Keys to a Successful Author Newsletter by Cheryl Bolen

I’m no expert on author newsletters, and I many not follow all the “do’s and don’ts” of successful author newsletters, but I’ve been to many, many workshops on them over the years and picked up a thing or two. I like to share.

I will add here that I was a published author for 14 years before I even got a newsletter. When my first book was published in 1998, if an author had a newsletter (which was extremely rare), it would have to have been printed and mailed because the internet and email had not yet hit their stride. Remember, at this time all of our books were printed, and no major publishers offered eBooks.

So I didn’t have a newsletter until around 2012. It’s taken me eight years to build my subscription list to around 14,000. (You will recall the Great Digital Disruption to the publishing industry occurred in 2011.)

How to Build Subscribers

The first thing new authors ask me about newsletters is, “How do I build my subscribers’ list?” When I started out, I first asked those who sent me fan letters if I could have their permission to add them to my newsletter lists. I never had any fan turn me down. Of course I promised—and still do—not to inundate their inboxes.

The next thing I did was to offer nifty drawings to lure subscribers. (I don’t do this anymore, and I’ll explain why.) I gave away Amazon gift cards, and I once gave away a Nook ereader. I also did this to bring readers to my Facebook author page.

As my list grew and as I attended more workshops on author newsletters, I learned that you want to nurture those who love your books, not those who want to win a gift card and then drop their subscription.

Another way to grow your list is to participate, for a fee, in Ryan Zee’s Booksweeps promotions https://www.booksweeps.com/. He has culled these to readers’ interests.

Let me explain how this works. Say an author wants to feature a giveaway in a particular category, let’s say humorous mysteries. She signs up and agrees to offer a free book in that category as part of Booksweeps’ promotion, and the promotion also generally gives away an ereader. Authors pay around $50 to be among the 30 or so authors included in that humorous mysteries promotion. Booksweeps gives the author memes to use to promote the Booksweeps’ giveaway in that category, and at the end of the promotion gives you a list of emails of participants in that particular giveaway. Booksweeps also does this for other things, such as growing your BookBub subscribers. Such a promotion can usually yield a few hundred new subscribers. The hope here is that those entrants were eager readers in your category.

What about the Open Rate?

Businesses consider an open rate of 15 percent successful. Mine typically runs about 25 percent. I’m extremely skeptical of authors who tell me their open rates are 75 percent. That might be true if their subscriber list numbers a couple of dozen die-hard fans!

There are two considerations in increasing the open rate. First, you must come up with a header that will peak the subscribers’ interest. “Today is Release Day” is not a good way to start your newsletter. You’re virtually saying, “Buy My Book.”

It’s best to offer the reader something. I typically offer giveaways, but most of the time my giveaways nowadays are for autographed print books, and preferably not for my newest release, which I’m trying to sell in the newsletter! I have found that my most ardent fans love the idea of having an autographed book by one of their favorite authors. Sometimes I also get signed books from author friends in my genre and give one of those away along with one of mine. I make it a rule to keep these specific to my genre.

Another thing I’ve found readers like is getting to know you as a person. I’ve had really good open rates when I started off with “headlines” like these: “The Saga of My Broken Foot,” “See Our Family’s New Beach Cottage,” or “I’m Celebrating a Milestone Anniversary.”

Companies to Handle Your Newsletter

There are many companies offering newsletter distribution services. The most popular ones among authors are Mail Chimp, Mad Mimi, MailerLite, Constant Contact. I believe you can use Mail Chimp or Mad Mimi for free until you number about 2,000 subscribers. After that you must pay. The more subscribers, the more you pay.

An advantage to Mad Mimi is that for your monthly fee, you can send out unlimited mailings each month. I think MailerLite also allows unlimited monthly. I’ve used all except Constant Contact.

I presently use MailerLite and pay $50 month, and have been very happy with them.

Frequency

If you’re going to have a newsletter, you need to send it out at least monthly. Consistency is key.

My friend Lauren Royal has built an extremely successful newsletter that comes out every Friday and has done so for at least nine years. She started it off as “Friday Freebies” and featured other authors’ free books. That later morphed into what it now is. She offers one freebie, one new release, and several 99-cent books. It’s very popular, with about 43,000 subscribers. 

Keys to her success are, number one, she’s offering her subscribers value, and, number two, most of those authors who plug their books in her newsletter also subscribe.

Of course, each of her popular newsletters also features quite a bit on her own books, usually those that are on sale. The newsletter also serves to keep her name out there between books—which is helpful because she’s an extremely slow writer.

I can’t say I’m great about making sure I put out a newsletter each month, and I can’t deny that I always do send one out when I have a new release, but I can attest to the validity of most of these tips I’ve share.—Cheryl Bolen 

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