Author & essayist theme
An editorial Ghost theme for essayists and independent writers — your name set large beside an arched portrait, a topic index, a featured book and a quiet paywall. Warm paper, a sturdy serif and one accent colour of your choosing, all set up from Ghost Admin without a line of code.
Need more than one site? Choose the five-site agency licence — US$349. Or get Ghost All Access — every Ghost theme, now and in the future, for US$549.
Version 1.0.0 · released 3 November 2026 · see the changelog
Needs a Ghost plan that allows custom themes — Ghost(Pro) Starter does not. Publisher or self-hosted is the right fit. More on plans · Compare all eleven themes
The theme, in full
Every screen below is the real rendered theme on the live demo — no mockups. The author, the essays and the book are fictional, and the paintings are public-domain works from the Art Institute of Chicago. Select any one to view it full size.
The demo runs in terracotta with Literary Serif typography, the Author Portrait hero and the Editorial Grid feed. Your colour comes from Coben’s Accent Color setting, and theme settings change the hero, the feed layout, the typefaces and the featured book.
Plain, fast and private
Coben is plain Handlebars, hand-written CSS and one small JavaScript file. The stylesheet is about 11 KB gzipped, there is no build step for you and no framework between your writing and the reader on a phone.
Besley for headlines, Literata for reading, IBM Plex Sans for labels and buttons and Bodoni Moda for the Modern Editorial style are bundled with the theme, so the theme itself makes no request to a font service and there is nothing extra to cover in your privacy policy.
Pages, navigation and every essay stay readable with JavaScript off. On a phone the menu simply stays open under the logo. The contents list, reading progress bar and copy-link button are the only things that need a script.
A skip link, landmarks, strong focus rings, keyboard access everywhere and reduced motion respected. Checked with axe-core on every page type at phone and desktop widths, with no violations, and with print styles that turn an essay into a clean page.
Built for essayists
Coben is designed around how one writer actually publishes: say who you are, index the work by topic, show the best essays first and get out of the way of the reading.
Your site title is set large beside your publication cover image in an arched frame, with a short positioning line above it. Switch to a Book First hero or a Newsletter First hero with the email signup built in.
Your six most-used public tags become a clean directory with post counts. Every tag page is a topic hub with its own description, image and paginated feed.
Feature up to four posts and they become the homepage’s Essential essays: the newest leads with a large image and the rest follow as a short list.
Add a title, subtitle, cover and button and the book gets a full-width showcase, shown as a real object with a spine and a shadow. Clear the title and the section disappears.
Editorial Grid, Essay List or Magazine for the latest writing. Posts without an image get a quiet typographic card, and a chronological Archive page lists up to 100 essays.
A reading progress bar, an automatic contents list, an optional drop cap, share links with a copy button, an author card, related essays chosen by topic and comments. Every Ghost editor card is styled too.
An inline email signup on the homepage and after each post, plus a themed public-preview paywall for members-only and paid essays. Members never see signup prompts they do not need.
Literary Serif pairs Besley with Literata. Modern Editorial sets Bodoni Moda over IBM Plex Sans. Clean Sans uses IBM Plex Sans throughout. Ghost’s own custom fonts setting overrides any of them.
Coben’s Accent Color setting runs through buttons, links, labels and highlights, and pale colours adapt automatically so text stays readable. The dark panels take a trace of your colour too.
Fit check
Not the right fit: Ghost(Pro) Starter sites; magazines and newsrooms, where Society, Manifesto or Broadsheet do more; or authors who want a Books page with a page for every title, a Start here reading path, a Now page or dark mode, where Blyton fits better.
Technical details
| Ghost | Designed for Ghost 6; tested on Ghost 6.73 |
|---|---|
| Hosting | Ghost(Pro) Publisher or higher, or self-hosted Ghost |
| Licence | Single site: one live Ghost site (US$149). Agency: up to five live sites using this theme (US$349). Staging and local copies included for each licensed site. |
| Updates | Included for the lifetime of the product |
| Support | Email support from the builder; target response within two business days |
| Dependencies | No jQuery, page builder or frontend framework |
| Fonts | Besley, Literata, IBM Plex Sans and Bodoni Moda bundled; no third-party font requests unless you choose custom fonts in Ghost |
| Languages | Every label is translatable from a single locale file |
| JavaScript | Pages and navigation work without it; the contents list, reading progress and copy-link button need it |
Ghost(Pro) Starter does not support custom themes. Read the compatibility FAQ.
Explore the working demo
These links open the real Ghost demo, populated for a fictional essayist: seventeen essays, a members-only essay, a featured book and a full archive.
What you receive
After purchase
After checkout, Gumroad emails your download link. You receive the production theme ZIP, setup documentation, lifetime product updates and support from the person who built it. If Coben is not a fit, the 14-day refund policy applies.
Buyer questions
Quick answers to the questions that usually decide whether a Ghost theme is the right fit.
Coben is designed for Ghost 6 and tested on Ghost 6.73. It requires a Ghost plan that supports custom themes. Ghost(Pro) Starter does not support custom themes; Ghost(Pro) Publisher or a self-hosted Ghost install is the right fit.
Yes. Sixteen documented theme settings cover the typography, accent colour, hero style, featured book, newsletter prompts, reading features and feed layout, as set out in the settings guide. Your title, description and cover image come from Ghost’s own settings, and the Archive page is chosen as a template in the editor.
Use Coben’s Accent Color setting in Ghost Admin under Design & branding, Customize. It runs through buttons, links, labels and highlights. Button and link colours are derived from it automatically, so even a pale accent stays readable.
No. Coben is a light theme with warm paper tones and no dark scheme or visitor toggle. If you want dark mode, Blyton and Blogga both offer it.
Yes, through Ghost’s own memberships. Add Ghost’s public preview divider to a members-only or paid essay and readers see the opening followed by a themed prompt to join. An inline email signup sits on the homepage and after each post, and members never see prompts they do not need.
Both suit authors and essayists. Coben is the lighter, more typographic of the two: an arched author portrait, a topic index, one featured book, sixteen settings and a light-only design. Blyton adds a Books page with a page for every title, a Start here reading path, a Now page, dark mode and twenty settings.
You get email support from the person who built the theme for installation, documented settings and confirmed defects, with a target response within two business days. Your purchase is covered by the 14-day refund policy.
Coben · US$149
One-time purchase, lifetime product updates and a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Free Ghost launch checklist
Work through the free Ghost Publication Launch Checklist before you publish. You can also get three short emails about choosing a theme and launching your site, followed by occasional theme news.