Going Against the Grain ~ Author Newsletters

Unpopular take: an author newsletter is worthless.

I just finished reading David Gaughran's latest email comparing newsletter services, then asked myself, why did I bother? I'm not interested in which provider is the best. Best at what? 

Full disclosure: I have a free Mailerlite account, from which I've sent 12 newsletters since January of 2024. I hated every one of them.

Despite what everyone tells me, for the life of me I can't figure out how a newsletter is worth my time and effort. I don't publish a new book every three months, so what am I supposed to be publicizing in my communications? My backlist? Nobody even wanted those books the first time around. 

Do I talk about my writing life? Who cares? That's not even interesting to me. Am I supposed to pen a short story every month to include? Never wrote a short story, ever, and have no plans to start.

"Your newsletter is your most important marketing tool." 

Is this just something people say because everyone else is saying it? I do agree that if you are a successful author, a newsletter can increase sales just by letting your subscribers know about your new or upcoming release. But if you are a popular author, won't your fans be buying your new book anyway? 

If you're an unsuccessful/unpopular author, all the book plugging in the world won't make a difference. Once again, you're doing something just to do it. And likely doing something you don't enjoy.

How do I have 312 newsletter subscribers? Well, I didn't get them the organic way. I can count on two fingers my number of organic subscribers. I won't rehash the entire scenario, but I've posted about it before. In essence, I joined a book giveaway that didn't offer my genre, so my book got lumped in with literary fiction (stupid rookie move). I started with more than 312, but eventually people began unsubscribing. Can't blame 'em.

It's not as if I don't invite people to join my mailing list. I might have placed an invitation at the end of my ebooks (honestly can't remember), but for sure I listed my website, which has "join my newsletter" on the home screen, as well as its own separate page.

I'm trading one of my novellas for a signup, since one must always offer a reader magnet. I'm fine with giving away one of my works, if only it succeeded in enticing subscribers, which it obviously doesn't.

If more than one person every six months signed up, I might consider sending newsletters again. As it stands now, all I would be succeeding at is annoying people. 

Of those 312 subscribers, guess how many purchased one of my books I carefully linked to in my newsletters? Yep, none. I couldn't even get anyone to enter a giveaway. Scratch that--I did get one person once, but I'd advertised awarding three copies, so I had to make up names for the other two "winners". I used the first names of a couple of people I used to work with and just an initial for the last names. Pathetic.

I wonder if those authors who claim that newsletters are "totally worth it" ever analyzed the number of sales they derived from their communications. It would definitely be easy to do; just take a look at their sales reports for a couple of days after sending one. I'm all about stats, so I pay attention to results. In my situation, stats are everything. 

If a newsletter is something an author enjoys doing, what's the harm? No benefit, really, but no harm. As so me, I'm considering removing the "Free Book" page from my website, as well as the signup form. If a reader wants to contact me, it's easy enough. I'll gladly add them to my subscriber list if they ask, and they can basically have any book they want for free.

Before I sent my first-ever newsletter two and a half years ago, I subscribed to three in order to get a feel for what works. These were trade-published authors and successful ones. Of the three, I've only ever heard from one of them. Maybe I'm not the only author who's decided it's just not worth it. This person's communications are brief (good) and they consist of a short personal anecdote, a plug for her latest book, and a giveaway of some sort. It's actually kind of boring, but I'm not this person's ideal reader, so her true fans might love it. I've never been tempted to enter one of her giveaways and I don't read her genre, which means her book links hold no interest for me. (I'm like those literary fiction fans who were duped into joining my mailing list.) 

For me, any marketing effort needs to have a payoff. To do something so cringe-inducing, there really needs to be one.