The Reader Behavior Survey was done to give authors insight into how readers think, what they like, what makes them act, and how to interact with them. Understand readers psychologically and boost your career.
2. Hi! I’m Daeus, a published novelist and a guy who wants
to help you learn how to connect well with readers.
A while ago, I put together a survey called The Reader Behavior Survey, asking
readers a set of questions to delve into, well--their behavior. I wanted to find out
what readers want from authors, what makes them act, and the basics of how
they process things psychologically. I knew this info would be hugely helpful to
authors as they build their careers and try to provide the best for their readers.
Now that the stats are in, I wanted to share them with you.
Enjoy!
3. Quick thing first.
The respondents for this survey weren't as many or as well mixed as I would
have liked, so these stats may be slightly off due to that. If they are though, it
shouldn’t be by much.
I had 229 people take this survey. Two important factors to note about the
demographics of those who took this survey are that they were
disproportionately (1) young and (2) conservative as compared with the normal
population.
4. And another thing.
There’s a lot of conclusions we can draw from this data, but I’m not able to put
them all in this slide show. If you have any questions about the data or how to
apply it, simply put that in the comments below and I’ll try to interact with you.
(Daeuses like interacting with people. Yes, precious.)
Now, on to the results!
5.
6. Note: the following graphic has the same
options for people to pick as in the previous
one and they are listed in the same order.
7.
8. Did you see that!
All of these avenues are good ways to sell book, but it looks like word of mouth
marketing blows all other avenues out of the water! Since word of mouth
marketing is so big, we want to know as much as we can about how it works.
That’s what much of this survey is about.
On a lesser note, but still an important one, I’d like you to notice how much
potential there is in selling books through physical venues. The internet hasn’t
taken over completely yet.
9. Booo Yeah! We’re on to a new section
all about word of mouth marketing.
Buckle your seat belts people. This is going to be real good.
10. Oh, yeah. Note: for all questions with
answers ranging from a 1 to a 10, 1 is a very
strong no and 10 a very strong yes.
14. With the two factors that for most people it
wasn’t that important, but for about a quarter
of people it was, I’d say this means that
covers aren’t “the big issue”, but if your cover
isn’t good that might influence people
against referring your book to others.
15.
16. Wow! Shocker. I would have expected more positive
votes. Now, of course, you can’t just forget about
characters because everything in writing is so
interrelated and you need to write a great story all
around in order to really get the word of mouth ramped
up, but the stats are the stats. If (and this is a big if) you
could only focus one area of writing to really make your
book stand out, characters would not be that area. You’ll
see what that area is in our next slide…
Cliff hanger!!!
17.
18. This is perhaps the biggest revelation in this whole
survey. For ⅖ of readers, they voted a 10 for this
question, meaning a book's thematic quality is the
decision making factor in whether they share a book.
Many others gave this an 8 or 9. Obviously, if you want
word of mouth marketing to work in your favor, you
need to really know how to write a good theme.
20. It’s so huge in fact, that I need to stop right now and tell
you about how we here at Kingdom Pen have been going
all out and overboard to provide you with everything
you need to know to write themes as good as the
greatest of the classical masters. We’ve put together and
advanced course titled, “Theme Mastery: Writing
Christian Literature That Captivates”* This course will
walk you step by step to become a theme ninja.
*(Live, as of May 22, 2017)
21. After May 22, 2017, you can find the course by going to
http://kingdompenacademy.teachable.com/courses/
22. Because I can’t shut up about it, let me tell you what some of our
students have said about the course. (And yes, I am sparing you the
all-caps-screaming-reviews because I don’t want to seem too crazy
here. I’m only a writer after all! I can’t be that weird.)
“There's so much to say, I can’t say it. I literally feel like I can take
on the world.”
“This is seriously the best writing course I’ve taken. All my theme
work before was pretty much instinctive, without any solid
planning besides a confused mix of message and some foils, but
this course laid everything out so well.”
25. Wow! Plot wins big points! Although it’s not quite as big
of a factor as theme, it does come very close. So what
action points should you take to make sure your plot
meets what readers are hoping for?
Glad you asked!
26. Here’s what you can do. 1.) Study story structure.
(*cough* *cough* Read K.M.Weiland, people.) 2.) Share
your outline with others to get feedback on it before you
start writing. 3.) Wield relational complexity to its fullest
as this is the stuff from which stellar plots come arise.
4.) Use plot twists. 5.) Use cliffhangers. 6.) Twist clichés.
27.
28. As you can see, prosaic quality isn’t the issue, but it’s
still pretty important. There are many ways to improve
your prose, but one of the best is to master descriptions.
Check out these three great articles on KP to see how
you can write descriptions like a master:
1. http://kingdompen.org/three-ways-you-may-be-wasting-your-descriptions/
2. http://kingdompen.org/what-sherlock-holmes-can-teach-you-about-writing-
descriptions/
3. http://kingdompen.org/write-a-great-description-in-three-easy-steps/
32. This is huge. If you have a free book that a reader has
read and loves so much they want to tell others about it,
it’s very likely they’ll get a few of their friends to read it.
As we’ll see later, if you have a good free offer to
incentivize subscribers, at least one of those friends will
probably subscribe to your newsletter.
Pretty cool, huh? :D
33.
34. Hey, not bad. If a reader loves your book and tells several
of their friends about it, there’s a fairly good chance one
of those friends could buy a copy.
35.
36. YES! This is what I’m talking about. If you have an
ebook, it is very easy to put a social media sharing link
in there. This makes it very convenient for readers to
share your book. #freemarketing #boohyeah
37.
38. Ok, so this isn’t quite as cool. Some people would still
share, but it’s a small number and you have to ask
yourself, “are these people who would be sharing my
book on social media anyway?” I’m not saying this isn’t
worth doing, but personally, for my paperbacks, I don’t
think I’ll do this. Instead, I’ll probably include a call to
action asking readers to lend my book to a friend if they
liked it. That’s something a lot of people already do with
their print books, but they need reminders.
39. That concludes our section about word of mouth
marketing. Now we’re on to questions on email opt-ins,
incentives, and email engagement.
40.
41. The question here is whether that 9.3% is worth it to add
an audiobook option to your free incentive. Even if
you’re recording it yourself, that takes time and
dedication. Personally, I think this is a great idea for
authors who are adding ~1,000 subscribers or more to
their list a year, but not so much for small, starting off
authors.
42.
43.
44.
45. Based on the results of these past two questions, I would
like to draw three principles.
46. Principle #1
Involve your readers in your upcoming book. Not only
does this get them excited about it, but it’s what they
want from you.
47. Principle #2
The goal of sending emails to your subscribers should
be to turn fans into friends. The fact that promotionals
were the thing readers least wanted to be notified about
shows us readers don’t like being treated like statistics.
The fact that ⅖ of respondents specifically stated they
want to be treated like friends reinforces this bold fact.
Now thou knowest the truth. Live by it. *severe stare*
48. So should you still do promotionals? Of course. The
same number of people want promotionals as don’t, and
you need to remember you’re running a business. Just
don’t do too many though.
Also, what about those people who didn’t want to
receive emails about the author’s personal life? Well,
obviously you shouldn’t offend them too much, but
occasional offenses are well worth it. Why? Because a
fan who thinks of you as a friend is worth several
normal fans. Plus, they’re friends. Have I made myself
clear?
49. Principle #3
Writing emails should be just as much an artistic
practice as writing a novel. I’m basing this in part off my
intuition, but mainly off the fact that so many readers
want funny content--even if there’s not a big point to it!
So what if all your emails were funny (or really creative)
no matter what the content was? Wouldn’t readers
devour your emails? When you write emails, don’t treat
it like a chore. Let your creative juices flow!
50. For a bonus, here are some things a few respondents
voluntarily listed as email content they like to receive.
1.) Q&As either between the author and his readers or
the author and one of his characters. 2.) Fan art and
fanfiction. 3.) Some readers want to see you fan out
about the same fandoms they’re crazy over.
51.
52. What we can glean from this? First, as you can see, the
top three winners are all things that show your
friendship to the reader. #friendshipwillconquer. So
how could you get readers’ addresses to mail something
to them? It’s up to your creativity, but you might ask
them directly. It would cost you some money to mail
them, but the loyalty it would build would probably be
worth it. I also like to see that people would be
interested in printable art and posters. It wouldn’t cost
you anything, but it might prompt some word of mouth
sharing.
53. And we’re on to our last section about libraries and
lending books.
54.
55. Boom! Hunk of wisdom there for you. If you can get your
book into a library, it can be a good marketing
opportunity for you.
56. Embarassing story. There were two questions in the
survey that I’m not listing here. The questions were
about if readers would donate books to libraries (and
almost unanimously, they wouldn’t). Well, it turns out
that many (if not most or all) libraries do not accept
donations. Live and learn. However, I did find out that
you can suggest a book to most libraries, which means…
(next slide, please)
57. Which means that if you have a substantial email list,
you can share with them how to recommend a book to
their library and then suggest that they try it out with
your book. Will they do it? I don’t know, but it’s worth a
try, don’t you think?
58.
59. What a nice note to end on. Aren’t there some great
friendships out there? *sniffle* *sniffle* *tissues* The
great thing for us here is that if we can get these people
to lend our books, that equals a lot of free marketing.
Well, thanks for reading all the way through this
huuuuggee slideshow. I hope you’ll be a better writer for
it!
Again, if you have any questions, please just chat with
me in the comments section below. Till then!
60. Tricked you. This is actually the last slide. What’s it for?
To send you over to Kingdom Pen, of course, where you
can find more great content like this.
Somebody told me I should also self promote, so I guess
I’d better do that. Check out my books below.
Edwin Brook
Treachery Against The House Of Fairwin (Pst. It’s free.)
