The Newsletter Conundrum

by Erin Mitchell

A couple of days ago, Bryon Quertermous posed a great question on Twitter:

Readers: Yay or nay on author newsletters? I've never liked them and think social media and my own website do a good job. Am I missing out?

I think authors should do newsletters…with some caveats.

Newsletters should tell readers a story and provide useful information. If their sole purpose is to sell stuff, there’s no point. But not all your readers will see every social media post, so providing links and recaps of anything important in a newsletter makes sense.

I like author newsletters that include snippets that are useful, fun, funny, or seasonal. Talk about your books, yes, but don’t only talk about your books.

Newsletters should be short and readable. They should have your voice. They should have links. Think of them as an email…you’re writing an email to a friend. You’re not making a presentation to The Board.

The content that you write for your newsletter shouldn’t be confined to it. Once you send it out, it should be cross-posted on your website, Facebook page, Pinterest board…you get the idea.

Being readable means newsletters should be easy to read on mobile devices. That means complicated HTML layouts are out. One of my favorite authors sends his monthly newsletter through Constant Contact using a custom HTML layout that makes it damn near impossible to read on anything other than a computer. It makes me sad every single month because I want to read his newsletter, but I read a lot of email on my phone or iPad (as do many of your readers…trust me).

And if you’re going to go to the trouble of doing a newsletter, make it easy for people to share it—on social media and by forwarding it.

Of course you should never, ever sign people up for your newsletter without their permission. That said, I’m not a fan of the double opt-in. I sign up because I mean to; I shouldn’t have to reconfirm my intention by clicking a link and then get yet another email confirming that I clicked the link. That process is just annoying (to me…might be just me, though). Also, if your unsubscribe process takes more than one click, you need to fix that.

Marketeers used to spend a great deal of energy figuring out exactly when to send newsletters to get the best response to them. There used to be rules for this based on their figuring, but I think those are all gone out the window. Generally speaking, I like to send them mid-day, because there’s more of a chance you’ll catch people when a little diversion is welcome. Fridays used to be taboo, but no longer. Same with weekends. The only time I still try to avoid is the middle of the night.

If you have a big mailing list that you’ve been growing for a while, it’s a good idea to clean it occasionally so you’re not paying to send email to addresses that are long since abandoned. I use DataValidation.com for this.

So…what do you think? Author newsletters, yea or nay?

 

Comments

[Jen Forbus]

I personally read very, very few. I've unsubscribed from most. The only newsletter that I can tell you I read religiously is Craig Johnson's--it's fun and I feel as though I get something out of reading it. But for the most part, I don't have a lot of time for them and I've discovered the vast majority are simply a "my new book is coming out/is out, go buy it" message.

And I'd like to reiterate your point about not signing people up without their permission. There are few things that irritate me more than being forced to unsubscribe from something I never subscribed to in the first place. Just because I know you/read your work/talked to you at a conference...whatever...does not mean I want your newsletter in my email inbox. Please let ME choose. I've come into contact with many, many people in the publishing industry and I don't want each and every one of them putting me on their mailing list. I recently spent HOURS of a weekend unsubscribing from gads of emails I never subscribed to. I have better things to do with my time and that just makes me grumpy.

[Lesley Cookman]

Very timely. I've just been trying to revive my own - mainly because my readership is - shall we say - slightly older, and many of them do not use social media. I sent one out yesterday and received a lot of replies, so someone enjoys them!