Category Archives: Newsletter
Good To Know
Apparently I either bored, grossed out, or offended four newsletter subscribers with my most recent newsletter because they unsubscribed. Which, as I said in my previous post, is fine—I want people who are reading the newsletter because they’re actually readers of mine who want to know what I’m doing, not folks who signed up just to get a free book. I really hate using terms like “organic” to describe the former people but you know what I mean.
That being said, I can also understand why some people might not want to hear about the cancer and how I was feeling at the time (namely, terrified and convinced I was going to die in ten months due to a reading on the PET scan that was, in fact, not osseous metastatic disease as suggested by the doc who wrote the report). I won’t really be discussing it again in future newsletters apart from brief reports on my six month checkups, just in case you’re on the fence about subscribing.
Still, I need to talk about more than just the latest release and whatever backlist book I’m promoting in a given newsletter. Courtney Milan does a beautiful job with that, talking about all the various teas she tries and throwing in little personal elements before she promotes her book. I tried talking about jewelry but that petered out quickly, Maybe I should talk about crafting in general? Crafting is part of my writing process, after all, and I usually have at least one project on the go at any time and I can show progress pics, or talk about why I picked that project, or mention the company that charged me for patterns I didn’t buy and never wanted, and that they stole from other creators. Ahem.
I’ll think about it this week. In the meantime, since I don’t have access to ABC or any of the streaming services hosting the Oscars I’m gonna catch up on the winners over at TikTok. While we still have it, anyway.
New Newsletter Subscribers
A newsletter is an important promotion tool for an author, especially indie authors, because it’s your direct pipeline to your readers that no middleman can touch. With a newsletter you don’t have to worry about the Book of Face throttling your posts, or some bozo billionaire tanking another social media platform (or the government trying to shut down a SM platform, grr). As long as you have a list of genuine fans and readers you can email them directly about upcoming publications and sales, give them pertinent buy links to your Shopify store, show them adorable pictures of your cats, etc.
The trick is to build your newsletter list in such a way that it contains only the people who actually read your stuff. Yeah, a huge NL list is great, and there are all kinds of ways to boost your NL numbers through things like swaps and paid promos. But if 80% of your NL members come from those mechanisms, they probably signed up for a free book and aren’t really going to bother opening your newsletter when it hits their inbox. The word here is “organic.” You want people to sign up because they found you, think you’re interesting and your writing is fabulous, and they want to hear more.
Why am I rattling on about newsletters? Well, I’ve had three people sign up to my newsletter in the last month or so through the signup form here on my website. This freaking delights me because it means (at least, I hope it means) that these three subscribers are organic—they like my work and they want to hear about new releases. When I send out a newsletter next week with a pre-order link for A Court of Green Clover, I can pretty much guarantee that they’ll want to buy it or read it on KU (as an aside I’ll be releasing ACoGC on Amazon and KU first, then after the KU period expires I’ll be releasing it wide, so if you prefer to buy your books on Apple or Kobo you will be able to pick it up in three months).
Right now, my newsletter list is only a skosh over 500 members. I prune out the hard bounces and the unsubscribes without rancor because those are the people who wouldn’t have opened the NL anyway. The important thing is that even with pruning the member list is growing, slowly but surely. Or to quote Sall Field as Norma Rae, “You LIKE me, you really, really LIKE me!”
Still Working on High Tide
High Tide Episode 9: …Or Will It? is now live on Kindle Vella. You know the drill.
With that done and uploaded, I’m about to send out a newsletter to my subscribers with a special epilogue to Crystal Blade that won’t be released publicly. Only my newsletter (and Patreon subscribers, when I get it set up) will be able to read it. So if you want to see how the Buff Lords react to the events at the end of Crystal Blade, you might want to subscribe.
In other news I’m setting up a Shopify storefront so that I can sell bundled ebooks (and eventually signed print books but I don’t have the spoons for that at the moment) directly to readers. I figure I already have the Esposito County Shifters bundle, so I can do one for Olympic Cove, Two Thrones, Hidden Empire, and my standalone MM titles. We’re looking at some major bills in the near future so any money I can make from my writing is needed and most welcome. And I will finally be putting my Patreon together this month, so readers will be able to get sneak peeks at work, exclusive short stories in one of my series, and free ebooks and print books depending on their tier.
And now, I must write.
It’s Quarterly Tax Day
If you’re a small businessperson like me, remember to send your quarterly payment off to the IRS.
So I picked a new winner for my giveaway, and it turned out to be a member of my reader group. Posted on the group and sent an email to Winner #2. You guessed it—she has also not responded yet. I figure I’ll give her until midnight tonight and if I don’t hear from her I’ll pick winner #3.
This is not making me feel very confident about future giveaways. I’m not sure if people just don’t want the pendant (which I can understand, but it’s worth $137—they can always give it to someone else if it’s not to their taste) or they’re just not checking their emails. Next month I’m giving away an Anime Tarot Deck—maybe that will elicit more interest.
Anyway, back to work.
The State of the Writer, May 2023 Edition
Crystal Blade Episode 12: On Wednesdays We Wear Pink is live over at Kindle Vella. And may I say that it was fun writing an Uskelan episode of Mean Girls.
In other writing news I’m getting close to the end of Crystal Blade, which is nice because I am genuinely itching to get to work on High Tide (Olympic Cove 5) and To Love a Wild Swan (Hidden Empire 3). Remember, the goal for 2023 is to finish the Olympic Cove series and it’s already May so I really need to get stepping on High Tide and Hurricane Warning. Also, when I’m finished with Blade I’ll upload all of the episodes in a swath so that people can read them for a month while I’m prepping it for publication. Because I’m nice like that.
I’m also plugging along on Goddess of the Nile, the Hidden Empire novella that will only be available to newsletter subscribers. Considering that it follows the adventures of both Louisa and Henry AND Fyodora and Callum as they try to reunite a reincarnated warrior with his water goddess love while in Cairo, I’m hoping that it will prove enticing enough to get more people to sign up to my newsletter. We’ll see.
As if that wasn’t enough to have me running around like a headless chicken, I also need to get started on some short stories if I ever want my Patreon to get off the damned ground. I have *counts* four series going at the moment so you would think I’m spoiled for choice when it comes to short story plots. I could write about a day in the life of a queen trying to juggle ruling, her new twins, and her loving husband, I could do a prequel story for Fyodora (God knows she’s had enough erotic adventures over the centuries), and I could write about any of the groups on Olympic Cove. I’ve already done a Paladins of Crystal novella for Paladins of Crystal and am working on a separate PC academy romance for Vella, but I’m sure I could come up with a prequel story about Crystal’s life back in Towanda or one of the Buff Lords and how they got chosen to be a royal paladin.
All I need is time. That’s turning into a common theme with me, isn’t it?
Well, That’s Disheartening
So I sent out a newsletter today, as you do, which was actually the first one of the year because this month has been a bit hectic. I covered a little of what’s been going on, passed along the projected release date for Shifter Woods: Claw, and did a little promo for Storm Season (because what’s the point of having a backlist if you can’t promote it to people?).
As a result, seven people unsubscribed. Don’t know if I bored them, they didn’t want to read about a MMM urban fantasy romance, or what. Maybe they were annoyed that I didn’t add my section about jewelry and jewelry making, I dunno.
But I dutifully cleaned them from my mailing list, got rid of the two hard bounces, and I’m now down to 577 subscribers, bless each and every one of their tolerant hearts. I suppose I’ll need to take a look at some of the newsletter builder promos on BookFunnel and see if I can rebuild some of those numbers. To be honest, though, if someone doesn’t want to read my newsletter then I’m totally okay with them unsubscribing. Big numbers would be awesome, but in the end I’d prefer my newsletter readers to be people who genuinely want to hear about my books and the crazy stuff that happens while I’m writing them.
Or who want little jewelry and gem tidbits, either way. In any case, if you’d like to subscribe to my newsletter you can click the link in the first paragraph and it’ll take you to the signup page (and yes, people who sign up get a free book because free books are 🎵awesome🎶).
As for me, I have to go back to work. This novella won’t edit itself, you know.
Nicola Cameron Writes 