What's After 'The End' Is Doing Half Your Marketing

There’s a stretch of your book most readers will never linger on: the pages right after “The End.” The pages right before Chapter 1. Many authors treat them like an afterthought — slap on a copyright page, drop in an “also by” list, call it done — and lose newsletter signups and the chance to build a fandom.At the end of Hungry Like the Hex — Book 9 in my Crescent Moon series — I tried something I would not have predicted to work. I didn’t have Book 10 ready for preorder. I didn’t have a freebie. I had nothing to bribe anyone with. So I wrote a short note thanking readers for finishing, told them Amelia would be back, and added one link: click here if you want to know when the next book drops.Record-breaking newsletter signups. From a page most authors phone in.This week on YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE THAT, LL Kirchner and I get into the part of the publishing process nobody puts on a panel: front matter and back matter. We cover —* The case for putting your copyright page at the back of the ebook* One call to action. One. We mean it.* Why your print back matter and your ebook back matter need different rules* LL’s defense of the table of contents, and Tara’s mild indifference* The Lisa Scottoline book that pleasantly surprised LL, and the Daphne du Maurier that Tam is finally getting toPlus the action item I’d ask every indie author to do this week: pull up your last book and read your back matter cold. Does it sound like a human being who actually likes their readers? Are the links live? Is there one clear place to go next?If the answer is “uh”... well, you know what to do.Press play. And tell us in the comments what’s in YOUR back matter that’s pulling weight.SHOW NOTESEpisodes referenced:* Episode 17 — Reader Magnets (last week)Platforms & tools discussed:* Vellum (book formatting) — https://vellum.pub* Amazon KDP — https://kdp.amazon.com* Barnes & Noble Press — https://press.barnesandnoble.com* Draft2Digital — https://draft2digital.com* Hidden Gems (ARC reader service) — https://hiddengembooks.com* Kit (formerly ConvertKit) — https://kit.com* Flodesk — https://flodesk.comBooks mentioned:* Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline (Rosato and Associates series)* Rebecca by Daphne du MaurierThanks for reading and listening to YOU SHOULD TOTALLY WRITE THAT! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit youshouldtotallywritethat.substack.com