After you start publishing work, after you begin building a following of readers, you realize you need to stay connected so you can inform readers of what you're working on or offer writing advice or promote your latest book.
Now, you may be wondering what the best method of communication may be. You've got a website, you promote your work on Twitter and Facebook. Maybe your blog allows for an RSS feed. Do you also need a newsletter?
Before you starting penning a periodical, several questions need to be addressed. What reasons drive your desire to begin a newsletter? Who will read your newsletter? And perhaps the most important question of all: Why should readers peruse your publication?
Why Start a Newsletter?
Obviously, an e-mail newsletter can help you stay in touch with readers and grow a larger circulation base. Do newsletters give all writers and genres a boost?
- Non-Fiction writers - experts on the topic they write about - benefit from this type of promotion. By offering articles, breaking news, and links to other information regarding your area of expertise, readership will increase. In many cases, cross-links with other websites draw additional readers.
- Fiction writers use a newsletter to update fans about the latest news: book or article updates, blog posts, book tours, speaking engagements. Some authors offer book excerpts or links to video or podcasts.
Who Will Read Your Work?
Determining your intended audience will help you decide what type of content to include in the newsletter. Plus, defining your readership helps you focus on places to find potential readers.
Once you've defined who your audience will be, you need to ask why this audience will want to read your updates. Are they looking for specific advice on the topic? Do they want general information about books, articles, blog posts? Are they interested in personal information?
Sometimes, a writer may try to cover all bases. Trust me, as an avid reader of newsletters from several of my favorite writers, their publications don't always contain the information I'm most interested in. But that may be okay, too, since it forces me to check out their websites.
Formulate a strong mental picture about the type of newsletter you want. Play with several different design ideas. Make a list of potential articles. These strategies provide focus for you and the kind of information you plan to impart to readers. I scoured my favorite writer newsletters and found the following items:
- Top-# lists
- Features
- Reviews
- Q & A
- Guest Writers
- Classified
What Elements Haven't I Considered?
Think you've thought of everything? Think again. Here are a few other considerations:
- How often will I publish a newsletter? Weekly? Monthly? Only you know for sure how much information you'll have to make a newsletter a worthwhile reading experience.
- Will I write every article? Depending on the scope of your publication, a newsletter can be a time-consuming project. Can you afford to pay others to write for the newsletter?
- Should I offer a premium subscription or should my newsletter be free of fees? Once again, the size of the project may point you toward the best answer for you situation.
- Does the publication need a copyright
Have you ever considered writing a newsletter? I’ve done one through my Website for a couple of years and I just love doing it. In fact, my blog is basically an extension of what I have in my newsletter. So for me, my newsletter layout gives me a guideline to follow in terms of what to write about on my blog. In the beginning, however, this hobby I love so much felt more like a chore.
My newsletter started off as a resource for writers who were just starting off on their writing careers—just like I was at the time. Unfortunately, it didn’t take off the way I’d hoped it would have. Maybe the information I was putting in there wasn’t exactly what readers wanted or, maybe, I just wasn’t as ‘into’ what the newsletter was representing. Don’t get me wrong, I love writing—it’s a big part of my life. But I’m not someone who enjoys writing about writing. And I’m sure that negativity reflected in the articles I wrote in there as well as the cut-and-dry stuff I added in. Not a great way to inspire readers to subscribe.
As time went on, and my writing began focusing more on advocating for children and families with sensory issues and SPD, the newsletter, as well as my Website and blog, followed that same path. And now it seems to be ‘clicking’ more with people. Why? Because it has a specific focus and purpose that I’m extremely passionate about and ever minute detail I add in reflects that passion.
Lesson learned? Taking on the challenge of writing a newsletter is definitely not a ‘must-do’ thing for writers. It can be a tremendous amount of work and very time consuming but if you have information you want to get out there, and there’s an audience for that information, it’s so worth it. Newsletters are a really good idea for several reasons:
* You can ‘show your writing stuff’ through articles, interviews and reviews you do yourself;
* You can get your name out there to places you normally couldn’t reach by the wonderful world of “Forwarding”;
* You can make valuable connections to many different people who can help ‘boost’ your own writing, speaking or authoring career;
* You can make connections to ‘experts’ who can help with your research for writing your books or articles;
* It looks really good on your writing resume or Book Proposal to say you have a newsletter with HUNDREDS of subscribers (Okay…hundreds is a dream but it can happen!).
Most importantly to me, my newsletter is a way to bring awareness to an often misdiagnosed and misunderstood disorder as well as to help validate the feelings of caregivers raising a child with SPD and other special needs. For example, I have specific sections in my newsletter where caregivers can send me their personal stories. These sorts of stories, at least I believe, help other people in similar situations feel comforted by the thought that they aren’t alone in the world. They can say, “Yes! I totally understand!” or “I’d never heard of that therapy/treatment option/resource.” or even, “Thank you for saying what was in my heart but I haven’t been able to say out loud.” That is why I do what I do and why I have a newsletter…because there wasn’t anything like that for me when I first started on my ‘sensational’ journey with my daughter, Jaimie. I guess you could say it’s like my mission now to make sure there are resources like this out there…my calling, if you will.
I guess what I’m saying is that if you feel passionate about something and you want more room to express that passion than in a 1500 word article, a newsletter is an awesome way to go. You can use Word to create one or go the fancy ‘plug-and-play’ route with Constant Contact. However you choose to do it, follow your heart and you’ll always be on the right track.
Chynna
www.lilywolfwords.ca
www.lilywolfwords.blogspot.com
Chynna's newsletter,
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This is a great post. For 2011 I decided to start a newsletter for my blog http://kristisbooknook.blogspot.com I promoted it for a month prior to actually creating one and sending it out. As a result I got some followers. I genarally am chicken when it comes to things on writing. But this is one of those times i put my toe in the water and it was good. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful ideas! This is not something I had really thought about before, but its worth taking into consideration for the future. Thank you for the great advice.
Sarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
Thanks, Kristi and Sarah.
I'm considering it for the future, too.