Being a Tease: Keeping the Romance with your Readers Alive through Teasers

  When a romance starts going south, one of the first things a couple will do is try to spice up their love life. Women are notorious for being teases. Some couples regularly introduce new things into the bedroom or schedule weekly dates to keep the spark alive. Romance is an art form. It takes time, effort, and passion to accomplish. The same can be said about developing your readership. You have to woo your readers. Not just by posting about your life and forming a personal connection with them through relatable media posts, but with your book-related content. 

  Being a tease when it comes to your books works the same way a man in a fine suit does. It lures you in, leaves a lasting impression, and dares you to dig deeper. A good teaser is eye-catching, informative, and mood-setting. It should have a photo, basic information, and a line hinting at the book's content. For example, when I was putting together the teasers for the Strange and Unusual History of Eden Estate, I knew two things.

  1) I needed to reach an audience that has a taste of the paranormal.

  2) I needed the teasers to have the small town, good old country feel.

    I sat down at my laptop, opened my creator, and started messing around with graphics. I work from the ground up on any project. Meaning I focus on the background of a graphic before the foreground. Thus, I went into Canva (The site I use for my graphic creation) and searched for cowboys, cowgirls, ranch life, grim reaper, and death. I looked for specific sceneries, like a barn or a field. I also paid very close attention to color choices. 

  Color theory is native to art culture but is insanely popular with psychologists and holistic healers. The reason for this is that colors can affect our emotions. I knew going into the Strange and Unusual History of Eden Estate that I wanted my readers to feel safe and uneasy. I wanted to play with the two opposites of emotions. If there were extreme sadness, then I wanted extreme happiness too. That all goes back to the basics of what the story is about and why I wrote it, but the same concepts should be applied to your teasers. 

  When I crafted my teasers of Eden Estate, I created a set of paranormal graphics and a set of western graphics. The paranormal graphics were dark, gloomy, grey, and black like an incoming storm. The western graphics were vibrant, with a sunshine glow, and had a lot of green and gold in them like a field in midsummer.

  After I had the photos looking like I wanted them to, I added basic info like title, author name, and sites the book is available at. Then I did one of two things. I either plucked a sentence from my manuscript that fit the teaser or crafted a new one. In the end, I ended up with the ones shown here.

  The point of a teaser is to catch a reader's eye when they are scrolling through their feed. You want them to stop, read it, and click on any links provided. Yes, you also want them to buy the book, but I see teasers as a seed. They start the reader wondering about the book, then excepts draw them in, and finally, they pick the book up and read it for themselves. 

  Teasers are my favorite way to incorporate branding and marketing into my everyday posts. I, myself, don't like marketing. I feel like a car salesman or a bigger on the street asking for the $1 royalty a reader's purchase gets me, but teasers aren't begging. Teasers aren't, "hey you should buy my book". They're, "hey, check out how this story can make you feel". Emotions are a big part of why people read and I've found that by playing on that part of the experience I can draw in more of the type of readers I want. 

  For instance, I'm not ever going to post a snippet from a steamy scene, because my books aren't about that. I'm going to post two lines that make you want to steal a character away from me and hide them from all the bad things in the world. I want you to form a fierce connection with them on an emotional level. For me, my writings always come back to emotions. My characters focus on internal feelings over exterior feelings. 

  Once you have your teasers crafted and you're happy with how they make you feel, the next step is guiding them to the correct readers. You wouldn't bring an under-negotiated kink into the bedroom or spiked lemonade to a five-year-old's birthday party. You have to know your audiences and how to reach them. Other authors are a great way to accomplish this.

  When I have a teaser I want to share, I post them on my Facebook and Instagram pages. Then I reach out to other authors, via a post, requesting permission to post in any of their groups. Most independent authors are willing to let others share, as long as you are an active member of their groups and return the favor. 

  For Eden Estate, I paid very close attention to which authors agreed to let me share. If they were romance or contemporary authors I shared the western-styled teasers. If they were paranormal, fantasy, or science fiction authors I shared the paranormal-styled teasers.

  Another element you need to pay attention to is the frequency you're posting teasers. I'll be the first to admit that I don't post teasers nearly as much as I should. I always forget to use the scheduling tool on Facebook. This is double sided though. You don't want to over-post or under-post. You have to find that sweet spot. 

  My ideal teaser schedule would be every other day and with staggered times, and I would alternate my teasers. You don't want your readers to become bored from seeing the same thing every day.