One of the pieces of information
authors are finding invaluable is a list of their readers. If you want to
announce a new release, a promotion or a giveaway, the instant access to a list
of your readers is priceless. It could mean an instant jump in rankings and an
increase in reviews both critical to the success of your book.
The reader list is being used to
develop friendships and relationships far beyond the sale of your novels.
Building a list is a lot like farming. You cultivate the field. You plant the
seed. You watch it grow. Then you harvest the crop.
It is study time again and I am
fortunate to have a group of outstanding, award-winning authors whose opinions
I value highly. I challenged my HBS Author’s Spotlight crew and over 25 authors
responded to the study. Here is what they had to offer.
Why develop a reader list?
There are many reasons to develop a
list. Of course, an opportunity to increase sales or obtaining reviews is at
the top of the list. Developing relationships and gaining followers is a close
second.
Build Relationships and Friendships
NYT
and USA Today Best Selling Author Melody Anne
@authmelodyanne (Website). She is the
author of many Romance and Young Adult novels.
I lean heavily on popular social
media platforms to build and maintain reader’s lists. More accurately put, I
use social media to engage and build relationships with my readers. Using
social media, I allow readers to come into my life and share in experiences
that they can relate to, from the view point of one woman to another.
I think heavy engagement with my
followers via social media is one key aspect to building my reader list. Due to the viral nature of things like
Facebook and Twitter, if a fan “likes”, retweets or comments on anything I
post, the friends of my fans can usually see it, attracting a sort of viral
attention to my social media presence.
Author Carolyn Hughey
@ScribBLINGDIVA (K. T. Roberts) (Website) is a published author of humorous contemporary
romance and mystery novels.
I frequent Facebook and leave comments about whatever they've posted on
various walls even if we've just met. By doing so, I'm building a friendship.
The one thing I won't do is become their friend and ask them to buy my book.
I've seen that happen a number of times and I think it's sneaky and bad
business practice. I never advertise my book on anyone's wall but my own. I
also offer contests throughout the year.
What are the methods other authors use to find their readers and build relationships?
Provide something of value
Terry Ambrose @suspense_writer (Website) is the author of the McKenna
Mystery series and a member of Murder, We Wrote.
I've chosen the path of using my writing
about real-life scams and cons as a way to improve my reach to new potential
readers. While some authors are naturally outgoing and can interact with
readers about the most minor details, I've found that's not one of my
strengths. What is a strength is my knowledge of how to help those same people
avoid being taken in by a scam. As a result, that's the focus for the majority
of my outreach.
Author
Connie Flynn @ConnieFlynn (Website) is the bestselling award-winning
author of many Mystery, Fantasy, Paranormal and Romance novels and short
stories.
My mailing list was initially
grown through my online writing school, Bootcamp for Novelists. When my
partner and I closed the Bootcamp we had about 750 subscribers. Since then it
dipped to a low of about 620 but is now up to just under 700.
My problem is that I'm not quite
sure what to put into each issue. I don't want it to be a 'buy my book,"
"buy my book" kind of thing and my last major use of it was to
solicit readers for my most recent new release. That was very successful and
most of my posts on Bootcamp activities (I still do some) are successful. But
pushes on my backlist are not so well received.
Brent
Hartinger @brenthartinger (Website)
is the author of The Russel Middlebrook series. The movie version of his novel:
Geography Club was released in 2013.
I offer a free ebook download of an
earlier book if people subscript to my newsletter, and people sign up pretty
regularly. I know that some people subsequently cancel the subscription, but
that's okay. It's also a promotional tool -- if someone is browsing my site,
they have a chance to "sample" my work. In the end, I've ended up
with a pretty substantial email list, and the "free" book hasn't
cannibalized sales at all because the ebooks that I offer for free have
continued to sell just as well as always.
Suspense
Author Suzanne Jenkins @suzannejenkins3 (Website) is the author of the Pam of
Babylon series and The Greeks of Beaubien Street.
HI James, the way I am building my email list is to give those who sign
on a free download of a short story that is a prequel to a new series I'm
planning. I advertise the download on my Facebook page and have used the paid
boost on Facebook, too. I also
use Booktweetingservice.com
to tweet about it. Here's the link. http://suzannejenkins.net/.
Author
Lorhainne Eckhart @Leckhart (Website) is the Author of
Kindle Bestseller THE FORGOTTEN CHILD.
The methods that have worked well for me are by offering free books, for
example the first book in a series free. What happens is it drives sales
to my other titles in the series. It's a great way to find new readers. At
the end of all my ebooks I always provide an afterword with a link to sign up
to my newsletter and I notify my readers of upcoming promotions and new
releases.
I advertise every month and always join other authors in giveaways of larger prizes and promote our books together. I occasionally participate in blog tours for new titles, but when comes down to it, providing the link to sign up for newsletter in the afterword of my ebooks, on my website, Facebook page has had the biggest impact.
I advertise every month and always join other authors in giveaways of larger prizes and promote our books together. I occasionally participate in blog tours for new titles, but when comes down to it, providing the link to sign up for newsletter in the afterword of my ebooks, on my website, Facebook page has had the biggest impact.
How should you use social media programs to develop a reader list?
To me, Twitter and Facebook are a shotgun approach to building your list. I do have a good group of followers and I try to interact but links to them are fragile. Here’s what my crew had to say.General
As an education author, my publishers have
tight marketing budgets, so I need to publicize my work as much as possible. Twitter
is my best network. Over the years, I've acquired more than 10,000 followers,
and they have helped get the word out.
Facebook is another powerful network, and
I've created pages for my books and for my blog. Brilliant or Insane is another
excellent tool, as I publish education blog posts there daily, and my books are
advertised there, too. I have an email list, but I'm not sure it's worth the
time and money that goes into it. In the long run, I believe that writing and
sharing content, which leads back to your promotional material, is the best
marketing a writer can do.
Best-Selling
Author Chuck Barrett @Chuck_Barrett (Website)
is the author of the Award-Winning Jake
Pendleton series.
In the beginning, Twitter was the best, then
Facebook. Now neither have much impact in my opinion. I still use them as well
as Goodreads and LinkedIn. They are still excellent ways of promoting new
books, new ideas, etc., but they don’t really add to the number of readers.
Amazon
Best-Selling Author Cheryl Bradshaw
@cherylbradshaw (Website) is the
creator of the Sloane Monroe series and the founder of the hugely successful
Indie Writers Unite group on Facebook.
I'm mainly on Twitter and Facebook.
I use Twitter for most of my interaction with fans, and usually only promote on
there once a month when I run a BookBub
ad. If you're constantly promoting, you'll lose your existing fans, and you'll
be unfollowed. Twitter is a great
place to connect with fans, meet new people, and meet fellow authors. I
resisted signing up at first, but now I have almost 50,000 followers, and I
tweet almost every day. You can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/cherylbradshaw
Susan Aylworth @SusanAylworth (Website) is the award-winning,
bestselling author of the Rainbow Rock Series.
When people follow you on various
social media sites it automatically gives you a link to their profile that they
have created. The site automatically compiles a list for you of fans who are interested
in your work and you can use that to reach your readers by posting updates.
Author
Connie Flynn @ConnieFlynn (Website) is the bestselling award-winning
author of many Mystery, Fantasy, Paranormal and Romance novels and short
stories.
I haven't used these mediums to
get subscribers to my newsletter. I do belong to a Twitter tweet team and am
convinced it keeps me in front of readers because every time I stop, my downloads
dry up. To increase my mailing list, I mostly do occasional blog hops or giveaways
that increase new subscribers. Many of these actually stay, but some don't,
being they were motivated more by the prizes than because they think I'm a
fascinating writer. Most of my stable new subscribers come from programs where
I appear personally and do a presentation. The rest of them come from my blog
and my website, both of which have subscriber icons. I'll be working harder on
making these effective over the next couple months.
Crime
and Horror Author Jade Varden @JadeVarden (Website) is the creator of the Deck
of Lies book series.
For me personally, I focus most of my efforts
on Twitter because this is where I can find the bulk of my audience online.
It’s not just about using social media to promote, as an indie author it’s also
important to use the right social media sites. I follow certain people on
Twitter in order to find more potential readers. Book bloggers, book readers
and other authors are often open to buying indie books.
Amazon
Best-Selling Author Cheryl Bradshaw
@cherylbradshaw (Website) is the
creator of the Sloane Monroe series and the founder of the hugely successful
Indie Writers Unite group on Facebook.
On Facebook I promote through targeted
ads which point back to my Facebook author page and sometimes also link to a
new book or one of my novels. It's inexpensive and effective, and I've found
it's a good way to reach my demographic. Through targeting you can isolate your
ad so it only shows to potential readers in your genre, thereby giving you the
best bang for your buck.
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
I have a Facebook author page, where I post notices about
upcoming events, reviews, and links to articles I find interesting. This page
is entirely about writing and the writing world. I never post anything about my
personal life or views.
Award-Winning
Author Jinx Schwartz @jinxschwartz (Website) is the
author of the Hetta Coffey series.
Other than the signup link for my
newsletter on my website, I build my readership by meeting great new readers on
Facebook. I'm getting more on Twitter, as well, but Facebook is where you build
a rapport with new readers, and also meet other authors who will share your
work with their readers. I am also on the others, like Goodreads and
Google+ but have not quite mastered them. Another great way to meet people are
Yahoo Groups.
What other ways can you use to develop a list?
There are other ways to build that
list that are more direct. Some of the Spotlight crew weighted in on them.
Newsletters
M. Louisa Locke
@mlouisalocke (Website) is the Author of
Maids of Misfortune and Uneasy Spirits, bestselling Victorian San Francisco
Mystery Series
For the last two short stories I wrote, I
also announced on my Facebook page that if someone subscribed to the newsletter
they would be able to get a coupon for a free copy of the short story for a
limited time before it was published on Kindle. This was probably my most
successful tactic in getting fans to sign up for the newsletter. I now have 420
subscribers to the newsletter.
I have only sent out 5 newsletters--again,
only when I have a new publication--but my average open rate is very good
(65.5%) and my click through when I offered the coupon for my latest 2 short
stories was 70-80% (very high.)
When I published my last book, I was
fortunate in having Amazon put it up as a pre-order, and I had 700 people
pre-order it. I assume that many of these were people who knew about the pre-order
through my social media (website, Facebook, newsletter, twitter, etc.) My goal
is to make sure that I have an even larger number ready to order the next book.
:)
Using blog tours and Meeting bloggers
Ellen Mansoor Collier
(Website) is a Houston-based
freelance writer and editor whose articles and essays have been published in
several national magazines. Ellen just released the third novel in her Jazz Age
mystery series: Gold-Diggers,
Gamblers And Guns
I
don’t use much social media myself, but I hire blog tour hosts who do—and it
works for me. http://abluemillionbooksblogtours.blogspot.com/p/future-tours.html
Also a
couple of readers started adding my books to Listopia on Goodreads and I
found a few more lists to help categorize my mysteries, e.g. books set during
the 1920s, historical mysteries, etc.
I admit, I haven’t
joined the Twitter or Facebook craze myself but I have a Facebook page that I
don’t update and do enjoy reading tweets from various friends and famous
folks. What’s worked best for me are meeting bloggers via blog tours.
When I first wrote FLAPPERS, I approached a few bloggers directly and gotten
some positive responses from people who have turned into friends. Since then,
I’ve discovered that bloggers are most likely to reply if you have a tour host
to help promote your book. For only $25-30. and up, these experienced book tour
hosts will do most of the work of setting up reviews/interviews and guest posts.
Sure, there’s a
lot of preparation involved on some tours, but you can choose from a wide
variety of hosts and services. They’ll tweet about your book, posts and reviews
during the tour and often spotlight you on their own blogs. I’d opt for a tour
that focuses on your genre (in my case, historical mysteries). Ask around,
compare notes and see which tours come highly recommended by fellow authors,
and try to find the best one for your book. Amy
Metz has a new tour service specializing in mysteries that’s affordable and
effective—try it out!
Award-Winning
Author Jinx Schwartz @jinxschwartz (Website) is the
author of the Hetta Coffey series.
What groups do you use to find your readers? All of these. (Support
groups, Forums, Blogs, Author Networks, etc.) However, I mostly stick with the ones like (links) DorothyL, Murder Must Advertise, All Mystery Newsletter, and the
like. I love guest blogging because, quite frankly, I just don't seem to have
time to keep my own blog up.
Blogging
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
Another useful
approach is blogging. I blog weekly on my own blog and have been visiting other
blogs once a week for my new book; after the first four to six months I cut
back on visiting other sites to once or twice a month through the rest of the
year. I have a regular monthly entry on Author Expressions, for writers
published with Five
Star/Gale, Cengage.
The important
point about blogs is to write on a variety of topics that are mostly related to
my books--travel, India, Indian food, New England features, the New England
paper industry, writing and editing, and the like.
Contests
NYT
and USA Today Best Selling Author Melody Anne
@authmelodyanne (Website). She is the
author of many Romance and Young Adult novels.
In addition to this I run numerous contests
throughout the year, which in most cases requires a person on social media to
like or follow me on social media, and/or identify a specific detail about one
of my latest releases, and the prizes are usually pretty terrific which would
encourage just about any fan of my genre to purchase one of my books.
Kindle fire giveaways (Kindle book review)
M. Louisa Locke @mlouisalocke (Website) is the Author of Maids of
Misfortune and Uneasy Spirits, bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery
Series.
One of the ways I built up this page was to
participate in period Kindle Fire Giveaways sponsored by the Kindle Book Review. To keep up
interest in this page--I post my daily word count when I am writing, link to
pictures I have put up on my Pinterest page, and
post notifications when I do any promotions of my books. I will also pay
to boost posts when I have published something new or when there is a
promotion. I also have a number of Facebook groups that I will post to when I
have something like a promotion, new book, or something else like an interview
that I think might be of interest. One of the newest that I am quite
happy to have joined is Clean Indie Reads, which seems a perfect
place for me to connect with potential readers.
Donations
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
One activity
that is not often mentioned but one I consider important is charitable
donations. Whenever I receive or hear of a request for a donation of books, I
always send something, with an inscription if I know what it should be. These
are always appreciated, and I reach readers I might otherwise never know about.
In addition, if my book is remaindered I'll buy a number of copies to sell but
also to donate on my own. I choose libraries in small cities that usually have
small book-buying budgets and mail them a complimentary copy. The library can
add it to their circulating library or pass it along. Some libraries will then
buy copies of the other titles in the series.
What online tools and software can you use to record names and email addresses?
The winner by far on this topic was MailChimp. However, some of the authors had
some very good alternatives.
Mailchimp
Award-Winning
Author Jinx Schwartz @jinxschwartz (Website) is the
author of the Hetta Coffey series.
I get fan mail because I put my
email address in my books, and people email me all the time. So far, all
positive:-) Also, on my website and email signature, I have a link to emailmeform.com. And then I
use MailChimp to send out notices about free
books, and any new releases.
Author Carolyn Hughey
@ScribBLINGDIVA (K. T. Roberts) (Website) is a published author of humorous contemporary
romance and mystery novels.
I use my own email GoDaddy contact list and add the name to a
distribution list. I also belong to other small groups where I add names to MailChimp for a monthly newsletter. My website
has a link for subscribers, ScribBLING Divas wordpress blog signup, The Write Authors
on Facebook and blog signups.
At local book signings, I have a guest book sign in where I offer a gift card
for signing up.
Author
Leti Del Mar @leti_delmar (Website) is an indie
author. She blogs about the craft of
writing and indie books.
I like to use MailChimp
to create and manage my mailing list. I have reveals to join my mailing list on my website and at
the end of every book. When I do blog tours, I always add joining my mailing
list as a giveaway option and that has helped it grow the most. Of course, I do
get the occasional subscriber from time to time.
Author
Connie Flynn @ConnieFlynn (Website) is the bestselling award-winning
author of many Mystery, Fantasy, Paranormal and Romance novels and short
stories.
I use MailChimp, mostly because the price is right, since it free up to
2000 subscribers. Most services start charging at 500 and I'm already over
that.
Joseph Lallo @jrlallo (Website) is a
bestselling author of the Science Fiction & Fantasy series: The Book of
Deacon Trilogy.
I try to cast a wide net when it comes to connecting
with readers. Just as I've found that the best way to sell a book is to have it
for sale where people want to buy it (wherever that might be), I've found that
the best way to connect with fans is to be present on the network they most
use, whichever that might be. I'm on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Google+,
Tumblr, and Instagram mostly. I've found Facebook and Twitter to be the most
valuable, though Goodreads and Tumblr are great too.
As for tools, I do have a newsletter which
I'm beginning to work on developing. I use MailChimp
for it and it works great. My website is a semi-custom theme built upon
Wordpress. I don't do a lot of searching for readers. I'm not as active on
blogs and forums as I might be, and I've got this weird notion that showing up
on a blog in search of readers is a little like poaching.
M. Louisa Locke @mlouisalocke (Website) is the Author of Maids of
Misfortune and Uneasy Spirits, bestselling Victorian San Francisco Mystery
Series.
However, in the last year as Facebook has
started limited who actually sees any normal (un-boosted) post, I also started
encouraging fans to sign up for my newsletter.
For this newsletter I use MailChimp.com,
and I recently upgraded from the free version so that I could send a reply
letter when someone signed up that offered free coupons for various
books.
I only started developing a newsletter signup
a year ago (should have done it earlier!), as I prepared for the launch of my
third book. I started out by emailing any fan who had emailed me personally and
asked if they would like to sign up--stressing that i would only send out a
newsletter when I had an announcement for a new publication. I also added a
signup link to the ends of all my books and stories and put the link on my
website. I notice after a promotion--when sales (and therefore readers) goes
up--the sign-ups for this newsletter does increase a bit.
Chantel Rhondeau @ChantelRhondeau (Website) is a Romantic suspense author.
Chantel writes the Agents in Love series.
I'm fairly new to the mailing list thing, not
realizing how important it was in the beginning. Now, I have an account through
MailChimp and I put the link for the
mailing list and the end of my books, encouraging readers to sign up to get
information about my new releases if they enjoyed what they read. I also placed
a sign up form on my website that is near the top of it. I did all of this
before doing a free giveaway on one of my books, and ended up with several sign
ups, so it seems to be working. I look forward to seeing what others have done!
Contact form plugin
NYT
and USA Today Best Selling Author Melody Anne
@authmelodyanne (Website). She is the
author of many Romance and Young Adult novels.
For my fans who
want even more detailed news and updates on releases, they have the option to sign
up for my newsletter via my website. If
you’re looking for a more technical response, I use one of many readily
available contact form plugins available on the web.
Best-Selling
Author Chuck Barrett @Chuck_Barrett (Website)
is the author of the Award-Winning Jake
Pendleton series.
I use every tool available. I have a
sign up page on my website. I send out tweets encouraging readers to sign up.
Also I try to capture readers at events and book signings then add them to the
list.
Software and Services
Author
Leti Del Mar @leti_delmar (Website) is an indie
author. She blogs about the craft of
writing and indie books.
I just released a newsletter informing my subscribers
that extended samples of my books are now available on NoiseTrade for free download. Since I
write in more than one genre, I think it’s a great site to introduce readers to
titles they might not of read.
In the future, I would like to put novellas,
extra chapters, or scenes from different points of view together and give those
away free to anyone who subscribes as a thank you to my readers for
subscribing.
Constant Contact
Amazon
Best-Selling Author Cheryl Bradshaw
@cherylbradshaw (Website) is the
creator of the Sloane Monroe series and the founder of the hugely successful
Indie Writers Unite group on Facebook.
I use Constant Contact for my
emails/newsletter list.
Excel
I have a website, dianneharman.com
as well as a blog. I’ve just signed up for a newsletter feature and I have no
idea how that will go. I have lists of people on Excel spreadsheets that
are notified with a new release. That has proven to be very successful. I
generally send it out to friends, acquaintances, and the book list.
Rafflecopter
Tricia Drammeh @triciadrammeh (Website) is the author of Young Adult,
paranormal romance and Fantasy novels.
I recently began to compile a list of readers
for my mailing list. At some point very soon, I'm going to put out a plea on
Facebook and on my blog, but even though I haven't done that yet, I already
have quite a list going. I'm one of the authors participating in a Kindle
giveaway in which the host of the promotion asked sponsors to provide a Twitter
handle or Facebook page for contest entrants to follow as a way of gaining
extra points on Rafflecopter.
Instead of providing my Facebook Author Page URL like I normally would, I
decided to use this opportunity to begin building my mailing list. Readers can
earn extra points in the giveaway by signing up for my mailing list, and just a
few days into the giveaway, I already have dozens of new potential readers
waiting to receive my newsletter.
WIX
Susan Aylworth @SusanAylworth (Website) is the award-winning,
bestselling author of the Rainbow Rock Series.
I use an app that I installed
through my web provider (Wix) that compiles a
list of people who are interested in my website and who sign up for updates.
Weebly signup sheet
Tricia Drammeh @triciadrammeh (Website) is the author of Young Adult,
paranormal romance and Fantasy novels.
Right now, I'm using a simple contact form on
my (Weebly) website. It's very easy for
readers to fill out, and Weebly sends me
an email each time someone signs up. In addition to finding readers via
giveaways and contests, I also rely heavily on blogging. It certainly hasn't
happened overnight, but my readership has gradually expanded. The great thing
about blogging is it gives you a chance to have an ongoing conversation with
readers. I try to respond to every comment, even if it's just a thank you.
Through blogging, I've met both readers and authors, and I've made many new
friends.
What groups do other authors use to develop their list?
Groups can be invaluable in
developing your reader list. Here’s what some of the Spotlight crew had to say
about using groups to develop their lists.
General
I use twitter, Google+, Facebook &
Goodreads. I do a lot with Goodreads because this is where the readers are. The
others are kind of like shooting fish in a pool. You never know what percent of
those are readers and what percent of those will be interested in your genre. I
am active in several groups on Google+ that are specific to writers. I’m
not a huge fan of Facebook. Other than the Authors
Social Media Support Group, I’ve had very little luck with involvement. ASMSG has been a huge factor in whatever
success I have had as an author, not only for all the subgroups, but for the
help I’ve received with all kinds of questions. Can’t recommend it highly
enough. Twitter I use, but again it’s kind of a shotgun thing. I have almost
30,000 followers, but what number of those are readers and what number of those
interested in my genre? Don’t know. On occasion I take part in the tweet teams
on World Literary Café and
ASMSG, particularly if I’m offering a reduction in price or introducing a new
book.
Award
winning Indie Author John W. Huffman
@johnwhuffman (Website) writes
Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers.
I use Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and
Goodreads as my primary focus social media outlets, as well as the Independent Author's Network
(IAN) blog site, Author's Corner,
and The Indy Writer's Group
as forums for my books. I never attempt to "sell" my books on any of
these outlets, but instead focus on inter reacting with old friends and making
new ones while allowing them to make their own decisions as to purchase my
books or not. I find other authors on these sites who constantly harp on their
books and beg for people to purchase them tedious and boring.
Goodreads
NYT
and USA Today Best Selling Author Melody Anne
@authmelodyanne (Website). She is the
author of many Romance and Young Adult novels.
I’m partial to Goodreads forums. Many young
book lovers, my target audience, use Goodreads to find other readers and
discover books. I have looked at writer forums and Amazon forums before, but I
can’t keep up with it all.
I do quite a bit to find new
readers, it ranges from very basic in book advertisements to writing and
sharing content amongst a close group of fellow self-publishing authors and
participation in online (social media based or live chat) release parties. In addition to this I advertise on various
book sites like Goodreads.
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
I have a
Goodreads page, and post reviews fairly regularly. These seem to get a good
response from my "followers." I have joined in various
discussion groups, but do that less now. I'm thinking of setting up a
discussion group on a number of specific topics when I finish a collection of
stories I'm working on. I'm also on LibraryThing
and LinkedIn, but less active on those sites.
Award-winning
Author Mohana Rajakumar @moha_doha (Website) is an author based in Qatar.
She has a PhD and has been involved in various foundations supporting young
writers.
I really love Goodreads for finding readers.
Because those who read your book and like it are likely to read other books by
the same author. I have has great success writing to past reviewers of my books
in posting early reviews of new titles or even beta reading, which is offering
comments on a manuscript in progress. They're often excited to read something
before everyone else can and because they're avid readers, they have insightful
comments.
Hope that's helpful as that's the only real
list I use for readers.
Genre Specific
Susan Aylworth @SusanAylworth (Website) is the award-winning,
bestselling author of the Rainbow Rock Series.
Sales and other special events
are posted to several Facebook groups, specialized to my niche market, such as
the Goodreads
Clean Romances page. I'd love to find more!
Speaking at conferences
Best-Selling
Author Chuck Barrett @Chuck_Barrett (Website)
is the author of the Award-Winning Jake
Pendleton series.
I have one of the best ways to build my
readership and followers is with face time...actual time in front of readers. Speeches
at writer’s conferences and book festivals always show a marked increase.
Another successful method in reaching out to book clubs, Friends of the Library
groups/chapters, writers groups, local women's and men's groups.
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
I recently participated
on a crime fiction panel and was pleasantly surprised to hear a woman in the
audience talk about my books. She was a poet, not a fiction writer, and was not
the kind of person who would normally read my books. This has happened quite
often.
I go to a few conferences,
participate in panels, comment regularly on lots of blogs, post reviews, and
generally try to keep my name alive. I don't think reaching readers is a matter
of working with any one site but in general maintaining a level of participation
in the online world. I've tried to track e-book sales according to certain
activities, but I can't identify any correlation.
Wattpad
Author
Connie Flynn @ConnieFlynn (Website) is the bestselling award-winning
author of many Mystery, Fantasy, Paranormal and Romance novels and short
stories.
Good question. The truth is I've
been using a scattershot method of enlisting new readers and I've taken a new
direction. Currently I am advertising heavily and have seen a nice uptick in my
sales. I've also put my first WIP up on Wattpad and am waiting to see how that
turns out.
What I have discovered is that my newsletter is important because since enlisting the subscribers as beta readers I've also made them into fans and I want to create more of that. Not only is it good for sales, I've already made some new friends.
This reply is pretty scattershot
itself and I hope it's of value. If you choose not to use it I'll understand.
Your support has already been invaluable to me.
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
Wattpad is an
interesting site that I have used a bit. I post a sample chapter from a book,
for example, and then link to the whole book on Amazon. I've posted a short
story, related to one of my mystery series.
I use these
sites to introduce readers to my books. I'm less interested in putting their
email addresses into a program for a newsletter, etc., than I am in making them
curious enough about me to follow a link to my books and try one.
Support groups
Award
winning Indie Author John W. Huffman
@johnwhuffman (Website) writes
Historical Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers.
I am constantly in contact with support
groups as I come across them, such as this one, and respond to them on a daily
or as requested basis.
Are there problems you should avoid?
I have an opt-in mailing list and people who
visit my website can add their names to the list. I don’t use any online tools
to capture email addresses. My list is strictly opt-in and the only way to do
that is by filling out a short form on my site. After I set up the mailing
list, it very quickly ran up to about a thousand names, but over the last year
or so growth has slowed to a trickle. I have no idea why since I’ve changed
nothing and the number of visits I get to my website has steadily increased.
Maybe newsletters have simply gone out of style and few people want to receive
them anymore. That’s easy to understand since most of us already get far more
email these days than we know what to do with.
I should also say that I have the sense that
my mailing list is worthless as a marketing tool. Most if not all of the people
on it are fans who have already read most of my books. I do get a lot of nice
email back whenever I send out a newsletter that has any substance at all.
Clearly many readers do enjoy hearing from me and reading my thoughts on things
that touch on the subject matter of the books I write, but I don’t think the newsletters
actually sell any books for me at all. Trying to sell more books through an opt-in
mailing list is almost the definition of preaching to the choir.
Terry Ambrose @suspense_writer (Website) is the author of the McKenna
Mystery series and a member of Murder, We Wrote.
I, like most people I know, am annoyed by the
constant promotional efforts many writers use. As a result, if I am friends
with someone, but the majority of their posts are promotional in nature, I'm
going to distance myself from them. Everyone has to do some promotion, but that
promotion should be a small portion of the social interactions, not the
majority.
NYT
and USA Today Best Selling Author Melody Anne
@authmelodyanne (Website). She is the
author of many Romance and Young Adult novels.
To me the term “capture” implies
some sort of unwanted data collection to somehow spam my fans with news they
don’t necessarily want. Typically all
news of new releases is available through social media platforms, so any fans
that follow me will receive updates as they occur.
Unwanted email
Veteran
Author Susan Oleksiw (Website) is a bestselling author of the
Mellingham series and the Anita Ray mysteries.
There is so
much unwanted email these days that I have decided to stay away from this. I
have a list of about 1500 names and addresses, but these change so often that I
felt it wasn't worth the effort to keep up the list and then send newsletters
or announcements to people who are already complaining about unwanted email.
Amazon
Best-Selling Author Cheryl Bradshaw
@cherylbradshaw (Website) is the
creator of the Sloane Monroe series and the founder of the hugely successful
Indie Writers Unite group on Facebook.
I'm mainly on Twitter and Facebook.
I use Twitter for most of my interaction with fans, and usually only promote on
there once a month when I run a BookBub ad. If you're constantly promoting,
you'll lose your existing fans, and you'll be unfollowed.
Time
Liliana Hart @Liliana_Hart (Website) is a NYT and USA Today
Bestselling author of romantic mysteries and suspense.
Thanks so much for emailing me. I want you to
know I read each and every email from my readers, and those emails are awesome
and keep me going and motivated. Unfortunately, I've reached the point where I
just can't respond to them all in a timely manner. I wish I could respond
faster and stay on top of it all, but I've realized I'm not Wonder Woman,
despite what my favorite coffee mug says. Just be assured that I'm using my
email response time to get the next book out faster. Thank you all so much for
your support and for reading.
Spam
Brent
Hartinger @brenthartinger (Website)
is the author of The Russel Middlebrook series. The movie version of his novel:
Geography Club was released in 2013.
In my experience, people are so overwhelmed
with spam and emails that it's really difficult to get them to subscribe to
email lists. They have to be (a) really passionate fans and/or (b) given
something valuable in return, to entice them.
How should you use the reader list?
Now that you have laid all the
ground work, planted the seeds, it’s time to harvest the crop. What do I do
with my list?
Usage
Author
Leti Del Mar @leti_delmar (Website) is an indie
author. She blogs about the craft of
writing and indie books.
For now, I use my mailing list to alert my
readers about the following: cover reveals, new releases and promotions. I send
one out every three months or so. I like to be able to give my subscribers a
reason to join, so I let them know of any promotions before anyone else.
Search engines/rankings
Terry Ambrose @suspense_writer (Website) is the author of the McKenna
Mystery series and a member of Murder, We Wrote.
Because I'm reaching out directly to my audience
via search engines, which are now ranking my posts on the first page for the
search terms, my website traffic is up and I have more opportunity to garner a
potential reader's interest. With that said, the majority of those visitors are
looking for something in particular, so converting them from a visitor who is
looking for a specific type of information to someone interested in books can
be difficult.
Best-Selling
Author Chuck Barrett @Chuck_Barrett (Website)
is the author of the Award-Winning Jake
Pendleton series.
There is no single sure-fire method that
works 100% of the time. Social media has had its heyday. Readers want more
substance. They are overwhelmed with the preponderance of authors and books saturating
the market. It’s confusing when there are hundreds (or thousands) of new
authors flooding social media every month. Readers tend to stick to their
favorites and sometimes it’s difficult to get them to break that habit. What
works best is to have the best product you can have and get out and reach the
readers. Face time with readers is important and that helps word of mouth...and
word of mouth sells books. Advertising is only so-so effective and must be
well-placed & well-timed or it’s a waste of money. Today’s author must try
everything they can to sell books. When something works, stick with it until it
stops working then find something else that works.
Brent
Hartinger @brenthartinger (Website)
is the author of The Russel Middlebrook series. The movie version of his novel:
Geography Club was released in 2013.
What do I do with the email list? I
send out a newsletter, but I try really hard not to annoy people, so I try to make
it (a) substantive, with some actual "content," not just all about me
and please to buy my books, and (b) I don't send it out more than five times a
year. When I have something substantial to announce, I send an email, and I
know from MailChimp.com (the e-newsletter service I use) that I have a very
high "open" rate compared to other marketers, so I think I'm doing
something right.
Best
Selling Author M. R. Cornelius
@marshacornelius (Website) writes
post-apocalyptic thrillers. Marsha echoed several responses I received to this
study.
Looking forward to this post James, because I
do a terrible job of finding readers. I could use some tips.
Throughout this study the authors have
echoed how they use their list. They not only use the list to announce new
releases, promotions and giveaways but to build relationships.
The communications should be
well-timed and not overdone. The primary theme the authors used was ‘give them
something of value’. There is no silver bullet here. Write a good book.
Cultivate it. And then reap the rewards.
Here
are the questions you need to answer.
Do you have a reader lists?
What methods would you use to
develop the list?
How would you use the list?
To check out the complete responses
to the Study from each author, click the link below.
eBook Author’s Corners Related Posts
Some of the sources of information offered by authors follow:
Crime
and Horror Author Jade Varden @JadeVarden (Website) is the creator of the Deck
of Lies book series.
Follow me:
Follow Me on Twitter: @jimhbs
Or EMAIL at: jim@jamesmoushon.com
View my website: James Moushon – Mystery Writer
Or visit my blog: The eBook Author Corner
Take a look at my Author’s blog: HBS Author’s Spotlight
Or my Mystery blog: HBS Mystery Reader’s Circle
Check
out the Jonathon Stone Mystery Novel: Black
Mountain Secrets
NEW
RELEASE: Another Jonathon Stone Mystery: Game
Of Fire