Posted on February 28, 2023.
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Reece Barden is a paranormal romance author who got her start in publishing just over a year ago. After garnering over a million views on serial fiction platforms and finding success with retailers, she started a subscription where she grew her paid subscribers from 0 to 125 readers in under 4 months. Today, she shares with us her insights and her inspiring journey as a subscription author.
Reece Barden’s Website: https://www.reecebarden.com/
Reece Barden’s Subscription: https://www.patreon.com/reecebarden
Join the Ream waitlist, the subscription platform by fiction authors for fiction authors: https://ream.ink
#26 Episode Outline:
0:00 Introduction
2:31 How Reece Broke Out in Serial Fiction During Her First Year
6:26 When Reece Made the Move from Serial Fiction Platforms to *Also* Being on Retailers
7:34 How Reece Found Success on Wattpad
11:20 When Reece Started Her Subscription
15:06 Writing an Exclusive Novel on Your Subscription
16:34 How Reece Gained 125 Subscribers in Her First 4 Months
18:21 Starting Small With Subscriptions
24:07 How Reeces Has Continued Building Her Community as Her Readership has Grown
28:42 Keeping Up with the Pressure of Posting to Your Subscription
33:07 How Reece Creates Bonus Content for Her Readers
36:05 How Reece Has Promoted Her Subscription
39:29 Reece’s Final Advice to Subscription Authors
#26 Episode Transcript:
[00:00:00] Michael Evans: Reece, we are very excited to have you on the Subscriptions forAuthors podcast today. You’ve been a longtime member of community and just, I feel like I already know you.
[00:00:08] Michael Evans: So now that we’re actually here talking, I have to ask you before you start a subscription how did your author career start?
[00:00:16] Reece Barden: I’ll give you a very brief overview. I am a total JB author. I’m a complete newbie , like many people, I suppose I always had in my head that I was going to write a book.
[00:00:28] Reece Barden: I was always that kid with a notebook who started one or two chapters of a book, never finished it and left them lying all over the house. And I suppose like an awful lot of people in lockdown. Then I was working from home. I had extra time and I started writing a book and I had been reading an awful lot.
[00:00:48] Reece Barden: Shifter romance books on different apps and on kind unlimited. And so I decided I’m gonna write what I like to read. So that’s where I started. So I [00:01:00] wrote a book and then I hadn’t got a clue what to do with it. So I had no idea whether anybody would be interested in reading it, whether it was absolutely awful.
[00:01:10] Reece Barden: So I just said, yeah, I’m. Put it up on what? Padd. So I had read a few books up there, including Emilia some of yours I’d read CJ Primer, who is another shifter romance writer who was writing on what Padd at the time. And so I said, okay, I’ll give it a go and I’ll just see if anybody reads it.
[00:01:29] Reece Barden: I did all of the research on, trying to get the algorithm to give you a bit of a hand while you’re posting. And I put it. Probably December, middle of December 21, and within about six weeks it had like a lot of views. So it had shot up. And so then went, okay like people don’t hate it.
[00:01:51] Reece Barden: So maybe there’s a chance I could make, a few quid outta this and wouldn’t it be great if I could get. A couple hundred Euro a month wouldn’t not be amazing. So I [00:02:00] applied for radish and I got accepted. And so in, I think it was the end of February, I started putting up chapters there.
[00:02:08] Reece Barden: So of book one in my, it’s now Shifters of Gray Ridge series the Alpha Savior, and I think it was day three, I made $300. and I just went, okay, great. And all of a sudden my husband, he was like, God, you’re just always on the laptop, was like, okay, you go sit in the corner on the laptop. Obviously every day is not $300.
[00:02:33] Reece Barden: But it just showed me that there was the potential there to make money through this serialized fiction because I didn’t know if anybody else was making money or. What was good and what was bad at that stage, I was just testing the water. So yeah, so then I put up all the chapters there, published the first book wide, then at the end of May, and just kept writing.
[00:02:54] Reece Barden: But at that stage, I had no Instagram, website, anything. So I all [00:03:00] those up as quickly as I could because I was getting followers on what Padd and on Radish and yeah, just went from there. So I’ve. Three novels out and a novella. And the fourth book in that series is coming out, or I’m writing at the moment.
[00:03:14] Reece Barden: And then the spinoff series, first book in that is out in a few weeks. So yeah, it’s been a busy year.
[00:03:22] Michael Evans: Yeah. Wow. What an adventure in just a year and. Yeah. Now you’re in all these different places that you are finding readers entering revenue. Cause obviously you have a subscription, which we’re gonna dive into in detail.
[00:03:34] Michael Evans: But you also are published across wide retailers. Readers can buy your books, a la car, and then you’re still in radish for Yeah. Your series as well, that. That’s pretty awesome. So you’re, you are as,
[00:03:47] Reece Barden: that’s an approach, Yes. Kinda hitting everywhere and seeing what works at this stage. Yeah. I’m just trying a bit of everything.
[00:03:55] Michael Evans: When did you decide to make the move from [00:04:00] okay I’m on radish. Making money there to, I’m now gonna go to a retailer. When did you decide to, I’m assuming you had to invest into getting a cover? Potentially, yeah. When did you decide to make that jump to also publishing? .
[00:04:12] Reece Barden: I had the cover made for Wapa anyway, so when I first put it up, I had a homemade thing.
[00:04:20] Reece Barden: And then I think about a week after, and I actually started to get some views. I said I think somebody reached out to me who was doing pre-aids, and I said $50, something like that. Great, I’ll use that. And so I already had the cover. So there was no real investment in that side of things.
[00:04:38] Reece Barden: I had a few beta readers. I had somebody who was starting doing formatting who did the formatting for me for free. I had somebody from Fiber do the proofreading. Like I subsequently went back and spent a bit more money on getting that re-edited once I was releasing the second book. But yeah, I did it on [00:05:00] a complete shoestring just to get it up and see how it went.
[00:05:03] Michael Evans: Yeah, that’s really inspiring. I think really good people to hear. And I’m already zoning in on this first six weeks on wpa. , that kind of taking off. And I’m curious, like you said you started the algorithm. Did this kind of like late in Wat pad’s history, meaning it was already a very mature platform.
[00:05:21] Michael Evans: how did you break in at the end of 2021? Because that’s very hard. Are there any tips you’d have for new authors who are looking to break into Wattpad?
[00:05:30] Reece Barden: So I went in and there was a guide that is up on, I don’t even know what the page is called, but it’s. Author, resources page or something like that.
[00:05:39] Reece Barden: And it was like a 16 page guide that is up there from, I think it’s, I can’t remember her name. She wrote a book that’s still up there for free, but it’s I dunno. 15 million reads or something huge on it. And she wrote it and it was basically a how to, and I just followed it literally to the letter.
[00:05:58] Reece Barden: So it was [00:06:00] put up a good chunk of chapters at the start release regularly. So keep the same days, try and do, maybe minimum four chapters a week, which was fine because I had the book written. So it was just a case of scheduling them and putting them up and replied to every comment. and interact with the readers.
[00:06:19] Reece Barden: And at the start I didn’t do any read for reads because I think you’re just gonna interact with people who aren’t your readers which isn’t gonna help you in the long run. But I did. Anybody who. Commented or something on a chapter. I sent them a message saying, thank you for reading.
[00:06:37] Reece Barden: There’s a limit to those. I found out very quickly, but it just helped to get things started and then once the comments started coming in, it just snowballed. But I really did, yeah, answer every comment at the start just to, and I think people really appreciate that and it’s, wow, great. Somebody actually has read the comment and having a bit of banter back and forth when they.
[00:06:58] Reece Barden: Oh my God, what’s gonna happen [00:07:00] next? And just to make a bit of fun. Yeah. I was just so excited that people were reading it. I was thrilled to see comments and I was happy to just, yeah, have a bit of crack and just get talking to people.
[00:07:10] Emilia Rose: I love that. That’s what I like tell everyone to do for WA hat everyone’s, how do you like hack the system?
[00:07:16] Emilia Rose: And I’m just like, no. Just respond to people. Ask them questions. They’ll really appreciate you talking to them. And then they’ll just share your book because they like love that connection with you. So I love that.
[00:07:27] Emilia Rose: Yeah. That was it. And you know anybody who sent me a direct message, I made sure I answered them.
[00:07:33] Reece Barden: That was pretty much it. So I think the consistency, the regular posting and putting up enough at the start to make sure the people are bought in so that, they get 20 chapters at the start, so they’re already interested in what’s gonna happen. If you only start with five, people forget about it.
[00:07:47] Reece Barden: Very easy. But if they’ve gotten that far in, then they really do want to see what’s gonna happen in the rest and they’ll follow it. . .
[00:07:53] Michael Evans: That’s a really good insight. It also goes against a lot of what for instance, kind Vela as a serial platform is like only the first [00:08:00] two chapters and then they already have the pay wall and then, Amazon look inside a lot of the, look inside the retailer, it’s only like the first 10%.
[00:08:07] Michael Evans: So a lot of times authors I think feel like they need to get a little start, but you don’t need to like really get into the meat of it. , you can hook them in the first three chapters, but you’re saying Yeah, but if you’re really reading a lot of books, you need to be invested in it. Yeah.
[00:08:22] Reece Barden: Particularly my first book, because nobody had a clue who I am. I’m sure. Somebody who’s on their 10th book, people are gonna read it. So if they get five chapters, there’s six chapters and it’s a side character from a previous book, they’re already gonna be invested before they start. But just a total newbie and somebody just, I suppose generously using their time to read your story, you want them to give you long enough to give you a solid.
[00:08:49] Michael Evans: Yeah. Yeah. So you are on wapa and then go to Radish and then you do make it to retailers, but there’s a subscription that comes in here. When did you decide to start your subscription?
[00:08:59] Reece Barden: [00:09:00] So I started looking at it I suppose it’s probably September. So I had put out the first Two books. And the third one was just getting ready for release.
[00:09:11] Reece Barden: And I suppose what I was conscious of was that. . I had an awful lot of readers on radish. I had managed to, my Instagram is not huge. I have, I think, 1800 followers. It’s not massive. That’s great. But the number of followers that I have on the other platforms is way bigger. But their contact details, they’re customers of those platforms.
[00:09:36] Reece Barden: They’re not my customers. I wanted to make, find a way to make as many of those people my customers and followers of me, rather than of radish and of Oppa and of, whatever other platforms the books are on. Yeah it’s a direct sales model without being a direct sales model, but I wanted to have ownership of those readers and a better way to interact with them.
[00:09:58] Reece Barden: I think Wapa is [00:10:00] really good on the commenting and the interaction side of things. Radish is good, but it’s not as easy to have those conversations and get that engagement going. And I suppose I wanted to get back to that a little bit where you can have that real one-on-one feedback. A lot of the time they’re my beta readers, they’re giving me feedback as I’m.
[00:10:21] Reece Barden: and I want to be able to get as much of that as I can. And to really build that kind of tight-knit community that is just harder on, I think, social media and on a platform that you don’t own.
[00:10:33] Michael Evans: Yeah. Oh, I agree completely. It’s so important to be able to use the platforms for what they’re good for finding new fans, but ultimately you have to Yeah.
[00:10:41] Michael Evans: Bring those fans to a home. that not only can you connect deeper with them, but you can also in the process of doing that also make some more money, which I’m curious for you when you launched your subscription, what was your strategy? How did you think about approaching your tears? Because I know that you launched it not [00:11:00] that long ago.
[00:11:01] Reece Barden: I, yeah. I love that you think I had a strategy, Michael. I don’t, , I tend to act really before I’ve put a huge metaphor into something because I won’t do it. I’m a real yeah I don’t really look before I leave I’m gonna, I’m gonna say that because I have. thing that if you think about it too much, there’s analysis paralysis.
[00:11:18] Reece Barden: You just, you’ll, yeah, you’ll tie yourself up in knots and you’ll think about it too much and nothing will ever happen. So once I decided that I was going to do a Paton, I just started with the first tier and I said okay, what is a reasonable amount compared to what somebody is paying on a serialized fiction platform to read those same.
[00:11:39] Reece Barden: Three chapters that I put out a week. So I put out three chapters a week of my ongoing novel. So I just worked back what essentially are they paying on those other subscription platforms? And I went with something comparable. So I started the first one at, I’m in Euros, so three euros. And then I threw in [00:12:00] an extra chapter a week as.
[00:12:03] Reece Barden: Tempting offer to get people to come across to me. And then, yeah, so that was as much thought as I put into it. Michael .
[00:12:09] Michael Evans: No, I think, I actually think that’s great and we obviously we talk all the time about thinking through subscriptions, so people can look at, me and Emilia sometimes think like we are like, plan and strategies, but in reality my advice always is to launch, get out there.
[00:12:25] Michael Evans: And the best feedback you’re gonna have is from, even if it’s one reader, , understanding how your subscription works, how anything works with one person, but you talk about that extra chapter.
[00:12:35] Michael Evans: Yes. And that extra chapter, and correct me if I’m wrong, is part of this exclusive novel that you’re writing Yeah.
[00:12:42] Michael Evans: On your subscription? Yes.
[00:12:44] Reece Barden: Completely outside the series. So the three chapters that I post are ahead of what is being released. So at the start, they weren’t, in fairness, they were completely in line with what I was posting on the other platforms. But then what I [00:13:00] did was I had a novella that I had written and.
[00:13:05] Reece Barden: Was a kind of spinoff, put that up three chapters a week so that I could get a bit more ahead of myself. And that was ahead, that was exclusive to Paton at the start. And then when I started my next novel, I was three weeks ahead of the other platforms, so they were getting early access, but the main incentive that I put up was, Chapter a week of a new book, completely new, nothing linked to the existing series but same genre, so it wouldn’t be too different from my existing readers, but it’s only going to be on Paton for the time being.
[00:13:43] Reece Barden: So all I’ve confirmed is that it’s going up there until it’s completely written. Then maybe I’ll put it up on radish. It’s gonna go into Kindle Limited instead of wide. So I still haven’t decided about radish. Cause obviously if I put it up, then I have to take it down. So there’s the logistics of [00:14:00] that.
[00:14:00] Reece Barden: But for the moment it’s exclusive to pattern.
[00:14:03] Michael Evans: Wow. Very interesting. I like this. And what I wanna ask you is, because you started it and you never know if something’s gonna work, but now a couple months in, would you say that’s been worth it because. Obviously making something exclusive is great, but when it’s exclusive, you’re obviously not making money from it for the time being elsewhere.
[00:14:21] Michael Evans: So has this process been something that you would say is worth it so far?
[00:14:25] Reece Barden: Yeah, so I only set up my Patreon in October, so we’re three and a half, four months in and. So I think as of today I have maybe 125 subscribers, which is way, way ahead of where I thought I’d be. If I, if somebody had told me that I’d have 30 at this stage, I would’ve been delighted.
[00:14:46] Reece Barden: I would’ve said great. 10 a month or whatever, that would be amazing. So yeah, I’m really surprised by that. And I’ve noticed that I got a big jump once I started. Releasing the chapters in the [00:15:00] existing series head so that they were getting early access. But definitely a big jump comes anytime I mention the exclusive book.
[00:15:09] Michael Evans: Very interesting. Okay, so you like initially launched it and it wasn’t like you had a hundred people in there on day one? No,
[00:15:17] Reece Barden: there was I lo launch. There was no launch either , it was just by the way, I’ve set up a pat. , here’s a link, have a look. And then I put up a few times more once I had the early access.
[00:15:29] Reece Barden: By the way, this is starting tomorrow on Patreon. I’ll get it to you guys in a few weeks time. And I got a glu that way. I haven’t really pushed it because I’m only starting out, and I wanted to see how it would work. But yeah, I need to be more consistent with that. But definitely the exclusive book is what has probably brought most of those readers.
[00:15:50] Michael Evans: I think that’s so helpful for people who are like getting so worried about their launch. Cuz we’ve talked so many people who are like overthinking their launch and like, how am I gonna do this? What am I gonna do? But [00:16:00] just to hear that it’s been like this iterative process, like you just started to get it out there and didn’t really build up this big launch and now you’ve just kept getting it out there and it’s like, oh wow.
[00:16:08] Michael Evans: Four months later you now have like well over a hundred people paying you monthly. That’s like an incredible.
[00:16:14] Reece Barden: Yeah, it’s great. And I know ahead of this I was saying to you, I’ll have to make my page look all fancy now in case anybody goes in and have a look. But I actually didn’t cuz I said, you know what, I’ll be honest and I’ll show you.
[00:16:28] Reece Barden: I don’t wanna say how little effort, but I really did. There’s no fancy graphics. I think I only put pictures up on the tears like two or three weeks ago. Up to that it was. Tier one tier, there was nothing. So it’s very basic. So I think you can tie yourself up in knots about what is the right name for the tiers, what pictures do I have, what graphics do I have where really your readers just wanna read your stuff, so they will forgive you if you don’t have a fancy picture or a cute name for all of your [00:17:00] tears.
[00:17:00] Reece Barden: I intend to go back and do all of that. , but I wouldn’t let it hold you up for a month or two months.
[00:17:06] Michael Evans: Yeah, I love that you’re doing this and like you’re like, you’re being successful in real time. Because I think sharing with someone in the mindset, especially like the all frankly the mindset that launching physical or like one time products has got us in, if you do put a book up on Amazon, that’s not.
[00:17:25] Michael Evans: you know the best cover, the best title. . You can it. It can be, maybe it’s not always the best strategy. There is an internet strategy even there, but I think we’re so used to having to make it just excellent and put all of our money and time into making that launch something awesome. And you’re proving that two years from now your subscription’s going to.
[00:17:46] Michael Evans: even better because every week, every month you’ll sit there and be like, you know what, I’m gonna make that little tweak. I’m gonna make that little tweak. I’m gonna, I’m gonna add that new nicer image over time and maybe I’ll, come up with tier names over time and your readers can vote in the tier names cuz why not?
[00:17:59] Michael Evans: But [00:18:00] yeah, I just, I find that so inspiring and I’m really happy that this is working for you. Cause I think it’s showing one of the biggest things that I love about subscriptions, which is that it’s not about launching, it’s about continually changing. and not changing everything overnight. And I think you’re, oh, this is, I’m so excited.
[00:18:19] Michael Evans: I’m so excited for you.
[00:18:19] Reece Barden: I promise I will put more effort into getting the cover right for the book when it actually goes up on Amazon. I, I do put some thought into some things, but I think for something like the subscription where people are paying to read what you’re writing, that’s their main focus.
[00:18:34] Reece Barden: And I suppose that’s what I’m trying to concentrate on. And then the next step was I set up a second. Once I realized, okay, I can do this and I can manage my existing commitments and do this extra chapter week, it’s totally doable. What else could I add? That isn’t a massive additional time commitment for me, because like many people, I’m still working full-time.
[00:18:57] Reece Barden: I live in Ireland, so every [00:19:00] bit of post is international and costs an absolute fortune. So sending physical books is not really an option. I went down to the. Post office. And I think sending a book to the states in a very boring bubble envelope, no fancy boxes or anything was like $25. I was like, oh, that’s gonna instantly just, and that’s where most of my readers are. So it would have to be a very fancy special edition with all sorts of swags shifting that envelope to make that worthwhile. It has to be digital. and it has to not cost me a huge amount of additional time. So the next thing I did then was I set up a tier, I think I have it up for $5 or five Euros, 50.
[00:19:44] Reece Barden: I’m not sure what that works out. Probably ran $6 for you guys. And the only extra thing in that is one, one shot. Per month, which I thought was gonna be easy, but writing a one shot is not easy because I cannot shut up. I learned that was not quite the quick [00:20:00] addition. That would not take me very much time that I thought it would be, cuz every time I try and write, when it turns into like the beginning of a whole new book and I have to reign myself in.
[00:20:10] Reece Barden: But that’s just one addition. And now that tier is actually more popular than the original. .
[00:20:17] Michael Evans: Wow. Yeah. And then what about the tier that you have above that, which would be like, it shows up for me as your $11 50 cents tier, but that’s obviously in U s d.
[00:20:29] Reece Barden: Yeah, so it’s 11 euros, so I just doubled the price of the one before, so I can’t total whim.
[00:20:36] Reece Barden: I so bad. I’m gonna go against everything that you have in your guidelines, but I just put it up and I just put in. Extra voting rights. So they get to pick the tropes for the one shot, and they get bonus content, which essentially is just repurposing extra stuff that I need to do anyway, so they’ll get [00:21:00] original, first access to the bonus epi.
[00:21:03] Reece Barden: That I’m gonna be writing anyway as a reader magnet to go in the back of the published book. So it’s something that I’m gonna have to do anyway. They’ll get it a month or two ahead of everybody else. It might be character profile that again, I want to do anyway. They’ll get it first. So I’m trying not to tie myself up in knots with a huge amount of extra workload.
[00:21:26] Reece Barden: It’s all things. I would eventually have to do anyway. And this essentially just gives me a deadline. Cause I promised to give them one a month.
[00:21:33] Michael Evans: Oh, that’s so cool. I love it.
[00:21:36] Michael Evans: So I want to talk about the community inside your subscription now. Yes. And your relationships you’ve built with your fans because that was something that I imagine at a smaller scale when you’re just getting started on wapa, is a bit easier to have relationships with all your readers.
[00:21:48] Michael Evans: I’m guessing now it’s difficult to. A closer relationship with all your readers in general, I’m guessing that’s probably hard.
[00:21:54] Reece Barden: Yeah, it is, you’ll find that there are readers who are happy [00:22:00] just to be getting their early access. They’ll like it, you might never hear from them, but they are there in the background and they’re super loyal.
[00:22:08] Reece Barden: Then you have people who’ll comment on every single chapter and you can comment back. They know that you’re not gonna. Glued to your phone or glued to your laptop and answering everything immediately. So I try and set a time aside the day after I post a chapter to go in and see if whoever’s commented, and I will like and comment back if there’s lots of comments Along the same lines, I’ll put up a general, jeez, you guys are mean.
[00:22:33] Reece Barden: You loved him a second ago and now you are all hating on him or whatever. And. . Yeah, just to stay interactive, but I did set up a Discord server and that is just crickets. There is nothing going on, so I need to try and work on that. I think at some point if there’s interest, we can do that.
[00:22:52] Reece Barden: If everybody’s just happy just hanging out in the comments, that’s fine too. Whatever works.
[00:22:57] Michael Evans: Yeah, no, I think that’s, A very, [00:23:00] I think, helpful observation for people to realize that not everyone’s gonna comment, but they still might love what you’re doing and that’s okay. Most readers are gonna be silent, but no, so you set time aside.
[00:23:11] Michael Evans: I think that’s really important that people don’t feel like they have to be stressed out by constant
[00:23:16] Reece Barden: notifications. No. I think your readers that are gonna comment. I know I can guess exactly who it will be that will read a chapter, literally the second it hits their email and they will have, they’ll comment immediately.
[00:23:31] Reece Barden: So if I set aside like literally 10 minutes, I’ll pop in the next day and I’ll go through the comments and I’ll answer or like everybody who’s there, and then, you might get one or two after that. , the majority are gonna be within the first kind of 24 hours, so that’s what I tend to do. But if I don’t get the chance, it’s not the end of the world either.
[00:23:53] Reece Barden: But I do try and do that, particularly while it’s still quite small, I appreciate obviously the size of yours, Emilia. You’re not gonna be going [00:24:00] in and the amount of stuff that you put up, there’s no way you could be going in and replying to every email. But much like the work pad at the start to get that community.
[00:24:09] Reece Barden: and even to get them commenting on each other’s comments. Yeah. It’s good to just facilitate the conversation. . Yeah I completely agree. It does get harder as you go on and actually tying back into those constant notifications, I’ve turned all my notifications off.
[00:24:26] Reece Barden: I don’t get emails anymore. Usually when people like anything or follow me just because it’s a lot. And I had stopped replying to a notifications and like comments for a long time, probably for like over a year because it was just way too much for me. But I. Finally gotten back into the routine of commenting myself instead of putting it off of my pa.
[00:24:47] Reece Barden: And so I’ll go in there, especially on Webpa, and I’ll go in every single day and look at the previous chapter I just posted and just go through all those comments and be like, cool. Like here if I can’t figure out like. Something, a response [00:25:00] that is cool enough or whatever. So yeah, like if somebody actually looked through most of my comments on what pad, like I’d say 50% of them are an emoji, where it’s it’s like smiley face, thumbs up, something. But it’s, it’s something people think, wow, great. That person has read it and appreciates it. Yeah. But I think as well, got a little bit worried about, oh, what if I replied to one person and then I don’t reply to the next person?
[00:25:26] Reece Barden: Are they gonna think God? Not like favoritism, but you know that like my comment doesn’t matter because there’s 10 comments here that she did respond to, and then I’m the last person and she didn’t bother answering that or something. I think people just don’t really think like that. Doing something is better than doing.
[00:25:44] Reece Barden: And again, if I’m super busy, I’ll just put in one comment at the bottom kind of to everybody. And then that’s at least something if somebody goes back in.
[00:25:54] Michael Evans: I think showing them just that you care. They know you’re person. They also know too, that I think your [00:26:00] readers would probably be very mad at you if you said, last week I was responding to all your comments, so this week I don’t have anything new for you.
[00:26:06] Michael Evans: I’m sorry, . Yeah. Like they would be like no I You can just write That’s okay. .
[00:26:11] Reece Barden: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That’s what people are, much as they enjoy the chat, they really want to get your chapters. So yeah, if you’re really. They understand that, and I think as well, with the keeping up with the posting and everything, I’ve seen a lot of comments and people are worried about the pressure of getting something out at the same time every day.
[00:26:32] Reece Barden: Like I’m doing this call with you guys on the oldest dodgiest laptop in the world cause mine. Exploded last night and oh, so just started saying like a lawnmower and now it’s dead. And I just had to put up a post and go, guys, the chapter’s gonna be tomorrow because I literally, I’m not gonna do it off my phone.
[00:26:53] Reece Barden: I wanna have a quick change to a couple of the bits at the end, and that’s fine. Like [00:27:00] people are like, grand. Yay. Double chapter tomorrow. Amazing. and that’s, they’re like your friends, they’re understanding, they’re happy for you. Obviously you’re not gonna do that all the time, but people appreciate it.
[00:27:13] Reece Barden: If you are generally sticking to a Schedule one blip, it’s not the end of the
[00:27:18] Michael Evans: world. That’s a great reminder and also very sorry about your computer. That’s, it’s okay.
[00:27:24] Reece Barden: Yeah. Yeah. I need an upgrade. It’s it’s done a lot of work in the last. ,
[00:27:28] Michael Evans: that can always be something that you are able to with increased patronage and the increased subscribers can help towards that hopefully.
[00:27:36] Michael Evans: But that, that is a really important point for people. And another important point though is that you mentioned it’s still important to be consistent, don’t have an emergency come up every day forever cuz then you don’t have a schedule. Absolutely. But absolutely. How do. Stick to a schedule, like the workflow of your subscription.
[00:27:53] Michael Evans: What does that look like? Cause a lot of authors have trouble imagining where does the subscription fit into what I’m doing? And you’re already doing [00:28:00] and posting to so many places, so how are you trying to save your time and just the admin work so that you can be writing as much as possible?
[00:28:09] Reece Barden: It’s as simple as it can be. Outside of Patreon. My chapters go the same time everywhere. And I use scheduling to do that. Radish. Radish obviously has a tool that you can schedule all of your posts. So that’s what I use there. And then on Patreon, I am three weeks ahead, but all of my tears get the same chapters at the same time.
[00:28:34] Reece Barden: If they’re getting. So the only thing I need to do is select which tiers are getting the chapters if that makes sense. If I’m doing putting up a one shot, it’s going to tier two and three at the same time. There’s no difference in the timing. I just have to make sure that doesn’t go to tier one.
[00:28:54] Reece Barden: So that’s as fancy as I’ve gotten, so I don’t have you. . Tier one is [00:29:00] on chapter one, tier two is on chapter 10. Tier three is on chapter 20. I’m not that sophisticated. So they’re all getting chapters at the same time. It’s just different tiers are getting extras.
[00:29:11] Michael Evans: It makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
[00:29:14] Reece Barden: Yeah. Just it’s as simple as it can possibly be for me, because I just, I don’t have.
[00:29:20] Reece Barden: Time or Yeah to try and work it any other way. At the moment,
[00:29:24] Michael Evans: that is the most relatable thing and I think something that it’s so important for everyone to hear. So thank you for that cuz I always wondering now I didn’t know you had a full-time job cuz I was like, I was gonna ask you, but I’m like, that’s always a question you ask for, but you mentioned it.
[00:29:40] Michael Evans: Yeah. And I was thinking like, you do so much, I feel like you write full time. Wow. I’m impressed that you just manage your life along with writing.
[00:29:49] Reece Barden: Yeah, . Yeah, we just, it’s a temporary, hopefully that’s what I could just clinging onto. But yeah, so in that way, Like everybody else, [00:30:00] you’re trying to juggle everything.
[00:30:01] Reece Barden: So I’m a big believer in just trying to make your life as easy as possible. So I’m sure there probably is a very easy way to schedule for the different tiers. I, I know that there’s an early access button. I haven’t tried it yet. But I just figure rather than trying to set up a spreadsheet and trying to work out where everybody is in each book, everybody’s getting the same.
[00:30:25] Reece Barden: chapters at the same time, just the higher tiers are getting more content in addition to that. Be it the exclusive book, one shots, whatever it is, extra that I’m doing.
[00:30:36] Michael Evans: That’s I think that’s really great and I’m curious about, and last thing about this content is, yeah, I know you do character interviews and things of that sort like once a month for your high tier.
[00:30:46] Michael Evans: Yes. And is that something that. one like your readers, do they really like it? And for you, do you like writing it or do you feel like that’s distraction from the main stories that you’re enjoying?
[00:30:55] Reece Barden: I am a bit useless at that [00:31:00] kind of stuff, so I have a really lovely reader who basically keeps me on track of all of the character stuff.
[00:31:09] Reece Barden: So she will gently remind. that I said somebody had blue eyes back in book one of my series. I like, I should be on top of this. I should have full-blown character profiles written all over the place, but I don’t have a person who keeps me on track. So she does reading for me.
[00:31:29] Reece Barden: Ahead. And she’s delighted to get like exclusive access and she keeps me on track with all that kind of stuff. So the character interviews and profiles are actually my way of keeping myself on track with that stuff. So I can’t rely on one person to help me with all of that stuff forever.
[00:31:49] Reece Barden: She has a life. Yeah, so by making myself do those kinds of things, as I said, it’s all bonus content that I intend to do, that I would probably keep putting on the long [00:32:00] finger if I didn’t promise to that tier. I intend to use all of those for reader magnets, for the back of my books to go out on my newsletter.
[00:32:11] Reece Barden: As additional content, it’s all stuff that can be repurposed and that I should be doing anyway, but by promising it once a month on that tier, it keeps me on track and also allows me to monetize it. Yeah. To be blunt. Yeah.
[00:32:26] Michael Evans: That’s, it’s a good thing to be. That’s all great. You’re literally being able to peel back the layers of what’s going on inside of your book
[00:32:35] Michael Evans: yes. And then you’re able to make money in the process because turns out your fans want that backstage. .
[00:32:42] Reece Barden: Yeah, absolutely. And I saw somebody put up a poll that they had done with their own subscription about the kind of bonus content that they wanted, and I essentially used that because all the digital stuff there is what I need to focus on.
[00:32:58] Reece Barden: So [00:33:00] I have commissioned a couple of pieces of art, so I hope to eventually start another tier and be able to offer. Digital access to art or even prints because they’d be, easy enough posted. It’s not like posting book. So that would be probably next. But yeah, I think it was the character profiles and interviews, bonus content and the art were the three most popular things.
[00:33:24] Reece Barden: So that’s what I said I
[00:33:25] Michael Evans: would focus on. , that’s really interesting. That’s really cool. I already love that you’re plotting. Maybe that, that next thing that you’ll dive into and just be like, okay we’ll come up with some art. I love it.
[00:33:34] Michael Evans: So I want to dive a bit deeper into, we talked a bit about your subscription marketing, how you’ve shared it with your readers, but that’s always something that, We talk about, but it has to be illuminated more.
[00:33:46] Michael Evans: So I’m curious, like where, have you mentioned this to your readers? Like where has been the most effective place if you know that you’ve mentioned it to your readers? Meaning, has Instagram been the place that you think a lot of your readers have come from your mailing list? I’d love to hear about that.[00:34:00]
[00:34:00] Reece Barden: I think for me, probably Instagram because most of my Instagram followers are my platform. So I tend to post as much as I can or as much as I could because obviously they block a lot of it. Make sure to follow me on the gram or whatever word I can use to get around being blocked out by all of platforms for updates.
[00:34:26] Reece Barden: And so that’s probably where most of my followers have come. The platforms, my newsletter followers are generally coming from the back matter in my books, so I feel like they would probably be harder to convert to a subscription than people who are already reading serialized fiction. , have put it onto my newsletters.
[00:34:50] Reece Barden: And I have seen clicks. But I don’t feel like that’s where most of the subscribers have come from. I think it’s that the people following me on Instagram who read [00:35:00] serialized fiction regularly are happy with that format, are happy, to pay installments, don’t need the book all upfront. And they’ve
[00:35:08] Michael Evans: probably come.
[00:35:09] Michael Evans: That’s really great insight. That’s really great insight. Obviously every author is gonna have a different relationship with their readers, a different way they go about that. But I’m really excited to hear that from you. And then my other question would be, do you mention your subscription at all on these serialized platforms?
[00:35:22] Michael Evans: Are you mentioning it on wpa? Are you mentioning it on
[00:35:25] Reece Barden: Radis? I am. So I have put it up in a couple of places on Wattpad. haven’t put it on Radi. . I’m just more conscious that because that’s a paid platform , and they have been, I’ve done very well there. I don’t wanna get into any trouble, so I haven’t, I tend to direct people to my Instagram from there.
[00:35:46] Reece Barden: And then I will mention it on my Instagram, but on what pad? I do have it open a few places. And then on Instagram, like I, it’s probably are really, I dunno whether it’s an Irish. , but I, the [00:36:00] wholesale thing I really struggle with. So I tend not, I’ll probably put something up once a week, about, every time I post a chapter, I will put up a post on Instagram and then probably once a week I’ll be like, by the way, if you wanna read 10 chapters ahead come check out my Patreon link in my bio.
[00:36:18] Reece Barden: Something like that. Not a hard sell. When I started the exclusive. I put that up a couple of times, I probably need to put up again and be more consistent with that. Every time I post a new chapter, put up a sneak peek on Instagram, something like that with the link. But I haven’t really done that yet.
[00:36:38] Reece Barden: But yeah, that, that’s pretty much all I’m doing. And then the few mentions in the newsletter
[00:36:42] Michael Evans: that’s really. . And I also like that you’re not hard selling, I don’t think, I don’t think it’s writers. We don’t need to be no salesy. I do think we need to be good at marketing, but sometimes the best marketing is our stories.
[00:36:54] Michael Evans: So you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. That’s so interesting.
[00:36:58] Michael Evans: I wanna ask you one [00:37:00] final question about subscriptions. I know who, that’s what we’re here for, to tell us descriptions, which is, what do you think you’ve learned since you’ve started in the last couple months? Because you did dive in, which is.
[00:37:09] Michael Evans: but what are some lessons you’ve learned that maybe you’d share with someone else before they dive in?
[00:37:13] Reece Barden: One shots aren’t quick to write. .
[00:37:15] Michael Evans: Ok.
[00:37:16] Reece Barden: That’s probably my number one lesson because I thought that would be a quick win bonus content, but it’s actually so hard to condense it down into one chapter.
[00:37:29] Reece Barden: My first one shot. I like was basically laughing saying, I know I said this is gonna be one shot but it’s not. It’s three chapters. Here we go. It’s 6,000 words or something. I literally just couldn’t make it like it. I just can’t. I need to find a format where I think my mistake is I need to just always pick a situation where they already know each other so you don’t have to go through some kind of a meeting and all of the preamble that has to go with that.
[00:37:57] Reece Barden: Yeah, I, I. Maybe practice some one shots [00:38:00] before you start promising them and see how long they take you. And that and probably just the yeah, I think the pricing of your bottom tier is probably something that I would focus on. So I went with something that I think would be comparable to the.
[00:38:16] Reece Barden: platforms and then I promised the exclusive chapter and realistically I think I probably could have nudged that a little bit higher. So at PO some point I think I probably will. limit the number of people in that, and that’ll be my OGs, my original people that came over. And I’m happy because they are the first people.
[00:38:33] Reece Barden: But I think realistically it probably is a bit of a bargain. I Immediately the amount of stuff that you have on your tears is absolutely massive. But I think, yeah, starting out I probably could have priced that a little bit higher. So I think, yeah, I will probably limit that at some stage and try and get more people into the next tier up.
[00:38:52] Michael Evans: I think that’s good for people to keep in mind. Don’t undercut, like if, don’t under even instinct pricing you don’t have to undercut yourself. But [00:39:00] also, I will say to follow your advice, I would not recommend authors also overthink their pricing so much if they don’t launch because of it.
[00:39:08] Michael Evans: because like you said, you’re not lacking into that pricing forever. You can change it. Yeah. Obviously you can’t change it for people who’ve already subscribed, that’s okay. Like you said, it’s part of the deal, so yeah. There’s, oh, there’s so much richness in this. Reese you’re amazing. I like love the success you’ve had in subscriptions.
[00:39:24] Michael Evans: And I guess the one last thing that I’m curious about for you, Is when do you think you’ll be a full-time writer? Because I want you to be a full-time writer.
[00:39:33] Reece Barden: Oh gosh. So I was supposed to be I was supposed to be full-time from this summer, so that was another consideration where I started in the I work in a very, Boring.
[00:39:44] Reece Barden: Very serious job. And so I thought that I only had a year left in that job because the company is exiting our market. But it is taking forever and I’ve just been told that I have another year left. Hopefully this time next year, like I have my [00:40:00] tickets booked. Vegas. So I’m going anyway, I thought I’d be unemployed and just going on the chair, but I won’t be, I’ll be coming back to go to work, but hopefully only for another couple of months.
[00:40:10] Michael Evans: Okay. Okay. We’re we’re gonna have to throw a celebration for you in this subscriptions group when you’re officially folding cause that’s amazing. And. We’ll see you in Vegas. I’m assuming you’re talking about 20
[00:40:20] Reece Barden: books. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So excited. Yeah
[00:40:23] Michael Evans: that’ll be wonderful. And I’m so grateful you took the time out of your very busy and really happening life to, to chat with us.
[00:40:33] Michael Evans: I had a great time.
[00:40:34] Reece Barden: And thanks very much for having me. I’m absolutely honored to be on. And yeah, thank you so much for all the hard work that you put in because literally every time I have a question or hair-brained idea, I just dip into the Facebook page and there’s always an answer. So thank you so much for putting in the effort and the time.
[00:40:52] Michael Evans: That’s mostly a thank you to everyone listening. But me and Emilia are happy to be part of it. So thank
[00:40:57] Reece Barden: you. Thanks very much.