Beware the Beige Books

Plus the future of Bookmotion

I have two things I want to talk about, and a clever chap would figure out how they mesh into one fluid concept.

Wouldn’t that be nice.

On one side we have an explanation for why the concept of an ideal reader is worthwhile, and on the other, I want to discuss whether Bookmotion should turn a profit. Very similar topics as you can see, this should be no problem at all.

Would you like that gift wrapped, or would you like to take it home in a plain paper bag?

Wonderful. I’ll have the ready for you right away.

Our only gift wrap choice is beige, but you can have a bow in a slightly darker beige. Our computer models suggest that the aggregate buyer likes beige better than any other color—so that’s what we offer.

We mean to give you your favorite.

On a side note, for all those years that Citizen Kane was voted the world’s greatest movie, it wasn’t really anyone’s favorite. The critics all had other choices for first place. Second place. Maybe even third and fourth. However, all those films were different. The thing about Citizen Kane was that it found its way into most critic’s list, somewhere, more often than any other film—and that made it the world’s greatest.

Much like beige is the world’s greatest color.

It’s nobody’s favorite, but you’re less likely to hate it than a bolder choice.

At some point in the process, your reader plays a roll in your thinking. Maybe it’s when you write the book. Maybe it’s when you market it. Maybe it’s when you wonder where they are.

If your target audience is everyone, then whatever the question, the answer is beige. A beige story. A beige cover. Beige marketing.

Beige.

Sounds dreadful doesn’t it?

In the attempt to please everyone, you please no one. So, if you have to please someone, be specific.

There you have it. That’s the point of the ideal reader.

Now… where’s that clever chap, and how do I segue into the issue of Bookmotion and profit. Normally, you wouldn’t talk about such things openly like this, but being open about everything is the point of Literary Salon. In my successes and failures, I intend for you to see what I did and how I did it.

I built this to model products you might create to generate income from your mailing list. My current thinking, however, says that I’d rather keep this as a cooperative, pooling funds for advertising purposes. Even so, that doesn’t mean it serves no illustrative purpose for authors seeking to generate an income.

At some point, the program will be self-sustaining, creating enough revenue to pay for its advertising.

At some point, I will begin phasing into a true, tiered structure, and I will make the ability to join Bookmotion a perk of paid membership. It won’t be free to members. They’ll still have to pay to contribute, but they’ll need to subscribers to Literary Salon first.

If you’re in Bookmotion before then, you’re in—as long as you stay in and pay your regular dues. What we do with the program won’t impact you adversely, but it would allow me to offer an additional perk to my paid subscribers—and that is one of the universal struggles for fiction writers on Substack. How do we construct enticing offers?

Here’s one factor I’m told is a truth and which I’ll need to consider. Value is not accumulative, psychologically. If there are components you’re offering under one umbrella price, every component on its own needs to feel worthy of the price. That hardly seems fair, but there it is.

Here’s an update on the numbers I shared yesterday. 163 new subscribers in the last 30 days. 21 of those came from the app.

142 subscribers came from outside sources. Substack tells me that 43% of my Subscribers came from promotions.

Click the image to visit Bookmotion and select a book.

And join the Bookmotion waiting list.

Let me explain what Bookmotion is for those who haven’t been following along. You can see our current offering above. You can click to visit and see how the page works. You select a book you want for free, but to download it, you have to give your email address and subscribe to the related newsletter. You’re probably familiar with systems that are similar up to this point, but what makes us different is that the money we pay for the program will be used to buy Faceback ads. That’s how we’ll drive our traffic.

There’s a waiting list so the next group we bring on will be big enough that we can pay for the ads. When you’re brought off the waiting list, you won’t be charged for the first month while we get everybody’s book set up. Then you’re charged $5 for 2 months and we start running the ads.

I’ll look for your name on the waiting list,

—Thaddeus Thomas