A newsletter seems to be the in thing and I’ve been studying the what to do and what not to dos of all of this. Lots of people seem happy with mailchimp (though I’m open to suggestions). A few months ago I came across insta-freebie from an author’s blog which has been a good and bad thing. Lots to read but on the other hand, to get the free book you need to sign up for the author’s newsletter. I don’t really mind that. I’m considering it research because I have learned things.

1. Honestly once a month is really all you need unless you have something special like a cover reveal, new release or you’re part of one of these huge multi author giveaways. It’s amazing how many newsletters you can get. Some people do the once a month thing and give you a newsletter with content. Others are there weekly which seems a bit much but still, not so bad. And then there are the others who I swear send out newsletters multiple times a week and with very little new content. That is annoying as hell. That’s a good way to get someone to unsubscribe. You don’t need that much content with your readers and if you’re telling me you wrote 80K in one month and still have time to email three times a week, I have to wonder how good your story is and how much attention you’re giving it.

2. DO put in something fun to read, a little why you wrote what you wrote, something that interests you and/or your characters. Interview the characters, give me something to look at as I scan around for whatever links you wanted me to see.

3. Pictures are nice (though be nice and don’t snitch pictures that aren’t yours)

4. For the love of god spellcheck it. It’s something your sending right to your readers. If I get something full of spelling errors I’m not going to rush to read your work, just saying.

5. Having fun things for the readers can be nice too. I’ve seen some do polls, hold contests for naming rights or little cameos in a work

But yeah seriously, sending out three newsletter a week is annoying (and these aren’t even the people who have made an error and they need to send corrections)