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What Reader Magnets does

A reader magnet is the free bonus content you give away to grow a mailing list — a deleted scene, a character interview, a prequel, or a world guide that fans pick up through BookFunnel or StoryOrigin. The usual way to make one is to write it in Word and hand-style an export that never quite matches the book.

Bookshaper's Reader Magnet exporter drafts the piece from the project state you already built — a scene's POV and characters, a character's arc, your locations and notebook world-building — then sends it through the same EPUB/PDF pipeline as your book. The result inherits your interior typography, ornaments, and palette, so the giveaway looks like it belongs to the book, because it was made from the book.

Each magnet is saved with your project as its own document. You can re-open it, edit it, regenerate it, or export it again at any time.

The four magnet types

Open the Marketing section of the sidebar and click Reader Magnet, then New reader magnet. Pick the type that fits the giveaway:

  • Deleted / Extended Scene — a cut or extended beat drafted from a chosen scene's POV, location, and characters, written to sit alongside the real manuscript.
  • Character Interview — a Q&A answered in a character's own voice, drawn from their profile and arc. One click from a character you've developed.
  • Prequel / Backstory — a self-contained piece set before the book, seeded from a character's pre-story history and your world-building notes.
  • World / Lore Guide — a compiled reference to the book's world, drawn from your locations and notebook world-building entries.

Choosing a seed

Most types are anchored to a single seed — a scene, a character, or a location. Bookshaper pre-selects the highest-leverage candidate so you start from a strong default: the most-developed character, the most-referenced location, or a late, high-tension scene readers are most likely to want more of. You can override the pick from the dropdown.

A world guide is the exception — it can compile from every location in the project, so its anchor location is optional.

The spoiler limit

A prequel or interview is inherently low-spoiler, but a deleted scene pulled from late in the book — or a world guide compiled from late material — can give away the ending. For those types Bookshaper exposes a spoiler limit.

Set it to “First 50%,” say, and the manuscript context handed to the model — and the scenes you can seed from — are restricted to the early part of the book, so the magnet can't reveal what happens later. Leave it on “No limit” when the piece is safe.

Generating and editing the draft

Click Generate draft. Bookshaper assembles the relevant context — book metadata, the seed, and chapter synopses within your spoiler limit — and drafts the piece, matching your book's established voice and POV. The draft lands in a full editor where you can revise it like any other document; regenerate any time for a fresh take.

Generation is a guided first draft, not a finished file. A deleted scene or interview usually arrives close to final; a long prequel is a strong starting point you extend in the editor.

Reader Magnets reuses the manuscript analysis you've already run — there's no second ingest of your book.

Exporting for BookFunnel or StoryOrigin

When the draft reads the way you want, click EPUB (or PDF). Bookshaper exports the magnet through your book's active style template, so the typography, ornaments, and palette match your interior, with a title page that names the piece and ties it back to the book.

The EPUB is ready to upload to BookFunnel or StoryOrigin as your list's free download; the PDF is there when you need a fixed-layout version.