I just converted a non-reader into a maybe-reader.
Authors are always wondering how to “find” readers, but the true competition comes from stories in other forms. Netflix, movies, TV, games… all of these deliver the story experience in highly visual and interactive ways, and if you’re going to lure people into discovering the pleasures of long-form reading (novels or short stories, anything in written form), you’re going to have to bring your A-game.
The non-reader was a sales clerk I was chatting with, and when she found out I was an author, she confessed that she never read books. Hadn’t finished one in over ten years. I told her I believed that people who don’t read books just haven’t met the right book. Did she like movies? Yes. I said that’s because humans are hard-wired to enjoy stories. It’s our natural language. So she just had to get the right book in her hands—the right story—and she’d be hooked.
Then I gave her my bookmark, told her she could read one of my stories for free (pitched the concept to her), then had to explain how she could download the kindle app to her iPad. By the time I left, she was excited to try it.
Maybe she’ll go on to buy my books. FAR more important… maybe I’ve created a brand-new baby reader! One who will scoop up the stories her mind was thirsting for and she didn’t even know it.
This is the unsung part of indie publishing that I love so much—turning non-readers into readers (I’ve been the “first book” someone has read many times), turning casual readers into avid ones, and feeding the steady-addiction of avid readers at prices that don’t break the bank.
It’s a good business to be in.
