Breaching the trust thermocline

How to avoid a gradual erosion of reader trust by maintaining consistent communication, engagement, and managing expectations.

Hi,

I think about trust a lot; probably too much. I think about trust with my wife, my collaborators, and my readers all the time.

Maintaining trust with readers is a critical part of building a sustainable writing career. Readers don’t just invest their money in a writer. They also invest their time, energy, and emotional engagement in the worlds and books they create.

Often, readers stick with writers for years, or even decades, building up a ton of trust with them. We often take that trust for granted, but it’s not given. We are constantly gaining and losing trust with our readers.

In general, authors are good about building and retaining a positive relationship with readers, but as we move further and further into direct sales, more and more vectors of trust fall on us.

Now, we aren’t just responsible for uploading our books to retailers, we’re also responsible for shipping and handling books from our direct store, fulfilling Kickstarters, delivering for subscribers, and more.

In …