A lead magnet is something that you create that is of value to your reader.  It could be a peek into your upcoming novel, a short-story prequel, a character description, or a monthly newsletter in which you share your activities. You provide it in exchange for their contact details; their first name and email address are all you need. A lead magnet leads, or draws, people to your book.

With their email address, you have direct access to your reader. With it, you can let them know what you are up to, when your book will be available for sale, where they can buy it, and how to attend the book launch, among other things.

Understandably, growing your list is hard to do. People don’t want to give up their personal information only to be bombarded with emails they have no time to read. It took me a year to gather an email list of only 28 people, made up of family and friends.

If it is so hard, then why bother? Only recently did I come across an answer to this that made sense. 

Your website is the only real estate that you own. Facebook and Instagram own your followers and can take them away without your consent. I saw this happen to a photographer on Facebook. He was just about to release a calendar and lost thousands of followers before he made any sales. How frustrating! So, he had to start rebuilding his following from scratch. After seeing this, I understood why we must keep a list of people interested in our work. It allows us to contact them directly when we have something of value to offer.

So, how do you get more people on your email list? I found an amazingly effective way to do this. Once discovered, I added 163 new subscribers in one month! I only wish I had known about it sooner!! I will share how to do this later on in this lesson.