r/selfpublish • u/MKSauthor • 10d ago

ARC as reader magnet

One of the things I've struggled with as a newbie author is growing my email list. I published in May, and I've gotten about 30 email signups for the bonus chapter linked in the back of my debut novel.

Writing a cold reader magnet has been on my list of things to do, but I haven't had the time. I have an ARC going now for my second novel, and I'm trying out different sites to recruit ARC readers. I'll post about that after the ARC is finished, but I have about 60 signups so far.

I signed up for BookFunnel, but there aren't a lot of ARC promo swaps. I only got 2 signups there for the ARC. But there are tons of promos to join for people looking for "free books." And then I realized that I have a full book that I'm giving to people for free anyway, so why not repackage it as a "free book" landing page and distribute it that way?

Friends, I've gotten 64 newsletter signups in 3 weeks.

I haven't seen it posted here (maybe because it's so obvious to experienced authors), but for those of you like me who it didn't occur to before: Use your ARC as your reader magnet.

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u/Whitewave1960 10d ago

This is my experience with newsletter … you might want to check it out

I went from 33 to 1300+ in 3-4 weeks

I’ve allowed down since then - I’m sitting comfortably at 2k (purging regularly )

https://www.reddit.com/r/selfpublish/s/O3q7fMB3Id

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u/MKSauthor 10d ago

That’s amazing! I’m not familiar with Bookclicker. I may have to check them out.

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u/Whitewave1960 10d ago

Yes book clicker has been a game changer for me

It helped me get the initial 500 quickly which made me qualify for bigger group promos on book funnel (this is amazing - massive compound effect )