The Annual CBR Reader's Survey

For Authors: getting info straight from those readers that we're trying to entice

Happy Friday, my friends! I’m using this special Friday edition to talk to you about a reader survey that I ran back in 2022 (oh my god) when I was first trying to figure out how best I could use my background in marketing to help authors. This survey focused on INDIE AUTHORS and READER EXPECTATIONS. I was trying to find actionable data on what readers like so I could help authors form strategies.

Since I ran that survey, I feel a couple of things:

1. I can do better now. I asked some really open ended questions, which made the data laborious to try and quantify.

2. I can ask better questions now that I’m deeper in the “author corner” and I *think* I know better what y’all are curious about / need to know

3. I have more data analysis and market research background - which means I can shift this focus to where the biggest current gap is, which is USER BEHAVIOR. What are they doing on there? When and How do they interact??

4. I can get more author input. That’s you guys!! Please hang tight til the bottom of this essay so I can get your thoughts!!

5. I can get more responses. I have almost twice as many followers now, I’ve tempted IRL humans into boring ass surveys for work, I can (with the help of you all!) get this MUCH wider.

Okay so that being said - I have another thought. Last survey’s data is still good. There are still some fundamental takeaways that I feel are valid, and can help us to narrow in on wtf we’re doing over there.

I’m going to run through the questions and data I believe are still useful to us here, so it' gets your brain cooking - be thinking about what questions you wish I was covering here!!

Where do you find authors & when?

I remember at the time, this felt GROUND breaking. The consensus on instagram then (and honestly, even now!!) is that you MUST find new readers and tempt them directly on bookstagram.

I’m honestly not sure how true that is! I think TRUE marketing strategies are multi-channel. Instagram is only a compliment to Facebook, meta ads, your website & newsletter, amazon ads, hell, even your BLURB. Everything that sells your book works together in concert to do so.

So that being said - I’m interested to see how this number changes as social media habits have changed! And try not to get down if you feel you have low conversion on instagram - especially if you’re not directly measuring sales 😉

Who convinces you to read a book??

I think this graph here shows us something really interesting and in much the same vein. Think of it this way:

• Influencers & even “smaller” accounts spend 100% of their time building trust in their audience. With every book recommendation, which for some accounts is over 100+ a year, they are winning their audience over and convincing them that they are a reputable source of book recommendations.

• If you’re a close personal friend, that work has likely been done over the course of years! You have that trust. Hence - 82% of reported recommendations.

Now, consider yourself, the author.

• Who are you to this person??? It’s so hard for you to build that same kind of trust FRESH, with a stranger on the internet, because you are SELLING something (your book).

• They are more skeptical with you; they’re going to investigate your blurb, your reviews, everything they can find to help them inform their decision.

So what can we learn from this? Your job on instagram continues to be surround sound. Trust & encourage your readers, street teams, and even influencers that you’ve vetted to help you in THEIR reviews.

If you’re saying “Charlie, fucking duhhhh” I know!! I hear you!! I think we need this reminder sometimes though. You sit there and DUH me, but someone else is feeling relief because they put everything on their own shoulders, stress themselves out thinking they need to do it all by themselves. Sometimes, some of this work is simply out of our hands & all we can do is provide them with the tools they need (quote posts, art, teasers, etc) to share the book and spread the word. (sometimes 👹)

Sharing about your personal life & author process

I’ve waxed poetic about sharing your authentic self (to your level of comfort) online a hundred times, so let’s focus on the data, shall we!

This was an open ended question, so I want to note that while the 66% positive is pretty straight forward, the 20% neutral was also overwhelmingly positively connotated. They often said “I don’t mind I guess!” or “it’s fine, as long as it’s balanced” etc, which means its just about 86% of readers (of THIS survey sample) who are plenty happy to see you stop killing yourself to create graphics and trends *every time* and instead share a pic of your writing spot or WIP inspo.

~ that being said ~ this is definitely one I’m interested to see if its shifted in the last two-ish years. Social media changes sort of in tandem with society - and we know media in general is shifting back towards honest, raw, unpolished. So how’s that effecting this perception? We’ll see!

What’s your favorite kind of author content??

I’m confident these results won’t shock anyone, but I still think it’s rich and interesting and I’m really excited to boil down these categories and get new data. We have:

• ART - 26.3% - yup, totally get it. Everyone wants art (and hot characters to look at lmao)

• QUOTES - 17.8%. It’s a great way to get to know your writing ability, if the style matches their taste, even the content as a taste test. I do honestly believe that teasers bundle into this too - so pop in another 5% ish.

• AUTHOR STUFF - that’s WIP updates, behind the scenes, inspiration, etc. This adds up to about 32%ish percent of what they like to see.

• “BOOKSTA” STUFF - the kind of things that readers and authors both post - aesthetic reels, trope graphics, memes- the lowest categories, interestingly!! I’m kind of leaving this one here though because… I think this has changed since last surveyed!!

TLDR - Focus on art, if you can. If there’s fan art, ask to repost it. If you need to figure out your art budget, focus on character art & make sure they’re hotties lolol. Then, make sure every quote you post is a delicious little appetizer for your book. Easier said than done, I know, but at least it’s pretty straight forward!! 😂

Is there any author content that annoys you 👀

(Keeping this one big in case you want to read all the nitty gritty)

GOOD NEWS: Over half of all readers said NOPE, nothing you do annoys them. Yay!

BAD NEWS: The other half is extremely opinionated. I would like to remind you all that this survey was run at roughly the same time that a traditionally published book came out that had an abysmal miscalculation in marketing - everyone expected ACOTAR and got a YA fantasy instead. People were pissed & the author’s repetitive “LOOK AT ME IVE COME SO FAR” content did not help the situation.

I think the silver lining to this “bad news” though is that honestly, all these things are sort of centered on them feeling lied to or “used” in some way. They don’t want to read out of pity - they don’t want to feel that you think you’re better than everyone - they don’t want to go into your book with false expectations that YOU set.

I honestly don’t think anyone reading my newsletter is “that kind of author” lmao but I think it’s an important reminder to us all, and we should look at these “areas” and ensure we don’t fall into them!

(I also think this will change quite a bit when I re-run the survey)….

IN CONCLUSION: CBR Survey 2024

I hope that digging back into these old stats got your wheels turning - because now, I need your help!!

I want to run this survey again soon. I have my own ideas on what questions to ask, and how to ask them, but YOU know your readers, your audience, and your pain points. Comment here and please let me know what else I should include!

When the time comes, I’ll create a post, and ask you all for your help circulating - lets get ourselves a statistically significant sample size, so that we have rich reader data to base our instagram strategies off of 💖

Thank you guys so much for your readership, your help, & your support - I can’t wait to see your suggestions & get to work on this new survey!!

Xoxo, Charlie