Bob's Guide: Author Newsletters - A Quick And Dirty Jumpstart!
TRANSPARENCYEDUCATION
Are you an author? You need a newsletter. Go set one up.
That should be the end of this post, but I suppose I should address some common issues I have seen crop up. There has been a bizarre amount of pushback on this snippet of advice lately from some quarters, which is why I am going to lay it out for you. So here is the Why and How of newsletters from a guy who is ok at them.
Why A Newsletter?
I have around 650 subscribers to my newsletter. I average right around a 40% open rate on it. That means a few hundred folks get my email and actively click on it to check it out. Have you ever had a social media post that had even close to that sort of engagement? Probably not, unless you were lucky enough to have something go really viral. Here are some other points:
There is no algorithm blocking it from some of your followers.
You have total control, unlike social media which can change the rules at any point.
You can take it with you. If my host, MailChimp, goes to close down all I have to do is click a button to export my list, and boom, I have it and can upload it anywhere else I so choose.
The folks who signed up did so willingly. They have let you know that yes, they want to hear from you. The kind of folks who do that tend to be book lovers, and they want to know more.
I don’t care that ‘Gen Z doesn't like email’ or that ‘Millennials hate newsletters.’ Maybe some do. And you know what? Those that do actually hate them can find me other places. I’m on social media too, it’s not a zero sum game. But guess what: no group is a monolith. You’re not trying to target Gen Z, you’re trying to target readers. And tons of readers love newsletters.
To have a successful social media, you have to be pretty active. Multiple posts a week, if not more. To have a successful newsletter? One email a month. If you are the type who can generate the content, once a week at most (glares at Brian Keene, the successful bastard).
Ok, I’m Sold. How Do I Set One Up? How Do I Grow It?
Setting it up is easy peasy. Growing it will be a slog. Here is your rough order of actions:
Find a newsletter host like MailChimp, Constant Contact, etc. Find one that is free, since you are just starting out. There are a lot of options that start out free, and only charge once you get to the point where you have like, two to five thousand subscribers. It will be a long time before you have to worry about hitting that number probably, and when you do, it will likely be worth it to start paying. Just look around first and see if there is maybe a better spot, if you do have to pay. Ask your author friends who they use.
Sign up.
This site will generate a landing page where folks can sign up online.
Add a link to this landing page to your Linktree (which is also free).
Make sure your social media accounts have your Linktree link in the bio.
Most of the time the site will have an option to give you the code to embed a signup on your website. Do that. If you can’t embed it, then have a link there that takes them to your landing page.
Long term, consider setting up some sort of freebie like a short story or novella, that when folks sign up they get it sent to their email.
Get a clipboard and print off some sheets where folks can sign up by hand. Set it on your table at every event you are a part of. I would say I get between 5 and 25 emails per event, depending on length.
You can set up newsletter swaps with other authors. Find authors who write stuff similar to you, and swap links in each other's emails.
Sign up to take part in email builders. Courtney Cannon runs some that I have used in the past that worked well for me.
But I’m Just Starting Out/I’m Not That Interesting!
The most common complaint I see/question I hear is what do you put in a newsletter when you might not even have a book out yet. Here are my thoughts:
For now, just focus on doing one newsletter a month (and that may never change for you. We can’t all be Brian Keene).
Here are book related topics you can include:
A snippet from something you wrote this month.
What events you are going to be a part of.
A book review of a book similar to what you write.
The status of how much you’ve written.
Where you are at in the publishing process.
Some art you made/had commissioned for your characters.
The folks who sign up for newsletters, they typically want more than just book news. They want to learn more about the person behind the books. So here are examples of things I done/ seen people include in their newsletters:
I like legos, so I have started making little scenes from my books with them. I put a picture at the very end of my newsletter each month.
People love cats. It’s common for authors to include pet pictures.
One author puts a raunchy meme at the end (they write erotica).
I love board games. Sometimes I put board game related content in there.
Sometimes I will link a blog post that I wrote that I was proud of.
It’s not uncommon that I put a link to a shirt design of mine, or maybe my indie rpgs I sell.
Here is a rough template you can try:
Not-optional content:
Picture - Maybe it's you, your book, you doing a thing book related, a promo image, etc.
Text block of news related to your book - appearances, excerpts, publishing news, sales, etc.
Optional content:
Another picture - this picture needs to be related to the next text block.
Text block about your life - something about your hobby, book you just read, etc
Another picture - this will be related to the newsletter swap if you are doing one that month.
Text block with link about the author/book you are newsletter swapping with.
Another picture - probably of your pets, but can be whatever note you want to end on.
Text block explaining the above picture.
