Getting Started with Newsletters

Dear Reader,

I wanted to share with you my recent experience in growing my newsletter list. If you are an author who is just starting out and getting frustrated by everyone telling you that you need a newsletter but not telling you how then read on!

I have three books published under two different pen names which means I have two newsletters both essentially starting from scratch. With my first book I went to different events and had newsletter sign up sheets. I got lots of people coming by my table and sold books but only got about 10 people to sign up for my newsletter. It was discouraging. I tried pop-ups on my webpage but that only netted one or two new people. I began exploring different options and considering money is always tight when you’re first starting out I wanted to make sure I as spending my money wisely. I’ve spent money on things that didn’t work and have gotten even more discouraged. But, I did finally have success and I want to share that with you.

After a lot of research and comparing of services I decided I would invest in Book Funnel for one year and see if it works, if it didn’t then I would not renew my membership there. I opted for the $100 per year commitment. Here is what I found out, Book Funnel is a very powerful tool. They have their own promotions that you can join and some of the are specifically designed for building newsletters. You may be asking okay, what do I have to promote? Maybe your book isn’t finished yet. Here is what I did:

I took the first three chapters of a new romance book I was working and spent time making sure those three chapters were the best they could be, with editing and re-writes etc. I got a good cover (Paid) for the book and used that. I joined a promotion on Book Funnel that required people to sign up for my news letter and in return they got the first three chapters of my new book. I got over 100 people to sign up in 20 days with only two unsubscribes after they downloaded the book sample. I was pretty excited about that. I think used that list of people to offer ARC reader opportunities and announce the pre-order availability of the finished novel.

When I joined book funnel I already had two science fiction books published with less than twenty people on my newsletter list. Those books are published wide so I took the first book and set it for free and joined another newsletter building promo on book funnel and got over 200 new subscribers! I know have a group people to share my upcoming third book release with and offer ARC opportunities for that one as well.

Based on my experience Book Funnel has been successful. I cannot make a direction correlation as yet from newsletter to book sales and I will report on that to you as soon as I have additional information.

Hopefully, this helps answer the question that some of you may be asking, how the heck do I build a newsletter list?