5 Key Processes for Authors to Build Audiences

You've written your book, which was tough. Well done! But, now what? Convincing potential readers to take a look at your book, or even find it in the first place, is even harder. But don't worry, you've managed to write a book, so you're already more than capable of riding this part out too. Here's the short list of things I believe are valuable building clocks that authors can use to cultivate and retain a legion of readers. I believe these are highly effective and doable for the majority of writers.

1. Mailchimp

Numero uno, you need to be able to store the contact details (email addresses) of your readers who are willing to stay in touch with you. These are called your "subscribers" or "subs". Numero dos, you also need to be able to send your subs periodic and professional-looking emails (updates, new releases, etc) easily.

Mailchimp lets you accomplish this all in one. It is probably the simplest and most user-friendly platform of this type to use, which is why I'd use them.

NB: There are a number of alternative mail providers to Mailchimp, but an account with Mailchimp is free until you hit 500 subscribers (it used to be 2,000). Furthermore, it's relatively simple to export your list from one mail provider to another (i.e. away from Mailchimp), should you be close to 500 subscribers and not want to move to a Mailchimp paid plan. Bear in mind, that's also a scenario where you've been successful in building an audience, so well done!

2. Author Exchange Platform

Author Exchange Platforms are what I call platforms like StoryOrigin and BookFunnel (the main 2, Prolific Works is a weak third). They help you gain subscribers to store & periodically email about your work.

I'll focus on StoryOrigin as I believe this gives you the best bang for your buck, is the most effective, and is very user-friendly.

What does StoryOrigin do? Simply, it allows you to swap mentions of your books with other authors, so that you each mention each other in your own newsletter. Don't worry about starting out with 0-few subs, you'll find authors are quite kind and will often still swap. A good guide to understanding all of this is here.

Make note - you're advertising your books through a network of authors, and you're also able to collect potential readers' email addresses, meaning they become your subscribers. It is incredibly easy to integrate your Mailchimp account into StoryOrigin, and instructions to do this are in your StoryOrigin account.

I recommend the Standard Plan ($10/m or $100/year) as I'd be shocked if you weren't able to build a decent sized user base within a couple of months, depending on how much you make use of the platform.
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BookFunnel is similar, although I've found it a little trickier to use, and a little less effective.

3. Social Media

Social media is a useful way to engage with potential readers. Personally, I'm no whizz at this sort of thing, and have found it more of a marathon than a sprint, but I can certainly vouch for its utility. You can follow your favourite authors / those who write in a similar genre, and see what they're doing to promote themselves, while establishing your brand. You can also interact with potential readers on various threads, often about your favourite books. You might even make some steadfast friends! The general wisdom (that I also subscribe to), is that you can't be really present on more than one social media platform, so trial a few and see what suits you. I sacked Facebook in (it's so buggy and slow for me), and mostly use twitter, although I'm also using Instagram more and more. I don't use TikTok as, from what I understand, you're advised to interact way more than I have time for.

BEWARE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ADS. In my experience (and opinion!), creating ads for your books, or things like gaining more followers, is a waste of time. The ads suck money from you, or are break-even at best. I reckon these social media platforms are focused on trying to take your ad money, instead of actually delivering results. Focus on being authentic and building your brand, posting about not only your work but related/interesting topics. That's worked best for me.

4. Website sign up form

It's important to make sure that you are able to easily collect subscribers: whether (1) you're directing them to a sign up link, or (2) they organically look for your sign up link (e.g. via searching your name on google). Most of the time, this is effectively accomplished by having a sign up link on your website. You can generate them easily using Mailchimp, and there are a few different options. Information from Mailchimp about how to do this is available here.

5. Back Matter

Within your book's back matter (if you're unsure what this is, here's a helpful guide), simply include your website address. This is linked to "4. Website sign up form", in that you're showing readers where to locate you, and once they're there, they can see your subscriber sign up link from Mailchimp (or any other mail provider you use). This really is a no-brainer to include in every book of yours, since it's completely free and expected by most readers. If you have already published a book without this back matter, usually it's not tricky at all to add it in and re-publish (especially if you're using Amazon KDP).

Good luck!