From promoting your subscription to determining your pricing and rewards, these are the 10 steps you can take to go from zero to $100k+ per year on your subscription as a fiction author.

EPISODE OUTLINE:

0:00 - 2:14 Introduction and Context

2:14 - 6:17 Step 1: Knowing Your Readers

6:17 - 10:01 Step 2: Getting into the Subscription Mindset

10:01 - 17:46 Step 3: What Should You Offer as Rewards?

17:46 - 24:20 Step 4: How Should You Price Your Subscription?

24:20 - 31:45 Step 5: Where should you host your subscription? Technology + tools to make subscriptions happen.

31:45 - 36:54 Step 6: Promoting Your Subscription

36:54 - 40:41 Step 7: How to Manage Your Subscription and Keep Your Readers Happy

40:41 - 46:04 Step 8: Iterating Your Subscription

46:04 - 52:56 Step 9: Scaling Your Subscription

52:56 - 58:42 Step 10: Making A Subscription Sustainable for the Long Run

10 Takeaways from Episode:

1. Developing real relationships with readers is often the best way to learn about them.
2. Focus less on gaining new readers, and more on making your existing ones happier (even if you only have five readers).
3. Rewards for your subscription depend on (1) what is best for you as a writer, (2) your reader’s relationship to you and your stories, (3) your readers' relationship to reading in their life.
4. Be wary of low pricing, if often can hurt engagement and churn for your subscription (leading to more reader cancellations).
5. Make the tech simple and what works best for you and your readers.
6. Your subscription is not something for cold audiences but instead a way to nurture existing readers and superfans. Promote accordingly!
7. Underpromise and overdeliver. And don’t burn yourself out with extremely high expectations.
8. Poll your readers consistently and add new tiers + tweak your offerings accordingly.
9. Scale doesn’t have to come from more subscribers, but instead from deeper relationships. Upselling existing subscribers to higher-priced tiers is a way to scale your revenue without more readers.
10. Subscriptions make you more accountable to the desires of your readers with halo effects across your author business.

Join our community of subscription authors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/subscriptionsforauthors

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Review/rate Storytellers Rule the World on your favorite podcast app. You can also find the episode transcripts here: https://storytellersruletheworld.com/podcasthome

Thank you so much for tuning into the show! Always feel free to reach out to the team at [email protected]

ABOUT REAM

Ream is an all-in-one publishing platform for fiction authors.

Ream combines the best features of a mailing list, community platform, and a world-class reading and listening experience into one easy-to-use platform. All for $0 a month. We only make money when you do — and authors keep 90% of what they earn.