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Hey, There’s a right way to grow your list... and a wrong way. A fast way and a slow way. And there’s a careful way and a reckless way. I’m going to recommend you do a little of each. Fun! But before we dive in, I got deep into Facebook Ads with Thomas @ The Novel Marketing Podcast and you can check that out below. This was a really great discussion, covering the mistakes I see authors making with Facebook Ads, as well as what's working now in 2026. There are links to the YouTube recording as well as the usual podcast places in the Facebook post below — which you can also share with your author friends who are struggling with ads (we cover a lot more than just Facebook). Check it out here:
how to grow your listOrganics. That’s what we call the most prized sign-ups. The precious souls who tend to be more likely to become raving fans, buy your books, click your links, open your emails. We liiiiiiiiiiike them. These are often readers who have come to you. In other words, they proactively decided to sign up for your newsletter. Probably by joining at the back of one your books, or by signing up on your site after Googling you, or maybe from following the various promo particles you fling hither and tither across the verdant fields of the internet, praying for superfan seeds to grow. The word “organic” is a little misleading as there are many things we can do to increase the flow of these artisanal, GMO-free sign-ups. But I digress; the label works. In an ideal world, that would be that. Our sales and promotions and launches and online bush-beating would entice just enough readers back to our Author HQ to build a strong, healthy list. And thus, a sustainable and happy career. Problem is that the flow of organic sign-ups can be finger-drummingly slow outside of a launch or something like a BookBub deal. saved by the inorganicRather than seducing our robot brethren, a story I was surely born to write, inorganic generally pertains to you being a little more proactive. Going out and getting sign-ups directly, I mean, rather than scattering breadcrumbs and waiting for those precious little reader pigeons to waddle your way. This usually means paying for the privilege in one form or another. Often via Facebooks ads, list building promos, or perhaps some form of home-brewed competition/giveaway that you organize by yourself or with author friends. If you don’t like the organic/inorganic taxonomy, then maybe it’s more helpful to look at these as “hot” vs “cold” subscribers. Or perhaps a spectrum of hot-to-cold is best of all; this is not so binary. Readers signing up at the back of your books are superhot, god bless them. At the other end of the scale are the questionable randos you drag in off the street with a Facebook Ad or by dangling some kind of sexy prize in a monster giveaway with dozens of other authors. And then everyone else lands at different points between those extremes based on how they found you (leaning more hot) versus how you found them (leaning more cold). I should point out that we make this distinction not to discriminate but to determine how much nurturing a given subscriber might need. They are all equally valuable... potentially. That said, it is important to be aware that this variance is far more extreme among inorganic subscribers. Many can perform at a level comparable to organics. *parping noises* Others are worthless. Worse again: you will have spent money to acquire them and then will keep on spending more and more to keep them until you can figure out an accurate process to fish them out of your reader pool. ¡No bueno! But those with a pulse could turn out to be openers and clickers and buyers and, one day, maybe even your biggest and bestest fans. Some of those icy queens can be warmed up, is what I’m saying. 100% organic might be the “perfect” approach... but perfect can take forever. “Good enough” can get you to the top of the mountain at a decent clip. This isn’t either/or. You can have it all. And we will, dammit. We’re going to be slow and careful and methodical and do things the “right” way — when it comes to our sign-ups, magnets, end matter, and deliverability. Like good little worker bees. But we might move fast and break things a little too — putting our finger on the scale, when necessary, to boost our numbers with a surge of inorganics when our bulbous brain deems it appropriate. There’s a time to be cautious and a time to roll the dice; we’re gonna to be smart enough to know when to gamble. And, if we screw up — and, boy, will we!! — no one dies. Hooray. my radical philosophyWe treat every organic subscriber like gold dust, because they are. And we do the same with inorganics. Maybe even give them a little more love (because they may need it). We treat everyone the same... with the exception of dishing out a little more attention when necessary. Got it? organic growthYou need two things to increase organic sign-ups, which are kinda obvious I guess but the divil is in the details: (a) more sales, duh. (b) a better mousetrap. Let’s skip (a) for now and focus on that mousetrap. Reason we want to tackle (b) first is that we don’t want to go to the trouble and expense of building a slick sales campaign if we have a big hole in our reader-capturing bucket. Your mousetrap:
- a book
- with hooky text right after THE END encouraging readers to sign up and dangling something to seal the deal
- a sexy reader magnet, pointing to
- a clean and snappy landing page on your website making signing up as frictionless as possible.
I don’t know how you people feel about friction. (I’ve heard some things which I won’t repeat.) But when it comes to reader sign-ups, you want things to be as smooth and problem free as doll’s doll-parts. For bonus points:
- A graphic showing the book cover of the magnet as well as your nice bit of text. For maximum impact, make this the first thing readers see when they finish your book.
For a gold star:
- Put all of this before the start of the story too. Gotta catch ‘em all!
We want to maximize the number of sign-ups. This is one of the times when we will force ourselves to be slow and cautious and methodical. You can lose people at every single step here and collectively that can really punch a hole in the good ship you — turning a sales spike into a dead cat bounce for your list. There’s another way to view this though. Every little thing you do — at each step — will have cumulative benefits. (BTW I don’t exactly know what cumulative means but I’m pretty sure it’s named after my favorite cloud and that’s good enough for me.) Anyway, the point is, I know you want to grow fast — who doesn’t? — but slow down here. Get to noodling on that landing page. Take time and workshop your end matter. Tear your remaining hair out over that reader magnet. It’s totally worth it. The cool thing is, when we then indulge our reckless side, when we throw our bra out the window and roll the dice and dive into cross promos and competitions and Facebook Ads and whatever else is going on... then we will benefit from all this cautious preparation. Which reduces our risk while preserving our delicious adrenaline hit. Hallelujah. fancy new remarkableThis news just dropped but remarkable have released another new device and this time — be still my beating heart — it's a direct replacement for my trusty reMarkable 2. That makes three third-gen reMarkable devices now. The reMarkable Paper Pro is a larger, color device which would be perfect for artists, I imagine, or anyone who needs color or a large canvas. The reMarkable Paper Move is a much smaller version of that which can slip into your back pocket (review coming soon). The reMarkable Paper Pure is the same size as the reMarkable 2 but is black-and-white (I prefer this BTW), and has a faster screen, quicker navigation, longer battery, and manages to be both cheaper AND lighter too. Check it out here.
(Affiliate link - but regular readers will know how much I personally use my reMarkable!). Pretty much hit everyone's wishlist with those upgrades and I'm looking forward to checking it out in more detail soon. More advice on boosting those inorganic subs next time, Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Danitsa with The Captain. |
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