Newletters

[Hope Ann]

Just wondering if anyone had suggestions or good ideas about what a writer’s newsletter should contain. I have a monthly one right now and I want it to be fun, yet somewhat official. (Basically, I want to use it for marketing at times, but I also want it to be fun) And I want there to be special stuff there that people who don’t get the newsletter won’t get. 😉 I was thinking of perhaps having links to stuff on a secret page; like deleted scenes from my stories. Does anyone here get (or happen to write) newsletters or have any suggestions or ideas. For those of you who might get my newsletter already, is there anything you think it would be cool to see?

Also, I realized figuring out a target audience would be a good thing to do. Generally, my target audience is fantasy readers…yep, really general I know. This is really something I need to think about and set up more before I get my next novella published and my newsletter magnets working in full swing.

Anyhow, any suggestions of any kind are welcome. 🙂

INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.

[Daeus]

@hope

This is a good topic. With newsletters, you have two main goals. First, develop a friendship with your subscribers. Second, get them to devour your emails.

Let’s start with the second. Most everybody has time to look through their emails. What few people can do is read every email entirely. Having people skim through your newsletter is bad, so you want to keep it short and sweet. I don’t know if you are subscribed to Goodriter, but you can learn a bit from those emails. First of all, they do a great job with controlling the length of their emails and getting subscribers interested in their deals with brief descriptions that say, “This thing is going to help you soooo much!”. The emails generally contain a short bit where the guy who rights them makes a few jokes about his email personality which have nothing to do with writing or business. Most of the jokes are crude and useless. These sections total wastes really. I don’t care about them. They have nothing to do with my interests and I don’t care too much about someone I hardly even know. How do we fix this in our newsletters? We focus on our readers. We can say thing like this, “Hi guys, how ya doing? I am sooooooo close to having another book out for you to read. In the mean time, I’ve got a recomendation that I think you’ll really like *rubs hands gleefully*” The “rubs hands gleefully” is the cherry on top. Not only are we getting excited about helping our readers (which they will like), we are giving them a glimpse at our personality which they can connect with. Along with showing your personality, you need to be totally honest. If you can admit when you make a mistake, people will really respect that. In fact, I would say make sure your subscribers know about your mistakes.

Now, more about getting them to read the whole thing. It starts with the first sentence. 80% of people stop reading after the first line, so the first sentence needs to catch their attention. Let’s think of some things email subscribers want to hear about. I’ll name a few: Deals, competitions, something that will entertain them like a comic, a recommendation for a great novel, non-fiction book, etc, sneak peaks at your upcoming works (scenes, character sketches, a synopsis), something sentimental like a poem about how much you appreciate them, controversial stuff (better know your target audience for this!). Ok so that’s some stuff they want. What they don’t want is super long emails, a bunch of stuff about you (a very little is actually good), and stuff that means a lot to you, but little to them (i.e. I just got a new software for doing my writing on).

Well, I said a lot. No time to edit this *clicks submit*

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[Hope Ann]

Bother it! I just realized I titled this thread newletters instead of newsletters. I guess there’s nothing I can do about it now. ;(

Ah, yes, @Daeus, short and sweet. I’m hoping to overhaul my own newsletter this month, once I figure out how exactly I want to do it. Yes, I do get the Goodriter newsletters. I’ve been looking at them and about any other newsletter I receive to glean ideas. And the informal language *rubs chin thoughtfully*, I may have to use that more. It’s something I’ve only seen in the past year or so (since, before that, I wasn’t really on any websites or such) and it took a little bit for me to get into it. But I like the tone it sets, even if I’m a little wary of using it too much myself.

Hmm, short and sweet, focus on the readers, and draw them in at the first sentence. Sorry; I’m just repeating what you said here, Daeus; it’s how I process and think things through. The general ideas themselves are simply enough, I just need to decide how I want to translate it to hard paper…or computer code, in this case. If I come up with any grand, universe-shattering revelations or ideas I’ll post them.

INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.

[Hope Ann]

An update on what I’m doing with my newsletter in case anyone cares.

1. I’ve changed the name to a much more catchy ‘Legend Seekers’ (verses ‘Writing in the Light Readers’)

2. I’ve worked on switching the focus of my newsletters to things fantasy readers would find cool; humorous tips in case you are caught away into a magical land, scenes which are scraps of parchment found in scroll archives, and New Fantasy Times reports…basically writing fun stuff, not about what I’m doing.

3. I’ve made my language less formal and also added two realm leapers to my team; characters who can insert their opinions or who I can reference as I talk about various things.

4. I’ve made an exclusive page with stories about said realm-leapers…though this is more for marketing effect and isn’t in the e-mail itself, though a link is there to a secret page.

(By the by, not that I’m trying to market myself here (well, not really), but if anyone happens to be interested in such a newsletter, or whats to look at my newsletter and give me corrections and advice, you can sign up for it here.)

INTJ - Inhumane. No-feelings. Terrible. Judgment and doom on everyone.

[Daeus]

Sounds like some good stuff @hope

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