Writers, You Want a Newsletter
One cornerstone of your author platform is having a newsletter. In fact, it’s the all roads lead to Rome piece. Everything leads there:
- your website
- your back matter in your books
- your social media
You want a newsletter for your readers. After all, you want to stay in touch with them, so you can let them know about your new books and what’s coming up. If you’re publishing on Amazon, you know that your books sell but you don’t know who bought it.
Don’t get put off by thinking you have to write something to your list every week, if that’s not you. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, think about monthly if weekly seems like it’s too much. It’s your newsletter, so you get to set the frequency and you can grow into it.
You will want a newsletter for your readers. After all, you want to stay in touch with them, so you can let them know about your new books and what’s coming up. If you’re publishing on Amazon, you know that your books sell but you don’t know who bought it.
Offering a newsletter sign up on your site and in the back matter of your books gives you and your readers a way to stay in touch.
It’s just a good idea, so if you’re not already building your list, start now and include this as part of your website plan. You’ll be glad you did.
Building a mailing list gives you the ability to stay in touch with people who might not follow you on social media because you can invite them to sign up in your book or ebook. You can offer them something in return, like a free chapter or a peek at your process with a checklist etc. to sign up.
When people buy your book at Amazon, you don’t know who they are, but if they sign up for your newsletter you can continue to build a relationship with them with your newsletter.
Set this up so you can begin communicating with your readers, don’t make it a big overwhelming thing, you can make it fit what works for you. Don’t get put off by thinking you have to write something to your list every week, if that’s not you. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming, think about monthly if weekly seems like it’s too much. It’s your newsletter, so you get to set the frequency and you can grow into it.
There are many different services that let you manage your list and sends out the messages. Here are several of the more popular services:
- MailerLite.com (you can start for free for up to 1,000 subscribers)
- ConvertKit.com
- MailChimp.com (you can start for free for up to 2,000 subscribers)
- ConstantContact.com
- SendinBlue.com (start for free, limit to emails sent per day)
These all provide a simple method to integrate with your website, usually via a cut and paste bit of code.
