Every author needs to build an email list to grow their business, nurture their readers, and safeguard against potential de-platforming issues that can happen at a moment's notice. Yet for whatever reason, some authors don't take the plunge and invest the time into doing email list building activities. Excuses vary—time, money, or even knowledge.
The thing is, you need little time to build an email list. With platforms like MailerLite or Mailchimp, authors have free options to get started. As for knowledge, a variety of resources provide exactly what you need, including YouTube, free online courses, or even posts like this one.
Let's dive into email marketing for authors and why it's affordable, doesn't require much time, and how it's the single most effective marketing tool in any author's arsenal!
Understanding the Significance of Email Marketing for Authors
A few years ago, a friend direct messaged me about an indie author we knew. This person was crushing it in their self-publishing business, raking in up to six figures per month in revenue. All the earnings came from KDP Select-enrolled ebooks. No print books. No audiobooks. Just ebooks.
One day, this author tried logging into his KDP account only to discover Amazon terminated his account. After a few form emails, he had no options left but to move on and rebuild.
Amazon wiped his entire catalog from their site, including scores of reviews amassed over years of hard work. The worst part? He had no way to communicate this issue with his readers. Why? Well, he relied solely on Amazon to manage his readership.
Therein lies the problem. No one author should ever rely solely on any one platform to support their business. Because this author couldn't reach his readers, he had to figure out other ways to start over again. Which, I don't even know if he ever picked up the pieces. It's been a few years now.
If only this author would've actively recruited readers into his email list, he could've easily notified his followers and moved to another platform. Heck, with the revenue he was making, he could've switched to a direct sales model and collected all the earnings from his book sales. Instead, he ended up with nothing.
This story is a worst-case scenario, and we can all agree that the few account terminations are outliers to this business. Let's dial it back to one point I just brought up—communicating directly with your readership.
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