by Dan Walsh, @DanWalshAuthor

Toward the end of September, I had the privilege of teaching a number of workshops at this year’s ACFW conference in Nashville. One of thosesessions bore the same title as this month’s column. Why? Because at the outset of the session, I asked for a show of hands: “How many of you have never set up an Author’s Newsletter to help you connect with Readers?”

It was a pretty big room full of fiction authors. To my surprise, over half the hands went up. I wasn’t aware that so many writers don’t see the fundamental importance of an Author’s Newsletter (or mailing list).

It really matters. Especially in the ever-changing, ever-shifting world of publishing and social media (which now appear to be joined at the hip).

I get why we might prefer sites like Facebook and Twitter to connect with Readers. It’s all set up for us. All we have to do is regularly use these social media platforms and hopefully “grow” our list of “Friends,” “Likes” and “Followers.”

The problem is…they aren’t really our Friends (in the traditional sense). They don’t really Like us (not in the way that matters here). And they’d have a very difficult time actually Following us (on Twitter or anywhere else). In my opinion, these social media giants have dooped us by using language like this.

The truth is, these platforms and the list of people they connect us to are ALL OWNED BY THEM, NOT US. And they can change (and have changed) the nature of our ability to connect with people on our lists at a moment’s notice. When they do, they never ask our opinion or see whether we’d would approve of the changes made.

That’s because they’re not really our friends; they’re in business to make a profit (a serious profit). And they aren’t building a “community;” they’re creating a mega-sized marketing platform for themselves. The interaction we have with our “folks” is actually providing them a wonderfully detailed list of buyer interests and choices, so that they can more effectively make money from that data.

Here’s a good example with Facebook. Some years ago, it was all the rage for authors to create an Author Page on FB (a business page) and work hard at growing your number of “Likes.” The thinking was, it was like having your very own newsletter mailing list but on Facebook. Every time you posted anything, all the people who Liked your page got to see what you posted.

At the time, I was with a major publisher who spent some serious dollars and time growing my number of Likes. We fairly quickly went from less than a 1,000 to over 4,000. Things were going great for a very short time. Then FB got wise to this. They were losing out on serious sums of money giving all of us essentially free advertising space. Their solution? They put a stop to this practice and changed their infamous algorithms.

Now when I post something to my Author Page, only about 10% (or less) of my Likes actually see what I post in their feed. 90% do not. If I want to reach the rest of those folks, I have to pay FB around $60 per post. Not surprisingly, we immediately stopped seeing the value of growing my list of Likes.

Now I should add, I STILL use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as part of my overall marketing/connecting strategy to reach my readers (and add new ones). I just don’t depend on them the way I once did. They are inherently unstable for that purpose.

Which is precisely why growing an Effective Newsletter Mailing list makes better sense. When readers decide to sign up, they become YOUR READERS. You own the space. You can reach out to them at any time with a flash email or Newsletter and instead of that info getting posted to a scrolling newsfeed (that they may or may not see), it is sent to their email inbox. They can click on it at any time, read what you’ve sent, and click on any links you’ve included.

It’s such a better platform for connecting with readers. You can still use other social media sites to help the cause, but I believe an author is making a HUGE mistake if they don’t utilize this approach. Sadly, we’ve run out of time. Next month, I’ll share some of the practical tips I’ve learned as I’ve developed Newsletter list.

In the meantime, if you haven’t signed up for a Mailing list service yet, you really need to do that. Some of the better ones to consider are: Mailchimp, Mailerlite, Constant Contact, Vertical Response and AWeber.

Remembering Christmas

Brand new 2nd Edition — Finalist RT Book Reviews’ Inspirational Novel of the Year Rick Denton lives his life on his terms. He works hard, plays hard and answers to no one. So when his mother calls on Thanks-giving weekend begging him to come home after his stepfather has a stroke, Rick is reluctant. He’s never liked Art, despite the fact his own father abandoned them when Rick was twelve. Rick’s attitude sours even more when a couple of days helping at the family bookstore turns into weeks of cashing out old ladies and running off the homeless man who keeps hanging about, Slowly but surely, the little bookstore and its quirky patrons—as well as the lovely young woman who works at his side each day—work their magic on him, revealing to Rick the truth about his family, his own life, and the true meaning of Christmas.