#Help! #Newsletters and e-mail lists. Do share yours!

Hi all:

I need your help once again. As you know I’ve been thinking about book marketing strategies, looking at what has worked well for me so far (? I enjoy the interaction with other bloggers and I’ve met very interesting people, both fellow authors and non-authors [not many left] but what might make a book sell remains a mystery to me), and what are the things that I haven’t tried.

From the very beginning I heard, and I was advised, to have a newsletter. As I didn’t have many (any?) followers at the time, and I wasn’t sure about my plans, I didn’t, and to this day I haven’t. I’ve read posts about the mechanics of it, possible tools, etc. I understand it is a way to be in touch with your readers (or clients if you do other things) and of collecting an e-mail list.

The reasons why I haven’t yet set up a newsletter are varied. I don’t know how much time I’d be able to dedicate to it. I translate, I blog, I read and review, I write… Life? What’s that? I know frequency can be varied but still… I write in different genres, and many avid readers readmostly within their preferred genre. Would I have to have different newsletters and different lists for different readers? Would I have enough to write in them? Or should I assume that people would read anything I write because it’s mine? (Ja!) Also, most newsletters offer something as a way of enticing people to sign. A PDF of some sort, a story. Many seem to be how to booklets but if one only writes fiction and with so much fiction already available free, what could I offer? (Yes I could translate a page for somebody but that might work for the translating, but not for the books, and it could end up being very labour intensive).

So, once more I’m looking for help from you, authors and anybody else who might have a newsletter. And from people who sign onto newsletters too. Or have an opinion.

To people who have newsletters: How often do you publish them? What kind of content you offer? Do you have a giveaway or special offer as a way of getting people to sign on the dotted line? What tools do you use in relation to it (to reply, to collect e-mail addresses)? If you write in different genres, do you have only one newsletter and mix content or would you publish a different newsletter for different topics? And, as I’m so terrible with designs and visuals, feel free to share yours in the comments, for inspiration (and of course, hopefully some people will sign).

To people who subscribe to newsletters (yes, I do sometimes), what encourages you to sign? What content do you like to see in them? How often is too often? What makes you unsubscribe? And, what do you think about the pop-up boxes? (I must confess I hate them with a passion).

Before I leave, I must make an apology and a confession. I got Sally Cronin’s (don’t miss her blog) invitation to the impromptu writing that is going around. I thought I’d do it over the weekend but still went to her blog to thank her. And being me, I was going to leave a comment and inadvertently read the prompt. So I ruined the experiment. Since then, I’ve seen quite a few people taking part, so I have no idea whom I might be able to invite. So, I’ve decided to file the idea and get it going again at some time in the future, when everybody has forgotten about it (and hopefully I’ve published the series, so I won’t have so many things in my head) and catch everybody unawares.

And, before I leave you today, and on the subject of letters…

Ketty Lester, because I love you all.

Thank you all for reading, and you know, like, share, comment…and if you want to CLICK somewhere, please, do!