What is an Email Newsletter? 

An author email newsletter is an email that keeps readers informed about what you are doing. 

Why is it Important? 

By consistently providing them with information, you are kept at the forefront of their mind so that when someone needs to buy a gift for a friend’s birthday, a book club needs a new book to read, or a follower wants a great read for his summer vacation, they think of you and your book. 

But Do I Really Need One? 

Short answer, yes! 

Somewhat longer answer, no, not if you don’t enjoy it. 

(That’s the beauty of all this! You are in charge of your world. You don’t have to do all of this or even half of it. Pick and choose what feels right for you.) 

But back to the short answer . . . 

You Have a Greater Chance of Getting Your Audience’s Attention 

Sometimes it takes people a while before they start paying attention. In the chaos of the online world, we rarely have time to read anything in-depth. An author newsletter catches the eye, slows a person down, and, heck, it may even stop them long enough to read what you have to say! 

They Can Get to Know You 

Month after month they will read what you have to say. They will be entertained, and they will learn. They will start thinking of you as a friend and a source of unique information. They will get to know you and become loyal to you. They will think of you often and want to support you. 

Before you think it, I am going to stop you! Lol. 

Think what? 

I Don’t Want to Bug People 

You are thinking—or are at some point you are going to be thinking—that you don’t want to bug people. Remember this: your newsletter is only one of many, many things your readership will see over the day. They will either read it or not. They may not have the time or be in the mood but, really and truly, they aren’t thinking anything negative. They are likely thinking . . . Wow, he/she is amazing. 

You Can Reach Them Quickly 

Okay, I must tell you a story that finally explained to me why an email list is important. When I was in Amy Porterfield’s Bootcamp for Digital Course Academy, she was doing one of her Q&As and she got talking about email lists and how important they were. I was only half listening until she said this—if she needs some extra spending money, all she must do is email her list of thousands in the morning, advertise a pre-recorded course, and by that evening, she has money rolling in. Crazy! 

How does this relate to you? 

When you have an email list, you can invite them to your book launch, book signing or reading at a nearby coffee shop. If they come, they will buy. But you need to let them know and you can’t until you have a way to contact them. 

So, yes, you need one, so that: they get to know you, they trust that you will continue to show up, and they will think of you often and want to support you. 

How to Set Up Your Newsletter 

If you choose to send your newsletter from your email, simply start typing, tell your story, and attach a picture or a GIF. I would recommend sending it to yourself to make sure the formatting looks okay. It is always a good idea to give it one more proofread at that point as well. This version of a newsletter would be just fine. 

But if you want to jazz it up a little, consider MailerLite. 

MailerLite 

I use MailerLite as my email service provider and to create my newsletter. 

As you can see in the chart below, MailerLite is free to 1,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails/month. After that, the prices remain reasonable. I love this pricing as it allows those new to their business some time to get established before having to commit to a monthly fee. 

You can find them at https://www.mailerlite.com/ if you would like to learn more. 

Purchase Your Domain and Set Up Your Email 

Even with MailerLite, you can use your personal email, but you may want to consider setting up a custom email. 

With a custom email, you build trust that you are a professional who will be around for a while. If you have a website, your professional (or custom) email will be tied to your domain name and is usually built into the cost of the service. For example, my website is www.cindyfolkauthor.com and my email is cindy@cindyfolkauthor.com. This is called email hosting. 

However, if you aren’t setting up a website, you can still create a professional email address. All you need is a domain to get started. Once you have your domain name, you will need to connect it to your email service provider. 

Where can I get a domain? 

You can get domains through free email providers, such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, and others, however, they are not recommended because they do not provide great deliverability rates. With these free email domains, you will have to verify it via a confirmation email. 

However, MailerLite suggests “that you use your own domain email address so that you can authenticate it yourself. This increases the chances of your emails landing in the recipients’ main inboxes rather than their spam or junk folders.” 

If you would like to purchase your own domain, buying a domain name can be found for as little as $9 or 10 dollars. 

You can shop around on Bluehost or GoDaddy, but if you want to take the variables out of the way and keep it simple, you can stick with Squarespace. A domain can be purchased for as low as $20/year.   

Click HERE to see what your domain name could be! 

MailerLite recommends Bluehost for your domain and Google Workspace to create an email address with your domain. GOOGLE WORKSPACE is currently $7.80/month.  

Given that this is almost 50% of the price to purchase Squarespace, you may just want to purchase Squarespace and build a website. Another option is to create your email address with Gmail first and see what the deliverability rates are. 

Authenticating with MailerLite 

Once you have your email, you will need to link it to MailerLite. 

If you have not yet signed up with MailerLite, it is simple: 

• Enter the name of your company or organization 

• Enter your email address 

• Enter a strong password 

• Click Create My Account 

If you have any difficulty with this, there are many tutorials online on how to do this.  

Creating Your Monthly Newsletter 

In the week leading up to working on The Writing Experience, my process is this: 

• I make a list of what I have worked on for the month 

• I look to my Instagram or Facebook book blog posts for inspiration 

• I also look at the pictures I have taken on my phone over the month, and I start emailing pictures from my phone to my email address 

• I look for my favourite quote on Instagram. Often, I have already saved one there 

• Then, when I am ready to work on the newsletter, I sit at the computer, open MailerLite and copy last month’s newsletter. From there, I update the month and issue number and begin to write. 

It is important to consider your audience when you are putting together your email. What do they want to hear about? 

Your audience is interested in you and your book. Tell them about yourself and the book-writing process. Tell them about the book; tease them with quotes here and there. If your audience likes to read, they may also enjoy writing and appreciate learning about new things. 

They may be attracted to your genre, so keep that in mind. Your genre will likely set the tone for not just your book, but your newsletter as well. If you are writing a romance, for example, you could have a story on the Top 10 Romantic Getaways. 

Brainstorming Your Content 

Once you have the list of what you have worked on throughout the month, that is often enough to fill up a newsletter, however, when you are first getting started, a little brainstorming may be in order. 

Here are some ideas: 

• Why did you start writing? 

• What are you working on? 

• What do you want to accomplish? 

• What have you accomplished that you are proud of? 

• What do you do for a living? 

• What are your hobbies? 

• Provide a favourite quote. 

• Talk about a book you are reading this month 

• Discuss your all-time favourite book and why it is 

• Do you journal? Do a little blurb on why it is important to you 

• Talk about an insight you had 

• Link to your Instagram, Facebook or Twitter accounts 

• Reference an indie author; bring them into the spotlight 

• Reference an established author and link to their website 

• Talk about a podcast you listened to and why it was so good 

• Talk about your dog, cat or goldfish . . . anything cute really 

• Reflect on what you’ve learned from your parents 

• Talk about your favorite vacation memory 

But always bring it back to what’s going on in your writing world and how you are feeling about things. Be yourself, be honest. Tell them why you are doing this. 

• You found an editor! Tell them all about it. 

• Your rewrites are going well 

• Your rewrites are going terribly 

• You haven’t had enough sleep in a week, but there’s always tomorrow! 

• You have butterflies 

• You feel confident 

• You are so proud of yourself and how far you’ve come!! 

The things you can put in your newsletter are limitless. If you keep showing up, your readers will get to know you, become invested in what you have to say, and will keep coming back for more. They may even start counting on you to pick them up or motivate them. 

Your newsletter is much like social media but more personalized. Make them feel as though they are special and have access to information that others don’t. 

Tip: Just be you and it won’t feel so much like work. 

Newsletter Campaign Insights 

Open Rate 

The open rate indicates the percentage of subscribers that opened a specific email campaign out of the total number of subscribers. I’ve learned that a 30% open rate is a good number to aim for. I believe that if you send out too many emails in a short amount of time, this rate will be lower. In my experience, my monthly newsletter gets an open rate of close to 50%. 

Click Rate 

Within your newsletter, it is a good idea to link back to your website to drive traffic there. This rate is an indicator that your content was engaging enough to entice your subscriber to action. The rate is calculated by dividing the unique number of recipients who clicked on a link into the total number of emails that were successfully delivered. 2% is considered a good click-through rate. 

Unsubscribe Rate 

I try not to worry about the unsubscribe rate because I like to think it isn’t personal if someone unsubscribes, it likely just means they are getting too many emails in general, not necessarily from you. However, keep an eye on the unsubscribe rate and see if there are patterns based on your content. It will give you insights into what people don’t want to see. An average unsubscribe rate is 0.25%, but keep in mind that 1 unsubscribe in a small list is a much higher percentage than in a huge list, so take this number with a grain of salt. 

Tip: You won't bother your subscribers if you email them weekly or monthly. If they have time, they will read it.  

Metrics to Watch 

• Open Rate 

• Click Rate 

• Unsubscribe Rate 

Which Path Will You Choose? 

A – MailerLite and a professional email 

B – MailerLite and a personal email 

C – Personal Email