Author Newsletters by Allison Symes

 Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Do you have an author newsletter? It took me a while to see their usefulness but I’m glad I have now got on board here. I use the free Mailchimp plan which is enough for my needs.

I use my monthly newsletter to share news, writing tips I’ve found useful, links to my on-line stories, my blog, plus I will share the odd giveaway (where I’ll put in some of my stories not found elsewhere). I enjoy putting the newsletter together and think this is crucial to the longer term success of such things, no matter how you define success.

I don’t define success by subscriber numbers funnily enough. It will be ages before I would have to upgrade to a paid plan on Mailchimp but what is encouraging is in having a consistently good open rate. 

I subscribe to author newsletters too. I love finding out what my favourite writers are up to, which was the key reason to finally decide to have a newsletter myself. 

If I have any specific news, most of the time it goes in the newsletter so my subscribers get “first dibs”. It is not always possible to do it for a variety of reasons but mostly I do. I know as a subscriber to newsletters, I appreciate the exclusivity aspect. It is like belonging to a special club and I want to encourage that feeling in mine. It’s a nice way of thanking readers for support. 

I went for a monthly newsletter as this is often enough to be interesting but not so often it will annoy. All of the newsletters I subscribe to are monthly. It also gives me plenty of time to prepare material for the newsletter in advance, save as I go, and add to and edit as needed. I like the send a test email feature too and make good use of that.

I aim for a chatty informative style and like this approach in the newsletters I read. I also make a note of when favourite authors have new books out (and hope folk do this for mine!). 

I usually have a topic for the month. I shared 29 tips/prompts for February 2024, using the Leap Year to inspire that idea. Incidentally, do you get more done on that extra day, writing related or not? I’m not sure I do. Though it does give me an extra day in which to get my March newsletter ready!

I use pictures. I use Book Brush (who use Pixabay free images). Sometimes I get to share audio clips if I’ve had a flash story broadcast or have been on a podcast. I like the versatility of newsletters here. I share videos and sometimes create an exclusive flash fiction video via my YouTube channel. Here I just change settings so I can ensure it only goes to my newsletter subscribers. 

What I aim to do for every newsletter I send is fun because writing should be fun (most of the time), yes?