by Tari Faris, @FarisTari

I don’t know of one author who doesn’t have a love/hate relationship with newsletters. We love to connect with our readers, but we hate actually doing them. We hate trying to build our lists. We hate facing the what-am-I-going-to-write-this-time blank page.

What if you could remove all that hate and just move to a love relationship with your newsletters? Love writing a newsletter? A foreign concept, I know. But it can happen, because it happened for me. At the start of 2019, I had about 300 subscribers and I loathed writing a newsletter. It practically gave me hives. However, three years later, I have built my list to almost 7000 subscribers, I find joy in writing every newsletter, and I get great feedback from readers every month! How did I do it?

I will tell you and all I have learned over the next six months of blog posts. Six? Yup. It isn’t one easy trick but if you check back to my monthly blog here on Learn How to Write A Novel, then I will help you transform your view and plan for your newsletter one step at a time.

So let’s dive in with the biggest question you need to answer.

Do you need a newsletter? And if so, how often?

If you are a published author, you need a newsletter. Not only do you need one, but having a regular monthly newsletter seems to be the right balance. More often and your reader may feel like you are spamming them. Any less and your readers tend to forget about you.

Why do you need one? Readers these days want a chance to connect with you, know you, be friends with you. And although every social media platform has its benefits, email is the only one that you control when your readers see your stuff. Algorithms are always changing. There isn’t one social media platform where you can guarantee that your content will be shown to your audience. Now you can’t guarantee that your email will be opened by your subscribers, but you will know it was delivered, giving your subscriber the option of reading it.

If you are pre-published, then the answer isn’t as cut and dry. You can have a newsletter but you are limited in growth opportunities and content to share. I do recommend having one since many publishers are looking for those numbers, but unless you are able to find an audience beyond friends and people you have met personally, limit it to a quarterly newsletter. The lower frequency will reduce your unsubscribes (which we will talk about in PART 4) but it will keep the connection with those who are following your writing journey

What do you put in a newsletter? 

That is the topic for the next part. You can find it here on May 12^th.  Until then I have homework for you. Pay attention to the newsletters you read. What do you like? What do you tend to skim? Is there a newsletter you always take the time to read? Why? 

Also look at your life, writing, passions. Write down what makes you, you. And be sure to come back 5/12 to talk about newsletter content.

If you want to see my newsletter, you can sign up for it HERE. This might give you an example to see what I am talking about in the series.

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Since You’ve Been Gone

Leah Williams is back in the quaint town of Heritage, Michigan, and ready to try again to make her business a success. But blank slates are hard to come by, and a piece of her past is waiting for her there. Heir to the Heritage Fruits company, Jonathan Kensington is the guy who not only made Leah’s past difficult, he also seems determined to complicate her present as well.

Jon is trying to prove to the Heritage Fruits board that he, not his manipulative uncle, should be running the business. The board insists Jon find a new owner for the building that will house Leah’s business. To avoid forcing a buyout of Leah’s part of the building, Jon strikes a compromise with Leah, and the two go into business together. With her vision and his know-how, it might work. And Leah might realize he’s loved her since high school. If only he didn’t keep on shooting himself in the foot by boxing her out of important decisions.

Sparks fly in this romantic story of two people who must learn to trust both each other and the one who called them to this journey.

Available now for preorder! And visit linktr.ee/tarifaris to sign up for preorder rewards!

Tari Faris has been writing fiction for fifteen years but has been creating fiction in her head as long as she can remember. She is represented by Wendy Lawton at Books & Such Literary Management and is a member of ACFW and My Book Therapy. She was the 2017 Genesis winner, 2016 Genesis finalist, and 2014 Genesis finalist. In addition to her writing, she also works for My Book Therapy as a special project manager and writes for LearnHowToWriteANovel.com . When she is not writing or working, she spends time with her amazing husband and kids. In her free time, she loves coffee, rockhounding with her husband and kids, and distracting herself from housework. You can connect with her at www.tarifaris.com