Levels of Engagement, or Why Authors Need an Email List

In today’s guest post, book designer and self-publishing expert Joel Friedlander addresses a common question about the benefits of email lists for all types of authors.

I'm often asked why authors, particularly novelists, should bother with an email list. Aren't email lists just for nonfiction writers or Internet marketers with something to sell? Novelists are trying to get readers involved with the worlds that they create and care about the characters who populate those worlds. In other words, they really want people to get engaged with their writing.

This gives you a hint about why email lists can be really effective for writers who are trying to find readers. It's all related to the level of engagement that exists with your readers.

In the book business readers sometimes become fans, anxious for more involvement with the author of a book that's made a big impression on them and looking forward to more books from the same author.

Online, it's also common for fans to become readers. Someone who encounters you on Twitter or by reading your blog may become sufficiently intrigued by your writing to buy your book. So this process goes both ways.

Since you are marketing online, your aim is twofold:

    1.   Attract people who may be interested in your ideas, your writing, or your solutions to problems.

    2.   Inspire enough trust and interest in a percentage of those people that they are moved to buy your book, your service or your product.

Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it?

Where the Email List Comes Into Play

Think about this process from the point of view of levels of engagement. Let's plot it out:

• A reader notices your name on someone else's blog or in an article. They become aware of you and perhaps the name or genre of your book, but they have no engagement with you.

• They decide to click a link and are now on your blog or website. They might stay and read if something looks interesting, or they may bounce right off. They have engaged with you but at a very low level.

• Perhaps they find something on your site, like an article, a great "About" page, or a sample chapter from your book that they really like. They decide to come back and visit again. This is a higher level of engagement. They will remember you and perhaps come back.

• Either the first piece of content they saw or repeated exposure to your writing makes them want to stay connected in a world where it's all too easy to lose track of a link you put aside for later. They subscribe to your blog through the RSS feed or an email subscription. This is a much higher level of engagement, and we're starting to get into the range where this person has given you "permission" to keep sending them the content they are enjoying. At this point you have something of a relationship, although mostly a one-sided one.

• The reader realizes that you have a lot to offer to them. Looking for a way to stay connected or to get a special piece of content you are offering, they opt into your email list. You are now at a high level of engagement. Granting someone access to your inbox is an act of trust and hope. Now you can take your relationship to a higher level, since you can interact with your subscriber more intimately.

If you didn't have an email opt-in available, you would never get to this level of engagement with readers. You can answer blog comments, but how many do you get? You can guest post, run ads, write for magazines, but they all pale in comparison to the immediacy of a permission-based relationship in which you are invited to send email to your reader.

Even if you never use your email list to attempt to make book sales, the ongoing communication you have with the subscribers to your list is in itself a force that helps to cement your relationship with readers and fans.

So if you don't have an email opt-in form on your blog or website, put one up this month. It's not hard to do, and there are many services that will help you get started. But do it. It's a way of holding out a welcoming hand to the people who most want to stay connected to you and your work.

Joel Friedlander is the proprietor of Marin Bookworks in San Rafael, California, a publishing services company where he’s helped launch many self-publishers. He blogs about book design, writing and self-publishing at www.TheBookDesigner.com.  Joel is also the author of the newly-published A Self-Publisher’s Companion: Expert Advice for Authors Who Want to Publish.

Editor’s Note: For an example of an opt-in mailing list invitation, see the upper right corner of this page. I’ll be doing a post soon on email list services, but in the meantime here are a few to consider: MailChimp, AWeber, iContact and Constant Contact. Some of these services are free until your list reaches a certain size. If you plan to mail fewer than 2,500 emails a month and have no need for an autoresponder service (the ability to set up a series of follow-up emails at specific intervals) also consider VerticalResponse—you will pay about a penny per email sent, rather than paying a monthly fee.

Comments

[Tony Eldridge]

Great advice, Joel. I know a lot of people who mean to get around to starting a mailing list soon. But of the people who I know that have a list, most wish they had started one sooner. No one I know believes it was a bad decision.

[Dana Lynn Smith]

I agree Tony - it's important to begin building a mailing list as early as possible (and that means before publication). It can take a long time to build up a substantial list and every day you delay you are losing potential subscribers.

Authors, if you don't have an opt-in mailing list yet - set one up today!

[Shelley Hitz, Self Publishing Coach]

Such great points Joel...and I agree!

I had a friend recently share with me an experiment he did. He pitched the same offer to two different groups:

1)"Cold" contacts to his website
2) To his e-mail list of subscribers

The "cold" contacts converted at only 0.7% while his list of subscribers converted at 10% (converted meaning bought his product). That's the power in building a relationship with your list of subscribers! And I believe the same can be true for authors as well. I use Aweber and have been pleased!

[Dana Lynn Smith]

Thanks Shelley - I agree that building relationships with subscribers is vital.