Most of the time, I talk to business owners who have a business up and running…
… and we brainstorm ways to apply the 8-Profit Activators to identify the target audience… get them to raise their hand… educate and motivate them… make irresistible offers… and deliver a dream come true result.
That’s what I do most of the time.
But what if you’re an artist? What if you’re a musician, a painter… or, say, a fiction writer who writes books for young adults…
Would the 8-Profit Activators still apply to you then?
Well, I think they would. Because at the end of the day, if you want to sell anything… be it art, a product, service, or anything else… what it really comes down to is envisioning who is your ideal target audience and what would be a dream come true for them.
But here’s the problem…
When you’re starting from scratch, trying to break into a new audience with an artistic endeavor… the problem you have is that people don’t know you. They don’t know your book, or your music, even exists. And it’s highly unlikely you can get on Ellen or Oprah... where suddenly everyone knows about you and go, “Ok, Oprah says it’s OK. Let’s give it a shot…"
So, how do you get that “let’s give this a shot” reaction from people... when you’re still nobody?
Well, here’s the thing…
We’ve become a “binge culture” society. Today, you can go on Netflix and pick any series you want, start watching the first episode… and if you like it and get hooked... you can finish it off in a weekend. You don’t have to wait for a new episode to come out.
And that’s the key. The dream come true for the audience of your fiction (or any other kind of entertainment) is that…
...it has to be bingeable.
In other words, people will more likely give it a shot if they know they can consume it all in one binge.
That’s why, before you start thinking about any kind of marketing for your fiction… you have to have the whole series out. And it has to come in easily consumable chunks.
That’s why, before you start thinking about any kind of marketing for your fiction… you have to have the whole series out.
Which also means, if your first book is a self-contained 400-page novel, you better think up ways to split it into a series. And then re-publish that.
Remember, your audience’s dream come true is to binge…
And the only way to tell the level of uptake you get on your fiction is by looking at how many people buy the second book. And then third one… and so on.
Because that’s where the money is - do they buy all 7 books in your series?
And if they do, you know you can invest in marketing because... now you have a way to keep the momentum going…
You know if you get them to try that first book in the series, they’re going to be hooked and engaged till the end.