by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
A while back (far enough back that I can’t remember the source), I read an article that suggested writers should include their backlist titles in their author newsletter.
This surprised me. I think of my newsletter as valuable real estate. Did I really want to clutter it up with a list of 25 books? I also figured that most of the readers who signed up for my newsletter were focused on hearing about new releases…that they’d likely read most/all of the other books.
But the argument in this blog post I read was fairly convincing. For the newsletter that went out for my last release, I included (at the bottom of the newsletter) a full backlist of my three series, with each title linked to the specific book’s page on my website (which has complete ordering information for a variety of different retailers and formats).
To my surprise, when I read my newsletter stats, I saw that, aside from the link for the new release, the most clicks were for various books in the backlist…in particular, the first book in the Myrtle Clover series.
Since I write under several names, it occurred to me that maybe some of my readers weren’t even aware that I had other series.
Maybe some readers were clicking on book one to give it as a gift to a friend or family member to start them on a series that they enjoy.
Maybe some readers simply couldn’t remember if they’d read a particular book or not.
At any rate, it was something that took very little effort on my end (I just copy-pasted my back matter from a document I keep for that purpose) and it resulted in a nice bump in sales for my backlist.
As an extra step, you can link to a printable list of your backlist in PDF form (with ISBNs) for those readers who like to order from bookstores.
For more ideas on elements for your author newsletter, read “50 Ideas for Author Newsletter Content” by Zoe McCarthy.
Have you ever included a book list in your newsletter? What else have you included in your newsletter that has received a good response from readers?
One important element for your newsletter: Share on XPhoto on Visual Hunt
Maybe we need to link to our IWSG books in the newsletter as well?
That would be a great idea!
You opened up a new market for yourself.
Surprisingly! :) It’s a good thing.
I notice that whenever I send out a newsletter, I get a sales bump whether or not I include any links to my own work. I sent one out yesterday, for example, where I touted a sci-fi/fantasy sampler some author friends had put together (that I have no works in) and the new releases of two other author friends. At the bottom, I put what I’m up to. I talked about the future addition of new short stories to a short story series and the summer release of the 11th book in my longest mystery series. There were no links at all but sales of the short stories in that series went up as did sales for boxed sets and later books in the long mystery series. It really does pay to mention something…anything, even when you don’t have anything new out.
Good point about alluding to previous works! And writing what you’re working on now is a nice, natural way of including those mentions.
That’s actually a great idea, Elizabeth. Thanks for sharing it. I keep going back and forth about having a newsletter. I know there are plenty of advantages to having one, but I just have to work out what mine would be like, how often I’d send it out, and all of that stuff. In my opinion, all of those things should be worked out before you send out the newsletter offer. And definitely a backlist or link to one is a good idea.
I can understand why you’d want to wait to have the details hammered out. You could do something very similar to what you do on your blog: say what you’re reading now, what you’re working on, etc.
I started my newsletter before I really knew what I was doing, but eventually I asked people what they wanted to hear from me, and they gave lots of great feedback!
That’s a great idea, Stephanie!
Hi Elizabeth … you’ve hit on something really useful as well as Anne adding in a couple of things … great to read up on newsletters – cheers Hilary
Thanks for coming by, Hilary! Hope you’re doing well.
Great idea, Elizabeth! I really need to resurrect my newsletter. Now I have to make the time to do it.
That’s always the tough part!
Whether or not this was your source, I know Patty Jansen often advocates talking about your backlist in your newsletter. She tends to feature one of her backlist books in each of the newsletters she sends out. This is a great idea, and I need to start doing it–I’ve just recently had a huge influx to my own newsletter list!
You’re right…I think it may have been Patty. Very good advice! Good luck with it. :)