Many successful authors feature giveaways on their sites for potential readers to sample their writing or reward fans. A lot of authors share short stories and book previews. You can also permanently give away the first book of a series for free or give away a work for a limited time. Use Instafreebie to set up giveaways - we host giveaway links, landing pages, and handle reader tech support, all for free. Plus, the more you promote your giveaway - and your author brand - the more Instafreebie will promote you too, giving you the chance to be featured on our blog, newsletter, homepage, and social media, which will drive up downloads and increase your connection to the right readers.
Expert tip: Giveaways build a sense of trust between you and readers, which reflect well on your author brand. By providing readers a sample of your writing, you’re letting readers see for free that you are who you say you are. In fact, we’ve found that readers who read free books tend to buy more often.
Communicate with your Readers
If you receive comments and messages, that’s a good thing! Readers are interested in you, developing trust, and the more you engage with them, the more they’ll remember you. Try to respond to any comments and emails you get and build relationships with fans. Through Instafreebie, you can offer devoted readers exclusive free content as a thank you for reading and for talking up your brand. You can also distribute private Advanced Review Copies. With more reviews, more people will find and buy your work when it’s published.
Collaborate with Authors
You can find writers you read through their blogs and websites, and on social media. Talk to people about their experiences and make new connections.
Connecting with other writers is not only fun, it can help build your reputation with readers! Have you ever thought about the people who recommend you? What if you also recommended your favorite authors? One way to recommend great books is to participate in a group giveaway, where multiple authors promote their free books to all of their fans. Recommending high quality books you love to your readers will boost your connection. Your passion will come through and readers will get excited too. They will trust you more and appreciate the thought you put into giving them more of what they like. You’ll also be recommended to the readers of authors that are similar to you, so you’ll be able to create connections with more of the readers you want.
Between recommendations, collaboration, and social media, there are a lot of ways for you to connect with readers and start building a brand. Want to start developing your brand? Then come join Instafreebie!
Author Brand Basics by Felicity Henson
