How do you communicate with your readers? (And please don’t say ‘with my books’.) To keep readers engaged between books, as well as letting them know when to expect your next one, it’s important to have a reliable method of communication.
There are a number of different ways to keep in touch with your readers. The best one is the one where your readers will be paying attention and where you feel comfortable. Are your readers on Facebook, but you can’t stand the site? Either find a way for you to bear it—perhaps by skipping your “feed” altogether and just sticking to your own page or group.
Or maybe your readers skew younger and can be found on Tumblr and you’re sitting here saying “what’s Tumblr?” You’ll either want to find out ASAP, find someone to post for you, or find another way to reach those readers.
Social media not your thing? Or perhaps you’re not sure what to post or how often. You might consider writing a blog.
The two key factors in that is 1) knowing what people want to read; and 2) letting them know it’s there. Sadly, this is where we might need to circle back to social media. Another alternative would be to have a page in the back of your books telling readers about the blog, what they might find there, and either the URL (in a print book_ or a live link to your blog (in an ebook). Do note, it may take a little while to get people to come and read it, but if you’re persistent and patient, they will come. And don’t forget to make it easy for people to subscribe so they don’t even need to go further than their own in-box to read it.
The only thing about writing a blog is to pick one or two topics and stick to them. If one week you write about your dog, and the next the research that went into your book, people might not be consistent in reading it, just as you are not consistent in what you write about.
And speaking of consistent—do be so in how often you post. In this blog I always write about writing craft or publishing topics and it’s always posted at 6 am EDT on Sunday. (I schedule it in advance so that it is always at the same time)
Finally, the other really good way of staying in touch with your readers is with a newsletter.
Again, consistency is key.
What you put into your newsletter is up to you and what you think your readers would be interested in. For my own, I keep my readers up to date on how my writing is progressing, when they might expect my next book, suggestions of other books in my genre by other authors (newsletter swaps), and a vignette or part of a short story.
I send out my newsletter on the 15ᵗʰ of every month.
Don’t forget to offer a “reader magnet” to entice readers to sign up and advertise that you do so in the back of all your books. There are, of course, many services who will claim to get you lots of people signing up for your newsletter, but usually that’s all they do. Readers sign up to get whatever the enticement is and then unsubscribe with the first newsletter you send them. You will have spent a Iot of money for very few subscriptions. It’s much better to get people who are truly interested in you and your writing subscribing on their own.
The most important thing to remember is that engaged readers are buying readers. So, do keep in touch.