Lead magnet ideas for authors
An author’s lead magnet should give a reader more of what they came for: a workbook of the book’s method, a reading-group guide, the chapter that didn’t fit. Here are ten briefs that open in Chapbook as starting points. Chapbook writes nonfiction, so a novelist’s best fit here is the research behind the story.
A brief to start from
A short extra chapter cut from my book on walking the length of a river: the section on the people who live on the flood plain, edited to stand alone, with a short note on why it was cut and how it fits the book. Use only the draft I upload. Reader: someone who has just finished the book and wants more. Voice: my own reflective first person, taken from the voice samples I give you.
Start from this brief10 ideas, each a brief to start from
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The chapter that didn’t fit
Every book leaves good material on the floor. Readers who liked the book want more, and a cut chapter costs you nothing extra to write since most of the thinking is already done.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: The chapter that didn’t fit
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A reading-group guide
Book clubs choose what’s easy to discuss, and a good guide makes yours the easy choice. It’s a natural thing for a club organizer to sign up for, and they’re a reader who brings others with them.
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A companion workbook to your method
If your book teaches something, readers want to do it, and a page to write on helps. A workbook gives past readers a reason to sign up, and gives people browsing a free way to try your method.
Workbook Start from this brief: A companion workbook to your method
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The one-page tools from your book
The checklist on page 87 is what a reader photographs and shares. Pulling those tools into one document makes them easy to find, and it’s a fine first taste for someone who hasn’t bought the book.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: The one-page tools from your book
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The people and places behind the book
Readers of history and memoir often want to know what became of a person or where a place is. A reference from your research rewards their curiosity, and it’s all material you already have.
Collection Start from this brief: The people and places behind the book
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An explainer on the idea at the center of your book
A difficult idea is easier to meet in pictures first. An illustrated explainer lets someone try your argument in a short sitting, and decide whether they want the long version.
Illustrated guide Start from this brief: An explainer on the idea at the center of your book
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A one-sheet for bookstores and event hosts
A bookseller or festival programmer decides quickly and needs the details in one place. A short booklet about you and your talk is easy to forward, and it saves them asking you for each detail.
Brochure Start from this brief: A one-sheet for bookstores and event hosts
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A launch issue for your list
The people who’ve followed your work want to hear first. A designed issue with an excerpt and how to help gives them something to read and forward, and it’s a good first send for a new list.
Newsletter Start from this brief: A launch issue for your list
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A short book before your big one
A short book on one part of your subject lets readers find you while the main book is still a long way off. It gives you something to offer now, and tells you which ideas people care about.
Nonfiction book Start from this brief: A short book before your big one
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A guide for your advance readers
People who agree to read early often don’t know what you’d like from them. A short guide makes it easy to help, and it’s a good thing to send your first readers once they have signed up.
Lead magnet Start from this brief: A guide for your advance readers
How to choose one
Ask what your readers do when they finish. If they write to you with questions about how to do it, make the workbook. If they’re in book clubs, write the reading-group guide. If you’re still writing the book, make a short book on one part of it and see which ideas people care about.
Keep your own voice. Add your manuscript as a source and your best pages as voice samples, and treat each draft as a draft: every change the assistant proposes later is a suggestion to accept or reject. If you’ll publish on Kindle as well, the disclosure guide quotes Amazon’s definitions of AI-generated and AI-assisted content.
A sample worth looking at
For the shape a companion workbook can take, Find Your First 100 Readers is a sample workbook for nonfiction authors, generated from one brief and exported without editing. It isn’t a customer’s book, and its method is one way to look for readers, with no promise about how many you will find.
Every brief here opens in Chapbook
Each idea comes with the paragraph Chapbook needs to start: the topic, the reader and the voice. The brief at the top of this page is a starting point, not a book we have already made from it. Open it, put in your own book and your own reader, and add your manuscript as a source. Chapbook then proposes titles and an outline for you to approve before anything is drafted.
Questions people ask
What is a good lead magnet for a nonfiction author?
One that comes out of the book: a workbook for its method, a guide for reading groups, or the chapter you cut. It reaches people who like your subject, and much of the thinking is already done, so you’re mostly choosing and editing.
Can Chapbook write a lead magnet for a novelist?
Only a nonfiction one. Chapbook has no fiction mode, so it can’t write you a prequel. It can help with the research behind a novel, a reading-group guide or an account of the real places in it.
Can I use my own manuscript as the source?
Yes. Add up to 10 sources, including your manuscript as a document, and add up to 5 writing samples for your voice. To keep your text exactly, “I have a draft” makes it into chapters word for word, free.
Read a chapter of your own book before you pay for it.
The outline, one sample chapter up to 2,500 words and a watermarked cover are free: 60 Book Credits on sign-up, no card.