Hi everyone!
I’m the resident newsletter nerd. Feel free to email me with any questions about your individual newsletter or the 50 Shades of Cabernet newsletter. I know this may be old news for most of you, but for anyone new to newsletters, here are some tips:
Individual newsletter:
50 Shades Group Newsletter:
I’m the resident newsletter nerd. Feel free to email me with any questions about your individual newsletter or the 50 Shades of Cabernet newsletter. I know this may be old news for most of you, but for anyone new to newsletters, here are some tips:
Individual newsletter:
- If you don’t have one already, please consider starting one. I suggest Mailchimp www.mailchimp.com (free for the first 2,000 subscribers) or Aweber (www.aweber.com). With newsletters, sooner is better than later. Everyone starts with one subscriber. You can start with one subscriber now, or one subscriber six months from now. Please note that if you start six months from now, you’re just going be ticked at yourself that you didn’t start earlier.
- Newsletters help keep old readers around. When your next book comes out, you don’t have to “find” old readers again – just send them a newsletter while you concentrate on finding new readers.
- “I don’t know what to write about.”
- Suggestion 1: Go right now and sign up for the newsletter of your favorite author in the subgenre you write. Not just Mystery, not just Cozy Mystery, but if you write Cozy Mysteries set in Haunted Houses in Maine, then you need to find the top selling author of Cozy Mysteries set in Super-Northern Maine Haunted Houses and join their newsletter. Study it. How is it offered on the author’s website? What do they include? Is there a welcome sequence (do you get something as soon as you sign up)? How could you tweak/change/evolve it to jive with your work?
- Suggestion 2: Come up with a schedule. You need something to fill up those months you don’t have a release. Choose three or four topics you enjoy writing about and rotate them. Make sure those topics tie into your brand or series. Readers can tell if you enjoy writing about something, so go with your gut. If my sleuth is a baker from Montana, my three topics might be: baking recipes, ranch life and something from my private life.
- “But I don’t want to bother people.”
- You’re not. They signed up for your newsletter because they wanted to hear from you. Walmart circulars come every Thursday and Sunday and you still open them.
- “I don’t know how to get people to sign up.”
- Put your link everywhere. Be absolutely shameless with it. I have a link to my newsletter at the top of my website, at the bottom of my website and there’s a pop up. Yes, I know people hate popups. Having said that, of all the newsletter links on my website, it’s the popup that gets the most subscribers.
- A newsletter is different from a “sign up to receive updates” link sometimes found on blogs. The “sign up to receive updates from wordpress/blogger” emails do NOT belong to you and cannot travel with you if you change hosts. That’s illegal. On the other hand, emails on your newsletter do belong to you.
- It’s often not enough to say, “Hey, give me your email.” That’s asking a lot. I’ve found a more positive response to, “Hey, I have something cool. Trade me your email to get it.” That cool thing may be a short story, but it doesn’t have to be. It could be a dossier of field agents from your series or a list of mysterious places in the city of your novel. Anything to make your readers happy. I love my readers. You love your readers. Give them something quick and fun.
50 Shades Group Newsletter:
- This is totally separate and will be used to announce 50 Shades news and events as well as Mystery/Thriller releases from our authors. When you have a new release, please send a picture of the cover and ready to go copy of what is to be sent.
- We can collect subscriber emails in person at events, or by directing readers here http://eepurl.com/cuQIEb. This link is currently available via our Facebook page (the big sign up button) and will be available on our website.