Authors need to grow their platform. Authors want to sell books. One thing the marketing experts usually agree on is that an email list is a powerful way for authors to grow their platform. And writers usually grow their email list through offering a newsletter. That’s where the helpful book, Newsletter Ninja by Tammi Labrecque comes in. As the subtitle explains the book will teach you “how to become an author mailing list expert.”
One of the first topics in the book is explaining why email lists are powerful. Here are two reasons:
- You don’t own your relationship with social media followers. You must work through the social media platform to interact with them, and the platform can change its algorithms whenever it pleases. If you quit the platform, those contacts are lost. In contrast you own your email list. You have the ability to contact those people directly, whenever you want. And you can take your email list with you if you choose to switch email services.
- Email marketing converts better than social media marketing. In marketing, “convert” means getting the customer to complete a goal. In the case of author marketing, this is usually clicking a link or purchasing a book. You will bet more conversions with 1,000 emails than you will with 1,000 social media followers.
Based on that information, it makes sense that an intentional writer would want to become an email list expert. This book will help you. As the back cover explains:
Newsletter Ninja is a comprehensive resource designed to teach you how to build and maintain a strongly engaged email list—one full of actual fans willing to pay for the books you write, rather than free-seekers who will forget your name and never open your emails.
What does Newsletter Ninja teach?
The author does a good job of clearly and simply explaining the steps an author must take to create an email list, grow the list, and maintain a healthy list. (Newsletters are not do-once-and-forget-it sort of task. The goal is to be consistent and build engagement between the author and recipients.)
Topics cover everything from choosing an email service provider and writing your first newsletter, to creating engagement and purging dead weight. (Why would you want to get rid of email subscribers after you’ve spent all that effort to get them? Read chapter 18 to find out.)
In addition to step-by-step explanations, I appreciate how the author explains the why behind email lists. As the author explains, a great newsletter isn’t salesy or annoying. Rather the goal is to create newsletters that the recipients want to open, because they have content that is interesting and useful. That concept alone will help you rise above the crowd.
In addition, I appreciated the author’s engaging and humorous style, and her ability to explain these concepts clearly and in plain English. At 136 pages, the book is short and to the point. I found it an excellent resource for understanding the basics of how to utilize email lists to build your author platform and engage with your audience.
Check out Newsletter Ninja today
Newsletter Ninja: How to Become An Author Mailing List Expert by Tammi Labrecque
For more helpful information, visit the author’s website, NewsletterNinja.net
Other resources to help you build your email list
The Ultimate Guide to Email Marketing for Authors from Written Word Media
The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide to Grow Your Audience from Kindlepreneur
How to Grow Your Fiction Email List Subscribers from The Creative Penn
Lisa E. Betz is an engineer-turned-mystery-writer, entertaining speaker, and unconventional soul. She inspires others to become their best selves, living with authenticity, and purpose, and she infuses her novels with unconventional characters who thrive on solving tricky problems. Her Livia Aemilia Mysteries, set in first-century Rome, have won several awards, including the Golden Scroll Novel of the Year (2021).
She and her husband reside outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Scallywag, their rambunctious cat—the inspiration for Nemesis, resident mischief maker in her novels. Lisa directs church dramas, hikes the beautiful Pennsylvania woods, eats too much chocolate, and experiments with ancient Roman recipes. Visit lisaebetz.com.
