Author skills

Your First 50 Fans

New authors should begin with a manageable goal for engaging readers

When you are starting out as an author, one of the first things you want to do is gain readers. To some extent, this will happen by itself when you share and advertise your book.

But often, these people will quickly move on and forget about you.

I know what you really need: not just readers, but fans. People who get where you are coming from, who root for you, who recommend and discuss your work, and look out eagerly for your next release.

As I have said previously, it’s very helpful to be social when you begin to build an author platform. This means joining communities of authors and readers, sharing and commenting on other people’s work (not just talking about your own all the time), and overall trying to do things that are good for the genre.

If you do these things, you will be well on your way to being recognised and appreciated in among the fanbase of your genre. But you still won’t really have fans.

Let’s think about how you begin to change that situation.

Your first 50 fans

One way to think about building a fan base is to avoid getting too ambitious too soon. It’s often said that you need 1000 followers to be successful — and if they are genuinely engaged, passionate fans, that’s probably true.

But even that feels daunting at first. Like, when you don’t even have one!

I think a much more manageable number to aim for is fifty. It doesn’t seem crazy to suppose that you could find fifty people who will read the books of a new author, like and review it, and chat about it on social media.

It is also a number of people that you can actually remember and communicate with semi-regularly.

There may come a point where you have so many fans that you cant keep track of individuals. Fine! But at the start, you should know and care who is reading your books.

Therefore, as you start out, pay attention to any mentions that you get on social media. Thank those people for sharing your work, and for reviews. Take the time to make them feel special (because they are).

You can also start to build up these fans by directly asking people to read your work. Offer them a free copy prior to publication — often called an ‘ARC’ or advanced reader copy. Doing so gets eyes on your book, and helps to increase your number of reviews. Some of my most loyal fans came through this route.

Okay, some people will read it and won’t like it very much. But look it as a numbers game — enough ARC readers, and you will eventually have some fans on board.

Secondly, if someone shows an interest in your writing, follow up. If, for example, they asked about it or said they were looking forward to reading it, get in touch to ask what they thought. I know that sometimes authors are scared of doing so. What if they say it sucked?

But in fact, we should look at that as valuable feedback. After all, aren’t we trying to write books that readers want?

And if it’s some time since you’ve been in touch with a reader, drop them a line to see how things are going for them.

Thirdly, although it may feel counterintuitive, becoming a fan of another author in the same genre is a great way of developing fans of your own.

Try to figure out which authors write books that are most similar to your own, and which you particularly love reading. Then, shout about those books! When people see you doing so, they will recognise a like-minded soul. And when they find out that you, too, write books of a similar kind, many will give these a try.

This way, you are becoming part of a discussion and a community that already exists. And that is half the battle.

Good luck with building your own fanbase!

Shout Out

A big shout out for ‘Want To Triple Your Chances of Reads?’ by Donnette Anglin:

I love these really practical stories that are all about technique. In this case, it’s about the technique of increasing the visibility and reading rate of your Medium stories, but very similar principles apply to novels, too. It’s all about being social. Please have a read and support Donnette.

p.s. you should get my posts direct to your inbox. Do that here! Also, if you’d like to experience Medium yourself, consider supporting me and thousands of other writers by signing up for a membership. It only costs $5 per month, it genuinely supports writers, and you have the chance to make serious money with your own writing as well! By signing up with this link, you’ll support me directly with a portion of your fee, it won’t cost you extra. If you do so, thank you so very much!