Tag: Marketing Tips

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What Authors Need to Know About Newsletters

Let me be honest. At the beginning of my own career, I too avoided the infamous checkbox of an author newsletter without fully understanding the weight of that decision for not only my career, but also in correlation to my readers and sales. Regardless, as many of us often eventually do, I reached out to a marketing professional asking for help on developing a marketing plan since I was missing the mark on book reviews and sales. Sure, my book has won awards, gotten accolades, invested in Blog Tours, Book review Tours, and so much more. Time and money never to be seen again with very little results can dishearten anyone and worse, feed that monster we call Imposter Syndrome. It was this one tiny piece of conversation that made it clear, my only mistake was avoiding a newsletter:

Marketer: Where’s your newsletter?

Me: People still do those?

Marketer: Oh no…

Honestly, she gave me one homework assignment: MAKE A NEWSLETTER. Then pointed me in a direction, and told me “KEEP IT ACTIVE!” And I half-assed that advice. 

The results? 

Well, after struggling to get 16 reviews on an award-winning book for 6 years (including giving away 5,000+ free or discounted copies in one of those years), from Mid-Jan to Mid-Dec, I had jumped to 60+ Amazon reviews and started seeing constant monthly sales. 

The secret? 

I made a weak attempt at making a newsletter. 

What Do You Write?

Don’t overthink this. It can literally look like an email and text only style. You don’t have to be fancy and program logos, drown it in art and graphics – none of that matters. Getting it started and sending the newsletter out and being consistent matters more. What should you write? Remember this person just gave you their email, the virtual version of a phone number, and invited you to “call me” knowing you intend to talk about you, your books, and push for reviews, sales, and support. Don’t be shy. There’s nothing shameful about writing to these fans. YES FANS. READERS. YOUR READERS.

Instead of thinking about the 20/200/2000+ people you are sending this to, hyperfocus on a single entity named “Your Reader” and talk to them. Make this the slowest conversation you have ever had, make them feel like the two of you just became pen pals. You can be casual and short. Share what inspired the story, why you write, and every so often ask if they have left a review for other readers to know what to expect. If you have a wide span of monsters, or characters, have some fun and every so often send them a profile or compendium style entry. On holidays give them an exclusive short story or even invite them to be your ARC readers if they have opened your last 5 emails. REWARD ENGAGEMENT. 

It’s ok to send them invitations to events or announce pre orders, but a majority of the emails from you should be conversational. You’ll be shocked to see how many reply and engage in emails with you depending on what you’ve written. Some may even apologize for forgetting that book review, so be sure to let them know it’s ok, and how much you appreciate they cared to even tell you that much! THEY ARE HERE FOR YOU.

Automation and Drip-Campaigning

We always hear that phrase, “work smarter not harder” and considering us authors LOATHE marketing (in most cases or simply introverts), this is one way we can do just that. Many newsletter or mailer sites allow you to gain access to automated emails, or journeys (may cost more to access i.e. MailChimp). These can be a lifesaver for keeping consistent engagement. Instead of stressing about creating fresh content, you instead CURATE content in 1/2/4-week intervals for the ideal reader or target person. Again, these can be super simple that are set to send after a timer of X amount of days have passed since the previous email was sent to the subscriber/email in question. 

Again, this doesn’t lessen the intimacy of your interactions, but it can also show you when you are being engaging and which email/newsletter fell flat and should be changed. The reader can still “reply” to these emails and you can engage one-on-one with the readers who do reach out, respond, and so forth. This is meant to help you focus your target audience into a single entity, which overall, is much easier to engage with. 

Be sure to sneak in a reminder every so often for a review or even remind them this is part of a bigger collection or series, but for the most part it’s a great way to share inspiration and intention about your journey and writing. This is only 13/27/53 emails to establish the first year depending how often you want to “drip” an email into their inbox!

Where and When Do I Start

This is one of the most COMMON questions I get when people realize they are going to have to rip this bandaid off and get cracking on a newsletter. Many start with a conversation with me that goes like this: 

Author: I published my book on Amazon about five years ago, but I only sold like 12 books.

Me: Who did you tell that you published your book?

Author: Well, I published it on Amazon.

Me: Over a thousand or more books are published on Amazon every day. Name one that was released today?

Author:  I don’t know what was published on Amazon today.

Me: Then how does everyone else know your book is on Amazon today as well?

You have to tell people about your book. 

Otherwise, no one knows it exists no matter where it’s posted or sitting on a shelf at!

  • Where do I get emails or find subscribers?
    • Start close to home. Inform and provide a link to those on social media, family, friends, colleagues, peers, and anyone in reach. It’s amazing how many will join to support you on this first step.
    • Sign up sheets or tablets at live events are old skool but still works wonders! These are folks who have physically met you and your books and want to be able to follow along or know more in the future!
    • BookFunnel, StoryOrigin, and similar sites can be affordable resources for book-specific readers willing to trade samples and free books for email collection. 
    • You can also do Author swaps. Feature a book and link to sign up for another author and swap interested subscribers this way.
    • There are purchasable “email lists” but I advise caution due to a few reasons. For starters, the money spent here isn’t the same as elsewhere, the unsubscribe rate can be high and cause your newsletter to start landing in SPAM folders or be flagged, and there’s no confirmation how OLD the lists are that you are receiving.
    • Always have a sign up on your website! It’s still surprising how well this works, but remember, no one knows to sign up unless you tell them.
  • I don’t have a book out yet, so I don’t need one right now.
    • WRONG. You need one now. If I could go back in time, I would have been gathering readers and sharing progress and snippets while I was writing before I ever had a publisher or date or full manuscript. 
    • Not comfortable that too soon? That’s ok. Once you do have a preorder live, now is definitely a good time to start pushing and announcing your book. Share samples, gather a street team, early reviewers, and share behind the scenes about the story and what you’re doing to gear up for the release.
  • I only have 1 book out right now so I have nothing to push to my newsletter.
    • YES YOU DO. You have a book… out! RELEASED! Let people know, talk about what’s next, what you want them to know about said book, and more. Readers are reading your work, but how can they talk to you? 
    • There’s more than just pushing a book. Engage with readers, review books, discuss topics, and more. Interact with the fans so when that next book comes along, they are primed and ready to go.
  • I don’t feel comfortable emailing strangers.
    • They aren’t strangers. They’re YOUR READERS. Who want to know you and your writing. Again, stop seeing a room full of strangers and start seeing an adoring fan talking about what you wrote over a cup of coffee, tea, or even a glass of wine. TALK TO YOUR READERS. They gave you an email, and permission to do so.

The Numbers You Should Know

  • Publishing Industry average open rate for newsletter emails has been at 12-15% for “open rate” while Author Newsletters often fall between 25-65% open rate. We have better results than publishers and PR firms.
  • On average in 2017-2022, most author newsletter subscriptions noted to see roughly 20-27% of the total audience buy or review the book when presented with the opportunity. 
  • Most newsletters should fall between 200-1200 word count for the average online reader. Though sample chapters and freebies are expected to be longer.
  • Authors who send weekly emails always see more engagement and higher results for open rates than those who send monthly by 15-30% depending on style and genre.
  • In 2023, 75% of new subscribers for Self-Published authors came from a link or QR code in the back of their books and 69% from links on social media. (Psst! TELL SOMEONE!)
  • Most report have under 500 super engaged subscribers, or a mixed bag between 1,000-5,000. It’s about QUALITY over QUANTITY!
  • The average click rate on selling or pushing a product is 2% on average across ALL INDUSTRIES. Anything higher and you’re doing an amazing job and keep it up! Lower? Consider trying other ways to announce or present the book in those newsletters!
  • There are 8 billion residents on Earth… and over 4 billion of them are EMAIL USERS. That means the reach via email is still far greater than that of social media!
  • 69% of Marketers in 2024 have reported using exclusively email marketing to distribute content and reach consumers.
  • 6 out of 10 consumers say they bought using a link in emails in 2024.

Discover More

Like the advice and information you see here? Follow me on social media where I often post videos talking about and discussing my own tribulations as well as encouraging others to excel. From advice about writing, book design, to insight on my own work and creations that may prove inspiring. Stay connected here at WillisAuthor.com OR https://linktr.ee/WillisAuthor

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How Authors Can Market Themselves Online

by Erik Deckers

When it comes to writing and promoting your book, 90% of the time is spent actually writing the book.

The other 90% is spent promoting it.

(I know what I said!)

I’m often asked by new writers about when they should start publicizing their books.

“Have you started writing it yet?”

No, they haven’t, they say.

“Then, right now.”

Shouldn’t I wait until the book is published, they ask.

“No, because that’s way too late. You need to start building your social media presence and audience before you ever get the book out. You need to promote it and get people excited before it finally drops.”

Also, I remind people, your publisher will not do the promotion for you. Oh sure, you’ll get some helpful publishers like 4 Horsemen who will help you, but they will not do it for you.

Basically, unless your last name is Grisham or Patterson, your publisher won’t do any promotion for you. Besides, no one will do it better than you because no one will care more than you. You can hire someone for you, but even they won’t come at it with the same passion as you. Plus it will cost a few thousand dollars to get anything worthwhile. Sure, they’ll know more about it and have better tactics and ideas, but unless you have a few thousand dollars lying around, you’ll have to do it yourself.

(If you do, I’ll be happy to handle all your social media for you.)

Ultimately, it’s a question of time versus money: If you don’t have the time, then you need to pay someone to do it. If you don’t have the money, then you need to find the time.

Without explaining how to do it all (because there are several good books on the subject, your publicity efforts should include at least two of the following:

  • An email newsletter campaign.
  • A blogging campaign.
  • A social media campaign (Twitter and/or Facebook, plus maybe TikTok).
  • A book reviewer/blogger campaign.
  • A podcast interview campaign.
  • An email-your-friends campaign. (Email each of them, one at a time, and ask them to buy.)

I like the first three campaigns because they’re the easiest, they can be automated and scheduled, and they’re free. (Actually, they’re all free, but some are more time-consuming than others.)

Email Newsletters

Send out a monthly newsletter that discusses specific topics about you, your books, your writing career, other writers, and so on.

Write about your latest book. Share short stories and backstories about minor characters. Share publishing news. Share writing news. Did you get a writing residency or award? Share it! Review other books and urge your readers to buy them. Interview other writers, especially those within the 4 Horsemen ranks, and urge people to buy those books as well.*

* Remember, readers don’t read one book per year and call it quits. So become a trusted resource for your readers and share your favorite books. Get the other authors to do the same for you. Pretty soon, you can combine the total power of your social media and email lists and get them working for each other.

I like mailchimp.com the best because it has a free email option of sending up to 500 subscribers per month. If you grow a bigger audience than that, chances are you’ll be doing well enough to pay for the first paid upgrade level.

Blogging

Basically, everything I said about blogging is also true of your newsletter. In fact, blogging is more important than email newsletters, but I already wrote that section first and don’t feel like moving it. 

Everything you put in your newsletter also needs to go into your blog. In fact, it should go in there first. Then, just put 200-word snippets into the newsletter with a “Click here to read the rest of this article” link as a way to drive traffic to your blog.

Your blog should be the hub of your social media campaign, but your email newsletter is your list of readers. If any of these social networks ever fall flat — looking at you, Twitter! — you can find all those people on any new social networks that pop up to take their place. But your blog is the place where all the past cool stuff can easily be found.

Social Media

Almost everyone is on social media now, so I won’t go into the whats and hows of social media. And if you’re not, get my book Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself, and follow the various steps. Get on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram and start building your networks. If you’re a business writer, use LinkedIn instead of Facebook. Blah blah blah, you know this part!

(If you don’t, there are people who are happy to help you get started on social media. I’ll even give you some advice to get rolling. Let me know!)

Build up your followers and friends with more readers. Do a search for your chosen genre and find the people who read or write in that genre. They probably used the word in their bio, or maybe you encounter them during a #WritersLift or #AmWriting blitz: Remember, writers are readers, so be sure to follow all of your fellow authors. 

Promote those writers without waiting to be promoted. Read their books and leave reviews on Amazon and Goodreads; tweet/share those reviews and be sure to tag the authors. Write about their books on your blog. Share their stuff on Twitter. Basically, you want them to know you value them, and they’ll do the same for you. 

But don’t do it quid pro quo. Do it because you want to be a good literary citizen. Literary citizens help people find interesting books, they help authors reach more readers, and they basically help the literature world be a better place. If you can do that, you’ll help yourself as well. People will support you because you’re a supportive person.

Book Bloggers and Reviewers

I’ll be the first to admit, I like reviewing books because it means people send me books! What better job could there be, unless someone wanted me to review cheese?

(Seriously, I’d love to become a cheese reviewer. If you know anyone who can help, hook me up.)

There are hundreds of book reviewers out there, all writing books, doing podcasts, and shooting TikTok videos about the books they’ve read. Some are generalists and will review anything, others will only review books in a specific genre. Do some research and reach out to each person individually (see below about emailing your friends), asking them to review your book. Send them an EPUB or PDF version of the book, since printed books are getting really, really pricey. This way, you can keep this campaign cost very low.

Don’t be afraid to send the book to other outlets like Kirkus Reviews either. Some of these review sites carry a little more weight than others, so do a little research and find some specific book-review outlets.

While we’re on the subject of reviews, get a group of friends to leave reviews of your books on Amazon and Goodreads. Those things are worth their weight in gold when it comes to getting more readers — which is not much, considering it’s all virtual; it’s worth its weight in pictures of gold. More reviews lead to your books being more readily discovered and recommended, so be sure to ask your readers to review your books.

And to share them on social media.

Podcasting

Rather than telling you to start your own podcast, which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, let me say that you should try to appear on as many podcasts as you can. Search Spotify and Apple Podcasts (through the Apple Store) for podcasts about writing or your chosen genre, or just Google “podcasts about [genre].”

Track down those podcasters’ websites and listen to past episodes. Do they have guests? What kinds of things do they talk about? How can your book or your writing career be interesting to their listeners?

Don’t ask “Will my book/career be interesting?” Yes, of course, it will! I have no doubt in my mind about that!” Just find the parts that will be interesting — that’s the how of it.

Email the podcast hosts and ask them if they need guests for an upcoming episode. Share your blog, social networks, and book landing pages.

Then, make sure you have a decent microphone and a quiet place to record. No need to go out and get an expensive mic; get a gamer’s headset with a boom mic on Amazon for under $30. Then, make sure you have fast enough wifi, show up at the expected time, and you’re ready to go.

(To ensure there are no problems, reboot your computer and router on the morning of your interview, so you don’t have any inadvertent glitches or crashes. Also turn off every program and application except for the one you need for your interview.)

Email Your Friends

I learned a hard, bitter truth when I published my first novel: Your friends won’t buy your book just because you’re their friend. If that were the case, you could just post a few times on Facebook and sell thousands of copies. But they just won’t do it, no matter who you are.

Either that or all my friends are selfish assholes.

Go through your email list and start emailing them ONE BY ONE and ask them to buy your book. Don’t BCC a bunch of people with the same generic message, because they won’t respond well to it.

You can copy and paste the basic boilerplate information, like where to buy it, when it goes on sale, etc. But personalize the message to each person, so they know you’re only emailing them.

“Hey, Susan, I know we haven’t talked in a few years, ever since that thing with Kevin the incontinent llama. But I’m hoping that time has healed our wounds enough that you would consider buying my new book, Mackinac Island Nation, which is being re-released by 4 Horsemen Publishing. You can even get a copy for your friends and family this holiday. I already sent a copy to Kevin’s handler with another apology note.”

Final Thoughts

You need to do book publicity to make people care about your book. You need to promote your book until you’re sick of it. And then you need to promote it some more. And when you think everyone else is sick of it, promote it some more.

You can do it all for free, but it’s going to take some time. Or you can pay someone a lot of money and then you’ll have all sorts of free time to start on your next book. Just remember, promoting your book takes as much time as actually writing it, so don’t assume that people will buy it just because you wrote it. They need you to remind them over and over and over. 

And over.