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How to get readers to read your next work - the next book, social post or email?

Anybody who publishes - anything, anywhere - knows this problem. How do professionals deal with it?

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This week Audrey Ward, serials editor on the Sunday Times, told me how she chooses the best material for publication, then separates it into episodes so that readers who finish Part 1 are eager - desperate! - to read Part 2.

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As it happens, without even trying, Audrey introduced two cliffhangers in our conversation:

Right at the start she said something that made me wonder if the conversation might be halted at any moment, by forces outside her control.

I was hooked.

Just before we ended, Audrey casually mentioned a HUGE feature story she’s working on, for publication in The Sunday Times towards the end of this month.

She gave no details except that it involves a sportsman.

But with even this morsel she created a cliffhanger. (“What sportsman??!” I asked myself, crazy with curiosity. “And what’s he done??!”)

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By cliffhanger, I mean anything that grabs your reader and remains unresolved.

TV series use cliffhangers to make viewers feel they absolutely must watch the next episode.

In newspaper features (of the kind I used to write for Audrey on the Sunday Times) I would put a cliffhanger right at the top.

Like this: I’d state something remarkable and promise to come back to it later.

I was amazed to discover how compelling this can be, not just in writing.

I gave a talk, two years ago, to a large group of business people in Venice. I stated something remarkable, promised to come back to it, and - forgot.

Afterwards, heading for coffee in the next room, I found myself pursued by several members of the audience. They were hooked, desperate for resolution.

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That was an honest mistake. I don’t recommend faking it. Readers know when they’re being manipulated (ask anyone who watched, eg, an ad on Facebook, ever).

Also: cliffhangers don’t need to be sensational. The tone should suit the subject and the audience.

If you write drily academic papers, you could use a dry line like, “The solution to the problem of the cantilever came as quite a surprise to professor X…” then allow the solution to remain hidden till you are ready to reveal it to your drily academic readers (no offence).

Cliffhangers, if the tone’s right, can make readers excited to hear more.

In the summer, I used cliffhangers in a pop-up, mini series for readers of my own (this!) Newsletter. There were five emails, some of them linked to web pages and videos.

Crucially, I sent the emails only to those readers who particularly wanted them.

The open rate across the whole series was 89%, and I’m pleased with that.

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I posted something about all this on LinkedIn. One person who read those five emails, Kate Hammer, left a gratifying comment:

For your delectation, I made a list of 15 different ways to write, essentially, “I’ll come back to that later”.

I wrote it very scrappily, by hand, in my notebook (you’ve been warned). You can see the scanned list here.

​15 "Cliffhangers".pdf​

Till next time. JPF Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. Follow me on LinkedIn | Instagram​ ​

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