By Emilia Rose October 8, 2022.
Wherever you are in your author journey, you’ve probably told your readers to buy your book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo or mentioned that they could read for free in KU. Especially if you’re trying to sell a high volume of books, the word free really snags a bunch of readers.
And you will get sales! But how do you get those readers to support you monthly?
Sorry to break it to you, but the majority of those readers will not pay for your content monthly. Many of those readers (of course, not all of them) won’t be your fans. As Monica Leonelle mentioned in our podcast with her, those readers will be your casual readers.
Sure, they might like the book you wrote. Sure, they might read the majority of books you write. But are they obsessed with your writing enough to pay for it monthly? Chances are that not many of those readers are… yet.
So what should you do to condition your readers to pay monthly?
- Stop using the word free to sell your final-draft books. Or don’t.
If you’re juggling multiple models of publishing like I am, you still want to sell books and get your stories into the hands of many readers. A way to do this, especially on TikTok, is to tell readers that they can read your books for free through KU.
Still, if you’re continuing to use this language when talking to your most active, engaged, and excited newsletter subscribers who already love your content, there is a chance that those readers will expect your content to always be free.
You have to test this language out with your audience. Not all superfans will be the same.
- Asking your readers to support you through a monthly subscription might not be good enough.
A reader who loves you might join to support you just because (I know that I have supported people who didn’t update their subscription for months just because I wanted). But most readers need you to provide them with something.
Try tweaking your language.
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How long will it take?
Most readers will not convert to subscribers after the first time you mention your monthly content. Almost every single author has trained readers to buy their books solely on retailers or to read for free through KU. You will have to constantly repeat your benefits to your readers before they subscribe. So if you’re not converting right away, don’t get discouraged.
Baby Authors VS Veteran Authors
If you’re at the very beginning of your author journey, I would recommend starting a subscription now and training your readers from the start. Because once you begin telling your readers to buy your books on Amazon or that they can get them for free through KU, it is much harder to convert readers to pay monthly for your content (unless they’re your biggest superfans).
If you’re a veteran at publishing, you can still convert readers but it *may* take longer and be harder. Some authors like Nikki St. Crowe and Katee Robert have been able to garner much success using subscriptions after they began publishing.