Published on November 27, 2023.
This is part 2 of 3 in our Readers First Series. You can read part 1 here. And Part 3 is here, the Author Personas Quiz.
Bold Prediction: By 2030, half of all revenue generated in publishing will be from readers paying authors directly. This shift in power from monolithic platforms to communities owned and led by creators is what we call the Creator Economy (I wrote an entire book about this here).
But what is driving this shift? And what will this future that is rapidly becoming our present mean for authors?
More and more, the profit in publishing is being driven by superfans — the biggest advocates for specific authors who champion their work economically, socially, or creatively (such as through fan art/fan fiction, etc.).
There are three forces driving this shift and creating a seismic change in publishing toward crowdfunding subscriptions, and ala-carte sales that are direct.
First, I’ll share 3 core reasons driving this shift, and then I’ll share 3 steps you can take to begin building your own superfan factory.
Reason #1: Marketing is more expensive and revenue has decreased or flat-lined per book sold on retailers.
We all have felt this, but when you actually look at the numbers, it starts to become startling.
First, with programs such as Kindle Unlimited and Audible having a constant and even decreasing page-read rate over the last few years, authors haven’t gotten a raise on a unit-economic basis since I started publishing in 2017.
Meanwhile, in the United States according to the CPI (Consumer Price Index) inflation has increased by 27% from 2017 to today.
This means that you either have to have a readership that is 27% larger or be writing 27% more books per year than in January 2017 just to keep up with rising costs of living. Meanwhile, our readers are paying more for books in these programs, particularly Kindle Unlimited where rates increased by 20% months ago… they just didn’t increase pay for authors!
Put this in tandem with rising ad costs – and the situation becomes even more dire. With rising advertising costs and more noise (aka books) in the marketplace, marketing becomes more expensive in both time and money.
This results in increasing costs to find readers just as we are making less money per reader.
Yikes.
Of course, these are aggregate numbers. Many of us have been insulated from these aggregate statistics at an individual level, but many of us are starting to feel the pain.
And we are turning toward other options.
Hence, building your Superfan Factory.
Reason #2: The slow death of the Attention Economy and the Rise of the Intention Economy.
The Attention Economy was about big data, algorithms profiteering our time, and a mad dash for casual readers.
Except, we only have so much time in a day, and optimizing for more and more time is unsustainable. It’s a large reason why we have seen such a large spike in mental health issues and loneliness.
The Intention Economy is about giving readers the experience they want and empowering readers by putting their agency first. It’s about “small” data over big data and ultimately about crafting a better experience for your biggest fans.
This Intention Economy is in full swing with readers paying extra to subscribe to authors to get the books they really want early, readers subscribing for monthly book boxes, supporting special edition crowdfunding campaigns, and more!
For those who want to nerd out about the Intention Economy, I recommend the book by Doc Searls of the same name (it is a dense book, so only read it if you are a real nerd like me).
Reason #3: The tools and technologies that make it possible for authors to serve their superfans are now accessible at little or no cost.
Serving our superfans and trying to make more money per reader in return for providing a better experience sounds great… but how do we do it?
The Creator Economy is all about the Cambrian Explosion of tools and software being developed to help you start and grow your own mini-amusement park for your readers. Whether it’s subscriptions, print-on-demand books, merchandise, live events, and more… you can build novel and innovative businesses around your stories… and the movement is just getting started.
But I know what you’re thinking.
How the heck do I start finding superfans?
Lucky for you, we will be sharing the Author Personas Quiz, a survey designed to help you find your Author Persona… a framework to help you build your brand, find superfans, and figure out what experiences you want to create for them.
But before I give you access to the test, I want to share with you 3 steps to building your Superfan Factory.
Step #1: Adopt a Long-Term Mindset
In the dash for casual readers, as Becca Syme coins the Gold Rush, we all had a mindset that we had to find readers NOW.
Short-term thinking often leads to short-term relationships, resulting in high churn that can kill any subscription business (we explored this in part 1).
Subscriptions and nurturing superfans are all about adopting a long-term mindset.
In Joe Solari’s Advantage, he discusses the cumulative effects of launching and the sociological effects that drive book discovery.
Word of mouth is everything for the long-term health of an author’s business, and word of mouth builds over time with consistent delivery of promises and the gradual discovery of your Superfan Funnel.
Think and act long-term. Superfan Factories are built over years… not overnight.
Step #2: Treat Your Marketing Like An Experiment
But how do we get started building our Superfan Factory?
Our Superfan Factory is in high-gear when our story production and marketing is aligned with our (1) own desires and passions, (2) the wants and needs of our readers, (3) and our ability and resources in a given moment.
Easy, peasy! Just figured out the intersection of these 3 areas and you are set!
Not so fast.
This is an iterative process… experimental.
When you first develop your answers they will be nothing more than a hypothesis. And that’s okay. In fact, it’s a good thing.
Start with a hypothesis. What do I want to write and what marketing strategy makes sense for me? What will my readers want? And what is sustainable for me?
Test it. And give it a good test… not just one day. After 90 days of trial, you can pivot strategies or adjust your hypothesis (aka what you are doing to build your Superfan Factory) as you get new data (aka experience) about what works and doesn’t.
The Author Persona Quiz is designed to help speed up this process for you by helping you develop more effective hypotheses faster. Yay!
But after this… there is one more step. It’s about your vision.
A Superfan Factory does us no good if we aren’t looking to create a new world from it. That’s what this step is all about…
Step #3: Build Your Synergy Map
This is the fun part.
This is where you begin to map out the unique ways you will find and discover superfans over the long term, expanding beyond just a single funnel or tier benefit to a collection of tiers and benefits you have to service your fans.
The concept of a synergy map was pioneered by Walt Disney. Here’s what Disney’s looked like:
Here’s the exciting part… because of new emerging technologies and publishing platforms… it’s never been easier to build your own “Mini-Disney”… or what we call Superfan Factory (I don’t want to get sued by Disney).
Step 3 is all about mapping out and executing on that vision.