Author Experience (AX) is fundamentally about perception – how authors view and feel about a publisher’s brand. These perceptions are formed as authors and potential authors engage with your brand through various touchpoints and interactions.
While authors are also readers, members, and customers – all falling under the broader umbrella of Customer Experience (CX) – their unique role as content creators necessitates a specialized focus. Authors interact with distinct systems, processes, and specialized communications making AX a critical subset of an overall CX strategy.
Author Experience (AX) encompasses the entire author journey, from the first encounter with submission marketing to ongoing interactions post-publication. It is not simply a sum of these touchpoints, but rather the overall impression formed in the author’s mind. This cumulative experience significantly influences an author’s likelihood to publish with a particular publisher and recommend journals to colleagues.
To learn more about Author Experience, we recommend the following resources:
- C&E Article: Author Experience (AX): An Essential Framework for Publishers
- C&E Article: How to Advance AX (Author Experience) Maturity: 6 Strategies.
- ChronusHub Recorded Webinar: How Deep is Your Love for Authors and guide to AX, Author Experience – A Beginner’s Guide.
- Scholatisca Blog Article: How Scholars Think Journals Can Better the Author Experience.
- C&E’s Article: Peer Review Systems Could Benefit from Systems Thinking.
How We Help:
Our favorite thing about Author Experience (AX) is how it brings an organization together – it requires cross-functional alignment and focus. While many of our services help advance parts of what is required for AX maturity, we also have services more focused on Author Experience holistically.
AX Maturity Audit
We help organizations of all sizes assess and enhance their Author Experience (AX) maturity. Our comprehensive AX Maturity Audit takes a unique, cross-functional approach, evaluating all aspects of your organization that impact AX. This holistic view is crucial, as AX is inherently influenced by multiple departments and processes.
The audit produces a maturity score and recommendations, offering a clear picture of your AX status and a practical improvement path. We then collaborate with you to prioritize these recommendations based on business impact, cost, and implementation complexity. Our approach is tailored to your organization’s size, resources, and publishing model, ensuring all recommendations are practical and actionable.
The end result is a prioritized AX roadmap, giving your organization a significant head start in improving AX maturity and driving author satisfaction across all touchpoints.
Author Engagement Playbook
Our Author Engagement Playbook is a comprehensive guide to win the hearts and minds of authors. The playbook focuses on strategies to boost author acquisition, foster author loyalty, and grow positive brand reputation. Recognizing the important role of both Editorial and Marketing in author engagement, the playbook not only contains recommendations for both functions but also provides strategies for how the two teams can collaborate for maximum impact.