Post by K'Sennia Visitor on Aug 6, 2018 1:59:12 GMT
Is front matter still allowed?
In the past I've seen peeps place their optin form at the front and back of the book. I think they were hoping to get the readers who read the sample first to go sign up for the freebie before they decided to buy the book on amazon. And then for those who don't read the sample they would have it at the end.
Of course amazon always places it's own stuff at the end of your story, before the reader finds your optin offer, and I bet lots of readers close the book before even seeing it. And the books open at chapter one, or maybe introduction, so very few readers will see any front offers either.
Is placing your freebie offer in your TOC always bad manners? I know a lot of authors were using that scammy tactic to get full KU reads, but if you're not in KU, would it be copacetic? Or do more readers naturally page through the backmatter than I'm assuming?
There are a lot of things you can offer to get subscribers - free novels, free short stories,deleted scenes, post-happily-ever-oh-look-we-had-a-baby-and-it's-Christmas scenes, maps, free audiobooks, alternate endings, etc. What do those of you with mailing lists use as your freebie/lead magnets?
I tried a mailing list once with my smut, but I was too lazy to write any free content, plus I was too lazy to write the emails, so I ended up taking taking the optin offer off my author page. I wasn't doing a direct signup link, either. I was just linking to my author page because that way I could have links to all my books, to all the stores, in the same place, and I didn't have to change the backmatter for each store since I was wide. And then when I had it, I had my optin box on the one static page I had. Amazingly I actually got a few signups even when I offered nothing but news of new releases. I think I sent out like, two emails, before I got bored.
I'm a bad, bad marketer. But I know that an email list can be a very powerful tool in the hands of a smart, savvy, enthusiastic, non-lazy writer. Do we have any of those around here? Speak and share your wisdom with us.
