The experts tell us that one of the essential aspects of marketing your books is putting out a regular newsletter.
Why put out a newsletter?
· Build your brand.
· Build a relationship with your audience.
· Keep people interested between books so that they haven’t forgotten about you by the time you put out your book.
· To make sure that you don’t only contact people when you have a book available.
Why write this one?
You need to be clear why you are writing this newsletter. Is it to connect with your audience, to get people to respond or to get them to act in some way? What results do you want?
How do you put out a good newsletter or write an exciting blog week after week?
Well, it’s about finding your truth, being authentic and leading an exciting life. Easy, right? It explains why, although we know that’s what we should be doing, so few of us do it.
Practice makes perfect and like learning to write great novels; it’s about the number of words on the page. Like reading widely, it’s another skill to learn, and it helps to subscribe to other famous author’s newsletters. What do you like about it? What do you hate?
For me, it has also been about dedicating precious time to creating something that I’m proud to put out rather than pouring my ramblings out and expecting that anyone would want to read it.
How do you find topics?
I’m still learning this one, especially as I write under a pen name because of my day job. Balancing being honest without making yourself vulnerable seems like another skill to learn, and it’s difficult, although you’ve probably had loads of practice if you post on social media.
A while ago, I did an experiment where I put out a chapter a week of raw material on the book I was working on at that time. It made me commit to writing a chapter a week and gave me something to submit. It was about being vulnerable in a whole new way.
Journaling can be a good source of ideas.
Structuring your Newsletter
Headings break a newsletter up and allow busy people to skim the ‘headlines.’
Should you be political?
I have chosen not to be, simply because I’m too political and don’t want that side of my life to spill too strongly into my author business. Not because I’m afraid that people who disagree with me won’t buy my books but because the politics in my books is subtle and often unconscious.
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