Honorée Corder writes in this month’s Mindset piece, “I’ve erased the idea that being a professional writer means lounging in coffee shops, wearing cool glasses, and having profound thoughts.” I haven’t discarded the coffee shops entirely, but I will agree there are tasks in every author’s career that feel like work.
For me, email marketing is one of those tasks.
Recently, I’ve had a bad habit of putting off writing my newsletter until the night before I need to send it, and I’ve struggled nearly every month—like Plodding Plotter in this month’s letter to Indie Annie—with deciding what to write. I have a small mailing list, and there have been months when I’ve wondered whether it’s wasted effort.
At this stage of my career, I know my newsletter alone will not radically shift my business. But when I catch myself complaining about it or considering skipping it during busier months, I try to think like a reader.
I’ve subscribed to several of my favorite authors’ newsletters, and as a reader, I jump at them every time they appear in my inbox. I’m sure each of us can think of an author whose grocery lists we would read if they published them, and newsletters give us a chance to peek in at their lives and read something new they’ve written. As authors, newsletters are an opportunity for us to connect with our most devoted fans directly—to have one-on-one conversations, learn what they want from our books, and share about our creative process with people who will, sometimes, literally pay to hear about it.
This month, we’re focusing on all these aspects of email marketing because, even if it feels like work, it’s a sign of how many readers our work has impacted. The next time you’re stuck for ideas or worried people won’t care about what you’re writing, consider what you’d want to read from your favorite author, and write that—because to someone in your mailing list, I guarantee you, you are theirs.
Nicole Schroeder
Editor in Chief
