If you are an author, and don’t yet send out an email newsletter on a regular basis, you’re missing out! A newsletter is not just your occasional personal note to your readers, but it’s also your primary promotional tool for your books. Used effectively, a newsletter can help you boost book sales.

How does a newsletter differ from a blog? A blogger posts online, and hopes people come by to read those posts. A newsletter distributes information via email to the author’s newsletter subscribers. Those subscribers provide their email address to the author via a “subscribe” button on the author’s website. When you first visited WritersWeekly.com, you provided your email address to the publisher, Angela, via a link on the website. When you received your issue of WritersWeekly via email today, that was the newsletter edition.

Your newsletter won’t get off to a strong start at the beginning. It takes time to grow an email list. It will also take time for readers to get to know you through your newsletter. Investing that time will pay off later in book sales.

Here are a few ways your newsletter can help to promote and boost sales of your books:

Articles. When I run one of my articles in my monthly newsletter, I try to mention at least one of my books. Sometimes the topic of an article can relate to your book, so include the book’s buy link as a hyperlink in the title.

New Release Announcements. Your newsletter subscribers are your first audience for news about a new book. If your new book is now available, you can send out a “NEW RELEASE” announcement to your subscriber list.

Excerpts of new work. In addition to sharing news about your new release in your newsletter, offer an excerpt to whet their appetite. When I interview authors for my newsletter, it’s usually an author who has a new book out that month. I often ask the author to share an excerpt of their new book so readers can get a taste of just what kind of story they will get to read.

Special discounts for subscribers. Is your ebook edition temporarily on sale for 99 cents? Are you offering a “first 50-copy discount” to a select group? If so, take advantage of having a mailing list and let your subscribers know! When I was giving away free ebooks, I included the special download code in my newsletter.

Contests and giveaways. You can announce contests and giveaways on your social media accounts but, if you share this news in your newsletter, chances are good your subscribers will jump all over that. Your subscribers care about you and your books. They are interested in your new releases. Offering a giveaway through your newsletter, or holding a contest that runs for a limited time, will catch their attention, and attract participants.

How often you send your newsletter out is up to you. It can be weekly or monthly. Just make sure you send your newsletter out at least once a month to show you are still active in the writing world.

One of the mistakes some authors make when it comes to a newsletters, however, is that they often make their newsletters all about them. Yes, subscribers do want to know more about you and your work, but if it’s all about you and your book, then it’s not going to keep people subscribed. The solution? Liven things up! One author includes a small list of “fun facts” in her newsletter. Another author shares photos of readers who won her contests. Include something that subscribers can look forward to receiving.

Another mistake is that some authors don’t include any graphics. Their newsletters are nothing but a bunch of words. Include graphics and photos to catch readers’ attention.

A newsletter can help authors get the word out about their books, and help boost your book sales. The stronger your subscriber list, the greater your sales potential of new books. People who love to read will be interested in a newsletter about books, so grab that interest, and start sending out your own newsletter today!

For more information about how to set up and send out an email newsletter, see:

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Dawn Colclasure is a writer in Oregon. She is a freelance writer as well as the author and co-author of over four dozen books. She publishes the free monthly newsletter for writers, the SPARREW Newsletter, each month. Subscribe here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/oQMfjTl/spring Her websites are https://dawnsbooks.com/ and https://www.dmcwriter.com/. Her Twitter: @dawncolclasure.