Newsletter Ninja

by Tammi Labrecque

  Trying to get a group of mildly interested people to buy your new release is no way to sell books, and it’s not what your mailing list should be about. Your mailing list is a two-way street, and the only way you’re going to get traffic going both ways on that street is to get your subscribers to have conversations with you. You do this by building relationships. (Man, I am really sorry that I’m using the phrase “building relationships” so much. You’d think it was crucial or something!)

  And in the long run, you will be saving yourself a ton of effort, because an engaged list of lifelong, rabid fans will respond to your release notices en masse, and that’s a hell of a lot easier—and more fun—then having to go out and find readers with every new book, hoping to get it to sell well. Instead of replicating all that work with every release, put your effort into turning the readers who find you casually into superfans who wait impatiently for your new release email, and let them make you a bestseller purely because they love you.

  As for the how, the best way—I would argue the only way—to build those relationships is to get to know your subscribers and let them get to know you. Let’s tackle the simplest one first.

  Getting to Know Your Subscribers

  Getting to know your subscribers is a complete no-brainer once you think about it. You do it by asking good questions that effectively solicit replies, and answering the emails you receive as a result. So simple, so easy, so powerful. (And so time-consuming, but we’ll address that later—or, as I like to say, “That’s a problem for future Tammi.” She hates me.)

  What qualifies as a “good question”? What sort of question effectively solicits replies? This is, to some degree, one of those “it depends” things. The answers may vary depending on your genre, subgenre, subscribers, list-building techniques, onboarding … there are so many variables.

  My advice is to split-test (how surprising). Send two versions of the same question, each to half the list, and see which gets the most responses. Use that information to formulate two questions you can split-test in your next campaign. If you continue on in this vein (and track the answers, so you’re actually evaluating the data instead of going by what you kind of remember from three campaigns ago), you’ll eventually have a keen understanding of what sorts of things get your subscribers talking to you (and if you also have a Facebook or other reader group, they’ll start talking to each other, which is also very powerful).

  So, to some degree, you’re going to have to figure out for yourself what makes a good question. But I can give you some general guidelines.

  Good questions:

  are actually questions. I know that seems ridiculously basic, but “Don’t you think friends-to-lovers is the best romance trope?” is a statement disguised as a question. Don’t do that. “What’s your favorite romance trope?” is going to start a much better dialogue.

  are open-ended. “Who is the most handsome actor working right now?” will get more (and better) responses than “Ryan Gosling or Ryan Reynolds?”

  don’t have a “right” answer. “What superhero movie do you love most?” works better than “What was the first movie in the new Marvel Cinematic Universe?”

  are free of bias. “Are you tired of all the terrible books in the Kindle Store?” presupposes that there are in fact a lot of terrible books in the Kindle Store. “Are you able to find books you enjoy when shopping the Kindle Store?” will certainly reveal to you the people who think the store is full of terrible books, but it also leaves the question open to those who don’t think that.

  are positive in tone. One other problem with the question above is that it’s inherently negative. Even were it not biased, it just makes me crabby to read it. All those terrible books, after all. So phrase your questions in a way that invites positivity: “What was the best book you read last year?” as opposed to “What book do you absolutely hate?”

  encourage longer and more specific answers. “What’s your favorite reality TV show?” is fine, but “What’s your favorite reality TV show, and why?” is better. (And “What’s your favorite reality TV show, and what do you love about it?” is better yet, because it combines this rule with the preceding positivity rule.)

  are relevant to what you write about. “When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?” is a great question for the mailing list of a non-fiction author who talks about goals or fulfillment; not so much for someone who writes Motorcycle Club romance. Meanwhile, the MC romance folks will have enthusiastic answers to “Who’s your favorite characters in Sons of Anarchy?” (spoiler: the answer will always be “Jax.” You’re welcome), while some if not all of the non-fiction audience will have no idea what you’re even talking about.

  address topics that people can get excited about. “What’s your favorite soda?” is, in my opinion, a pretty boring question. I mean, I even have a favorite soda, but I can’t imagine getting passionate about it. But ask me who’s the best Golden Girl, and you’ll get a four-page, point-by-point dissertation. (It’s Dorothy, go ahead and fight me.)

  There are a lot of other things that would define a “good question,” but that list is a pretty good place to start. I’ve included a few great resources in the Helpful Links section—sites that list great getting-to-know-you questions—but you can also just Google something like “conversation starters” or “good questions to ask” and find hundreds of sites you can use to spark ideas. And, as always, your own list is going to guide you in what works and what doesn’t. Track everything—open rates, click rates, response rates, unsubscribes—and use that data to determine what turns your readers off and what keeps them coming back for more.

  As I’ve said a bunch of times, when people open and click your emails, this signals to their email provider that they are interested in the content, which does wonders for your reputation as a sender. But your reputation will improve even more if people reply to your emails—because when they do, they are having a conversation with you, and there’s nothing email providers like more than conversations. Replies tell the email provider that this is a wanted email, that you are a trusted sender, that you are someone the receiver wants to hear from and communicate with.

  Getting replies to your campaigns is one of the best techniques there is for staying out of the Spam folder or Promotions tab. Believe it, internalize it, use it mercilessly. Hone your questions to razor sharpness, polish them like diamonds, and send them out there into the world to tempt readers like the devil tempted Eve (though with considerably less catastrophic results, one hopes).

  So by asking a good question that elicited a reply, you’ve:

  softened up the person you’re talking to

  established a connection with them

  asked them to tell you something about themselves, and

  as a side benefit, increased your reputation with their email provider.

  Not a bad return on the time investment necessary to think of a compelling question.

  Now, I’m sure some of you are asking, “Does this mean I have to reply to all those emails?” It depends, but my general answer is yes, in many cases you will have to—or want to!—reply to those emails. I know we’re all pressed for time, so that can seem daunting, but I meant it when I said this is a two-way street.

  The good news is, when you’re just starting out, not many people will answer. I’m sure you can find time to answer a handful of emails, and if you’re only emailing once a month, you can probably even answer a few hundred replies to each newsletter. When you’re at the point where every email gets so many replies you literally can’t keep up, that’s a quality problem to have; you’ve got a crazy engaged list and can almost certainly afford to hire someone to handle them for you. Barring that, you can streamline replying if you just reuse the same answers where possible.

  Let me give you an example of what I mean. In a recent campaign, I asked my subscribers who their favorite superhero was. Lots of folks replied (far more than I expected, which was wonderful). I m
anage my pen name’s email in Gmail, so I’m able to use Gmail’s canned responses feature. I set up canned responses as I got replies, and thereafter if someone gave me an answer I’d already seen, I just plopped the same text into my reply. For example, everyone who chose Thor (and that was seriously 80% of them) got a reply that said “You won’t be surprised to hear that he took an early and decisive lead.” Typing that, or some variation of it, to the several hundred people who gave me that answer, would have been a waste of time—and, frankly, tedious. With the canned response, it took only a few seconds per email, and everyone felt they got a genuine response. And honestly? They did get a genuine response. I read every email and sent them a reply that was what I would have written anyway, without having to take the time to compose that same reply over and over again. (I did have to write a unique reply for the woman who chose He-Man—she was a singular event—but our conversation about how she was the only one to make that choice was funny, and you can bet your ass that she’ll be buying my superhero romance.)

  The same principle applies even if you’re not using Gmail; just use typing shortcuts or a document file that you can use for cut-and-paste answers. However you do it, the ultimate return on that time investment is so high that it’s well worth it.

  The beauty of this approach—asking open-ended, positive, relevant, interesting questions that engage readers and encourage dialogue—is that when subscribers reply (and they will), a couple of cool things happen to the relationship between you.

  First, that subscriber is no longer some faceless entity passively receiving your emails. They’ve replied to you. Their name is there in your inbox. Their answer to your question tells you something about them. And just the fact that they took the time to answer at all means that they like you, or that you asked a good question, or both. This is exactly what you’re trying to build, one subscriber at a time.

  Second, when you reply to them, they learn a little about you; this makes them more disposed to pick up your next book, more likely to recommend you to a friend. You’ve come to know them a bit, but they’ve also come to know you, and that personal connection is the difference between a casual reader and a ride-or-die fan.

  This is what I mean when I say email is a two-way street. This isn’t about sending information to your list. This is about dialogue, and getting to know one another. And yes, that means your subscribers need to know you, too.

  Being Authentic

  Let me stress: as I’ve said a couple of times, this does not mean you have to reveal anything about yourself that makes you uncomfortable. Subscribers, like everyone else in your life, will know precisely what you allow them to know. Your spouse, if you have one, probably knows a great deal about you; your coworkers at your day job, maybe (hopefully!) not so much. Your Facebook “friends” that you haven’t actually seen since high school? Very little. (Well, they know about your misspent youth, but probably not so much about the real you now.)

  So please don’t think I’m saying you have to tell your subscribers your hopes and dreams, your darkest secrets, or anything about your family. You get to decide which things are for public consumption and which are not.

  Some of my students just don’t care about privacy; they send baby pictures, reveal their personal struggles, talk about sex—all manner of things that you might consider too private. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s who they are, that’s probably reflected in their books, and it’s perfectly appropriate for their particular mailing list.

  But if you’re a more reticent type, there are lots of things you can tell your subscribers that give them a glimpse of you without violating whatever boundaries you set.

  You do need to be genuine. I say “Be your authentic self” so frequently in MLE that my students have probably all developed a nervous tic about it. Hell, I’ve used it quite a few times right here in this book. Maybe I’ll try to cut back.

  But being yourself does not mean that you have to tell people sacred things. You are, one hopes, a well-rounded human being, with many and varied interests and habits, and any one of your many interesting facets is fodder for newsletter chatter.

  What kind of movies do you like? What’s the most recent movie you saw, and what did you think of it? What’s your favorite movie? What movie didn’t live up to your expectations? What movie are you looking forward to?

  What books did you love as a child? What books made you want to be a writer? What’s the best book you’ve ever read (yes, go out on a limb and pick one—it’s a good exercise anyway)? What book are you reading right now?

  What’s your favorite food? What’s one food you like that no one else seems to? What’s one food everyone is gaga over that you wouldn’t put in your mouth for a million dollars? What food are you great at cooking at home? What food can’t you cook no matter how many times you’ve tried?

  What TV shows did you love growing up? Did any of them inform your writing even though they were in a different medium? What are you watching these days that you’re willing to admit to? Which ones are a guilty pleasure? Which show do you think was canceled too soon, and which show do you think dragged on way too long?

  What do you really think about social media? If you love it, why, and what do you say to people who think it’s stupid? If you hate it, are you there anyway, and why? Which platforms do you like? Which do you hate?

  (Confession: it was incredibly hard for me not to answer every one of the above questions in parentheses. You’re welcome.)

  I’ll stop there rather than belabor the point, which is: there are plenty of things that are appropriate for social interaction without giving out your SSN and mother’s maiden name. And depending on genre, you might have a wealth of topics that are unique to your subscribers. Romance writers can ask which Chris is the hottest—Pine, Pratt, Evans, or Hemsworth? (It’s Hemsworth.) Science fiction writers can share recent articles on the topic of time travel or gene manipulation or space exploration, depending on which sub-genre of SF they write. Writers of historical fiction can share interesting things they discover during their research. Urban fantasy writers can opine about how much relationship stuff and/or sexytimes makes a book Paranormal Romance rather than UF. And so on.

  In short (which clearly I’m not good at), there are folks who let it all hang out, and folks who would prefer to keep walls (and maybe a moat) around some things. No matter which one you are, there are many things that you can share, ask, or hold forth about that will respect whatever boundaries you’ve set around your personal life, no matter how strict or forgiving those boundaries are. You can reveal things to your readers that will get them to identify with you, without feeling like you’ve violated yourself.

  Just be yourself. (See, I didn’t say “be your authentic self”—except I just did. Damn it!)

  Oh, and one more thing: You can’t use these techniques disingenuously, because it will backfire on you. Most readers can tell a phony from a mile away, and I know very few authors who can carry off a persona that’s wildly different from their actual self, at least not for long. But if you use these best practices (in a genuine way), you will build that list of superfans I keep banging on about.

  Because remember: we are building superfans, not casual readers. The superfans will help you reach the casual readers, if you amass enough of them and treat them well. And you will, because as we move into the next chapter we’re going to address one of the most difficult parts of this whole newsletter game: delivering value in each and every email you send.

  16 - Delivering Value

  Okay, deliver value. Sounds great, right. But how do you deliver value?

  Delivering value can mean a number of things—sharing articles or videos that fans will enjoy, sneak peeks at your work in progress, cover reveals, pictures of your cat (yes, everyone loves this, and no, I can’t explain it), book recommendations … the list goes on and on, and encompasses just about everything you can do with a newsletter.

  There’s something missing f
rom that list, though, isn’t there? There’s nothing there about getting them to buy your books.

  You’re right; there isn’t.

  Because you need to stop thinking about yourself.

  I’ll give you a second to take that in—because chances are good that most people who talk to you about how to run your email list talk to you about how to convert to sales, how to get people to do what you tell them to do and click on what you want them to click on. Most people talk to you about your email list as though your email list is expected to perform for you.

  If you want to have a crazy-successful mailing list, you need to turn that completely on its head.

  This isn’t about you.

  I know that’s tough to get your head around. Of course this is about you. If you don’t sell books, you don’t make a living. But as I said way back at the beginning of this book (and something like five hundred times since), your list is not for selling books. Your list is for selling yourself. Your list is for building superfans—and superfans, by definition, will buy your books.

  You do not build superfans by expecting your list to say “how high?” every time you say “jump.” Instead, give them something to jump for. And you need to give it to them much more often than you ask for something in return. I call this the give-to-ask ratio.

  The Give-to-Ask Ratio

  Let’s start with definitions. A give is something of value that you give (duh) to your subscribers, free and clear—a short story you wrote, a link to a free or sale-priced book they might like, a picture of Jason Momoa, whatever. An ask is, to the surprise of absolutely no one, a request for your subscribers to do something for you—buy your book, vote in a poll, leave a review, etc.