Which leads me to our topic of the week: share your newsletter info.
And this is where I tell you: I don’t have a newsletter and I don’t foresee creating one.
Why? Doesn’t every author how-to, agent, and likely publishers tell you to make one?
Yes, yes they do. If you’re a writer you’ve undoubtedly see that advice splashed across the socials or heard it in any marketing panel you’ve attended. And yet, I resist.
I’m a pretty voracious reader. I average between 80-100 books a year. If this boggles your mind:
- I don’t game (I used to, but whoa addictive, so yeah)
- I rarely watch shows (unless my husband finds something he thinks I’ll love and then we binge together—bonding time!)
- I attend my kid’s sporting events, but I always have a book or two in my purse for the waiting times
And I never open any author newsletters.
So how do I find new books or know about new releases coming up? I believe I find them the same way most people add to their TBR piles: social media and word of mouth, Goodreads, and the library. The trick is knowing how to find my book’s audience where they hang out, and I don’t think newsletters are it.
I could absolutely be wrong, but I’d be curious to find out how much cross-traffic an authors newsletter and social following has. Maybe there’s no way to really track that, but if you could know what percent of your newsletter follows you on Twitter or Instagram vs. people that do very little online I’d be very interested.
Because for me it all boils down to mental bandwidth. Where am I going to put my time for the most benefit. If I’m putting energy into posting and sharing book content then I don’t have a lot left for crafting an interesting newsletter.
Thoughts? Do you feel your newsletter benefits your author brand? Do you put more energy into promoting online?
