Early Access is more valuable to your readers than you think. Here’s why…
Frankly— you always need to have your readers feel they are getting more value in return than you give them.
What makes our industry unique and sometimes difficult in crafting these offers is how the value is experienced (often intangible) and how to frame it in an offer.
Here’s one key psychological concept every Subscription Author must know: reciprocity.
As humans— when someone makes us feel really good, we do what we can to make them feel good as well.
This is reciprocity.
We are wired this way cause living in small tribes— when someone gave a lot to you and treated you very well— it was in your best interest to reinforce that behavior by being kind in return.
This applies to fiction in our modern economy as well.
When you create a story that makes someone feel really really great (think the level of awesome superfans experience) many of them will want to give that value back to you.
There are many ways that value could be exchanged. One of those ways is money — making them prime opportunities to subscribe to your subscription.
Other times readers share with friends, and will want to help out with your beta team…
All of this to say— nailing a great offer and “pitch” to your readers is actually quite difficult in Subscriptions.
But there are some tried and true tactics we can all play with to increase perceived value.
Limited-time offers (you can use discounts on Ream).
A limited number of people in the tier.
Exclusive content.
In Alex Hormozi’s book $100M Offers he shares the value equation. I want to share it here cause it’s very applicable to Subscription Authors in explaining how your subscription can create additional value for your readers that entices them to upgrade.
Dream outcome x perceived likelihood of achieving it /(time to outcome + effort)= value
First, let’s think about effort.
This is the single biggest reason why readers don’t leave the platforms they are used to. Other experiences aren’t built for them in other platforms and made easy for them to use.
Less effort brings down the denominator of the equation and increases value.
That’s why you must use tools and platforms for your Subscription that make it as easy as possible for your readers to experience your stories and other benefits.
This also explains the popularity of commercial fiction.
One of the hallmarks of genre commercial fiction is having as little fluff and jargon (in language and plot) that keeps the story from moving forward.
Creating less friction between your reader and moving your story forward— what John Truby calls narrative drive — creates a better experience for your readers.
Now let’s focus on time.
What if I told you pay me right now and get the best book ever in 10 years? Or pay me right now and you get the best book ever right now?
Everyone would pay more to have the book now. There’s an economic reason— if something won’t pay off for a decade there’s a discount based on future earnings. This is how investment bankers price companies and how nearly every stock is priced— off future/expected earnings.
Now we can start tos we the value of early access.
Not having to wait for something decreases the time at the bottom of the denominator of our value equation— and therefore increases value.
This is why early access is so awesome for many readers.
But why doesn’t everyone love early access?
It goes back to the perceived likelihood of the outcome.
As a dream outcome— readers in your genre likely share in the journey they want to be taking or the neurochemical hits they are desiring as a result of your story.
But that shared dream outcome— which is unbelievably valuable, can turn to zero value if a reader doesn’t trust an author to deliver it (perceived likelihood of outcome).
This shows the math behind why trust is the currency of subscriptions.
For a fan who has read a few of your chapters and is excited about the rest of your book— early access is way more valuable to them. They have a high perceived likelihood that your story will pay off in their dream outcome for them.
How about for a fan who didn’t like one of your books, or hasn’t read your books at all? In this case, early access would be less valuable to them.
All of this is to say that when crafting your offer— you must think who is this offer for? For a reader at what stage of their journey or level of trust with me? And how can I communicate this offer to them in a way that will entice them the most?