By Arielle Bailey, February 24, 2024
We regularly hear 2 main questions about maximizing Discovery:
“How can we maximize Discovery of our stories and subscriptions?”
And
“How can we make the most of readers’ limited time and get them right into our stories?”
After all, most readers don’t have endless time and definitely not endless money. And they naturally want to try out your story before deciding to subscribe. Making it easy for them to do this is how you maximize Discovery.
Publishing Pro Tip #1:
Making the first few chapters of your story Public is a great way to have new readers discover you on Ream. When they see your story, they can dive right in and get hooked!
Publishing Pro Tip #2:
After the first few chapters make your next chapters available ONLY to Followers. This allows you to grow your readership directly (because you will get their contact information when they sign up to follow you).
Putting a call to action or short message at the end of your last Public chapter (we call this an Author’s Note) and telling readers what other stories and perks they get for being a Follower is an amazing way to optimize this.
This also creates a clear reader funnel from Public to Follower to Paid.
Publishing Pro Tip #3:
I know your next question: “But when do I set my chapters to Paid Tiers?”
This is ultimately a personal decision, but we have some advice. If your first story is your funnel to a longer series, then you can make the whole story (after the first few chapters) free to Followers and paywall later stories behind your tiers.
If you want to make the story you are writing paid, we recommend setting the paywall at the Retention Point of your story.
- This varies for every story, but it’s the moment that a reader hits that one chapter…and can’t stop reading.
- Essentially it’s the moment when someone says, “I’m committed to this story, and no matter what, I’m going to finish it.”
- That is the perfect moment to publish your chapters to Paid Tiers Only.
If you’re not sure what the Retention Point of your story is, consider this advice from Ream Founding Author Emilia Rose:
Set the first 5 chapters to Public and the next 5 chapters to Followers. This gives readers time to really get hooked on your story. Chapter 11 is then the first chapter behind a paywall.
When readers hit a chapter that is for Followers or Paid Members only, they will automatically receive a message to upgrade.
I hope this was helpful!