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Having an email newsletter is part of “Marketing 101”.
I send a monthly email to subscribers as part of my author platform. It’s just good practice – even when I feel like I have nothing new to say! (PS: If you haven’t, you can sign up here.)
At the bottom of this post is an example of the most recent newsletter I sent just days ago on February 1. As noted in both the body of the email and last week’s blog post, I’ve been struggling due to back and hip pain. However, this didn’t stop me from sending my regular monthly email. Being consistent is important, even if it’s short. (Some people say shorter is better… people don’t often take the time to read long newsletters these days.)
If you sign up for my email newsletter (which I sincerely hope you do!) you can expect at least one email per month. In it, I try to keep you up to date on current writing projects, new releases, book launches & other promotions, and a few tidbits about me and my life in general. Once in a while, I’ll feature another author or talk about books I’ve been reading. I might link to a blog post or Booktalk if I think it’s pertinent.
When you first sign up, you’ll get a free book – currently CONSPIRACY OF BONES. You’ll also be put into an automated sequence that sends out other “evergreen” content. I’ll follow up about the free book I sent, ask for reviews, provide my social media information, and invite you to join one of my teams. (I have a prayer team, a book launch team, and a beta reading team.)
All subscribers are also funneled into an auto-sequence of emails that feature all of my books – one per month. I figure that new subscribers won’t necessarily know about my backlist and won’t have been privileged to read about launches etc. Since I have a rather substantial amount of published work, both sequences currently take 515 days to cycle through! I also send another free book of your choice after one year.
I still use Mailchimp as my email provider. My first newsletter went live in July of 2013 – that is more than 10 years ago! In that first newsletter, I featured Wind Over Marshdale, which had come out the year before, and The Sleepytown Express, which I was still working on. To my knowledge, I have not missed a month, even after my heart attack in 2017. Some months I’ve sent more, such as when a book is being released. I also send the occasional separate email to people on a “team”. My best calculation is between 225-240 newsletters so far. That’s a lot of content!
So, how many subscribers do I have after ten years? Thousands? No.
I currently have 601. That number doesn’t sound very high, considering all the effort, but here is part of the reason why. Using Mailchimp’s analytics, I do a regular cull of subscribers who are not engaged. That might sound harsh, but if someone isn’t even opening my newsletter, there is no point in me paying for their seat at the table, so to speak. Subscribers come and go on their own, too. The option to “unsubscribe” is always there and is an important part of the legalities.
So… all that being said, I invite you one more time to join my mailing list! Check out the sample latest email below, if you’re curious. JOIN TRACY’S LIST!
Valentine’s Day, Black History Month… heck, even Groundhog Day! When February rolls around it feels like the new year has begun in earnest – and it just keeps accelerating from here!
January was a busy month for me with writing report cards, and unfortunately, I have been suffering from hip and back pain for most of 2024, too, so my writing expectations have not been “up to snuff”. I blogged about it in a post called “Immobilized”. However, I have big plans moving forward! (You know I do!)
First on the docket is WHISPERING WINDS, book three in the WIND OVER MARSHDALE series, which I mentioned last month.
I’m also excited about working with my friend and artist Darcy Jackson again this year as she develops journals to go along with her lovely pocket-sized devotional books. She composed seven books in seven months in 2023, full of her art and photography, scripture, and godly affirmations. It truly was a joy and privilege to work with her, so we’ll see how this next phase of the project comes together. You can check my website for availability under “Published by Fi”.
I’ve had to do some backend maintenance to my website, so the “Booktalk” page is no longer visible. I am in the process of revamping that and also plan to do some rebranding in the near future. I’ll announce the “new and improved” changes when they go live!
That’s it for this time, friends. Stay safe and God bless.
Some good points here, Tracy. I’ve had a newsletter for several years with a short list of subscribers. I’m promoting it more now and working to improve the content. I think one of my biggest mistakes earlier was making it too long and irrelevant to the readers. I’ve changed it a lot since the early days.
It is definitely a work in progress, Sheri. I subscribe to more newsletters than I actually read, admittedly, so I often take the time to examine what things I like about the ones I do read and what things make me just click away from the others. Sometimes its just my own frame of mind… So one has to understand that there will be a certain amount of ghosting that happens once in a while, even from people who like you and usually like what you have to say.