The answer to the question in the title is … I’m still not sure why. This post is part of my non-series about our publishing and marketing endeavors. This is one of the tips I keep hearing over and over again, and it’s the one I am the least certain of. I don’t like mail much to begin with, unless it’s money or from people I really like. Nobody likes junk mail. So what would this mailing list of ours be for?
So here is what I think it would be for:
1. New Releases: If you would like to know when we put out a new book.
2. If you would like to be notified about our future travel plans. (Since we travel in a truck and book freight as we can, we might not always know too far ahead of time. And sometimes we aren’t allowed to tell, for security reasons, depending on the load we are carrying. But we do have people say all the time, “If you’re in my area, let me know!” It means coming out to see us at a truck stop, but if you want to know …)
3. Information about future projects we plan to do.
Our blog now has a widget on the left side below the “subscribe to the blog” link so that you can subscribe to the mailing list. The question is, do our readers want to receive a newsletter? We can add the subscriber link to the books and facebook, but we would like some feedback on whether people are interested in receiving a newsletter, and what they would like to see included. We don’t want to be another ignored piece of mail in your inbox. You have too much of that already. So let us know in the comments, or go ahead and subscribe to the mailing list if you seriously want to hear from us. Don’t do it just to be nice. Subscribe if you seriously want to know about the above topics, or something else, and let us know what you would like. Thanks!
FINDLEY FAMILY VIDEO 
My question would be how did David Gaughran communicate with readers before he created a newsletter only for new releases. He had to have built up a reader base in some way.
As a reader I enjoy newsletters from authors that tell me things I want to know. What are you working on, when will it be released, are you traveling to do research, are you having a giveaway? it has to have a personal feel to it which is not easy for many authors.
That is my two cents!
Thanks. That’s good advice. I don’t really feel led to write regular newsletters as such. They would just be irregular announcements. It’s hard enough to keep the blog going. 🙂
I feel the same way. I keep subscribing to things that interest me then get overwhelmed and have to unsubscribe. So what would my readers want in a newsletter?
One self-publishing author I respect very much, David Gaughran, says he is only using it for new release announcements, to get people to buy his book and push him up in the new release visibility ranks. Sounds like a good idea. I would have to have quite a few fans to do that, I think.