Email Marketing for Authors: Our Most Valuable Asset
Why our mailing list matters more than any platform we don’t own
Every successful author business is built on at least one thing that’s boring, unglamorous, and non optional ...
Direct access to readers.
Email marketing is how that access is created and maintained. Without it, every other promotional effort leaks value the moment you stop pushing.
If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this.
Our email list is the only audience we actually own.
Social platform algorithms can change overnight. Ad costs can spike (think holiday periods). However, if we’ve a list of readers who’ve given us permission to email them, you’ve got leverage.
Email marketing works because it compounds.
Every new subscriber we add increases the value of every future book we write. Every launch gets ‘easier’. Every promotion gets more effective.
Yet plenty of authors ignore email marketing or treat it like a chore.
We think we need to be clever. We think we need to be salesy. We think we need to email weekly with perfectly written newsletters.
We don’t.
Email marketing for authors can be relatively straightforward.
First and foremost we need to offer readers something valuable in exchange for their email address (because this is a trade and it must be, as a minimum, balanced). It’s vital this item, e.g. a free book or novella, is unique - it’s only available to subscribers. Definitely don’t offer an opening chapter of an existing book.
