Beyond Social Media:The Unshakeable Value of Your Subscribers List
You might be wondering to yourself, Why should I go through the hard work of building a subscribers list?
That’s the wrong question to ask.
The right question is, How and when can I start building my subscribers list!
In other words, this is something you should be eager to do.
Along with your book, there are a handful of things you must create as a self-publisher. One is a website (or at least an author page) that you can call your own. Second is an account on social media, a place where the public can reach out to you. And third is a subscribers list.
A subscribers list contains the names and email addresses of all those who are interested in you and your work. The first people on this list will no doubt be family members and friends who want to follow your authorship evolution and support you along the way.
The next people will be those who have read your novel, articles, short stories, or nonfiction book and appreciated that work. They liked what they saw/read and want to see/read more of what you do. For this reason, they’ve signed up for your newsletter or blog so they will be alerted when you have more articles, novels, or nonfiction to read.
These are your so-called “fans.” They may not be superfans, but they are interested in what you do and when you do it. Superfans or “true fans,” are those who love everything you do and talk you up and recommend your writing to everyone they know.
How do these interested people become subscribers? You’ll need to set up an email-marketing platform that connects to your website. Some of the popular ones are MailChimp, HubSpot, and MailerLite. Usually, such platforms are free to begin with, but when your list grows to a substantial number of subscribers (a few hundred), you’ll be charged for the service.
Here's how it works: When an interested person arrives at your website, a pop-up box will ask if they’d like to subscribe. If so, the person types in their email address, and it adds them to the subscribers list. (No doubt you’ve done this yourself many times.) Then, whenever you put out a newsletter or blog post or whatever you put out, everyone on the list receives it.
Why is the subscribers list important?
It can take a long time to build such a list, so many authors give up or don’t even try. But they should. According to many marketing experts, the subscribers list is an author’s most-valuable asset. It’s your list. Not Facebook’s or TikTok’s. You own it.
I feel that’s it’s the most valuable for other reasons as well. Most important, you need supporters for so many aspects of writing and publishing a book. You need people who will offer their opinion and shout your praise. If you don’t have a subscribers list to communicate with, who will you turn to?
Here are just a few of the things my subscribers list does for me:
Whenever I put the call out for an early draft (or beta) reader, a few of my subscribers volunteer to read and provide feedback. This is so important to me, as the early drafts need a lot of work before they become the finished product I know they can be. I need feedback, and without these first readers I can’t get it.
Many of the people who join my proofreading pool come from my subscribers list. They want to practice their skills, and a full-length novel is a good opportunity to do so.
When I put the call out for a Street Team to toot my horn during launch week, subscribers volunteer to read an early draft of the book, called an ARC, and to write a review on Amazon and Goodreads the day the book becomes available. They are my cheerleaders, and they prevent my books from having zero reviews.
Some of my subscribers purchase my preorder so the algorithms will receive the message that there is interest in the book.
Subscribers may become superfans, who help authors by using their social accounts, newsletters, and purchasing power to get the word out about the new book as well as do things like buy a hardcopy and add it to their Little Free Library or photograph it for Instagram.
Finally, the people on a subscribers list care about what you’re doing and let you know that you are not alone in your pursuit of success. That is an amazing thing to do for a self-published author!
So, the question isn’t why do I have to do this? It’s when can I get started? The answer is, right away. The sooner, the better.
For more Self-Publishing 101 blog posts, visit www.authorkimcatanzarite.com/blog.
