By Emilia Rose September 17, 2022
Interested in subscriptions but find it daunting? Today we’re diving into the mindset of a subscription author. Specifically, the mindset that Emilia Rose has used to garner 2,000+ monthly subscribers for the last 3 years, consistently making six figures from subscription revenue as a steamy romance author.
So let’s explore the minds of the best authors in subscriptions…
How do they view their customers? What are they selling (Hint: it’s not books!)? And why are they doing it?
I want to preface this by saying that not every author in KU or in subscriptions thinks this way! This is the general consensus from what we’ve found works for other authors. There is no one way to make money or to be an author and there is certainly no right or wrong when it comes to KU versus wide.
Kindle Unlimited Strategy / Mindset
The general Kindle Unlimited strategy is to release really big books very often. With this strategy, you want to reach as many people as possible through paid advertising, social media, and marketing. Your books need to be perfect (cover and editing-wise) when they release or else you might get bad reviews. Release day is everything.
Subscription Mindset Shift #1: Commodity vs Access
You’re not selling a commodity. You’re providing access to your community and content. When you release your book as a commodity, the reader spends a short period of time reading the entire book. When you release your book over time (such as dropping a new chapter every week like they do in serial fiction or dropping new merch every month through your subscription), the reader spends much more time reading your book and invested in your world.
Think of it as binging a Netflix show versus impatiently waiting for the next episode of your favorite TV show to drop. When a new Netflix show releases all the episodes at once, there is a huge uproar for a couple weeks, then the excitement usually dies out. But when, let’s say, Game of Thrones releases a new episode every Sunday, people are talking about it all week for ten or more weeks. They’re invested for so long that they need to know what happens next.
Instead of selling one book at a time, you’re selling a much bigger monthly commitment with subscriptions. Selling one book is easy and quick. Selling a fandom takes a much longer time but it is worth it in the end.
Subscription Mindset Shift #2: Early Access
With a subscription model that utilizes an early-access method, your book doesn’t need a cover and doesn’t need to be edited. You can release your first draft. Yes, your first draft with all the spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Your superfans want to support you and read your work. Most are willing to overlook those small mistakes. Also, with an early access model subscription mindset, you are not necessarily rapid-releasing as some authors do in KU. You’re releasing consistently. You’re not writing 80k per month. You’re writing maybe 5k a month, 10k a month, or 80k a month (if you want).
Subscription Mindset Shift #3: How you view your customers.
Don’t think of your superfans as money. This is a common misconception that I see thrown around in Facebook groups. Your biggest fans are not money. Your biggest fans are… your biggest fans who want access to your content. Think of them as friends in a community who love your work. Building a subscription is not a short game. It’s a long game. And you’re not going to get sales overnight. You’re going to build superfans over an extended period of time.