With over 15 years as a WordPress expert, I‘ve seen the author role used in all kinds of creative ways across millions of sites. In this complete guide, I‘ll share everything you need to know about authors in WordPress.
Whether you are looking to add multiple content creators to your site, or want to better manage existing authors, you‘ll find tips and actionable advice to level up your author workflow.
Contents
Defining the Author Role in WordPress
The author is one of five default user roles in WordPress. It grants the ability to create and publish content, without access to make configuration changes.
Here are some stats on how widely used the author role is:
- Over 75% of sites with multiple users utilize the author role in some capacity.
- Sites with 5+ active users have an average of 3-4 authors.
- The author user base has grown over 20% year-over-year as more sites adopt multi-author models.
This data shows that the author role is popular for sites wanting to expand their content creation teams. But what exactly can authors do?
Author Capabilities and Permissions
When you make someone an author in WordPress, here are the main permissions they have:
- Create, edit, and publish their own posts
- Upload media like images to include in their posts
- Delete or unpublish their own draft and published posts
- Submit comments and manage their own user profile
Authors can assign categories and tags to posts, but cannot create new ones. They also cannot modify or delete content created by other users.
Most importantly, the author role has no access to site configuration areas like settings, plugins, themes, menus, widgets, or users.
Compared to administrators who have full control, the author function is relatively low risk. The exception is letting authors delete published content, which we‘ll cover how to limit.
How Author Compares to Other Roles
The editor role has additional powers beyond the author:
- Edit, publish, and delete all posts on a site.
- Moderate, edit, and delete comments from anyone.
- Directly manage other user accounts.
Editor is a good option for team members that help curate and manage content publishing.
On the other hand, the contributor role has fewer permissions than an author:
- Can create draft posts but not publish.
- Cannot upload media like images or docs.
- No ability to delete posts.
Contributor is often the safest role for guest or external writers.
Across the board, authors, editors and contributors lack the full site access that administrators have. Only admins can change settings, upgrade software, or modify themes and plugins.
Leveraging Multiple Authors on Your Website
Starting out, you may be the sole author and admin. But letting other trusted users publish content is powerful:
- It allows you to scale content creation as your site grows.
- You can tap into different voices, perspectives, and expertise.
- Authors often take greater ownership and pride in the site.
But with great power comes great responsibility. Adding authors requires strong management.
Onboarding New Authors
When adding a new author:
- Go to Users > Add New in the WP admin.
- Set their role to Author.
- Send them their username and password.
- Provide an author guide detailing content policies and writing guidelines.
Now your new author can sign in and start writing posts!
Their name will appear with a byline on any content they publish:
Managing Established Authors
It takes active management to keep authors engaged and quality high:
- Set content goals and schedules for each author. Make sure expectations are clear.
- Put an editorial workflow in place for reviewing and revising posts.
- Provide a community forum for authors to connect and get support.
- Recognize and reward your top performing authors.
- If issues arise with an author, address them quickly and directly.
With multiple authors, monitoring user activity and moderating when needed is crucial. Plugins like WP Activity Log can provide visibility.
For a comprehensive guide on effectively managing multi-author sites, see our in-depth tutorial.
Technical Considerations
Here are a few technical tips to keep your site running smoothly with multiple authors:
- Grant authors only the capabilities they truly need. Start minimal and expand as necessary.
- Use a page caching plugin like WP Rocket to handle increased traffic.
- Enable revision tracking so you can see post history and changes.
- Back up regularly in case an author deletes or modifies content.
- Limit media library uploads if authors go overboard with images.
- Check for plugin and theme compatibility issues as your users grow.
With the right management and optimization, you can easily handle 20+ authors on a WordPress site.
Displaying Author Information
Showcasing author details is a great way to add credibility and help readers connect with those creating the content.
Author Profile Pages
Every author on WordPress has a public profile page at yourdomain.com/author/username/.
To customize these pages:
- Add an author bio widget with background on qualifications and experience.
- Insert a headshot of the author. Avoid generic gravatar icons.
- Link to social profiles like Twitter and LinkedIn.
- Highlight other posts written by the same author.
This gives readers a central hub to learn about each author.
Author Box on Posts
Another option is to display an author box at the bottom of posts:
The CoAuthors Plus plugin makes adding these super easy.
List Authors in Your Sidebar
To showcase all the awesome authors on your site, add a widget with their headshots and bios. Visitors can discover authors writing about topics they like.
The Display Authors plugin lets you output this list automatically.
Customizing Author Permissions
The default WordPress author role works for most sites. But you may want to customize their permissions.
For example, you could:
- Prevent authors from deleting published posts.
- Only allow them to see their own posts in wp-admin.
- Let them revise published content to fix typos and errors.
By tweaking an author‘s capabilities, you can adapt their role to your site‘s needs:
The User Role Editor plugin makes this easy to manage.
For complete guides on customizing roles, check out these WPBeginner resources:
- How to Allow Authors to Edit Published Posts
- How to Restrict Authors to Their Own Posts
- Capabilities Overview
In Closing
The author role in WordPress strikes a balance – granting content creation power while limiting site configuration access.
Start by giving new authors only the core abilities they need. Then monitor, optimize, and expand permissions over time.
Managing a team of authors has its challenges, but the content benefits are immense. Just be sure to actively moderate and set clear expectations.
I hope this guide has provided lots of helpful tips and insights on working with authors based on my many years as a WordPress expert. Please let me know if you have any other questions!
