How to Increase Subscribers and Readers Using a Simple Tool
As many of my fellow writers out there, I always seem to be working on some type of content.
I’m either writing a new book, editing a book, or proposing/outlining a new book.
I’m either writing a post for Substack, Ream, my newsletter, or social media.
It’s a lot of content. And when I advise new writers, my number one motto over and over is content is king. Content is our job. New content is the best driver of income or new readers or expanding your base.
With enough backlist content, I can afford to take breaks along the way to refill the well, pivot a publishing path, or simply focus on admin.
Lately, I’m in a strange and exciting new phase in my career I haven’t had for ten years.
I am officially in between contracts.
This is a scary yet hopeful place to be. It’s nice to be in control of where you’d like your next year to go. I’m in the driver’s seat, with a blank new pace and open road ahead.
A negative mindset would make me believe I am officially unemployed.
My positive mindset allows me to see the endless options available, on my terms.
As I play a bit, meditate, and allow my Muse to step forward with her own demands, I’ve been focusing on a solid way to reach new readers and keep my current fan base well fed with my stories.
Bonus content.
This is commonly called reader magnets.
Writers need to be smart about having their content work hard. For example, when I wrote a serial book for Vella, which is now defunct, I found one year later I had almost 175Kin the bucket. What did I do?
First, I split the story into two separate books. Then I did a Kickstarter and offered them in special foil paperbacks and a hard cover special edition Omnibus. I wrote a short story for a bonus.
After the Kickstarter, I had inventory and put them up for sale in my direct Shopify store.
Then, I took them off and put them in Amazon KU. I immediately put up book 3 for pre-order and am writing that one now.
I still have audio and foreign to sell or do myself.
That’s a lot of heavy lifting for one series not even complete to do.
For bonus content, I decided to go to all my backlist books one at a time and write an additional epilogue or short continuing the characters in my story. I usually do an engagement, a wedding, a baby, or some type of reunion. Sometimes a sex scene. Anything that feels organic to me and the characters.
I drop a Bookfunnel link with a landing page before The End with a quick tagline:
Want to read more of XX and XX? Click here for a special bonus epilogue!
When they click through, I capture them to my newsletter and funnel them right into my world.
I have a lot of backlist. Many are traditional books I can’t add to the ebook, so I’ve decided to go one by one and blast it out on social media that it will be dropped in my newsletter. This way, I’m increasing my subscribers. After the newsletter goes out, I drop the epilogue into my website that houses a place called The Vault. Readers can click on it and read through all the bonus stories.
Cool, right?
It does take some time, so I go slow and decide what story I want to work on next, or what book will fit in with my new releases or season. Doing a Valentine’s Day short in February worked well. Mother’s Day is coming up for a great family short. The ideas are endless, and this content has a lot of value.
Do you do bonus content? How do you capture your readers when they’re done with your book?
On another quick note: There's also a fabulous Trope online conference going on with Jennifer Hilt - a master at using tropes as content to build readership and create better books. I did a Q&A session with her which was a blast!
If you're interested you can sign up here with my link:
