By Emilia Rose on December 10, 2022.
This is an opinion piece, and I welcome your feedback and opposing viewpoints. I’m always looking to be challenged and to grow, so stick it to me if you disagree (respectfully, of course).
Going viral isn’t important in the author subscription business.
It may be important for selling books on Amazon or for Kindle Unlimited reads, because you must sell a large number of books to make a decent living (especially if you live in a high-priced community).
But it isn’t important for subscriptions, and you shouldn’t chase it.
Building a Strong Base
As much as you might not think you do, when you’re just starting your subscription, you have the advantage compared to someone who has thousands of readers in their community.
Why? Because you can connect on a much more intimate level with each reader you meet.
It is a slow build that will benefit you in the long run and across every aspect of your business, because you’re constantly connecting with your readers and building a strong, fundamental base.
Time
When you focus less on going viral, you have more time to cater to your community.
Virality takes an incredible amount of time. Your video sounds have to be trending. Your hashtags have to be focused. Your captions can’t be too salesy. And you might have to take your videos multiple times to get them the way you want them.
When I focused on creating daily TikTok videos and Instagram Reels, I was spending anywhere between 1.5 and 3 hours per day, sending out multiple videos, and was stressed.
Mental Health
We prize overnight growth above all else. Yet, such a small percentage will ever have viral growth. And for those that do, the views and algorithms may have more of a detriment to your well-being than they’re really worth.
What we don’t see are the dopaminergic pathways being rewired in our brains to desire views, likes, and sales ranking. This can cause immense anxiety and stress that lead to burnout. And with such a quick rise in attention, can come highs that are comparable to drug abuse.
If you want to see the dangers of going viral in action, you may want to check out this author’s story here.
Commitment
Compared to subscriptions, it’s easy to convince someone to buy your $4.99 ebook or to read your book for free through Kindle Unlimited. But going viral won’t necessarily convince your readers to convert to a monthly subscription.
It will take more time to familiarize them with your brand, your values, and your books.
It may take multiple viral videos, if virality is your main strategy.
Or you could show up in your community and connect with your readers. Like people’s comments on social media, respond to their direct messages, create a community that your fans want to live in.
Less People = Same Amount of Income
With a monthly subscription, you don’t need tens of thousands of people to buy your book. If you had about 100 people subscribed to you at $10 a month, that’s $1000 in income per month. If you had about 1,000 people subscribed to you at $10 a month, that’s $10,000 in income per month.
It can be important in other situations.
I’m not saying that going viral won’t help you. In some aspects, it will. In some cases with some authors, it has been amazing for them because their business is focused on selling large quantities of books.
But it is extremely hard to go viral for some authors. And sometimes videos go viral for all the wrong reasons. Not every author will go viral, and one viral video more than likely won’t help you in the long run.
You need that virality all the time to sell tons and tons of books, to keep that higher standing in the Amazon store.
It can be done, but it’s hard.