Find your audience, hone your skills

A newsletter may be the next step in your writing journey

Situation #1: You’re writing a book. Or you are hoping to start, soon. As you begin to explore the world of publishing, you realize that getting your book published can be, well, complicated. If you’re hoping to land a royalty publishing deal, you need a sizable platform: a large email list, an enthused social media following, or maybe a podcast that people actually listen to.

Self-publishing removes those barriers to publication. You can self-publish without having an email list or any audience at all. The question becomes—why would you? Because although platform is not a barrier to publishing, it remains a barrier to actually finding readers (a.k.a. selling books). Self-publishing means you take on the expense of producing your book. You are going to invest in editing and design. You still want to have readers who will provide a return on your investment by buying your book.

But where to find those readers? How do you build your audience?

Situation #2: You’re writing a book. You enjoy reading and writing, but this is your first attempt. To write a book when you’ve not written shorter pieces is kind of like trying to run a marathon without training or running shorter distances first.

You need to practice, to hone your writing skills. But how to become a better writer?

An answer to both questions is actually the same: write a newsletter. A newsletter builds your platform while honing your writing skills.

I say “an answer” not “the answer” because there are plenty of opportunities to get writing experience, which I’ve detailed in other editions of this letter, like the one about building your writing resume.

But today my writing and publishing tip is simple: start writing and putting your work out there—meaning on the Internet. You can do that with a blog as well, but I recommend you ask people to subscribe to your blog feed, so that you can grow your email list that way.

Why write a newsletter?

Email newsletters through free services like Substack (where you are reading this) allow you to grow your audience and interact with them via comments. While the newsletter world is constantly changing, now is the right time to jump in and get started.

Newsletters allow you to write about the subject you plan to write a book about, and gauge response of readers in real time. If you commit to a schedule (say once a week or once every other week) you get practice at meeting deadlines, developing topics, writing quickly.  It also provides a way for your audience to get to know you and your writing—and hopefully, become big fans of your work. It allows you to have a conversation with your readers, which may in turn shape what you write or the content you’ll include in your book.

The advantage of a blog or newsletter over social media is that you have control. Rather than relying on algorithms or someone randomly scrolling to find you, your newsletter sails right into their inbox. They may or may not open the email, but at least they, rather than a social media company, get to make that decision.

What to write about? Your newsletter should reflect the business or book you want to promote. Many would-be authors come to me for help writing a book because they want to grow a speaking or consulting career or build their business by writing a book that positions them as an expert. A newsletter on the same topic their nonfiction book is about will help them achieve that goal and help them connect with an audience.

Situation #3: You’ve decided to start a newsletter. How do you get people to subscribe?

There are plenty of methods, from posting a link on social media to asking the readers you do have to share or forward your newsletter (Ahem—see that button below?). Subscribers need to opt in—you won’t get far just spamming people who aren’t interested.

But one of the most effective tools for building your newsletter audience is to entice readers with a freebie, a.k.a. a lead magnet.

A lead magnet is free content, typically a PDF that people can download for free in return for sharing their email and subscribing. It can be an ebook, a checklist, a sample chapter from your work in progress. You want to make it worth their while, and it should be related to the content of your newsletter. For example, a photographer might have a newsletter about photography, and offer new subscribers a short ebook with simple tips for photographing your pets, your kids, or whatever.

When readers subscribe to this newsletter, which is about writing and publishing, they can download a free workbook, the Start Your Powerful Story Workbook. It steps writers through a series of questions about their message, their reader, their qualifications and their competition. It’s content related to the newsletter’s topic—writing and publishing.

We’ll talk more about lead magnets in coming issues of this newsletter. In the meantime, please let other aspiring writers know about it by hitting the share button below.

P.S. If you write fiction, should you still have a newsletter? Absolutely! Novelists can and should also have author newsletters. Here’s a great article about why, with several examples of fiction author newsletters to inspire you.