The Inner Circle Writers' Magazine Subscribers' Game
In the run up to the Christmas issue, which should be out in the next week or so, I wanted to point out how far the Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine had come since its launch in February this year, and to introduce an interesting game to you.
Dozens of intriguing articles offering insights into the writing and publication processes have been released for your education and enlightenment.
Dozens of brand-new and enthralling stories have been printed for your delight.
Many new and established artists have had a chance to showcase their work.
And the title of ‘The World’s Most Exciting Writers’ Magazine’ has been well and truly earned around the globe, as each issue reaches avid readers from countries as far flung as Pakistan, Australia, the United States and Ireland, not to mention its home base in the UK.
In 2020, this is going to expand even further — and you can benefit from that in a very tangible way.
That’s because of a new game: The Inner Circle Writers’ Magazine Subscriber Game.
In a nutshell, for each and every person who subscribes to the magazine through you, I will pay you £2.00 (that’s about $2.64 in US dollars). That’s subscribers — i.e. people who sign up for 12 issues for the ridiculously low price of £20.00.
How do you persuade people to subscribe?
Well, your target market is writers, just like you. You need to talk to people who are passionate about writing, whether or not they are actually writing anything themselves. Many of these people will be in the stages of thinking about becoming a writer; some will have set out down that road; while others may be established authors who have had some success with getting published. In each case, the magazine is perfect for them:
• it offers insights into what it means to be a writer, how to get started and how to maintain success
• it provides submission opportunities for short fiction as well as room to air one’s own views and experiences in the field
• it presents examples from the works of master authors so that anyone, whether they are a new writer or not, can learn techniques and skills which will improve their fiction both in terms of impact upon readers and in terns of commercial success
• it acts as a form of community, providing a network of people similar to the writer with whom he or she may feel like communicating — and this community tends to be a bit more substantial and less fleeting than any found on social media
• it entertains, inspires and rejuvenates writers wherever they are in their careers.
With that knowledge, you can approach a suitable person and talk to them about the magazine. Experience suggests that subscriptions come from personal recommendation, rather than social media ‘shotgun’ postings — i.e. sending out a post recommending the magazine to people in general tends to be less effective than having a private conversation with a particular person about it. So here’s a suggested approach:
1. Find someone who fits the categories above, with whom you have had a conversation before — i.e. an existing friend or relative or contact.
2. Broach the subject of the magazine by sharing some insight or moments of pleasure you got from reading it. Go into some detail and explain the article or story until the person begins to picture it for themselves.
3. Ask the person what they would like to learn or experience from a magazine article or story. Narrow this down as much as you can.
4. Point out existing articles or stories that have appeared in the magazine that relate to that.
5. Indicate to the person that they can pick up a single issue of the current magazine for only £2.00, or a back issue for only £4.00 — OR subscribe for £20.00 and get an issue delivered to their email inbox every month for under £2.00 each — which has to be the most value ever seen in a writers’ magazine anywhere.
6. Let me know if the person you’ve spoken to has committed to subscribing — and as soon as their name appears on my subscriber list, I’ll forward you your £2.00 reward by PayPal!
£2.00 for having a conversation may not seem like much, but it may have been a conversation you would have had anyway, for nothing. Also, if you wanted to get serious about this, you could have 100 such conversations in a month and make £200.00 (that’s about $US264.00) — there’s no upper limit on the amount I’m willing to pay out! You could even make a career out of it — 500 people convinced to subscribe means £1,000 ($US1,318.00) for you!
I’m laying out this game for a couple of reasons: firstly, I am confident that the magazine provides real value for money both in terms of information and entertainment that it contains, and because of its aesthetic value. I want the magazine to reach more people because it really is an exciting, useful and inspirational publication.
Secondly, I would also like to be able to provide you, the reader of this, with a way of making some money, perhaps in small amounts at first but, with some effort, enough cash to make a difference to your lifestyle.
Additionally, of course I would like the magazine to boom for personal reasons too — 500 more subscribers would mean that I could concentrate for a year on improving, elevating and expanding opportunities for writers everywhere. Running Clarendon House brings with it certain overheads which need to be maintained to keep things running.
So this is a way of opening everything up so that everyone wins — my favourite type of game!
I hope you like it — I hope you’ll play it! And if you have any questions, please feel free to email me:
grant@clarendonhousebooks.com