What inspires you to continue receiving an author newsletter? That’s not an easy question, so I’m going to turn it around and instead share what is likely to encourage me to unsubscribe from an author newsletter.

The first is if I get too many newsletters.

For obvious reasons, particularly given the state of my overflowing inbox.

The second is if the newsletters don’t have any content I find useful or interesting.

Send me too many uninteresting newsletter, and I will hit the unsubscribe button 🙂

I’m also not a fan of too-long newsletters, which is somewhat awkward, as I suspect I sometimes write too-long newsletters. It’s balance – send the newsletters often enough that no single newsletter drags on, but not so often that readers feel like they’re being spammed.

So what inspires me to continue receiving an author’s newsletter?

• When it’s not too long
• When they don’t come too often
• When the content is interesting and relevant

That means some book news, but a balance between the author’s own books, what they’ve been reading (because author’s should also read),and general life news.

What do you think? What inspires you to continue receiving an author’s newsletter?

I do 🙂

I subscribe to a fair few author newsletters. I don’t actually know how many.

Some are favourite authors. Others are authors I don’t know and haven’t read, but signed up for their newsletters as part of a promotion. And there are a couple I am part of simply because I enjoy their newsletters.

I have my own author newsletter, and you can sign up below. I do need to update my sign-up freebie as it’s several years out of date …

However, I do keep subscribers up-to-date with my journey to publishing, something I haven’t yet shared on this blog, so stay tuned …

I also have a very irregular newsletter for writers, and I’ll tell you about that next week.

What about you? Do you subscribe to author newsletters?

My favourite author newsletters are ones that are more than just a sales pitch.

What do I like?

I like to know a little bit about the author’s life.

Because I don’t want a day-by-day diary (especially not if their life is as boring as mine), but enough that they are more than a paragraph on the back cover of a novel.

I like something funny.

Because I like authors with a sense of humour who aren’t afraid to show it.

I like short.

Because long newsletters leave me feeling I’d rather be reading one of their novels.

Some of the author newsletters i read have a predictable pattern, which I like. One newsletters has a 3-2-1 pattern—three topics, with three points about the first, two about the second, and one about the last. One  newsletter always ends with a short prayer.

Some authors share favourite books and authors, which I like.

What I like less is when authors promote other authors without having read their books first—I’ve had more than one bad experience in buying a book recommended by an author in their newsletter, and now I’m sceptical.

What I don’t like with author newsletters is receiving them too often.

Yes, it’s fine for authors to send more than one newsletter to announce a new book launch, but some authors seem to ramp up to a newsletter every day when they are launching. That usually has me hitting the unsubscribe button: if I’ve already bought the book, I don’t need to be asked again. If I didn’t buy it the first three times I’m emailed, I’m not likely to buy it the next ten times either.

I like knowing which books my favourite authors are reading and enjoying. I like knowing what they’re working on. And I like knowing a bit about the author’s life and where they live.

What about you? What do you like to read about in author newsletters?

Author newsletters are part of the standard marketing package for savvy authors.

They are more reliable than social media, in that authors can be pretty sure the email will end up in the reader’s email inbox.

I’ve signed up to a lot of author newsletters over the years, and unsubscribed from most of them.

I know. That’s not what the authors want.

But I see unsubscribing as doing the author a favour for two reasons:

1. Most authors have to pay a mailing list provider to send their emails, and the cost usually depends on the number of people they have in their email list. If I’m on their list but never open their emails, I’m actually costing them money.
2. Open rates can affect email deliverability. If I never open their email, then that could lead to their mailing list provider to start sending their emails to spam or junk. If I’m on their list but never open the emails, I might be affecting their ability to send emails to their genuine fans.

I signed up to a lot of email lists as a result of free promotions i.e. the author gives away a free ebook if you sign up to their email list.

I often sign up as a low-risk way of finding new authors to read.

If I read and enjoy their free book, I’ll usually stay on their email list. If I don’t like the book—or if the author’s emails are too boring, to salesy, or arrive too oftethen I’ll usually unsubscribe.

The newsletters I’m most likely to read tend ot be short and have some personality–they show a little it of the author and their life. They’re not just about selling books. They don’t come too often (weekly or monthly is great. Daily is too often). And they’re not too long.

And on that note, I’ll stop before I go on too long!

What about you? Do you read author newsletters?

It depends.

There are some newsletters I’ve unsubscribed from because they emailed too often—generally once a week (sometimes more). The problem wasn’t so much the frequency as the fact that the email didn’t have any content I found useful. Often, it was little more than links to books by other authors in the same genre, and the author said s/he hadn’t read the books. Why would someone advertise or endorse a book they hadn’t read? It seems like a recipe for disaster.

I don’t mind more frequent emails when there is something to say e.g. a book is available on preorder, or there a book is on sale. I especially don’t want to miss out on sale books, and a lot of sales only last a few days. Readers might miss out of the author waited for their regular monthly or even weekly newsletter.

But in general, less is more.

I’m happy to receive a newsletter once a month, or more often if there is a good reason. Otherwise, I’m likely to either unsubscribe or (worse) delete without reading.

What about you? How often do you like to receive author newsletters?