How Can Authors Increase Their Newsletter Subscribers? 5 Secrets to Growing Your Author Newsletter and Email List
October 9, 2023
Are you ready to learn how to increase your email subscribers?
As an author you know that having a dynamic and interesting newsletter is essential to your marketing strategy. But how can authors increase their newsletter subscribers?
It doesn’t matter how awesome your newsletter is…if no one is subscribed to it, you’re basically just shouting into the void.
If you’re committed to growing an email list, I can tell you how to get subscribers.
I’m Kaitlin, a fiction editor for indie authors, and I’ve got your back! Keep reading to find out why you need a newsletter, what you should put in your emails, and how to tell if what you’re sending is working. Oh, and five proven ways to increase your newsletter subscribers!
Why authors need an email list and newsletter
Email lists are essential for building your brand. They can grow your preorders, reviews, and following. This should be a major part of your book marketing and promotion strategy. Every author (yes, I mean every… self-published authors, nonfiction authors, romance authors… everyone!) needs an email marketing strategy.
“But Kaitlin—I have a lot of followers on Bookstagram and BookTok and Facebook! Why do I also need a newsletter? Aren’t those social media accounts doing the same thing?”
Hate to tell you this, but nope! There’s one MAJOR difference between your email content and your social media content.
You don’t own your content on social media.
You DO own your email and website content.
What if your social media accounts were flagged and shut down? What if the algorithm changed and all of a sudden no one was seeing your posts? What if you had a health issue and couldn’t create all the content necessary for your social media accounts to keep you on everyone’s feed?
No, I’m not trying to scare you. I am, however, trying to get you to see that relying solely on social media for your author marketing strategy is a bad idea.
The content you put on your website and in your emails belongs to you. If your social media account gets shut down and you don’t have an email list? Sorry, all those followers are gone! If your account gets shut down, but you have a newsletter? You can still contact your community and market your upcoming books to them.
If you have a regular newsletter with a healthy number of subscribers, you don’t need to worry as much about what might happen on social media. This is as much about marketing as it is about protecting yourself and your business.
What are the benefits to having an email newsletter?
There are a lot of benefits to having an email list!
The first, and most important, is that it helps to build community between you and your readers. It’s fun to be part of a community! Having a list can help you from feeling alone during the self-publishing process.
Ever heard of parasocial relationships? A parasocial relationship is a one-sided relationship between an individual and someone who doesn’t know them. Think: Taylor Swift. A lot of people feel like they know her, but they really don’t.
Parasocial relationships are important for marketing. They make people feel like they know you. And if they feel like they know you, they will begin to trust you. They’ll want to purchase your books and merchandise. Sending out emails really helps build that relationship.
Another benefit of growing your list is that it makes it easy to let people know when you have new items for sale. Does your website have a merch section? Promote new items in your email! Is a special-edition of one of your books going to featured in a book box? Link it!
They are also great for getting your subscriber list hyped for what is coming next. New audiobook version of your book? Tell them how excited you are about the narrators! Give them an update on the word count for your WIP!
The third benefit to having an author newsletter is that it is cost-effective marketing. You know that self-publishing can get expensive. With a robust email list, you’ll get to promote yourself and your books in an inexpensive way!
How can authors increase their newsletter subscribers?
Ok you have a newsletter, but…how do you get more email subscribers? If you want to grow your email list, look no further! Here are five tips to help you build an email list full of loyal subscribers.
1. Offer a freebie. It is rare that someone will subscribe to your email list just because you ask them to. We all like free stuff! You’re going to have to offer a freebie as an incentive for potential subscribers. Once they subscribe, they will receive an automated email with the freebie. Boom! Everybody is happy! Your freebie could be anything you think your subscribers want, but I have seen authors offer an extended scene, a scene from another character’s pov, or even a bonus epilogue. If you aren’t sure what to offer…ask your readers what they’d like to see!
2. Offer exclusive content. People who join your email list are doing so because they want information they cannot get anywhere else. Your emails should be where you give first looks at new projects or merchandise. You could share the first chapter in your new book, licensed character art before it goes live in your shop, preorder links for your new book, or even an audio snippet for an upcoming audiobook. Tease what you’re showing in your emails on your social media accounts to drum up even more interest right before you send it out!
3. Add links to your email list on your social media accounts, author website, and in your books. Make it easy for people! When someone is visiting your profile or website…make sure they see where to enter their email address to sign up. If you want new subscribers you have to give readers a lot of opportunities to subscribe. I have also seen some authors place a QR code in the back of their books (near the bio or acknowledgments page) that leads people directly to their landing page.
4. Run a giveaway. If you want people to sign up for your email list, give away something like a free book or exclusive item to one person in a random drawing. If you’re looking for a quick way to grow your email list, this is it! This is a great book marketing tool because you can also get people excited for new merchandise at the same time. Maybe they don’t win the giveaway, but they’re still interested in the free product, so they buy it anyway! If you don’t have any new merchandise or books releasing anytime soon you can use a signed paperback or annotated chapter as your prize.
5. Participate in a newsletter swap. These are pretty popular and fairly common with indie authors on Facebook. The idea here is that you find an author who writes similar content (like genre, length, audience) and exchange some content for each other’s emails. This way, you can target fans of similar authors by showcasing your content and vice versa. The hope is that the other author’s subscribers will be interested in signing up for your email list. This is good to do when you are nearing a book launch so you can get as many preorders and sales as possible.
However you decide to answer the question “How do authors increase their newsletter subscribers?” I hope you choose a strategy or two from the list above and stick with it!
What should an author newsletter include?
One of the best ways to answer the question “How can authors increase their newsletter subscribers?” is by being themselves!
Your newsletter should showcase your personality. People signed up because they wanted to hear from YOU, so make your content personal and fun. If people know they are going to laugh or read something really interesting they will be more likely to open your emails.
Remember, these people already like you, so feel free to have fun and be yourself.
That being said, every email you send should have:
- A strong CTA (call-to-action)
- Links to purchase anything new (or pre-order something releasing soon)
- Something fun just for newsletter subscribers (people love exclusive content!)
DON’T just include tons of links to buy. Curate your buy links so people don’t feel like they’re just reading a giant advertisement. It’s definitely ok to include a couple of links, but if your entire email feels like you’re just trying to sell more books rather than build a community, people will unsubscribe.
Make sure your subject line is strong. Think about how many companies use social media or email to contact their target audience. Try to stand out from the crowd. Flodesk recommends only using 5-10 words in a subject line. Add an emoji or two to catch your reader’s eye, and make it short and sweet!
Make your emails dynamic with images and branded formatting. Most email marketing websites make it easy to customize colors and fonts and add a logo.
How do I set up my email marketing service?
First, find an email subscription company, email provider, or email service and create an account. Most are fairly inexpensive until you reach 1000 subscribers. I personally use Flodesk, but know many authors who have had success with Mailer Lite or Hubspot or Convertkit. I suggest visiting each website and seeing which one looks the easiest for you to use and manage. The best email service is the one that works the best for you.
Then, add the link to subscribe to your website in an accessible place with a strong call to action. This is where you will collect an email address from each person who wants to join your list.
Once you have some email subscribers, begin drafting your email. You don’t want to overwhelm your subscribers with content, so I recommend sending an email once a month.
How do I know if my email marketing is working?
If you’re using an email marketing provider, you definitely need to monitor your metrics.
Metrics are indicators that help assess the success of email campaigns. Metrics you want to pay attention to are:
- Open rate. This tells you how many people on your mailing list are opening your messages. A good open rate is 17-28%. One of the best ways to tell if your regular emails are effective is by looking at your open rate. If your email open rate is much below the standard listed above, you may want to search for how to create more engaging subject lines and preview text.
- Click-through rate. This tells you how many people clicked on a link in your text. A good click-through rate is 3%. If your click-through rate is very low, you may want to consider including fewer links in your text. It could be that people feel inundated with the amount of things you want them to click on.
- Unsubscribe rate. If you notice that a lot of people on your email list are unsubscribing from your newsletter, it’s time to reevaluate. Email marketing for authors is constantly evolving, and you will have to figure out what works best for you and your community to grow and build your email list.
It's time for you to learn how to grow your audience
Has this blog answered the question “How can authors increase their newsletter subscribers?” I hope so!
If you are looking for a way to promote your books (that doesn’t involve paid Facebook ads!) you need to use email! It seems like all authors get bogged down in marketing their books, but this is an inexpensive way to connect with your audience, build community, and promote any upcoming book launch.
As an editor for indie authors, I love to help authors publish their best stories. If you’re looking for an editor who will be with you every step of the way, please contact me to talk about your project.
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