done.
In the video you can see how the following pages are built for William Shakespeare:
- a home page that features the author, displays books, and recent blog posts
- a book overview page that lists all the books
- individual book pages
- and a page to sign up for webinars, workshops, and other events
For each page that you create you get several options to choose from in terms of headers, layout, fonts, colors, and everything that is needed to build a page. The set up is easy and these pages can be built in minutes as the video tutorial demonstrates.
To organize a webinar you can even include a timer to indicate a time limit for registration.
Final Thoughts
Is it too much of a good thing or a brave new world, as Shakespeare would say. He’d probably be impressed with this website. It’s a good way to get reluctant students more interested in Shakespeare, don’t you think?
The website looks professional and very user-friendly and it would make any living author and his/her work look fantastic too.
What are your thoughts about the new Bookwise theme? Is it something you would use?
Hey,
Very interesting article.
If Shakespeare had his own website, his works would be in so many different formats. He would have his own YouTube Channel talking about his work. His social media would HUGE!
He would probably be the most famous person in the world.
What if Mozart had his own website or Beethoven? Or, even Albert Einstein?
Keep up the great work.
All the best,
Tom
Just imagine 🙂
Mozart, now that would be a great website!
I quite like the idea of building a website on William Shakespeare…and there is no doubt in my mind, if he actually had one, it would have ranked #1 in all search engines.
I must say Bookwise has all the necessary tools that any author can use to have a professional looking website. In fact I was only aware of Autuer theme which is quite popular with writers. I had a quick question: Is bookwise free, can I download it on any wordpress theme?
Hi Satz,
Bookwise is not free. To download it, it is necessary to become a member of Thrive Themes.
Best regards,
Christine
Hi Christine,
Thrive Themes Bookwise is really upping the ante on their product! The concept, color, style and add ons would certainly make Shakespeare proud – were he to see it.
The ability to sign up for webinars, workshops, and other events where there is even a timer to indicate a time limit for registration is really practical. I am not surprised that Bookwise is not free because of its varied functionalities.
I suspect Thrive Themes is using this as a “teaser” and that there will be many more “What If’s being rolled out in the near future!
Ceci .
Hi Ceci,
Yes, Thrive Themes is using this as a teaser, and a good teaser at that 🙂
I love the Bookwise theme, it looks fantastic.
Shakespeare had a gift that allowed him to push boundaries and reach a wide audience through his writing. Classic literature should be mandatory know-how, you learn a lot through it and if you’re lucky enough to encounter a dedicated and passionate teacher a whole new world of possibilities will open for you.
Bookwise has a simple UI, an excellent companion theme if you use the Thrive Suite.
It would work great for book clubs as well since it streamlines the whole blogging process. I find less and less people are interested in reading – not just students – so every little bit of resource helps.
PS: I’m glad you managed to have a smashing success with Midsummer Night’s Dream, it’s one of my favorites.
Hi Femi,
You’re right about Bookwise working great for book clubs as well. I hadn’t even thought of that. It’s true that fewer people seem to be interested in reading nowadays and prefer instead to see the book converted into film. The film versions can’t always bring the book to life the way it does when the reader is transported to another world by reading. We have to keep interest in reading piqued and a passionate teacher can achieve that in literature classes.
Hi Christine,
Your title caught my eye when I came across this interesting post. I love how effortless Bookwise is to make a website about Shakespeare, and it will be the same fun if people create websites for their loved authors.
Using this template to create a website is easy, quick, and professional-looking. I would love to use it to build websites for my favorite writers. One question, is it only available for Thrive Theme subscribers, or could we download it from WordPress directly?
Cheers,
Matt
Hi Matt,
It is available to Thrive Themes subscribers.
Thanks for your comment!