Day 126: Reader Magnets

-
I had mentioned before about how I started learning all about marketing and sales funnels. I also posted about Reader Magnets recently, but my previous marketing blog post didn't mention much about them, so I'll write a little bit here.

I got most of my information from the book Reader Magnets: Build Your Author Platform and Sell more Books on Kindle (2019 Edition) (Book Marketing for Authors 1), which is a free ebook, and also Launch to Market: Easy Marketing For Authors (Write Faster, Write Smarter Book 4), which explained a slightly different tweak on the type of Reader Magnet you can offer.

A Reader Magnet is basically something free that you offer to people if they join your newsletter. This is important since you now have a captive audience for when you launch a new book. You want to build your newsletter list with people who like your writing and might actually be willing to buy it, and a Reader Magnet is a tool that will automatically draw in people who already like your writing.

Nick Stephenson offered book 2 in his series for free as a Reader Magnet. Chris Fox offered a prequel story to his launch book, which explained some mysterious events that had happened before the book and were referenced a few times. (Reader Magnets don't have to be books or stories, they can be other things too.)

For both Reader Magnets, they appealed more to people who had read book 1 in their series and enjoyed it. So the Reader Magnet directly targeted readers who were fans of the author.

I'm going the Chris Fox route, simply because when I started writing volume 1 in my Lady Wynwood's Spies series, there were already events that happened beforehand that formed a foundation for the storyline. However, I didn't want to write it and offer it for sale because I already had a prequel novel (The Spinster's Christmas).

Also, since I'm publishing on Kindle Unlimited, I can't offer the second book in my series for free. Another thing to think about is that Chris Fox mentioned that offering a book that's also available for purchase didn't get him as many newsletter subscribers as offering a book not available anywhere else.

So I decided to write the Meynhill birthday celebration as a Reader Magnet to offer to people if they join my newsletter. The events are referenced in volume 1 of the series, and while they do have some impact, it's not important enough that a reader needs to read the Reader Magnet to enjoy the rest of the series.

I still don't know what I'm going to call the book yet, though, so I'm still referring to it as the Reader Magnet right now. :)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 783: Evaluation 7

-
It’s been almost seven months since I wrote my last Evaluation 6 , but I finally got around to Evaluation #7! Here’s the gist of what I’ve learned over the past few months about my writing and productivity. New schedule My IBS was slowly been starting to feel better recently. I am still extremely strict with my diet, but I am also starting to experiment with what foods I can and can’t eat. I have also started a new eating and sleeping schedule, which I have dubbed my “chrono-diet” because I’m trying to take advantage of my circadian rhythm, according to the book Change Your Schedule, Change Your Life (I had borrowed a copy from the library but I enjoyed it so much I went ahead and bought it). I have started waking up at 6 am and exercising first thing, then having breakfast after exercise. I do house chores and/or work until noon, which is when I eat lunch. I’m supposed to not eat until dinner around 5:30 or 6, but I haven’t been able to break the habit of snacking in the aftern...
Read more

Day 252: Evaluation 5

-
It’s been a while since I’ve done an evaluation, so I figured I was overdue. In no particular order: Good health = good work I had some really bad health issues lately that kept me from writing entirely. However, I found it strange that I’ve been feeling very creative and motivated yesterday and today, despite getting in a lot of work hours yesterday. I think it’s because I haven’t had any IBS issues for the first time in a couple weeks. Not even a little discomfort. This is kind of duh! in hindsight, but I think I underestimated how much my IBS was affecting my energy levels. I’ve been careful about what I ate, but I was also trying to figure out exactly what I could and couldn’t eat, so it resulted in some bad IBS bouts. So now I know I really need to be strict about what I’m putting in my mouth so that my health doesn’t adversely affect my energy for work! Sprints Another sort of duh! moment in hindsight, but sprints have been helping me with my productivity. At f...
Read more

Day 21: Bullet journal, Surrender statement

-
Today was my writing Sabbath so I didn’t do any writing today, but I spent a lot of time doing writing-related things. I did some blogging, and I also reviewed my writing To Do list. I cleaned it up by checking off what’s been done, deleting what I no longer need to do, and making note of what I need to do this coming week. Before I started bullet journaling (in an electronic journal app, Day One Journal ), I had my To Do lists in a couple different places and I’d usually forget things I needed to do. Now I have them in my bullet journal, which combines journaling with task organizer, and I’m less likely to forget. I still set reminders for myself in my phone, but since I’m using my journal throughout the day every day, I’m more likely to see things I need to do. I found some of my old To Do lists today and incorporated some things in my bullet journal. One of them was my writing Surrender Statement, which is a prayer I pray before starting each day’s work. What’s a Surrender Sta...
Read more