A newsletter is a lot more important than a lot of new authors realize. Here’s a list of all that a newsletter can do for you.
- Writing a newsletter makes you think about who you are in your writer persona.
Who you are in real life is not necessarily who you are online and it’s not your brand. If you are a writing of romantic comedy, you’re probably going to be a funny person All The Time online. Obviously, you’re not IRL. If you write dark suspense, you’ve got to be a bit of a mysterious person online. If you write fantasy, I would expect you to be a die-hard Star Wars and Star Trek fan, if not also a gamer who loves TTRPG (table top role playing games). It’s always good to match yourself with your genre. You can create and maintain that persona through your newsletter.
- Writing a newsletter every month (or biweekly, if you want) ensures that you are writing.
Whether your book is going well or not; whether your kids are driving you batty with their constant interruptions; whether you have the energy after a long day at work, writing a newsletter is great way to keep up those writing muscles. Yes! Writing is a muscle. The more you do it, the better you get at it and the easier it is to get those words out. If you only write every so often, your brain isn’t used to slipping into that mode and putting the words on paper (or “paper”). If you send out a newsletter every month or more frequently, you are forcing yourself to write at least that often.
- Writing a newsletter makes it necessary to keep up with writer friends. This is a Good Thing. Every author needs community and if you send out a newsletter every month, other writers may ask to promote their books there (or do a swap where you put their book in your newsletter and they put your newest book into theirs).
- It’s a direct line from you to your readers and back again.
The only thing better than hearing from a favorite author is getting a new book from that author. So, since it’s not possible for you to be publishing books once a month, every month, the least you can do for your ravenous fans is to let them know how you’re doing and how your book is coming along.
Readers also like being asked questions. They enjoy taking part in polls and giving their opinions. So, giving them that opportunity in your newsletter is a great way to keep those readers happy. You could also put your email address or a link to your “Contact Me” page on your website in your newsletter so fans can directly reach out to you.
- It’s a great marketing tool for you. Yes, you can sell books from your newsletter (through a link, naturally—and that link can go to Amazon, your own online store, or wherever you think it would be easiest for people to purchase your work). Your newsletter is The Best place to tell your readers about your latest release, but even better, it’s a great way to remind readers of your backlist books. Give them a little love and post them in your newsletter as if they were a recent release. You don’t have to say when it was published.
- It’s a good way to make some tough decisions like Title A of Title B, or Cover A vs. Cover B vs Cover C. As I said before, readers love giving their opinion and sometimes you just can’t decide which you like better, or which you think would sell better. So go right away and put up a poll in your newsletter and ask those who are (hopefully) going to buy that book.
- It’s a great way to find beta readers. Everyone loves a free book, even if it comes with a few strings attached. Getting beta readers from your newsletter subscriber makes a lot of sense. And a lot of them are not only good at telling you what they think of the book, they may find those overlooked typos and spelling errors. And, of course, as soon as the book is published, they’re the first ones to write a review.
- That list is yours. No matter what happens to Facebook, Instagram, X, or wherever else you keep in touch with your readers, your newsletter subscriber list is yours to keep. No one can take that away from you (only the readers themselves can remove themselves from your list). Any social media site could go down, out of business, or simply remove your account on a whim and you are out of luck with no way to contact your readers—except through your newsletter.
- It keeps you at the forefront of your readers’ minds as you’re writing your next book. Face it, it takes time to write a novel. For some people it takes longer than others. Not all of us can churn out a 50k word book every month. Most of us can’t. So, in order to remind your readers that you’re still here and still writing, you send out your newsletter and tell your readers just how that book is going.
- Writing a newsletter can be fun! Yes, it can. Don’t sit there shaking your head at me. It’s like having a pen pal, only instead of writing back to you, they buy your books! My newsletter is chatty. I tell my readers what I’ve been up to and what I’m planning next (not a lot of detail and nothing that could be seen as TMI). I also publish a vignette or short story in my newsletter every month, which helps with that writing muscle (even though I work on my novel every day, it’s still a good thing to do).
So, enjoy your newsletter. Have fun with it! Use it to make writer friends buy offering to post someone else’s book in it. There are so many great reasons why every author should have a newsletter. Just do it.