Having a newsletter as an author is a vital connection between writer and reader. I’ve been researching the link and I have been trying to offer a newsletter to my readers for a while. With a WordPress site like mine, you can’t usually add a subscription form, but I have managed to work my way around that.
At first I found writing a newsletter a bit daunting, as it’s conversational between author and reader and I wasn’t sure what format my readers would like best and didn’t want them to feel like they were bombarded with emails. I finally managed to work out how to use MailChimp, but then found that I couldn’t integrate it to my site. Here’s what I have done:
- I signed up for a MailChimp free account.
- I worked out how to manage the lists there and am still getting used to their customisable themes.
- I added a newsletter sign up tab to my blog.
- I created a contact form.
- I used this form for people to send me their subscription details.
This can be a bit time consuming, as you do have to manually add each new subscriber to your MailChimp list, but it works for me. Once my latest readers subscribe, I add them to my list and they receive regular updates about my writing, or musings. Far from being as scary as I thought, I actually love being able to chat to people who enjoy my books and they seem to have fun finding out what I’m writing next. It also gives me the opportunity to ask my readers advice on what merchandise they would like to see, what stories they love best and for me to share more of my writing journey.
I read somewhere that a great subscriber list holds 1,000 true fans who love your work, want to support your author journey and read your new books. I’ve just started my own newsletter, but the people on it are vivacious and friendly and it’s such a compliment that they’ve signed up to find out more about my work. I may not have a 1,000 subscribers yet, but the one’s I do have are just as precious.
You are welcome to subscribe to my newsletter here: Lizzie’s Newsletter subscription link. I would love to see you there! Here is some of the book swag that you might find delivered by joining my newsletter.
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