By Emilia Rose on May 20, 2023.
Okay, maybe these problems aren’t as big as someone plagiarizing your work (which can happen on any platform including Amazon), but here at Ream, we think that these are the biggest problems that you’ll face as a subscription author.
Churn
Churn, or the rate at which readers cancel their subscriptions, can be caused by a variety of factors, including poor customer experience, lack of perceived value, and economic factors.
To reduce churn, it’s important to focus on creating a high-quality customer experience, regularly communicating with subscribers, and providing ongoing value that exceeds their expectations. Underpromise and overdeliver for the win!
Pricing
Another common problem with subscription models is pricing. Setting the right price for a subscription can be a difficult balancing act, as you need to charge enough to cover your costs and generate a profit, but not so much that you price yourself out of the market (though, if you’re providing great value, you may have readers paying you hundreds of dollars per month–Check out K Webster to see how she does it!–for your content.)
To determine the optimal price for your subscription, it’s important to understand your target audience, different pricing strategies, and most importantly your worth. To learn more about this, check out our Subscription Fireside Chat on Pricing Your Tiers on YouTube.
Content
Creating compelling content that keeps subscribers engaged is critical to the success of a subscription. However, producing high-quality content on a regular basis can be a significant challenge, especially for authors.
To solve this problem, authors can consider collaborating with other creators or outsourcing certain tasks, such as editing or production, to free up more time to focus on writing. Or you can provide your content in a serialized format while only releasing one chapter a week, or a month (Check out how Aven Ellis only releases one chapter per month through her subscription!).
Payment Processing
Setting up and managing a payment system can be a complex and time-consuming process, and there is always the risk of fraud or chargebacks. To address this issue, it’s important to work with a reliable payment processor that offers secure, reliable, and easy-to-use payment solutions.
At Ream, we partner with payment processors to give our authors maximum flexibility and ease when it comes to payments and payouts. With our Direct to Reader option, you own your payout account and have payment portability. With our Ream Managed option, we handle the Sales Tax and VAT for you at no extra charge while you get to retain important reader data such as customer emails.
We are the only publishing platform that gives our authors options to sell direct to readers or managed by Ream… and we have so many more cool payment features coming soon!
Customer Acquisition
In addition to the cost of acquiring new customers, there is also the risk that they will cancel their subscription after only a few months.
To overcome this challenge, authors can consider offering free trials or discounts to encourage new subscribers to sign up, as well as developing targeted marketing campaigns to attract new readers. An easy way to do this is to offer paid early access on your subscription to free readers.
Get them hooked on a story and begging for more!
Subscription Fatigue
Finally, subscription fatigue is a growing problem in the world of subscriptions. As more and more authors offer subscriptions, consumers are becoming increasingly selective about which subscriptions they choose to invest in.
To avoid subscription fatigue, it’s important to evaluate and update your offerings, communicate regularly with subscribers, and provide ongoing value that exceeds their expectations. Again, underpromise and overdeliver!