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Wednesday, September 7, 2016

September IWSG: have you been taking care of your newsletter?


This is a monthly event started by the awesome Alex J. Cavanaugh and organized by the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Click here to find out more about the group and sign up for the next event. You can also sign up for the newsletter. Our cohost this month: C. Lee McKenzie, Rachel Pattison, Elizabeth Seckman, Stephanie Faris, Lori L MacLaughlin, and Elsie Amata.

Hello fellow writers, my big news this month is that we launched the new anthology Beyond the Stars: at the Galaxy's Edge, featuring my story The Quarium Wars, and it was a great success! I'm really excited and stoked to be part of this project. Now onward to finish the book that's actually set in the world of my short story.

Which brings me to this month's question: How do you find the time to write in your busy day?

My answer is very simple. I don't. Fall is particularly busy for me because on top of my daily work I get a lot of requests for portrait session -- which is VERY good, don't get me wrong, I LOVE doing portrait sessions -- and so guess what happens to my manuscripts? They're left behind. Le sigh.

In other news, I'm working on revamping my website and newsletter. Newsletters are very important when you are trying to grow your business. In fact, they are like plants: you have to keep watering and nurturing it. There are many providers out there, and so far I've used MailChimp, which has been very good except for two drawbacks: (1) emails to gmail users go to the promotional tab and may never be read/seen; (2) when you start getting more than 1,000 subscribers it becomes very expensive.

So I've looked into other providers, but it's a bit of a pain migrating. The good news is that for most of them you can sign up for free and test them out before you start paying. What provider do you use? And are you happy with it?

Until next time!


8 comments:

  1. I had been thinking about giving newsletters, and specifically MailChimp, a try, but your comment about the Promotion tab in Gmail is a very valid consideration. Back to the drawing board...

    IWSG September

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  2. That's cool you're getting portrait work.
    We're using MailChimp for the IWSG newsletter and so far so good.

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  3. Writing may get put on the back burner, but it will wait until you're ready. :-)

    Anna from elements of emaginette

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  4. So exciting to have those portrait commissions. Writing will happen when it happens. Of that I'm sure. Good luck with your newsletter, too. Lots going on in your neck of the woods.

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  5. Check out MailerLite. I just recently switched and I like it. I was using AWeber. I have used MailChimp in past but switched to Aweber for autoresponder, which Mailerlite has in their free package up to 1000 subscribers.

    You sound busy but that is a good thing in a lot of ways, right? Looking forward to your next release in your series.

    Juneta @ Writer's Gambit

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  6. A newsletter is on my list of goals, and I definitely want one in place by the time I release the books I'm working on. Good to hear you can try before you buy, so to speak. And thanks for explaining why all the newsletters I'm subscribed to go into my promos folder (I'm on gmail). Sometimes I remember to check the tab, sometimes I don't, so yeah, that could be improved.

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  7. Awesome. Your book cover looks great. You are obviously finding some time to write :)

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  8. I started a newsletter (my New Release Alert) last year with Mailchimp. I've been satisfied with it. Definitely need to find a way to get new subscribers, though.

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