Writers: The Lopsided Art of Waiting to Ask for the Sale

First you’ve got to give… then you give more.

The days of pushing your writing into the world and expecting people to consume it cold, with little knowledge of you, are long behind us — if those days ever existed.

First, you’ve got to give until it hurts. Then give just a little more.

Readers are doing their best to escape content overload. New books and stories are launched daily. This creates a huge disconnect between those who create and those who consume.

As writers, we want people to consume our work straight out the gate. We believe our inner-enthusiasm for the work should translate directly to our audience and their open wallets. I mean, we worked so hard on this book. Of course they want to build it, right?

No, it doesn’t work that way.

We’re all skeptical. Now more than any time in history. We’ve been duped, swindled, hornswoggled, bamboozled, and conned into some of the worst consumer situations we could ever fall for. Reading is no exception. Books are relatively cheap, but writers are buying time. And time is priceless

The reader’s skepticism is real and permanent.

Knowing this, you’ve got two choices as a commercial writer. You can accept the new reality and use it as an advantage, or you can continue to create the old way — pour your heart and soul into a manuscript and launch it to crickets. It’s a choice we must make.

The way out of this predicament is as old and useful as ever. If you want someone to consume your creation, first, you’ve got to give.

Giving builds a low-barrier relationship with the reader. Once you’ve got a relationship with your audience the bond is harder to break.

Loyalty is no joke. Loyalty is the reason some writers thrive above the fold and the rest give up after they wrote it and no one came.

New authors are dangerous

We have no idea if that new novel is worth our time. It’s ten hours and twenty bucks we could spend doing something guaranteed awesome, or gambled/maybe awesome.

I don’t know about you, but I rarely gamble with my time. If there’s a choice between a new author and a sure thing, the sure thing’s gonna win.

By giving first, you’re no longer a new author.

It’s an almost-insurmountable climb to get your first book out there, let alone two… and you need two.

You’re going to give a full novel or novella away to entice new readers to consumer your work.

What?!

Yep.

How can you ask someone to give up their non-renewable resource without testing the waters first. When you give away your work first, the barrier to entry is much lower. The reader won’t feel as obligated to finish it, had she paid for the story.

The science of giving?

Giving isn’t some formula you can plug into your work and build a guaranteed audience. Giving is incredibly lopsided. You will give much more that you receive.

And you can’t give with any expectation of getting.

As a writer I give until my fingers bleed. I give away books, I give away short stories, and I give away content. Only a fraction of the people who consume this free content become consumers of my paid work. That’s OK. I don’t mind.

It doesn’t matter if it’s fair or not. This is the reality of the new writer.

I know this method of giving first is the path to longstanding relationships with my readers.

You can build this kind of relationship with your audience. I get emails all the time from loyal fans who actually apologize for not replying sooner (to automated emails). They read everything I send.

I don’t take any of these relationships for granted, because I know someday I’ll have a new project I’d like to put before them. That fateful day is the day of the ask.

The day of the ask is a humble, but confident hand extended, not a firehose to BUY NOW.

We’re immune to the buy now tactics. Sure you can fleece your audience once, but then what? Then you’ve got to get a whole new audience for the next round of fleecing. You repeat the process until all the new marks are gone.

When you give first you keep the audience longer. They forgive you when you make dumb mistakes in your work, because you shipped free, fast, and furious. Loyal readers WANT you to succeed, because they have skin (time) in the game.

Loyal fans feel like they’re part of the creative process.

So how do we create this fanbase?

Simple, do work that doesn’t scale.

Thank people personally, one at a time. Send physical gifts. Do things that feel like a huge waste of your time, and connect with one person at a time. This ins’t scrolling for likes and clicks, it’s human connection.

Anyone who shows interest in your work is worthy of your giving.

Think about what I just wrote for two seconds. There’s more of EVERYTHING out there. Your audience hasn’t a dozen, but tens of thousands of choices for ways to spend their time — right now. And they chose to spend time with YOU!

Your reader’s attention counts for everything. This is where giving on a level that doesn’t scale is so critical.

Your best readers want this connection. They didn’t go the fast food route when it came to your writing. They chose hand-made, custom, bespoke, personal, or familiar. They chose you.

Now, what do you have to give?

Not, how do I get more, faster?

For most of us, the price of our books isn’t the barrier to entry for consumption. The barrier is TIME. If someone consumes one of my books I’m buying their time.

If I don’t create a valuable-enough experience for the reader, I’ve stolen her time. She won’t return for a second novel. I don’t want that to happen as long as the process is under my control.

Try to give everything that’s not bolted to the wall. Give your best information, best free samples, best first book, and best advice.

Share your writing freely. Those who don’t appreciate your free material, won’t appreciate your paid work either.

The writer’s worst enemy is not piracy or freebie-seekers. The writer’s worst enemy is obscurity.

When you give your best work as often as possible, an amazing metamorphosis happens the day you do ask for the sale. You stick out your hand and ask. Those with whom you’ve made a great relationship, will buy.

How do you decide the right amount of giving?

Give until it hurts. Give a little more.