Writers Life | 28 Content Ideas To Mix Up Your Author Newsletter

Please welcome guest blogger Jen Richards to our blog today to talk about Author Newsletter.

Author newsletters are an important way to connect directly with readers. Unlike social media where (increasingly) you have to pay to make sure your audience sees your content, newsletters are a reliable way to supply information about book launches, promotions and collaborations directly to people who are interested in them. However, a newsletter that only contains requests and reminders to buy, buy, buy will probably result in a high number of unsubscribes over time. To cultivate and grow a list of loyal subscribers (who are then more inclined to buy your books), it’s important to ensure that you aren’t always begging your readers for more.

But what exactly do newsletter readers want?

Our recent survey gave some insights into what readers want in an author newsletter. We asked readers exactly what they liked and disliked about the newsletters they received, as well as what they wanted to see more (and less) of. You can read the full post here.

Overall, respondents agreed that the most important thing about newsletters was finding out about books whether in the form of new releases, updates, excerpts, freebies or just the background on writing. But they also expected authors to share a little bit of themselves in each newsletter.

This balance can be difficult to strike. Waxing on too much about yourself may alienate people who signed up to find out when and where to buy your books. Constantly promoting your books can put off people who want to get to know you as an author. But you can do both at the same time.

Remember the WIIFM principle

The key when writing your marketing newsletter is to remember the WIIFM principle. WIIFM stands for “What’s in it for me?” It’s the underlying question people have as they read your marketing material. They want to know what value they will get from subscribing and staying subscribed to your newsletter.

That value comes in lots of forms. Being the first to hear about your news or being the only audience with whom you share particular insights with is a form of value. Useful content (like templates or playlists or recipes or lists of tools for productivity etc) is incredibly valuable to some audiences. Relevant content (eg a list of books recommendations published around Christmas) also represents value.

Readers in different genres in fiction and subject areas in non-fiction will have different expectations of your newsletter. However, these 29 ideas might help you develop content for it that is relevant, useful and insightful.

Promote your book as you write

1. Reveal a new cover design with readers. Or reveal two and ask them which one they prefer.
2. Share the first line of your work in progress or your frustration with a plot hole you are trying to dig yourself out of.
3. Share the inspiration for your current work. What triggered the idea? (Remember, our survey showed that people didn’t necessarily want long chunks of text, but they do want to feel like they know the inside story about the author. If your story could be a blog post, write that post, introduce it in your newsletter and link people through. This also drives traffic to your author site.)
4. Share your joy at getting a new contract/proof copy/box of books. Your newsletter subscribers don’t need to hear about every thought bubble as you have it, but if you’ve taken photos for social media you can also use them here too.
5. Take a picture of an unusual or unrecognisable item from your research and explain what it is. Better yet, see if readers can guess!
6. Create a Spotify playlist of the songs that relate to your book or the music you listen to as you write.

Give insights into your writing process

1. Share a story about your writing process. What does your daily writing routine look like?
2. Write a blog post about your favourite tools for writing. Do you use Scrivener, Word or Google Docs? What about Grammarly? Do you do something cool with Asana, Trello or Excel to help keep you on track. That’s useful content for some audiences.
3. Do a roundup blog post on your favourite books on writing.
4. Been to a conference? Do a wrap up about what you learnt or who you met!
5. Link to a blog post on your biggest challenge in writing your latest book and how you overcame it.
6. Got a furry writing companion? Nothing beats a cute animal pic! Share a funny story about how your pet impacts/inspires/helps your writing.
7. Showcase your writing space. Keep it real and don’t censor the mess… if a copy of your book is prominently displayed, who are we to judge?

Be a subject expert

1. Share a scripture that is meaningful to you or an inspirational quote.
2. Share book recommendations. You readers will no doubt love your expert recommendations for books in your genre.
3. Put together an infographic on facts from your non-fiction subject or the world of your book.
4. Share what else you’ve been writing (on other blogs etc) or presentations you’ve given.
5. Send a video message by embedding a clip of you reading your book or a clip of a talk you’ve given.
6. Do a roundup post of some kind. Your best/most popular posts of the year or cool things you’ve found on social media. Your favourite books about your topic. Remember, if it’s a long post, write it into a blog and link to it.
7. Publish a list of life hacks that are relevant and useful to your readership.

Personal notes

1. Don’t feel pressured to share things that make you uncomfortable, but understand that people have subscribed to find out about you, as well as your books. List the things that you are grateful for or do a shout out to people who supported you to write your book.
2. The view from here. If you are sending a newsletter every month (which was the optimal time interval to send out newsletters according to our survey), the view will be different throughout the year, which can be interesting for readers who live in different climates and hemispheres (particularly if you have a distinctive view).
3. Give readers a recipe. (Disclaimer: Recipes can work really well if they are relevant and give insight into you or your books. However, one survey respondent declared to us that recipes were something that would trigger them to unsubscribe! It goes to show that you should invest in understanding your own individual audience!)

Make it about them

1. Do a pop quiz or mini poll to find out what your particular set of readers want and hone your content accordingly.
2. Play Would You Rather with your readers. Keep it relevant to your non fiction subject matter or the world of your novel.
3. Ask a question. Tell readers they can “Hit reply and let you know the answer”. If readers do respond (don’t feel bad, most of them don’t!) make sure you reply to them.
4. Ask readers to make a choice that goes into your work. Keep the stakes small, you probably don’t want to let the reader decide on plot outcomes! But they could decide between two eye colours for a character.
5. Give a gift. Write a short story or create something relevant just for your newsletter subscribers. After all, hey deserve it!