Are author newsletters worth it? Why I’ve stopped mine

Three years ago, just after I made the decision to move away from traditional publishing and launch my indie author career, I did lots of research about reaching readers. One of the biggest ‘must dos’ that I came across, aside from having a website, was that an author MUST have a newsletter in order to build a readership. It was presented – in every article I came across – as a non-negotiable part of building an author brand. More important than having an author logo. More important than having an author social media presence. More important than running ads and promotional campaigns. I took the advice seriously and set up my author newsletter. After 3 years, I have decided not to bother updating my author newsletter any further. Why not? Here are the reasons that it isn’t a worthwhile venture for me:

1. I don’t read author newsletters myself

Personally, author newsletters don’t do it for me. A few years ago, I subscribed to the newsletters of my favourite authors. As with the majority of emails in my inbox, I found I would read the title and first line preview, but nothing else. If I don’t read newsletters, why would I expect anyone to read mine?

2. Who actually reads emails these days?

As with the above point, I tend to delete most of my emails unread. I only use emails these days to communicate with my childcare provider, or with Nielsen/Gardners/the British Library, for official publishing business, and nothing else.

3. I already run a blog

Hey, guess what? You’re reading my blog right now. I don’t tend to get many likes, or much engagement on this blog (about twice, maybe three times the reads for the number of likes, which isn’t much, lol) but it’s much more than what my newsletter received. If I’m saying everything, publishing-wise, that I need to on my blog, with readers voluntarily digesting my posts, why bother people with the same info in a newsletter?

4. My social media input seems to drive (some) sales

I’m active on Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok and YouTube, and post occasionally on X and LinkedIn. I’ve had some proof through these channels that readers have stumbled upon my books – and some have even DMed me to say they’ve bought my work. That’s more engagement than I’ve ever had through my author newsletter.

5. I have verifiable click-throughs to Amazon from my website

The great thing about WordPress is that I can see click-throughs on my stats. I tend to have double digit click-throughs to my Amazon US and Amazon UK accounts in any given year, so chances are some of those translate into sales. Why bother with an author newsletter when my website does the job already?

6. My newsletter had low subscribers and even less click-throughs

I’m not a genre writer. I’m a literary writer. I write literary and psychological horror. I imagine that genre writers would have a much clearer target readership for their books, in which case, an author newsletter would be worth it. I don’t have a clear readership for my work. My newsletter only had a handful of subscribers. All of them signed up voluntarily through my website. Nevertheless, only half of that small number of subscribers opened my emails. Considering I only emailed a newsletter periodically to announce the publication of a new book, this was a pitiful result.

The takeaway: was having an author newsletter worth it?

Yes, as it was an interesting learning experience and I gained some more IT skills in the process, namely with regards to navigating MailChimp, my newsletter host. As of my latest book, Pseudologia Fantastica, I have stopped bothering to update my newsletter. Let’s say it’s a hiatus; there may be a point where having a newsletter is worth the effort, and if that time comes, I’ll revive mine. For now, I’m not going to bother. Time is precious, and I’d rather spend more of mine writing.