Creating your author newsletter

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I’ve been thinking about author newsletters a lot over the past month or so, as it was the theme for this month’s Empowered Author chat in the Facebook group I run with Sam Missingham.

I think that starting a newsletter is incredibly important as an author, no matter what level of publishing you are at.

The benefits of having a newsletter

There are so many benefits to having an author newsletter. To list just a few of the top ones that come to mind:

It lets you connect directly with your biggest fans
It lets you warm up people who might be interested in buying your book at some point, but haven’t yet purchased it
Your newsletter engagement is likely to be significantly higher than on social media
You can use it to build a street team of reviewers
You can use it to drive pre-orders

The difference between a blog and a newsletter

The line between blog and newsletter have become a little blurred in recent years thanks to tools like Substack, which effectively allow you to create a blog that people subscribe to.

Put simply, a blog is something that sits on your website, and a newsletter is something that goes into people’s inboxes. You can treat them the same way – sharing everything you post on to your website in your newsletter, but I prefer to see them separately as the audiences are different.

The people who visit your website might never have heard about you, and are using your website to find out more about you. If they take the time to subscribe to your email list, they have expressed an interest in your writing, and want to build a deeper connection with you.

Deciding which platform to go with

There are so many different email platforms out there, and they all have strengths and weaknesses.

To help you decide which platform to sign up with, have a brainstorm about everything you would like to do with your mailing list. How complicated do you want to get with your targeting? Do you have multiple pen names that need to be kept separate? Do you have multiple automations that you want to set up, including freebies you’d like delivered (more of that below)? Do you want to be able to tag people who have clicked on the book and add them to a separate list?

When you start out, most people simply want to send out some kind of newsletter. But have a think about how you might want to use it in the future. I generally recommend that you start as you mean to go on, because most people are lazy and moving email providers *feels* complicated (even if in reality it’s not too tricky) so often gets delayed or never actioned.

For most authors, I recommend you look for a platform that allows you to:

Send regular newsletters
Set up multiple automations
Lets you segment people into different types of reader

Even if you don’t want to segment readers just yet, planning like this could avoid you a lot of hassle in the future.

Getting people to sign up

Once you have your list set up, you need to start getting people onto it. Most providers will easily integrate with WordPress, Squarespace, or wherever you host your website, and even if you don’t have a website, you could set up a basic landing page just to capture emails.

A few ways to encourage people to sign up are:

Plug the newsletter in the back of your books. When someone finishes and loves your book, they are likely to want to hear more about your writing and you as an author. Give them a reason to visit your website and sign up to your email list.
Give people something of value for free. The reason to visit your website might be to download something for free. A free short story, workbooks or worksheets relevant to your book (you could also intersperse these links throughout the book), exclusive access to your next book, a discount to get signed editions through your website, a free ebook… there are lots of free added content ideas you could go with, just make sure it’s relevant to your audience and to you as a writer.
Tell people about your list regularly. Don’t just tell them ‘sign up for my newsletter’ – tell them what is going to be in it, how often you send them out, why signing up will make their life better. Share it on social media, share it if you write a guest post somewhere, mention it when you appear on a podcast – make your newsletter the primary thing you share, over and above your book.
Make it easy to find. Mention it at the end of your blog posts, and have a specific sign up page on your website. Add a link to that page in your top menu – don’t bury it within your homepage content or leave it in the footer. Make it the link in your social media bio, and pin a link to it as your top Tweet or Facebook post.

Other ideas are collaborating with other authors (tools like StoryOrigin can help with this), and joining in with genre promotions, like the ones organised by BookFunnel. You can also run giveaway, whereby everyone on the list is entered to win something. These can be great ideas when used tactically but remember:

The point of an email list is to have a list of people who are interested in your books NOT to have the biggest number of subscribers possible.

A side note on freebies – I now allow people to grab my free downloads without signing up to the newsletter. If it helps someone, I hope they’ll come back and sign up. It is a much slower game to building my list, but I’m all about slow and steady when it comes to my own business and managing my energy.

How often to send out your emails

I generally recommend that authors send out newsletters at least monthly, ideally slightly more frequently if they can. You don’t have to bombard people with daily emails (although I subscribe to a few near-daily emails that I really like) to be in regular and consistent contact with them.

What I *don’t* recommend is only sending out an email when you have a new book. If that’s the only way you can commit to taking on a newsletter, then so be it, but if you are able to send it out more frequently, then please do.

The reasons I don’t recommend sending out a yearly email about your new books are:

It means that you only communicate with people when you have something to sell, which isn’t a great way to build a relationship.
It will leave people feeling disconnected from you.
If someone signs up to your email in January, and then your next book isn’t out until the following March, there is a high chance that they will have forgotten who you are and will either delete the email without opening it, or open it and unsubscribe.

Find a rhythm that works for you, and stick to it as best you can.

I also really recommend setting up a simple welcome sequence automation for anyone who signs up. Introduce yourself, ask them questions, tell them how they can find out more about your books, and generally make them feel glad to have signed up to join you.

What to include in an author newsletter

You can talk about absolutely anything you like in your newsletter, but keep in mind why people have signed up. Most of the time, it’s to get closer to you, as an author, and hear about your books. It might be to get tips and tricks about whatever service you provide for people. It could be to learn more about the period of history your books are set in.

Try and find the Venn diagram between the things you want to write about, and the reason your audience is on your list in the first place. Let people in behind the scenes of your writing. Bring them along on the journey with you, and share your progress.

Remember to tell people what your books are about. For some people, knowing that you have a new book will be enough to spur them into action. But for many, they’ll want to know what the contents of the book are going to be. What’s the plot? If it’s non-fiction, what will they learn, or how will the book help them?

Give yourself a framework to work within. So, you could share some kind of introduction and a note about what you’ve been up to, then some kind of information about your latest book, share a photo from the past couple of weeks (or a picture of your cat!), interesting links, upcoming events… It’s helpful to have an idea of the kinds of things you’ll include in each email – it makes it easier to write, and helps your readers know what to expect from you.

Using your newsletter to launch your book

Your newsletter is a great place to get people excited about your book launch. You can start teasing out content early, show off the cover, give a group of people early access to help build up reviews – there are lots of great ways to get people excited about the book, without just saying ‘buy my new book’.

Put together a rough timeline between where you are now, and when your next book is released, and start to plot in roughly when you’d like to send out your emails. What will be happening in your publishing process at that time?

Getting people to open and click on your newsletters

Since the most recent Apple iOS upgrade, open rates are not a hugely reliable way to determine the success of your emails. People actively engaging with your emails are a much better measure of how well they are doing.

Write intriguing subject lines – give people a reason to want to open the email
Tell people what they’ll get when they open the newsletter
Give them some kind of action. If you want people to click on a particular link, tell them to click on it, and include that link multiple times.