Many years after Six Feet Under wrapped up I stumbled upon the last sequence of the last show of the series on YouTube and I was instantly transported back to the story. All the investment in those characters came rushing back.
I regularly suggest to authors that they write a little something on their website for readers to read after reading the books. Something to help readers continue in the warm glow of the wonderful story they have just read. Some extra content to help solidify the brand experience. This is not a sales strategy, this is author-reader relationship building. And there are many, many ways to do this. Here are a few:
Kathryn Caskie gives interesting insight into aspects of her book in her Inside the Story feature. Elizabeth Boyle offers incredible Footnotes complete with character lists and more. Jennie Lucas has a wonderful online after-the-story additional epilogue feature for some of her books (Beware: this one is s spoiler). Eloisa James deliciously provides Extra Chapters for each of her Desperate Duchesses series (login required). Julia Quinn has a whole set of Second Epilogues for her Bridgerton series (purchase required, but for those not wishing to purchase the $1.99 e-book, there is a plethora of other info on the series.) More on series: Joy Nash provides a page full of info about one of her series. Stephanie Tyler has extensive extras, and Pamela Palmer has several series, all with extra info. It’s a readers’ bonanza. (And there are many more examples… Just tool through our portfolio.)
All this, because after a reader spends so much time with your characters, you will have done your job if your reader is wistful, and if you’re lucky, said reader might welcome a chance to revisit them and be reminded about how much they enjoyed spending time in the world you created. That reminder is crucial to the emotioanl branding bonding process.
Yes, a little extra content goes all this way.
RELATED POSTS:
