Are you thinking about using bonus content for marketing? When authors are tasked with marketing their own book, coming up with creative ideas that will excite fans and reach potential readers can be challenging. One strategy that authors can use to increase engagement with their work is to create bonus content for current, past, or upcoming books. These special nuggets of extra book content are something readers love to find, and they can add a little bit of magic to an author’s appeal.
When Should I Create Bonus Content?
The truth is that there is no bad time to develop bonus content for your book. But the best way to present it to your readers is when you can partner it with a larger project in some way, so you can build interest in the new content and simultaneously add excitement to your book.
New Book: While it may seem like marketing a book with even more content is unnecessary, readers always love to get extra material outside of a book. Whether this is your first book ever or just the next one you are publishing, giving readers a little additional content can be an appealing draw to make potential readers curious about your story, characters, or process that you present in the bonus material.
Refreshing Released Title: Some self-published authors like to re-release a book with changed content, a redone cover, or so that they can include bonus material that is now relevant or interesting to readers.
Renewed Interest: If your book sales have found new life or your popularity with your audience has taken an upturn, releasing new content can help fuel the fire.
Related Title or Series Companion: Bonus material is always a great way to tie together multiple titles or books in a series and can help to create new fans.
3 Ways That Bonus Content Is a Fantastic Marketing Tool
1. Bonus content helps put your book directly into the hands of new readers.
Readers who consume your extra content may not initially read it in your book, even if you have re-released a book with the content. Authors can provide readers with bonus material that shows them what your book is all about and potentially leads them to read the whole book as a result.
2. Bonus content creates a richer experience for readers.
Readers love to hear directly from the author about their experience writing a story or putting together a book, as well as learn about book-related content that was not included in the final manuscript.
- Book Annotations or Revisions can give readers insight into the writing craft as well as how a particular story or book has come together. Sometimes showing readers what didn’t make the final cut can be just as exciting as reading what did.
- Extra or Deleted Scenes provide readers with another insight into a character or plot line. Learning more about how characters act or feel can help readers understand them better, even if the scene wasn’t included in the current book. Providing readers with written but unpublished work about a story can feel like a special treat, only offered to true fans who want to see more of their favorite characters or storylines.
3. Bonus content strengthens the audience’s connection with the writer.
When an author gives readers extra content about the thinking behind the story, it bridges the gap between writer and reader because the content feels more personal.
- Discussion Prompts can be used in book discussion groups or simply to encourage deeper thinking about a story. By showing a reader what they were thinking when they wrote the story and asking the reader to chime in on the topic, readers can feel the story more intimately.
Bonus Content Is Marketing That Works
It’s easy to become overwhelmed as a self-publishing author with promoting your book, especially when developing and writing your book seems like the simplest part of becoming an author. So using your strength – writing – as the basis for your marketing is a smart approach and can make your job of getting your book into the right readers’ hands a little easier.
The good news is that there is never a bad time to create and distribute bonus material for your fans. Any content you develop around your book that doesn’t make it into the final manuscript could potentially be used as bonus material in the future, so hang on to it all.
And since bonus material can help you keep excitement high between projects, there aren’t many bad times to release bonus material to readers. Bonus material can help to pique readers’ interest in upcoming work, so always let readers know when it is arriving and where or how to find it. Tell readers when you post it on social media and your author website, give it out at in-person events, or offer it in new publications.
Printing Your Book with Dazzle Printing
Researching, writing, and finalizing a book is an exciting process for any writer. Whether your book is in the idea stage right now or your polished manuscript is ready to send to the printer, it is a good time to think about how you can develop compelling bonus content that your future fans will love to read.
Partnering with a trusted printer like Dazzle Printing to turn your manuscript into a gorgeous book for your readers is the first step in becoming a published author. When it’s time to create your book’s marketing plan, think about utilizing the extra content you already have created during the writing process or bonus material you can easily create that will help you get potential readers excited about your story, your current and future books, and your brand as an author.
