A post by editor Emily Laughridge
Imagine this: You just finished reading a great book. Loved every minute of it, couldn’t put it down. The characters got their happily ever after and you read a bit of it in the bonus scene or epilogue. Now you’re ready to go devour every single other book the author has ever written…and there’s nothing. You can’t find a link to an extra bonus scene, the rest of the series, the author’s backlist, their website or newsletter or Facebook group or socials…
How long would you search for that stuff before moving to the next book on your TBR? Would you try at all?
Let’s chat about back matter, friends – what it is, why it’s important, and how you can best utilize it as an author.
What is back matter?
A quick refresher (or maybe a new concept) for you: back matter is the stuff that comes after you’ve typed The End. Typical back matter in a romance novel includes a bonus scene, some author acknowledgments, and possibly a note from the author to the reader.
We want to make sure that your back matter also includes a way for your readers to find you, follow you, or further connect with you – a call to action to help your readers stay your readers for future books.
Why does it matter?
In marketing, you’ll sometimes hear talk of cold, warm, and hot audiences. A cold audience is one that has never interacted with your brand or product before. A warm audience is one that has interacted with your brand before. Maybe they follow you on social media but haven’t read a book yet. These people are interested but not quite committed.
Finally, for the purpose of this discussion, a hot audience is full of the people who are your readers. They’re already your customers. If a reader has made it to the end of your book, you’ve got a captive – hot – audience. They already paid you money (or used one of their KU spots) for the book they’ve just finished – and they finished it! They’ve already invested in your products. Now’s the time to show them how they can find more of your content.
Make it work for you
I’ll outline a couple common directions that romance authors guide their readers, but I’d like to start with one caveat. Your back matter should lead your readers where you want them to find you most, be that a mailing list, a membership group, a social media platform, or something else.
Lots of authors like to use bonus scenes to get new newsletter subscribers. Your mailing list is your own and isn’t something that could be shut down or taken away from you suddenly – like Facebook locking your account. 😬
(P.S. This is your reminder to back up your mailing list!)
A very common and easy (but not free!) way to convert readers to newsletter subscribers is by utilizing Bookfunnel. On Bookfunnel, you can upload your bonus scene and set it to collect email addresses. Some newsletter providers even offer integration, meaning those email addresses will get sent directly to your mailing list. In this scenario, a reader reads and enjoys your book, clicks the bonus scene link you provide at the end, enters their email address, and gets the extra scene. And boom, you’ve got a new subscriber – someone you can contact directly via their inbox to share new books, deals, backlist…you name it!
Are you trying to build a membership group? Authors are branching out into the world of Patreon and similar platforms, and the superfan readers love it. Common membership group perks include access to purchase exclusive merch, sneak peeks at WIPs, polls to help name characters or choose pets, live chats with the author, early access to ebooks, and lots more. Some platforms allow you to offer a free trial or even a free tier, so readers can get a sample of what they’ll get access to as a member.
Wherever you’d like your readers to end up, utilize a call to action in your back matter to point your readers there.
Make it matter
Now that we’ve talked about what to include in back matter, and maybe you’ve thought of where you’d like to direct your readers, let’s bring it home. You want your call to action to be clear, concise, direct, to-the-point (unlike this list!), and extremely easy to find. If you don’t include a bonus scene or epilogue, then your link should come directly after you type The End. Can’t miss it! If you include a bonus scene, your call to action should come immediately after that.
Some clear and easy ways to include your call to action:
* Want more of {hero} and {heroine}’s happily ever after? Catch up with them in this bonus scene!
* Ready to find out what happens when the wedding gets crashed? Click here!
* Want to hang out with some of my favorite people on the interwebs? Join my Facebook group!
* I love connecting with my readers! If you’d like early access and sneak peeks at what’s coming next from my author world, check out my Patreon!
In all of these, make sure to include a hyperlink so that people don’t have to hunt to find what you’re offering. The fewer barriers there are, the more likely a reader will convert into a subscriber, member, or follower…and possibly a superfan. Utilizing a call to action in your back matter gives readers an easy opportunity to continue enjoying your books – and a low-effort way for you to create direct connections with your readers.
One Response
One final tip – make it easy for a reader! If you want their email, allow the fields (name & address) to fill in automatically. This is especially true if they have left their email on your site previously.
Make it two tips – make sure you have something there when you post links.