Today's guest is Robin Dynes
NEWSLETTERS THAT INVOLVE THE READER
Do you send out a newsletter to raise awareness of your publications? If not, you may be missing an opportunity to promote yourself and your work. Newsletters have been used successfully since Roman times as a way of communicating with friends and customers. They inform them about the availability of goods and provide other news that affect their business.
In today’s world, social media such as Twitter and Facebook are not suitable for longer material. Also, they are so fast-paced that good material gets lost. E-mail newsletters, however, remain effective for attracting and keeping readers interested. Nevertheless, they must - to maintain attention - be engaging, meet their needs, add to their knowledge and involve readers. Don’t make it just about you - though your book signings and meet the author events, etc, are very important, too, and should be included. Involve the reader! Here are some ideas you can try to help you do this:
Share and recommend books you have enjoyed. Many of your readers will have read or want to read the same books. This is a good way to make connections.
Offer a free sample chapter or a short story which will hopefully get them to start reading your latest work.
Do occasional reader surveys but keep them short and simple. Not any more than 3/4 questions at the most. Use tick box responses and an additional option for a short written response.
Include fun facts about your writing process and what is happening behind the scenes. This might include research you have done, how you got the idea, etc.
Seasonal and holiday greetings with recommended reads. Don’t forget special events such as mental health days, friendship days, etc. Also use anniversaries. For example, ask readers to help you celebrate the anniversary of when your last book was published and so on.
Add additional material related to your book subject. Perhaps something you learned while doing research. For a non-fiction book you might include additional exercises the reader can do.
Consider including content from your readers. What they liked best about a book or story. Questions you have been asked about your publications. What they have learned. For nonfiction – how useful they have found the content or exercises.
Have you been interviewed recently? Share your experience. Perhaps you have interviewed someone who would interest your readers.
These are a few ideas to help you build a successful newsletter. Don’t bombard readers with them. Once every two weeks or once a month is enough and it won’t take an enormous amount of time to produce, but do be consistent.
Many of you may have your own You Tube video channel, Facebook or Instagram page or even have thousands of followers on Twitter. All help you raise your profile but e-mail based newsletters will continue to be to be popular with readers as long as they provide interesting content!
Robin Dynes edits The Voice newsletter (https://mailchi.mp/e732a4b9c51a/the-voice-newsletter-14196875?e=8d30ae17cc ) published by Wessex Writers. He is also the author of 25 non-fiction books, numerous articles and blogs and was a commissioning editor for Speechmark Publishing Ltd (https://www.routledge.com/go/speechmark)
You can subscribe to The Voice here.
This is Patsy's Newsletter.
Here's Geraldine Ryan's newsletter.
If you have, or contribute to, a writing related newsletter feel free to put a link in the comments and it will be added to this list.
11 comments:
Thank you Robin, very interesting information, good to learn something new
This is a really interesting post, packed with ideas. Thanks, Robin, and Patsy. I'm very interested in finding ways to market my writing, but lack of time feels like a big issue. I'm not sure how to balance the act of writing (which I love) with creating publicity (which I know is a necessity). I really admire writers like Patsy and Glenda Young who seem to manage all aspects of writing so professionally.
IF I ever get that far... :) Thank you Robin and Patsy. I have to say, I far prefer to the unwieldy facebook pages and bites that are twitter. Also, I rate them far higher - much more professional. Thank you.
We do a lot of that for the IWSG newsletter although I've never put one together for myself.
I was advised to start a newsletter when I published my short story collection. It's quite a challenge to keep it up every month. But it's good practice at keeping the writing mojo going. Here's the link if you'd like to subscribe:- http://bit.ly/Turningthepage
This was very interesting with some helpful advice.
Really interesting. Thanks Robin and Patsy. Like Eirin trying to find time isn't always easy but it's something I will definitely think about.
@ Sheelagh – I'm pleased it was of interest.
@ Eirin – I don't find any aspects of marketing easy but, like you, I feel I have to do it so am experimenting to see what works for me.
@ Marguerite – Nobody has to have a newsletter, but as people choose to sign up and can unsubscribe at any time I feel they're a good way to communicate with people who want to hear from us.
@ Alex – you'll know what to do if you ever take that step.
@ Geraldine – It is one more thing to do, but I think that for those with books, services or an organisation to promote then it's worthwhile.
@ Marin – That's good to hear.
@ Carrie – It does of course take time, but you can choose how frequently you write a newsletter. Some are weekly, monthly, quarterly even yearly. Others aren't produced to a schedule, but written whenever there's some news.
Thanks again Robin for sharing this. I have to say I continue to learn so much from this blog in lovely bite sized chunks, better than any writing course
Some awesome ideas! I am about to send out my second newsletter. It's still very small, but I've picked up a few followers who are not family or friends, so that's exciting :)
I do one newsletter a month, and it usually centers around a blog update with (hopefully) helpful content for writers and readers. I also like the idea of giving book recommendations and featuring readers' comments or reviews.
@ Sheelagh – I like bite sized chunks too. Trying to learn / do everything all at once is counterproductive, so I try to get to grips with one thing and then once that's going OK, I do something else.
@ Kathrin – It is exciting to see new subscribers signing up. Feel free so put a link in the comments so I can add it to the list in the post.
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