Building an author email list

As a follow-up to last week’s blog post about how newsletters can help authors, this blog post looks at how to build an email list for the newsletter.

A lot of people offer paid online courses about email newsletters. If you want a good overview of how to build an author email list before dinging your credit card, a good starting point is a free online course offered by Reedsy. Here are the main points:

1. Choose the right mailing list provider

2. Get an author website

3. Attract subscribers with a reader magnet

4. Grow your list through giveaways

5. Give your subscribers a warm welcome

6. Keep your readers engaged

You can read the full discussion on the Reedsy blog at https://blog.reedsy.com/author-email-list/

Two authors I follow, David Gaughran and Tammi L. Labrecque, are major advocates for authors using email newsletters. Labrecque’s book Newsletter Ninja is full of details about why and how to use newsletters, and her website offers courses by her. See https://newsletterninja.net/the-courses/