Indie Author's Guidebook: What to Do About Reader Magnets

A reader magnet is a book that an author gives away for free with the hope that the reader will enjoy it enough to recommend it to others, purchase more books by the same author, and give the work a positive review on various websites.

The first two books I wrote were produced rather traditionally by a small publishing house. At the time, most people had little more than a website and eBooks weren’t popular. Today, the face of indie publishing has changed wildly, and authors must do their best to keep up with the trends.

When I decided to try my hand in the indie publishing world, I heard almost immediately about reader magnets, and honestly, I didn’t exactly understand them. Initially, I couldn’t figure out how giving away my work for free was beneficial. Wasn’t I supposed to try to make a little money here?

But, as I wrote more books, and began sharing my work liberally by giving away a few copies here and there I found out quickly that by being generous, I was also seeing marked results. Not only were readers responding to my work and giving me feedback, but those same readers were also coming back to my website to check out what else I was working on and promoting.

So—what to do about reader magnets…

Option One: If you’ve only written one book so far, consider making your magnet the first chapter of your book. Be sure that it’s a complete chapter (and that you label your work as a sample) so that the reader who clicks on your book link knows exactly what they’re getting.

Option Two: If you’ve only written one novel and a short story or novella, then this is the perfect time to give readers the gift of the short story. A lot of indie authors will write a book, then decide to create a short prequel. These authors really have a good plan in place because they can attract readers to their work without giving up the entire novel. Plus, by writing a full short story or novella, they aren’t just offering a taste of their work, but giving away something that can intrigue readers, yet leave them wanting more.

Option Three: If you’ve written a series, consider offering the first book as your magnet. The theory is that if you can convince readers to love your storytelling style with that first book, then they’ll come back and stay with you and your characters throughout the rest of the series.

Option Four: Consider changing your magnet from time to time or offer more than one of your books. Especially if you write in varying genres, like I do, you might want to consider using more than one book as a reader magnet. Because I want to attract cozy mystery readers, I like to offer the first book in my Buenaventura Beach Mystery Series, Marshmallow Milkshakes and Missing Persons, as a magnet. But, since I also  create romance stories, I feel like, to reach my total, broader audience, that I’ve got to give away Royally Engaged, the first book in my Kanedy Productions Contemporary Romance series.

Ultimately, Indie Authors will likely feel the need to protect their work. They might be hesitant to just give away what they worked so hard to create. But, by receiving a magnet, readers might be willing to give the writing a try. And, hopefully, once you’ve placed your book in the hands of others, they’ll stick with you for the rest of your writing career.

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