Why Email is King

Email?  What do you mean email?  Isn’t email a little dated?

Yes, it is true, email isn’t as sexy as Instagram, as popular as Facebook, or as batshit crazy as TikTok, but your email list is your entire business model because you own it. All those people who sign up to your newsletter are there for a reason, because they are interested in what you have to say…or they’re freebie hunters, but we’ll get to them in a moment.

A well managed list of readers, fans and superfans, has more pulling power than all the retweets, likes and love hearts in the world. Aside from hitting the social media viral lottery, email is king.

The principles are pretty simple too.  With your new shiny website you offer something for free to potential readers.  Think of it like the local supermarket with those little kiosk stands positioned as soon as you walk in.

‘Would you like to try a piece of Amazing Blow Your Pants Off Chocolate?’ They’ll ask as you walk by.  ‘It’s Free.’

Well, as it is free I might as well give it a go, who knows, if I like it I might pick up a bar for myself.

What us as authors have instead of the piece of chocolate, are Lead Magnets, or Reader Magnets to use the popular term. This can be a prequel novella in your series (or potential series), it can be a short story series starter, an epilogue to your first book or even “case files” which adds a little more character depth to that thriller you’ve just penned.  It could be The Ten Step Checklist and Workbook if say, you were writing a Self-Publishing guide…actually, I’ll jot that idea down for later, these blog posts might be repurposed in the future.

Having that something there, allowing readers to try before they buy, is extremely powerful.

But how will the potential readers get my reader magnet?

Digitally.

We live in a digital world, and the beauty of that is you are able to give things away (in exchange for an email address) for free.

Having that sign up form front and central on your shiny new website, on all your social media platforms, at the back of your books…basically everywhere where you are online, alongside an image of the freebie you’re giving away, will allow readers to sign up and receive your Reader Magnet automatically.

But where do these email addresses go, and how do I gain access to them?

You simply sign up to an email marketing platform.  There are many out there.  I use two companies.  For Indie Author Roadmap we use a company called Mailerlite which allows you to collect your first 1000 email subscribers for free before you are required to upgrade, and for my Rob Radcliffe and R.J Radcliffe author names, I use a company called Kit, which allows 10,000 free subscribers before having to upgrade.

On these platforms you are able to create sign up forms which you will put on your website so that when the reader signs up, that address is then stored on your database in Mailerlite/Kit.  You are also able to create landing pages, which are a dedicated page that allows readers to sign up to get that Reader Magnet. Along with these tools is the ability to automate your emails. 

The steps from the reader’s point of view would look a little like this:

• Reader signs up to your newsletter.

• Reader is redirected to a thank you page asking them to check their emails.

• Reader checks said emails and finds a subscription confirmation email and confirms.

• Reader is redirected to your hosted page where they can click a link and download their Reader Magnet.

• Reader is now on your list and each week/month when you send out your newsletter, it will be these readers you will be sending it to.Your tribe.

• If automations have been set up, Reader will then receive pre-created emails from you a few days later talking about yourself, the series, anything you want to say to your readers really.

I’m just scratching the surface here because I want to keep from overwhelming you with information overload, but like I said, there are many email marketing platforms out there and they all do the same job, which is compile your list and provide the tools to communicate with them.

I’m going to stop and tell you a little story now which will hopefully convince you of how using a Reader Magnet and email can get you in front of readers, the right readers, who will hopefully become your fans.

There are two budding authors called…errr, Author A and Author B (I know, right, imaginative).

Both authors write fiction novels, although the same concept is easily interchangeable to non-fiction scribblers.

Author A and B have both written their first novel and have a short story based in the same world too.

Author A decides to give away her short story and placing it front and centre on her website with sign up form collecting email addresses for those Try Before You Buy readers.  She also places an ad at the front and back of her second book informing readers they can sign up and receive this book for free.  There is a link they can click and this will take them to that landing page where, once again they are able to receive the short story for free in exchange for their email address.

Author A also places the short story for free on all the digital book platforms so browsing readers might come along and Try Before They Buy.

Author B doesn’t want to give his work away for free.  He worked long and hard on both the novel and the short story, why shouldn’t he be compensated for all that effort?

Author A posts on all her social media channels about the free book, she push push pushes, signing up to book lists which, for a small fee, posts to their readers about the free book.  The freebie is downloaded 1000 times, Author A has reached 1000 readers who are primed to try this short story from an unknown author.  100 even sign up to Author A’s newsletter and 30 of those readers buy her other book priced at $3.99.

Author B does the same, pushing his short story and novel on his social media channels.  They sign up to the same book list which will advertise the short story to their readers for $1.99 (that is what Author B feels the short is worth).

Author B’s short story is downloaded 20 times and the accompanying novel 10 times.

The results:

Because Author A decided to give away their short for free, it was downloaded 1000 times and 30 of these readers decided to buy the full priced second book, netting her $119.70 in sales.

Author B received $39.80 from their short and a further $39.90 from book 2 totalling to $79.70.

Now these numbers are made up for the purpose of this example, but having promoted my own books in a similar fashion in the past I imagine they’re a pretty accurate representation.

Because Author A chose to let readers try before they bought, they received more downloads which led to more sales of the second book.  Author A’s short received more traffic.  Additional to this, 100 people out of the initial 1000, signed up to her email list.  She is now able to contact these 100 readers 1 on 1, and that brings us back to the whole reason for any of this, the ability to contact your readers so that when next you have something to put out, you have a direct line to the people already interested in your work.

Perhaps Author B received a few sign ups to his own list too, but given he reached only 20 readers with his short as apposed to the 1000 readers Author A had download her work, the number of sign ups B would receive would be a very small number.

Now, there are two ways to structure the giving away for your reader magnet. As a new author the above way (free everywhere, push, push, push), I think is the best because it builds your list quickly.

Freebie Hunting

The only problem with this way is that you will run into a lot of readers who just want the FREE thing.  Freebie hunters will not spend money on books no matter how much they enjoyed your freebie.  With so many other free titles out there why would they bother?

This is something you’ll have to get to grips with if you’re putting the reader magnet front and centre everywhere.  The freebie hunters will fill your list but some of the time not even bother to open any more of your emails you send, because they’ve moved on, they got their free thing and now they’re hunting again.

As your backlist or series grows, you may want to think about making your reader magnet exclusive.

By this I mean advertising it at the back of your book 1, 2, 3 etc.  Yes, you will not receive as many sign ups, but the ones you do, you know have already paid for and read the first book.  Still have the freebie on your social media sites, of course, because if the reader is looking through your platform it means they are interested.

The result is a more engaged list full of readers who are happy to actually pay for your other books.  Readers who spend money on your books and love you for it are the types of readers we want to be able to contact really.

So there are two main schools of thought here.

Free everywhere, on every platform, joining promos to push your freebie for sign ups even though you’ll receive many freebie hunters on your list, or exclusivity. Making that reader magnet sacred to those who have bought your first book and liked it enough to want to sign up for the free thing.

Both have their pros and cons, and I use both methods for different pen names.

No matter which way you chose, building your list of readers is a must.  Things change on platforms you don’t control all the time.  The ability to reach people is becoming more and more of a pay to play exercise each day.  With your list, you own it, it is yours, and it costs nothing to send that next email.

This is why email is king, and having that list which enables you to engage with those readers directly is what will drive your business and future sales forward.  With the Reader Magnet free on digital sites you will start to see a steady number of organic sign ups (people finding your Reader Magnet and signing up to your newsletter off their own back but might just want the free thing).  You have introduced your work to them and it has cost them nothing, they’ve enjoyed your scribbles and decided they want to hear more of what you have to say and so sign up to your newsletter.

The aim of the game is to target as many readers as you can and having that direct access to those readers who took a chance on you, first downloading your Reader Magnet and then signing up to your list, is key to moving forward in your author career.  For instance, who would be perfect to ask if they wanted to become Beta Readers for the next book?  This list of readers is YOUR list, and reaching them isn’t controlled by another company (social media).

Imagine collecting these email addresses, sending out newsletters to your readers, priming them for your next book, so that when you release your next work you have a ready made platform who are all ready to buy.

I’ve been doing this for a while, and although I could always do more to find more readers, have them on my lists (yes, that’s right, plural, remember, I write under two different pen names) I still have around 5000 peeps who I am able to email my newsletter to every month.  Generally speaking about 50% open those emails, so this means I can reach around 2500 readers, who I know have already read my stuff, for free.

Imagine compounding that?

I know authors with lists of 10,000, 20,000 and even 100,000 readers.  They are all there, fans of the author, waiting to engage (yes, some of these wonderful readers will email you back to say hi), and  buy the next book from you.

Through your email newsletters your readers get to know you as a person and will feel a closer connection to the person whose book they invested their time in reading.  After a while you notice the same names popping up in your email inbox, readers wanting to chat.  Always email them back, engage with them, be sincere, be truthful and real, because these people will eventually become more than just readers, they’ll become fans and then super fans (some might even book a day off work whenever you release a book.  Yes people do this.  Superman’s do this).

The relationship I now have with my own readers started with that first email welcoming them to my Readers Club. Over the years you really do get to know these people and some become friends.

This is the real reason why email is king.  Forget for a moment collecting readers like stamps, compiling them on your list, the bigger and more engaged, the better.  These are real people who genuinely want to hear more from you.  Why would you not want that?