Strategies for Building a Reader Fandom

We have a lot of people in here. That's exciting. Thanks for coming. I see a lot of familiar faces and I see a lot of new faces. I'm excited to see each and every one of you. And we're going to learn about building a fandom. So today we're going to learn obviously how to build a fandom but also how to market yourself as much as your books because I feel like a lot of times authors don't realize that the two things are equal. as important. We're going to learn how to manage your fans and how to achieve a winning mindset that generates success. I'm all about mindset and manifesting things in my life. I'm a very future-focused individual, and I just think that if you can keep the talk in your brain positive and shut down the negative, that it really opens so many doors and just really puts you in that space that you need to be in to create. Okay, so this is me. I write paranormal, reverse harem romance, dark fantasy, male-female romance, and I have a couple other little projects that I've done, but all under romance. so back in 2020 I was working in behavioral health at our local community hospital it's a job that I loved you know near and dear to my heart I'm a big mental health advocate and I got I got laid off. I have three children who are now nine, six, and four. My two boys are autistic. So we have a very exciting life where I never know what's going to be said by any one of my family members at any time. My husband and I are both neurodivergent as well. We are both ADHD. So like, don't expect us to be on time anywhere, ever. It's a miracle I made it here on time. Um, So my debut series, Emerald Lakes, released October 1st, 2020. And that's like my most well-known series. And I published all five of those books within a year. It was a lot. And I've not done that since. But yeah, so when I'm not doing my author stuff, I'm mostly with my kids and just, you know, hanging out with friends and trying to have a life. So here's kind of a timeline here of my story, and like I said, I published my first book in October 2020, and my first month I earned $2,500 through KDP. I was absolutely blown away because this was more than I made at my day job. Also, I think I had 150 pre-orders on a debut novel, which I was and still am. am super proud of that number. In January of that year, I won the SPF Foundation, which is through Mark Dawson's self-publishing formula. It's a great foundation that helps people who are under a certain income guideline, and what you get is basically a $2,500 credit to Readsy that you can use for anything that you're writing. writing business needs, website design, cover design, editing, anything you want, it's on there. So, you know, and it wasn't just that. It was, you know, I was sponsored by Lucy's Score. So, you know, just knowing that there were people in the industry who looked at my stuff and thought, okay, maybe this girl has something here. You know, we believe in her. We're going to give her a shot. I feel like that was really like a boost of confidence that I need. it out of the gate. So fast forward to October 21 and that is when my fifth book in my Emerald Lake series came out and it hit 34 in the store and that month I earned $42,000 which is double more than double what I was making at my day job prior to that. So in December all five of my books are available on Audible and at that point I had accrued $38,000 in revenue from those books. And then last April, I released the first book in a spinoff series that I had linked at the end of the... At the end of the last Emerald Lakes book, I had the pre-order link there, so people that were finishing that immediately pre-ordered this next book, and I really feel like that helped drive those pre-orders up. In June 22, I offered alternate covers for my Emerald Lakes series, and these were only available through my website. I severely underestimated the hunger that my readers were going to have for these special editions. So within 24 hours of dropping these live on my website, I had $18,000 in sales and like 600 orders. And I was like, we got to shut this down. This is way too much. So after that happened, I saw that there was a big, you know, desire for signed books, and I really wanted to be able to give my readers that option through my website and always have that open. So in March of this year, I hired a full-time manager. She's actually my best friend in real life, and I stole her from her marketing job. And I said, tell me what they're paying you, and I'll pay you more than that. Because I needed help. I could not handle on my own the growth that I was seeing, the demands that I knew I couldn't meet. So I also rented an office space, which is where I keep all of my inventory, and we have like a shipping station, and I have my office, she has her office, and it just works perfectly. In August of this year, I did my first Kickstarter campaign that lasted for 14 days, and that was for a special edition. I'm going to talk more about that later. But then in September, when that Kickstarter closed, that was my first month that I've earned six figures in one month. So, it was exciting. Okay, so I talked about mindset and manifesting and how, you know, it works for me. So my first year in indie publishing, I made $225,000. So last year I said, you know, let's double that in 2022. But I only released one book that entire year because I was burnt out, you know, from rapid releasing five books and it was just, it was a lot. So I wasn't sure I was going to make it, and I did. And this number is across all revenue streams, which is KDP, Audible, direct sales, book signing sales, basically anything that accrued me money that's in that number. And I was able to achieve this because of the reader loyalty that I worked so hard to build. That. first year when I was first starting out, I knew going into this the type of author I wanted to be because I was a reader first. So think about that. When you guys, before you ever started writing, like we're all readers here. That's where we start. Remember a time when an author made you feel good about yourself, where they interacted with you or liked to comment or, you know, just they were approachable at a book signing. Little things you can do go such a long way. And it doesn't take a lot of effort on our part to like create these bonds with people who support us. Okay, so super fans. Where are they? How do I get some? I will say I think the number one thing is having memorable and relatable characters. I think that is the most important thing. Especially, you know, in fiction, because you want to create characters that your readers connect to emotionally that is never going to leave them. When they end the book, I wrote these characters, like I wanted these people so ingrained in my readers'brains that they felt like a loss at the end of the series because they were so connected and they missed them so much. They just can't stop talking about it and recommending it to their friends and like let's read this together and I'm gonna go join Brit's reader Facebook group just so that we can continue to talk about these characters. Three years later they're still in there talking about these characters because that's how much they love them. You know, pay attention. Just, I'm constantly looking around, you know, seeing, you know, what's happening with other mainstream hits and fandoms. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, Harry Potter, and look at how much merch is out there for these fandoms. So I knew right away, like, I have to deliver on that. Like, you know, if people are going to be all in to give them what they want, which is merch, and we'll get to that in a second. And then, you know, it's all about fantasy. So you want to provide an escape for your readers, but you want to keep the content relatable. So if you give them something that they can identify with in your story, they're going to keep coming back because they feel this connection. There's a lot of times where, you know, I've read books and, you know, a year later... Someone will say, oh, did you read this? And I'm like, I think I did. Or, you know, I remember little bits and pieces of it, but I can't remember the character's name. Or, you know, I can't really remember exactly what it was about, but I know when I put it down, I was like, okay, that was a good book. We want to go beyond that. Like, we don't want them to ever forget the experience they had in your story. Okay, branding. I know a lot of people don't like this word, but you know, branding is more than just your author logo or what your book covers look like. This is about who you are. Why are you writing? Readers are going to have expectations, and delivering a story that meets genre expectations is just a small, small part of this. So like, we're all creators here. We're artists, and A big thing that I've had to kind of learn how to balance is, you know, protecting my space and, you know, learning. I've learned so much about myself in the last three years, like who I am as a person, who I am as a businesswoman, how my mind works. And then you have the hard part of protecting that so that you can continue to create. So, yeah, how do we do that? Think about how do you take care of yourself? and respect your mental health in this career because it's very important. And this is so true. Readers see everything you do. Everything. And, you know, every interaction counts. You know, you can get on Facebook or BookTok and immediately see all the drama that's happening. I do not ever get involved because that's not why I'm here. I'm here for my readers. That's it. You know, and it's not just other readers who see who you are on social media. It's other authors. It's just other people in this industry. And you just want to make sure that you're always being true to your brand and what you represent so that people know what to expect. So on Halloween, I went to a party. okay, let me back up a minute because I, at the beginning, I missed a section that I wanted to talk about, which is, which is why this journey has been so huge for me is like, yes, obviously I lost my job, but I almost lost my house. I almost like I was driving a car in Ohio with no heat because I didn't have $700 to get it fixed when I had an 18 month old baby. Like, you know, I've been on every government assistance that there is. I know what it's like not to pay bills because you just don't have it. I did not expect this to happen to me. And I think that that's why I like talking to authors so much, especially new ones, because I want you guys to know that it is possible and you can reach your dreams. It's possible. So this weekend. or not this weekend, on Halloween, I was at a party and I live in like this little lake neighborhood and everybody knows me as the writer. Like, you know, they know I'm a writer because they see the semi-trucks pull up with the pallets of books. But I was down there and one of these, one of the guys that was there, he's like, you know, I just know you as like the neighbor lady. Like, you know, your house is always so cute for her. Halloween and Christmas and like I see you yelling at your kids in the yard. He's like, and your success has just been so fast-tracked and so momentous. He's like, how Why would you not, like- on a high horse. And I said, because I know what it's like not to have a horse at all. Like, you know, and that's the truth of it is when you come from having nothing, and then you start, you know, really having your dreams come true, it means so much more. And I just always feel like I want to give back to this community because I feel like, you know, it's changed my life. So that's just something, you know, to remember is just to be grateful. for every win, no matter how small. Everything counts. So with your fans, there's a lot of different ways that you can engage with them. My number one way is my Facebook reader group. And we're up to about, I think, 8,000 members at this point. And, you know, how many times have you read a book and it's, like, destroyed your soul? And you're like, I really need to talk about this right now. But you can't find a platform to do that. I wanted to give them that platform. So it's really become... I'm like more of a support group for people whose lives I've ruined. So it is by far my most active tool. Instagram, I have a street team who will promote for me on their, you know, bookstagram accounts, and Instagram is just a great way to, you know, let other people know that you see what they're doing and, you know, you're happy for them as well. So it's. it's just easy to open that app up and just start liking stuff and, you know, putting that support out to your fellow authors as well. TikTok, if you're not using TikTok, you're actively losing sales, I think, personal opinion. It is free marketing. You can do it as little or as much as you want, but in the end, it doesn't cost you anything. So, you know, people are like, why only get 100 views? Well, did you get a sale? One sale, I mean, you've got to start somewhere. One sale is one sale. But that snowballs because people talk about your book, and then they make a video. So it's just important to keep that mindset that every win is a win. Patreon and Reem, I'm on Reem now. I was on Patreon last year. It's a great place because it gives your super fans this feeling of exclusivity. that they're in this secret club. They have more access to the author. They get special perks. And it's just another revenue that furthers the fandom. And it also brings in a little bit more money. It's not a huge thing for me, but it's something that's fun. And it just helps with the reader loyalty. So, these are screenshots from my... reader group just to kind of show you like how it's really become this self-sustaining force. People will come in after they've read whatever in the book and everybody's immediately like hey this is the support group welcome uh Brit ruined my life too uh wait till you get to this part like you know but we still love her so this is the community and I feel like um The vibes in that group, it's such a good group because of the feeling that they got when they read Emerald Lakes. It's so positive and uplifting and empowering to women, specifically plus-size women, that when they come in here, everybody knows, like, we're not rude in here. We're not mean to each other. This is a group for all women to just... Be women and like be proud of our wins and you know love each other so it's it's really a good example of you know who you are and your brand and how that just carries through all of your interactions. They just know when they come in they just know. Okay so these are different things that you can do to keep engagement up with your super fans. I do giveaways, which are not always physical prizes. You can give someone a chance to be a character, or their name can be used as a character, or you can kill them in the next book. I do a lot of lives across TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. and Facebook. It's a lot of fun and it literally requires no prep work on my end because they show up and they ask the questions that you know they want answers to. I do a lot of book signings. These are not like money-making events for me. This is all about building the bond with my readers that I love and appreciate every single one of you and this is something I can do. I create playlists for all of my books through Spotify, and at the beginning of the book, I put the QR code for Spotify so that the reader can download if they want to listen. And that's been really cool because music is a great way to kind of, you know, form connections with people. Exclusive newsletter content. When the last book in Emerald Lakes came out, I did a newsletter exclusive that was character interviews. And so we would post in the Facebook group like, okay guys, this week we're going to interview Sloan. And so they would ask Sloan, who's a character, all these questions as if he's a real life man, which I'm him. I am the real life man. And I would go into my newsletter and paste those questions and literally write them as him. And. They went absolutely wild over this. The second the newsletter would go out, I'd get all these like pending posts in the group like, can you believe Sloan said that? And you know, I'm like, no, I can't believe it. You know, so as the group got flooded, as they're talking about this exclusive content, everybody else is like, wait a minute, where do I get this? Like, I need it right now. So then it was just. it just like really fueled everybody coming to the newsletter. And I saw a lot of growth over, you know, the five or six weeks that I did this. It was one interview a week and it just was phenomenal. So I highly recommend that. Also, you know, give them a job. I have my street team, which is at this point, they're all super fans. A lot of them have been with me since my debut book. And we have a chat. It's called Brit. Britsweenies. I didn't name it. I don't hate it, but I didn't name it. And I'll just randomly pop in, you know, it's just a Facebook Messenger group chat, and I'll just randomly pop in and show up and send them pictures of my animals or my kids. And, you know, this is what we're doing today. And I love it, and they love it too. So, yes. Now, this is probably the most important thing. You have to give them shit to buy. Fandoms demand merch, and if it's not available for them to buy, you're losing money there. This is just a small list of ideas. Now, I no longer do a print-on-demand company for my merch. I have... I developed a relationship with a local businesswoman who does like vinyl prints, like t-shirts, she creates epoxy tumblers, like the really pretty glittery stuff, and I formed a professional relationship with her and then she's like, I'm reading your books, and I'm like, okay this is either gonna go one of two ways. You're gonna think I'm a pervert and be like I'm out, or you're gonna be a super fan. And thankfully, she became a super fan. And it's worked out so well for me because she will just feel like she just feels inspired now to make designs. And she's like, do you like any of these? And I'm like, I love all of those. Like, put them on the website, you know. So it's been amazing because it's less work for me. I don't have to, like, you know, manage another person. You know, do this, do that. When they just do it, it's amazing. So these are like the signed books that I talked about that you can have, you know, available on your website where readers can get them. I really think that it was smart of me to do the exclusive covers like only available on my website because obviously I get a bigger percentage selling it myself versus selling it on Amazon. Sorry, that was out of order. So this is me when the books came, and I had a moment of panic because that's a lot of books, and it took a long time to get all of those orders out, which is what led me to hire a manager to do this for me. And I think as long as you are very clear with your readers on I am a person, I am not a robot, There's going to be delays, you know, they're way more understanding of setbacks and, you know, I've always, I always tell them like you can have a refund or you can wait, but that's your two choices and I can't give you a date on when this is coming just because like life is a lot sometimes and it's easy for me to overcommit and I've told this to them. They all know this about me and they accept it and they love me for, you know. setting those boundaries and saying, hey, this is who I am. And if you're going to show up for me, then you have to accept me as who I am. So let's talk about Kickstarter for a minute. I saw like so many people making tons of money doing Kickstarter. It's been a big talk this year at the conference. So in the summer, I went to the Mallorca Mastermind. with Craig Martel and we were talking about Kickstarter with I was talking about it with some of the other authors there and they convinced me you have to do this you have to do it so I ended up doing it I I think that with Kickstarter people often feel like it's much bigger planning thing than it actually is. At least that was my experience. I was like, wow, I really hyped this up in my head and like, you know, made a big deal out of it when it really, it really should not have been. So this is what I offered. It was the Demons of Port Black. It's a duet in one hard back, straight up, you know, nothing fancy about it with the box that it's coming in. I priced that at $80 and I ran my campaign for 14 days and I had, you can see over here, 768 backers pledged $95,000 to bring this project to life. I still don't know what happened. My funding goal was $5,000. I was like, okay, if we can get that, we're going to do it. That happened in five minutes. And it got so out of control that every day I would post a new stretch goal, like when we hit 20,000, you guys will get this. When we hit this, and they were usually in increments of like $5,000 to $6,000 was the next stretch goal. They were hitting these goals in like six hours. So then I was like, I got to do this for 14 days? Like, I need more add-ons. I need to add more stuff to this campaign for them to buy. And so I ended up finding a lot of really cool stuff. Like I did character cards. I did minifigures because everyone loves, you know, Funko Pops and collectibles. Yeah, it just so so, you know, they're getting like all the foiling and the sprayed edges and all of the fun, exclusive stuff. But it was by far like one of the most humbling experiences that I've ever had. Just the way that they showed up. Especially because the second book isn't even written. Like, this is how badly they want this book, and this is how much they believe that I'm going to supply them with a product that's worthy of their $80, even though I don't have that product yet. It's not even in my head yet. Like, it's not even out. And it just blows my mind, like, the level of belief that these people have in me. So, yeah, it's just great. Okay, so let's go back to characters for a minute and why they are so important. One of my favorite characters in Emerald Lakes is Gran. She is an old witch who is the female main character's grandmother. She is saucy and sassy and she loves men. And she just, she's such a funny character. And I based her off of my gradient hap who, you know, taught me basically everything I know about being a woman and just being confident and who cares what anybody else. else things. So why am I telling you guys this? Last year my aunt passed away and it was kind of a drawn-out process. She'd had a stroke, was in the hospital for three weeks, went back and forth, and eventually she did pass away. And my reader group mourned this woman that they had never met. Because that's how connected they were to my aunt. And I think sometimes we don't realize the power that our words have, that we can, like, I unknowingly wrote her legacy without, you know, realizing the impact that she would have on other people. And that's just, it's just priceless. There's another example of something that happened to me in Sydney this year. I had a reader come up to my table with her husband and when I was writing the last Emerald Lakes book it was I kept like hitting a wall. I'm like something here is not right. I'm at the very end. You know it's you got to wrap this up. This is happily ever after time and something just was not flowing. The main character had given birth and finally it clicked. I was like oh she has postpartum depression because I had that. three separate times, and I knew I could not write this book without putting my own experience in it, and I did that, and this woman, she came up to me with her husband, and she said, you have no idea how much your books meant to me, because I was reading the last book, you know, holding my two-month-old. infant and she's like I didn't know I had a problem until I read your story and then I was able to go get the help that I needed both her and her husband hugged me and it was by far like one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced because there's not a lot of awareness with postpartum and when I told some people that that's the route I was taking with this book they're like but happily ever after you know you genre? Are you sure you're going to, are you sure you want to do that? And I said, yes, because you can have happily ever after and postpartum. You can have both. And I think that people need to understand that too, is like, we all have our shit, right? We all have things. That doesn't mean that you can't be happy. And that's the same in this genre is, you know, like keeping this stuff relatable and having these connections with. with your readers. It just, it goes so far. Okay, so I'm going to wrap this up so we can get to some Q&As, but, you know, I just wanted to say that I'm really at a point in my life now where I have really begun to accept myself. I've done so much soul searching over the last three years and just learning more about, like, my brain, being ADHD, going undiagnosed for 34 years. And just, you know, the validation of that, like, there's nothing wrong with me. I just literally can't do that, and that's okay. You know, figuring out what my Clifton strengths are and how that goes into my writing, doing Enneagram work, and just, you know, all the personality stuff. It's been extremely validating and also confronting, because who wants to hear the bad stuff about your personality? But I think that... by hearing those things sometimes, it can really like lift the curtains that are in front of your eyes and like, okay, I'm in my own way here. Like I need to, I need to get past this on my own. So yeah, I mean, I am flawed. We are all flawed, but I am unapologetically myself at this point in my life. I'm not going to be on time. That's okay. I'll be there sometime. And it's not because I'm being rude. It's because I know that it's just not in the cards for me. You know, so I would tell everybody in this room, stay true to yourself. Find your circle, your writing circle. And if when you walk away from that group of people, if you're not feeling inspired and energized, then those are not your people. And that's hard to hear sometimes because we want to be nice to everybody. And it's not about. not being nice or being rude or, you know, unfriendly. Like I said, this is our art. And if we're not surrounding ourselves with people, People who inspire us to keep creating the art, then we're not surrounding ourselves with the right people, and it's on us to set these boundaries and to protect ourselves. Look at my notes real quick. So yeah, I just want to say that I believe in each and every one of you because you're sitting here. You came to 20 Books Vegas. This is by far my favorite week of the year. This is my third year at this conference. It inspires me, you know, the whole year after. And so I can tell that on some level, no matter how small, each one of you believes in yourself. And that's like huge. That's the first step. So we're all here. We're all here to make this first step and figure out together, how do we keep climbing? How do we keep growing? So I really just want to like wish everybody the best of luck, you know, in the future. And Here on the last slide, I do have a QR code that has a discount for my one-on-one coaching that I started offering recently. Because it gives me energy pennies to talk with other authors. I just want to see everybody win, especially because I know what it's like not to win. I don't know, it's just my favorite thing. So if you're interested, scan the QR code and we can talk more in depth about... your journey. Thank you. We have a sizable group of people watching and tuning in online through the stream and Facebook. Two questions from the online folks. First, Diane would like to know for print books that you sell direct, where do you get them printed? In the beginning, you stored them at home and packaged and shipped them yourself. Any regrets in the beginning about doing print? Oh, yeah. It still haunts me. I get my books now from 48-hour books and the reasoning behind that is it's a 30-minute drive from my house so I don't pay shipping which is huge and now you know I think if you just keep keep yourself on track you know don't let it get too out of control to what you can't handle. And then Katie would like to know, when you do character cards or figurines, are there platforms you use to get these designed, or do you find the artists yourself? There are platforms like Alibaba and Ali... No, it's Alibaba. That's what it is. AliExpress. Yes, that too. And those are mostly like overseas manufacturers, but they can take your character art and turn it into any... any, many figure that you want, which is really cool. Thanks a lot for this session. My question is, you spoke about writing relatable content that your readers can relate to. So while marketing, how do you tell your readers without telling them this story is heavily emotional or contains posts? depression and all that stuff. How do you tell them your book contains this without telling them your book contains this? I didn't hear the last part. Like how do you tell readers your book contains like heavily emotional content without telling them the book contains heavily emotional content? Okay so what I did I always have a trigger warning page at the beginning that just broadly lists you know contains you know, graphic sex, you know, cussing. And then, like, if it gets more intense than that, I make sure I list it because I don't want anybody to get triggered when they're reading. There was, so I think it was book four, at the beginning of book four, the character was not pregnant, and she became pregnant, and there was kind of like a dangerous situation that she was going to be in, but I knew if I put a pregnancy trigger at the beginning, like, you know, at the beginning of the book, or threat of pregnancy loss, basically, that that would spoil the whole book. So I put it right before the chapter in the book. I said, stop. Going forward, you know, if this is something that triggers you, then, you know, please ask another reader who's already read it, your questions about it, you know. I just wanted to be very respectful of that. Thank you very much. I have two quick questions. Right now, for my newsletter, I'm only doing it twice a month because I'm new, but I was thinking about doing weekly to try to help a fandom, but I don't know if some people, does that make your... And subscribes go up or like what do you think do your fans like it what weekly or um, I don't look at the numbers anymore I I honestly I don't look at any numbers because I just don't like them. Um but If they're unsubscribing they're not your reader That's true. So yes send it every week because there are the people who are here for you they want it and it's Don't worry about being annoying. They're here because they want to know what you have to say. Okay, and then on your merch stuff, do you do promo boxes? Do you ever send anything out to influencers? Do you have anything? I have never done that, just because it sounds like more than my brain can handle. Okay. I would love to do it, but, yeah, logistically. Sounds like you don't need it now, but, okay, I just wondered if you had any ideas. Thank you. Thank you. With your Facebook group. Is that one group for everyone, whether they've read the books or not? Like, because of, I imagine there would be spoiler stuff in there, like if you've only read one book versus somebody who's read all of them. Right, yes. It's at your own risk. I, like, you know, when a new book comes out, we screen the comments a lot. Like, I'll usually make a separate Facebook group for the new release, where everybody can just go in there and freely talk and some people go in there without having read it just because they they want to know right now what's happening um but yeah i think you know when they sign up and they have to answer the questions something on there says something like you are at your own risk of if you get spoiled it's i can't maintain it also online they'd like to know how do you start engaging more with your audience if you have been more of a popping in and out of social media author for a while? I mean, I'm a pop in and out social media author. I think that's what I do. I'm just constantly switching between the platforms or once a day I'll scroll through my Facebook group and see all the new comments and sometimes I'll respond in character to certain things and they just go nuts over it. any chance you get, any second you have, just basically click a button and like something. It goes a long way. Hi. Thank you for that. For new authors who have just released their first book, how would you, I mean, what would you do to build a fandom if you don't have a newsletter, don't have really a strong following on social media? How would you build up that fandom to be able to? you know go go out with a bang basically for your next book yep so i mean when i first started i also like nobody knew who i was and that was fine because i was not expecting anything to come of this i i started it mostly so i didn't lose my mind in lockdown with my three children but i think you know do as many facebook takeover parties in other author groups as you can just constantly getting that information out about this is who I am, this is what I'm writing, here's some teasers, building that hype for your book. You can never start that too early, especially if you're an unknown. Because I started marketing my first book probably five months before it came out. Oh, a takeover party? So authors and their reader groups will have like new release parties for their books where they'll send out spreadsheets and people can pick it, or people. Authors can pick different time slots and you get like three to six posts where sometimes there's a theme like that goes with their book or it's like a Halloween party or it's whatever but You're going into these groups that already have people who like your genre So it's just reaching a wider audience and you can you know promote your own stuff in another author's group Cole would like to know How do you create content for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and still writing novel? It is a sincere question. I pay for that now. My manager does a lot of the post-generating stuff for me now. But it is a lot. And some days I'm just not feeling it. And it's okay. Remember in the beginning, like, it's not a race. This is not something that you... blink and it just happened is something that I cultivated every day you know over a year before it really started like being you know self-sustaining and I didn't have to do as much work so yeah hi how do you know when it's time to start a Facebook group like you know you have the fear of what if you start a group and nobody joins it's never too early to open your group um even if you get one person in there Just you have to have that spot where they can go because otherwise if there's no group, you're never going to have anybody. So maybe you don't have anybody for a while. That's okay. But at least the space is there for when they show up because they will show up. Okay. Thank you guys so much for coming.

We have a lot of people in here. That's exciting. Thanks for coming.

I see a lot of familiar faces and I see a lot of new faces. I'm excited to see each and every one of you. And we're going to learn about building a fandom. So today we're going to learn obviously how to build a fandom but also how to market yourself as much as your books because I feel like a lot of times authors don't realize that the two things are equal.

as important. We're going to learn how to manage your fans and how to achieve a winning mindset that generates success. I'm all about mindset and manifesting things in my life. I'm a very future-focused individual, and I just think that if you can keep the talk in your brain positive and shut down the negative, that it really opens so many doors and just really puts you in that space that you need to be in to create. Okay, so this is me.

I write paranormal, reverse harem romance, dark fantasy, male-female romance, and I have a couple other little projects that I've done, but all under romance. so back in 2020 I was working in behavioral health at our local community hospital it's a job that I loved you know near and dear to my heart I'm a big mental health advocate and I got I got laid off. I have three children who are now nine, six, and four.

My two boys are autistic. So we have a very exciting life where I never know what's going to be said by any one of my family members at any time. My husband and I are both neurodivergent as well. We are both ADHD.

So like, don't expect us to be on time anywhere, ever. It's a miracle I made it here on time. Um, So my debut series, Emerald Lakes, released October 1st, 2020. And that's like my most well-known series. And I published all five of those books within a year. It was a lot.

And I've not done that since. But yeah, so when I'm not doing my author stuff, I'm mostly with my kids and just, you know, hanging out with friends and trying to have a life. So here's kind of a timeline here of my story, and like I said, I published my first book in October 2020, and my first month I earned $2,500 through KDP.

I was absolutely blown away because this was more than I made at my day job. Also, I think I had 150 pre-orders on a debut novel, which I was and still am. am super proud of that number.

In January of that year, I won the SPF Foundation, which is through Mark Dawson's self-publishing formula. It's a great foundation that helps people who are under a certain income guideline, and what you get is basically a $2,500 credit to Readsy that you can use for anything that you're writing. writing business needs, website design, cover design, editing, anything you want, it's on there.

So, you know, and it wasn't just that. It was, you know, I was sponsored by Lucy's Score. So, you know, just knowing that there were people in the industry who looked at my stuff and thought, okay, maybe this girl has something here.

You know, we believe in her. We're going to give her a shot. I feel like that was really like a boost of confidence that I need.

it out of the gate. So fast forward to October 21 and that is when my fifth book in my Emerald Lake series came out and it hit 34 in the store and that month I earned $42,000 which is double more than double what I was making at my day job prior to that. So in December all five of my books are available on Audible and at that point I had accrued $38,000 in revenue from those books. And then last April, I released the first book in a spinoff series that I had linked at the end of the... At the end of the last Emerald Lakes book, I had the pre-order link there, so people that were finishing that immediately pre-ordered this next book, and I really feel like that helped drive those pre-orders up.

In June 22, I offered alternate covers for my Emerald Lakes series, and these were only available through my website. I severely underestimated the hunger that my readers were going to have for these special editions. So within 24 hours of dropping these live on my website, I had $18,000 in sales and like 600 orders.

And I was like, we got to shut this down. This is way too much. So after that happened, I saw that there was a big, you know, desire for signed books, and I really wanted to be able to give my readers that option through my website and always have that open. So in March of this year, I hired a full-time manager.

She's actually my best friend in real life, and I stole her from her marketing job. And I said, tell me what they're paying you, and I'll pay you more than that. Because I needed help. I could not handle on my own the growth that I was seeing, the demands that I knew I couldn't meet. So I also rented an office space, which is where I keep all of my inventory, and we have like a shipping station, and I have my office, she has her office, and it just works perfectly.

In August of this year, I did my first Kickstarter campaign that lasted for 14 days, and that was for a special edition. I'm going to talk more about that later. But then in September, when that Kickstarter closed, that was my first month that I've earned six figures in one month. So, it was exciting.

Okay, so I talked about mindset and manifesting and how, you know, it works for me. So my first year in indie publishing, I made $225,000. So last year I said, you know, let's double that in 2022. But I only released one book that entire year because I was burnt out, you know, from rapid releasing five books and it was just, it was a lot. So I wasn't sure I was going to make it, and I did. And this number is across all revenue streams, which is KDP, Audible, direct sales, book signing sales, basically anything that accrued me money that's in that number.

And I was able to achieve this because of the reader loyalty that I worked so hard to build. That. first year when I was first starting out, I knew going into this the type of author I wanted to be because I was a reader first. So think about that. When you guys, before you ever started writing, like we're all readers here.

That's where we start. Remember a time when an author made you feel good about yourself, where they interacted with you or liked to comment or, you know, just they were approachable at a book signing. Little things you can do go such a long way. And it doesn't take a lot of effort on our part to like create these bonds with people who support us. Okay, so super fans.

Where are they? How do I get some? I will say I think the number one thing is having memorable and relatable characters.

I think that is the most important thing. Especially, you know, in fiction, because you want to create characters that your readers connect to emotionally that is never going to leave them. When they end the book, I wrote these characters, like I wanted these people so ingrained in my readers'brains that they felt like a loss at the end of the series because they were so connected and they missed them so much. They just can't stop talking about it and recommending it to their friends and like let's read this together and I'm gonna go join Brit's reader Facebook group just so that we can continue to talk about these characters. Three years later they're still in there talking about these characters because that's how much they love them.

You know, pay attention. Just, I'm constantly looking around, you know, seeing, you know, what's happening with other mainstream hits and fandoms. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan, Harry Potter, and look at how much merch is out there for these fandoms. So I knew right away, like, I have to deliver on that. Like, you know, if people are going to be all in to give them what they want, which is merch, and we'll get to that in a second.

And then, you know, it's all about fantasy. So you want to provide an escape for your readers, but you want to keep the content relatable. So if you give them something that they can identify with in your story, they're going to keep coming back because they feel this connection.

There's a lot of times where, you know, I've read books and, you know, a year later... Someone will say, oh, did you read this? And I'm like, I think I did.

Or, you know, I remember little bits and pieces of it, but I can't remember the character's name. Or, you know, I can't really remember exactly what it was about, but I know when I put it down, I was like, okay, that was a good book. We want to go beyond that.

Like, we don't want them to ever forget the experience they had in your story. Okay, branding. I know a lot of people don't like this word, but you know, branding is more than just your author logo or what your book covers look like.

This is about who you are. Why are you writing? Readers are going to have expectations, and delivering a story that meets genre expectations is just a small, small part of this. So like, we're all creators here.

We're artists, and A big thing that I've had to kind of learn how to balance is, you know, protecting my space and, you know, learning. I've learned so much about myself in the last three years, like who I am as a person, who I am as a businesswoman, how my mind works. And then you have the hard part of protecting that so that you can continue to create.

So, yeah, how do we do that? Think about how do you take care of yourself? and respect your mental health in this career because it's very important. And this is so true. Readers see everything you do.

Everything. And, you know, every interaction counts. You know, you can get on Facebook or BookTok and immediately see all the drama that's happening. I do not ever get involved because that's not why I'm here.

I'm here for my readers. That's it. You know, and it's not just other readers who see who you are on social media.

It's other authors. It's just other people in this industry. And you just want to make sure that you're always being true to your brand and what you represent so that people know what to expect. So on Halloween, I went to a party. okay, let me back up a minute because I, at the beginning, I missed a section that I wanted to talk about, which is, which is why this journey has been so huge for me is like, yes, obviously I lost my job, but I almost lost my house.

I almost like I was driving a car in Ohio with no heat because I didn't have $700 to get it fixed when I had an 18 month old baby. Like, you know, I've been on every government assistance that there is. I know what it's like not to pay bills because you just don't have it.

I did not expect this to happen to me. And I think that that's why I like talking to authors so much, especially new ones, because I want you guys to know that it is possible and you can reach your dreams. It's possible.

So this weekend. or not this weekend, on Halloween, I was at a party and I live in like this little lake neighborhood and everybody knows me as the writer. Like, you know, they know I'm a writer because they see the semi-trucks pull up with the pallets of books.

But I was down there and one of these, one of the guys that was there, he's like, you know, I just know you as like the neighbor lady. Like, you know, your house is always so cute for her. Halloween and Christmas and like I see you yelling at your kids in the yard.

He's like, and your success has just been so fast-tracked and so momentous. He's like, how Why would you not, like- on a high horse. And I said, because I know what it's like not to have a horse at all.

Like, you know, and that's the truth of it is when you come from having nothing, and then you start, you know, really having your dreams come true, it means so much more. And I just always feel like I want to give back to this community because I feel like, you know, it's changed my life. So that's just something, you know, to remember is just to be grateful. for every win, no matter how small.

Everything counts. So with your fans, there's a lot of different ways that you can engage with them. My number one way is my Facebook reader group. And we're up to about, I think, 8,000 members at this point. And, you know, how many times have you read a book and it's, like, destroyed your soul?

And you're like, I really need to talk about this right now. But you can't find a platform to do that. I wanted to give them that platform.

So it's really become... I'm like more of a support group for people whose lives I've ruined. So it is by far my most active tool. Instagram, I have a street team who will promote for me on their, you know, bookstagram accounts, and Instagram is just a great way to, you know, let other people know that you see what they're doing and, you know, you're happy for them as well.

So it's. it's just easy to open that app up and just start liking stuff and, you know, putting that support out to your fellow authors as well. TikTok, if you're not using TikTok, you're actively losing sales, I think, personal opinion. It is free marketing.

You can do it as little or as much as you want, but in the end, it doesn't cost you anything. So, you know, people are like, why only get 100 views? Well, did you get a sale? One sale, I mean, you've got to start somewhere. One sale is one sale.

But that snowballs because people talk about your book, and then they make a video. So it's just important to keep that mindset that every win is a win. Patreon and Reem, I'm on Reem now.

I was on Patreon last year. It's a great place because it gives your super fans this feeling of exclusivity. that they're in this secret club.

They have more access to the author. They get special perks. And it's just another revenue that furthers the fandom.

And it also brings in a little bit more money. It's not a huge thing for me, but it's something that's fun. And it just helps with the reader loyalty. So, these are screenshots from my... reader group just to kind of show you like how it's really become this self-sustaining force.

People will come in after they've read whatever in the book and everybody's immediately like hey this is the support group welcome uh Brit ruined my life too uh wait till you get to this part like you know but we still love her so this is the community and I feel like um The vibes in that group, it's such a good group because of the feeling that they got when they read Emerald Lakes. It's so positive and uplifting and empowering to women, specifically plus-size women, that when they come in here, everybody knows, like, we're not rude in here. We're not mean to each other.

This is a group for all women to just... Be women and like be proud of our wins and you know love each other so it's it's really a good example of you know who you are and your brand and how that just carries through all of your interactions. They just know when they come in they just know. Okay so these are different things that you can do to keep engagement up with your super fans.

I do giveaways, which are not always physical prizes. You can give someone a chance to be a character, or their name can be used as a character, or you can kill them in the next book. I do a lot of lives across TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter. and Facebook. It's a lot of fun and it literally requires no prep work on my end because they show up and they ask the questions that you know they want answers to.

I do a lot of book signings. These are not like money-making events for me. This is all about building the bond with my readers that I love and appreciate every single one of you and this is something I can do. I create playlists for all of my books through Spotify, and at the beginning of the book, I put the QR code for Spotify so that the reader can download if they want to listen.

And that's been really cool because music is a great way to kind of, you know, form connections with people. Exclusive newsletter content. When the last book in Emerald Lakes came out, I did a newsletter exclusive that was character interviews. And so we would post in the Facebook group like, okay guys, this week we're going to interview Sloan.

And so they would ask Sloan, who's a character, all these questions as if he's a real life man, which I'm him. I am the real life man. And I would go into my newsletter and paste those questions and literally write them as him.

And. They went absolutely wild over this. The second the newsletter would go out, I'd get all these like pending posts in the group like, can you believe Sloan said that? And you know, I'm like, no, I can't believe it.

You know, so as the group got flooded, as they're talking about this exclusive content, everybody else is like, wait a minute, where do I get this? Like, I need it right now. So then it was just. it just like really fueled everybody coming to the newsletter. And I saw a lot of growth over, you know, the five or six weeks that I did this.

It was one interview a week and it just was phenomenal. So I highly recommend that. Also, you know, give them a job. I have my street team, which is at this point, they're all super fans.

A lot of them have been with me since my debut book. And we have a chat. It's called Brit. Britsweenies. I didn't name it.

I don't hate it, but I didn't name it. And I'll just randomly pop in, you know, it's just a Facebook Messenger group chat, and I'll just randomly pop in and show up and send them pictures of my animals or my kids. And, you know, this is what we're doing today.

And I love it, and they love it too. So, yes. Now, this is probably the most important thing. You have to give them shit to buy. Fandoms demand merch, and if it's not available for them to buy, you're losing money there.

This is just a small list of ideas. Now, I no longer do a print-on-demand company for my merch. I have... I developed a relationship with a local businesswoman who does like vinyl prints, like t-shirts, she creates epoxy tumblers, like the really pretty glittery stuff, and I formed a professional relationship with her and then she's like, I'm reading your books, and I'm like, okay this is either gonna go one of two ways.

You're gonna think I'm a pervert and be like I'm out, or you're gonna be a super fan. And thankfully, she became a super fan. And it's worked out so well for me because she will just feel like she just feels inspired now to make designs.

And she's like, do you like any of these? And I'm like, I love all of those. Like, put them on the website, you know.

So it's been amazing because it's less work for me. I don't have to, like, you know, manage another person. You know, do this, do that. When they just do it, it's amazing.

So these are like the signed books that I talked about that you can have, you know, available on your website where readers can get them. I really think that it was smart of me to do the exclusive covers like only available on my website because obviously I get a bigger percentage selling it myself versus selling it on Amazon. Sorry, that was out of order. So this is me when the books came, and I had a moment of panic because that's a lot of books, and it took a long time to get all of those orders out, which is what led me to hire a manager to do this for me.

And I think as long as you are very clear with your readers on I am a person, I am not a robot, There's going to be delays, you know, they're way more understanding of setbacks and, you know, I've always, I always tell them like you can have a refund or you can wait, but that's your two choices and I can't give you a date on when this is coming just because like life is a lot sometimes and it's easy for me to overcommit and I've told this to them. They all know this about me and they accept it and they love me for, you know. setting those boundaries and saying, hey, this is who I am.

And if you're going to show up for me, then you have to accept me as who I am. So let's talk about Kickstarter for a minute. I saw like so many people making tons of money doing Kickstarter. It's been a big talk this year at the conference.

So in the summer, I went to the Mallorca Mastermind. with Craig Martel and we were talking about Kickstarter with I was talking about it with some of the other authors there and they convinced me you have to do this you have to do it so I ended up doing it I I think that with Kickstarter people often feel like it's much bigger planning thing than it actually is. At least that was my experience. I was like, wow, I really hyped this up in my head and like, you know, made a big deal out of it when it really, it really should not have been. So this is what I offered.

It was the Demons of Port Black. It's a duet in one hard back, straight up, you know, nothing fancy about it with the box that it's coming in. I priced that at $80 and I ran my campaign for 14 days and I had, you can see over here, 768 backers pledged $95,000 to bring this project to life. I still don't know what happened. My funding goal was $5,000.

I was like, okay, if we can get that, we're going to do it. That happened in five minutes. And it got so out of control that every day I would post a new stretch goal, like when we hit 20,000, you guys will get this. When we hit this, and they were usually in increments of like $5,000 to $6,000 was the next stretch goal.

They were hitting these goals in like six hours. So then I was like, I got to do this for 14 days? Like, I need more add-ons. I need to add more stuff to this campaign for them to buy. And so I ended up finding a lot of really cool stuff.

Like I did character cards. I did minifigures because everyone loves, you know, Funko Pops and collectibles. Yeah, it just so so, you know, they're getting like all the foiling and the sprayed edges and all of the fun, exclusive stuff. But it was by far like one of the most humbling experiences that I've ever had.

Just the way that they showed up. Especially because the second book isn't even written. Like, this is how badly they want this book, and this is how much they believe that I'm going to supply them with a product that's worthy of their $80, even though I don't have that product yet.

It's not even in my head yet. Like, it's not even out. And it just blows my mind, like, the level of belief that these people have in me.

So, yeah, it's just great. Okay, so let's go back to characters for a minute and why they are so important. One of my favorite characters in Emerald Lakes is Gran.

She is an old witch who is the female main character's grandmother. She is saucy and sassy and she loves men. And she just, she's such a funny character.

And I based her off of my gradient hap who, you know, taught me basically everything I know about being a woman and just being confident and who cares what anybody else. else things. So why am I telling you guys this? Last year my aunt passed away and it was kind of a drawn-out process. She'd had a stroke, was in the hospital for three weeks, went back and forth, and eventually she did pass away.

And my reader group mourned this woman that they had never met. Because that's how connected they were to my aunt. And I think sometimes we don't realize the power that our words have, that we can, like, I unknowingly wrote her legacy without, you know, realizing the impact that she would have on other people.

And that's just, it's just priceless. There's another example of something that happened to me in Sydney this year. I had a reader come up to my table with her husband and when I was writing the last Emerald Lakes book it was I kept like hitting a wall. I'm like something here is not right.

I'm at the very end. You know it's you got to wrap this up. This is happily ever after time and something just was not flowing. The main character had given birth and finally it clicked. I was like oh she has postpartum depression because I had that.

three separate times, and I knew I could not write this book without putting my own experience in it, and I did that, and this woman, she came up to me with her husband, and she said, you have no idea how much your books meant to me, because I was reading the last book, you know, holding my two-month-old. infant and she's like I didn't know I had a problem until I read your story and then I was able to go get the help that I needed both her and her husband hugged me and it was by far like one of the most powerful things I've ever experienced because there's not a lot of awareness with postpartum and when I told some people that that's the route I was taking with this book they're like but happily ever after you know you genre? Are you sure you're going to, are you sure you want to do that? And I said, yes, because you can have happily ever after and postpartum.

You can have both. And I think that people need to understand that too, is like, we all have our shit, right? We all have things. That doesn't mean that you can't be happy.

And that's the same in this genre is, you know, like keeping this stuff relatable and having these connections with. with your readers. It just, it goes so far. Okay, so I'm going to wrap this up so we can get to some Q&As, but, you know, I just wanted to say that I'm really at a point in my life now where I have really begun to accept myself. I've done so much soul searching over the last three years and just learning more about, like, my brain, being ADHD, going undiagnosed for 34 years.

And just, you know, the validation of that, like, there's nothing wrong with me. I just literally can't do that, and that's okay. You know, figuring out what my Clifton strengths are and how that goes into my writing, doing Enneagram work, and just, you know, all the personality stuff. It's been extremely validating and also confronting, because who wants to hear the bad stuff about your personality? But I think that...

by hearing those things sometimes, it can really like lift the curtains that are in front of your eyes and like, okay, I'm in my own way here. Like I need to, I need to get past this on my own. So yeah, I mean, I am flawed. We are all flawed, but I am unapologetically myself at this point in my life.

I'm not going to be on time. That's okay. I'll be there sometime.

And it's not because I'm being rude. It's because I know that it's just not in the cards for me. You know, so I would tell everybody in this room, stay true to yourself.

Find your circle, your writing circle. And if when you walk away from that group of people, if you're not feeling inspired and energized, then those are not your people. And that's hard to hear sometimes because we want to be nice to everybody.

And it's not about. not being nice or being rude or, you know, unfriendly. Like I said, this is our art. And if we're not surrounding ourselves with people, People who inspire us to keep creating the art, then we're not surrounding ourselves with the right people, and it's on us to set these boundaries and to protect ourselves.

Look at my notes real quick. So yeah, I just want to say that I believe in each and every one of you because you're sitting here. You came to 20 Books Vegas. This is by far my favorite week of the year.

This is my third year at this conference. It inspires me, you know, the whole year after. And so I can tell that on some level, no matter how small, each one of you believes in yourself.

And that's like huge. That's the first step. So we're all here.

We're all here to make this first step and figure out together, how do we keep climbing? How do we keep growing? So I really just want to like wish everybody the best of luck, you know, in the future. And Here on the last slide, I do have a QR code that has a discount for my one-on-one coaching that I started offering recently.

Because it gives me energy pennies to talk with other authors. I just want to see everybody win, especially because I know what it's like not to win. I don't know, it's just my favorite thing.

So if you're interested, scan the QR code and we can talk more in depth about... your journey. Thank you. We have a sizable group of people watching and tuning in online through the stream and Facebook. Two questions from the online folks.

First, Diane would like to know for print books that you sell direct, where do you get them printed? In the beginning, you stored them at home and packaged and shipped them yourself. Any regrets in the beginning about doing print?

Oh, yeah. It still haunts me. I get my books now from 48-hour books and the reasoning behind that is it's a 30-minute drive from my house so I don't pay shipping which is huge and now you know I think if you just keep keep yourself on track you know don't let it get too out of control to what you can't handle.

And then Katie would like to know, when you do character cards or figurines, are there platforms you use to get these designed, or do you find the artists yourself? There are platforms like Alibaba and Ali... No, it's Alibaba.

That's what it is. AliExpress. Yes, that too.

And those are mostly like overseas manufacturers, but they can take your character art and turn it into any... any, many figure that you want, which is really cool. Thanks a lot for this session.

My question is, you spoke about writing relatable content that your readers can relate to. So while marketing, how do you tell your readers without telling them this story is heavily emotional or contains posts? depression and all that stuff.

How do you tell them your book contains this without telling them your book contains this? I didn't hear the last part. Like how do you tell readers your book contains like heavily emotional content without telling them the book contains heavily emotional content?

Okay so what I did I always have a trigger warning page at the beginning that just broadly lists you know contains you know, graphic sex, you know, cussing. And then, like, if it gets more intense than that, I make sure I list it because I don't want anybody to get triggered when they're reading. There was, so I think it was book four, at the beginning of book four, the character was not pregnant, and she became pregnant, and there was kind of like a dangerous situation that she was going to be in, but I knew if I put a pregnancy trigger at the beginning, like, you know, at the beginning of the book, or threat of pregnancy loss, basically, that that would spoil the whole book. So I put it right before the chapter in the book.

I said, stop. Going forward, you know, if this is something that triggers you, then, you know, please ask another reader who's already read it, your questions about it, you know. I just wanted to be very respectful of that.

Thank you very much. I have two quick questions. Right now, for my newsletter, I'm only doing it twice a month because I'm new, but I was thinking about doing weekly to try to help a fandom, but I don't know if some people, does that make your... And subscribes go up or like what do you think do your fans like it what weekly or um, I don't look at the numbers anymore I I honestly I don't look at any numbers because I just don't like them. Um but If they're unsubscribing they're not your reader That's true.

So yes send it every week because there are the people who are here for you they want it and it's Don't worry about being annoying. They're here because they want to know what you have to say. Okay, and then on your merch stuff, do you do promo boxes?

Do you ever send anything out to influencers? Do you have anything? I have never done that, just because it sounds like more than my brain can handle.

Okay. I would love to do it, but, yeah, logistically. Sounds like you don't need it now, but, okay, I just wondered if you had any ideas. Thank you. Thank you.

With your Facebook group. Is that one group for everyone, whether they've read the books or not? Like, because of, I imagine there would be spoiler stuff in there, like if you've only read one book versus somebody who's read all of them.

Right, yes. It's at your own risk. I, like, you know, when a new book comes out, we screen the comments a lot. Like, I'll usually make a separate Facebook group for the new release, where everybody can just go in there and freely talk and some people go in there without having read it just because they they want to know right now what's happening um but yeah i think you know when they sign up and they have to answer the questions something on there says something like you are at your own risk of if you get spoiled it's i can't maintain it also online they'd like to know how do you start engaging more with your audience if you have been more of a popping in and out of social media author for a while?

I mean, I'm a pop in and out social media author. I think that's what I do. I'm just constantly switching between the platforms or once a day I'll scroll through my Facebook group and see all the new comments and sometimes I'll respond in character to certain things and they just go nuts over it. any chance you get, any second you have, just basically click a button and like something.

It goes a long way. Hi. Thank you for that.

For new authors who have just released their first book, how would you, I mean, what would you do to build a fandom if you don't have a newsletter, don't have really a strong following on social media? How would you build up that fandom to be able to? you know go go out with a bang basically for your next book yep so i mean when i first started i also like nobody knew who i was and that was fine because i was not expecting anything to come of this i i started it mostly so i didn't lose my mind in lockdown with my three children but i think you know do as many facebook takeover parties in other author groups as you can just constantly getting that information out about this is who I am, this is what I'm writing, here's some teasers, building that hype for your book. You can never start that too early, especially if you're an unknown.

Because I started marketing my first book probably five months before it came out. Oh, a takeover party? So authors and their reader groups will have like new release parties for their books where they'll send out spreadsheets and people can pick it, or people. Authors can pick different time slots and you get like three to six posts where sometimes there's a theme like that goes with their book or it's like a Halloween party or it's whatever but You're going into these groups that already have people who like your genre So it's just reaching a wider audience and you can you know promote your own stuff in another author's group Cole would like to know How do you create content for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and still writing novel?

It is a sincere question. I pay for that now. My manager does a lot of the post-generating stuff for me now. But it is a lot.

And some days I'm just not feeling it. And it's okay. Remember in the beginning, like, it's not a race. This is not something that you...

blink and it just happened is something that I cultivated every day you know over a year before it really started like being you know self-sustaining and I didn't have to do as much work so yeah hi how do you know when it's time to start a Facebook group like you know you have the fear of what if you start a group and nobody joins it's never too early to open your group um even if you get one person in there Just you have to have that spot where they can go because otherwise if there's no group, you're never going to have anybody. So maybe you don't have anybody for a while. That's okay. But at least the space is there for when they show up because they will show up. Okay.

Thank you guys so much for coming.

Transcript for:Strategies for Building a Reader Fandom

Transcript for:
Strategies for Building a Reader Fandom