Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeB1972
Followers as in Facebook?
If so I don't think you can correlate followers with the number of people reading the books (I would expect the latter to be a lot higher).
I read books from a fair number of authors and you can count the people I follow on Facebook on one hand of a drunken chainsaw operator.
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Followers in this context is equivalent to "true fans", the people who pre-order an author's books, review them, spread the word, recommend them. It isn't about the number of people who buy the book (many of whom never get around to finishing or even reading) but about the author's core following.
It is how careers are built because they provide a floor, a lower limit on sales. Once that floor is high enough, the artist can consider quitting their "day job" metaphorically or literally.
The concept applies to books, music, and other artistic forms and it comes from this article:
http://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
The big name authors have hordes of true fans/followers as do a few indies. Most authors barely get to 1000 and a lot muddle through in the hundreds. In tradpub a few hundred won't sustain a career, in Indie it often is enough to maintain a high enough visibility for "drive-buy" sales.