Offering your readers a list of your characters (also called your cast of characters) is a powerful content idea that’ll persuade and hook your readers to investigate further by coming to your author website and blog.
By offering additional information or writing a blog article and introducing your readers to your characters, you’ll strengthen the emotional connection between you and your readers.
This provides an honest, tangible glimpse into what your readers can anticipate and wait excitedly for at each visit to your author website, setting them up to be engaged on their journey with you.
Your cast of characters can highlight important aspects of your narrative that’ll persuade your readers to dive deeper into your story and your characters.
Continue reading to learn why you should add your cast of characters to your website, the benefits you’ll get from adding it, and how you can repurpose yours to create the content you’ll need.
Why You Should Add a Cast of Your Characters
Having your cast of characters is an important part of any writing process and is key to creating a successful novel. By adding your cast of characters to your website, as additional content, provides an ideal platform to elaborate on and help your readers have a deeper connection with your characters and help create a more immersive story-world which they can get lost in.
Providing readers with additional information that not only educates and enlightens them but allows them to make a more informed decision when considering buying your book.
So, when your looking to add a content idea that’ll captivate readers until the very end, think about adding your cast of characters.
Benefits of Including Your Cast of Characters
Adding your cast of characters can be an effective way to bring your readers back to your website in a meaningful way. Providing a deep insight into your characters can be useful for helping your readers remember key details and get more familiar with them. It also offers a level of psychological realism, as it gives life to what are usually abstract concepts of writing.
Furthermore, giving your characters a “page” in your blog may make it easier for you, as the author, to recall those same details when creating new stories or maintaining continuity in an existing series.
Another benefit of having an article all about your cast of characters could potentially increase your blog’s reach; fans who’re enthralled by one of your characters may seek out more and discover other articles you’ve written as well.
What to Include on Your Cast of Characters
Your cast of characters is the list of the characters from your story. But that’s not all you could include.
I’ve seen a list like this in the front of many romance books. It’s a simple list enabling me, as the reader, to know and understand who is who in your story. Yes, there are other things you could include, but this particular content idea is specific to your list of characters.
Include these few things:
- Character’s full name
- Familial role in the story
- Occupation
- Age (or approximate age at least!!)
- Character connection: married to whom; best friends to whom; etc.
Please note: Your cast of characters has a specific purpose – to easily identify and list your characters and their basic role in your story – all in a easy chart like format!
If you’re looking to explore the roles that your characters play, then consider the Character Roles Chart. Or if you want to dive deep into what your character’s name means, check out the Character Names Chart. Or if you’re wanting to visually show how your characters are connected, use the Family Tree Chart!
Use a DFY Content Template
You can offer your readers your cast of characters. And creating it is easy using done-for-you content templates. This makes it simple to personalize your own content, highlighting your characters.
Here’s a sample of what you could do to create your own downloadable PDF of your Cast of Characters:
Creating a list of your characters is a valuable and relevant content idea that your readers are going to love while also being an invaluable marketing tool that you should be offering to help grow your author business. You’ll build trust and credibility with your readers, especially if you decide to take it and offer a free PDF as well.
Continue reading to find out how you can repurpose your new content idea into the content you’ll need.
Repurpose Your Cast of Characters
You don’t need to create new content for each medium you’re currently on online. When you repurpose each content idea, in this case your cast of characters, into the other formats you need, you’ll save yourself time and money, and energy!
Here are tips to repurposing your content into a website extra, continue as a blog post, make it into a content opt-in, send it out in your email or make it into a social media post.
Make it a Website Extra
By adding a cast of characters, as a FREE downloadable PDF, to your author website, you can create additional engagement with your readers. It allows them to have instant access to all the personas in your book at any time and gives them a better understanding of the people they are reading about.
This extra content can also help new readers become acquainted with your work by giving them an insight into the characters from your book.
Not only will this add value to their experience of reading your book, it will also demonstrates how invested you are in giving back to loyal fans and potential readers.
Make it a Blog Post
Adding a blog post about your cast of characters is an excellent content idea for two reasons. First, it allows your readers to become more invested in your story. By giving readers background on the cast of characters and explaining who’s who, they will have a greater understanding of the story as a whole and will likely enjoy the experience more.
Secondly, adding this kind of content helps keep engaged readers coming back for more; they will be able to track your characters’ progression over time and remember specific details with ease. This ultimately leads to increased website traffic and repeat visits to your site.
So if you are looking for ways to enhance reader engagement with your cast of characters, consider adding a blog post about them – it may just pay off!
Make it a Content Opt-in
Every cast of your characters comes with its own unique flair, and offering your readers the chance to download a separate one for each of your book series gives your readers a better glimpse into each of your worlds you’re creating.
This type of content opt-in (freebie) keeps your readers engaged in your story, encouraging them to continue to read as they get more familiar with each character.
A downloadable PDF of your Cast of Characters is also great for when your readers take long breaks from reading your books; it serves as a reminder of who’s who and how they fit within your book series – and for those yet to come.
Thus, offering this freebie is not only sensible but helpful for your readers and could just be the last nudge they need to become a loyal reader.
Make it an Email
Notifying your readers about your new content idea is essential to keeping your readers engaged and informed. Even offering this exclusively to your current readership would be a way to let them know that they’re special and important. So next time you’re sending out an email, let your readers know about your cast of characters!
Make it a Social Media Post
Leveraging your content can be a powerful idea to engage your readers. So why not make your cast of characters into an effective social media post?
Take the time to create a fun graphic to accompany your cast of characters. Share it across your favorite social networks with an intriguing caption that’ll have people talking. This creative approach may not only provide potential readers with more insight into the cast but also increase visibility and engagement on your brand’s social platforms!
Using blog articles on your author website can not only help you to persuade your readers to take action, it can help you to build a loyal fan base that’ll sign your praises. By creating content they’ll find interesting enough to stick around is the way to win at your content marketing!
So what are you waiting for? Start building your content idea today!
Create Your Own Cast of Characters
In less time it takes to create a new character, you can edit your own content template and create a valuable piece of content to give your readers.
And the best part is: you can use it again and again for each of your different book series!