Ask Jerry
Marketing by Subscription
Asked by Peter Hyson on November 15, 2022
I'm seeing more and more articles recommending selling books chapter by chapter via mailings accessed via a subscription. It's reckoned to build fan loyalty especially since it also accesses regular newsletter about the author, the writing progress & other personal stuff. Substack and Mailchimp often get mentioned, plus ConvertKit; Revue; Memberspace & Wattpad. What are your thoughts about this method and the best way to do it, please, Jerry?
Jerry's Answer
I don't know, Peter. The prevailing wisdom about websites, blogs, and author pages is that they work best when they benefit the reader more than the writer. I try to make my site wholly reader-oriented; in my case, my value to them comes from teaching them to write, not in selling them my book--or even subscriptions to my Guild.
That is a valuable byproduct (to me), of course, but I want my pitches to them to be infrequent and mentioned only in passing. That way, if I've truly brought them value and haven't been promoting myself and my stuff all the time, they're more likely to be interested.