Sunday, January 25, 2015

Newsletter Madness

I lecture people constantly about how writing is a business, but I'm not always very good at following through on that myself.  The biggest case in point is the newsletter I send out to those on my email distro list.  I'm supposed to use it to keep people up to date on what's going on...after I send them an initial email confirming that they're on my list.  Of course, I haven't sent out one of these emails for at least six months.

It's not because I haven't had people sign up.  Although not on the breakneck pace I achieved in the first months I started marketing my work, I still get a steady trickle of people asking to be on the early purchase list that saves about 25-ish% off the hardcover price.  Unfortunately, I'm not very fastidious in sticking to sending out notes.  I justified this at first by rationalizing that there weren't a bunch of new people on the list, so I needed to wait until I get a decent number of folks.  That way, I wouldn't be sending out new emails every week to just a handful of people.  Well, this is no longer a plausible explanation since it's been a long time.

Even worse is that I haven't sent anything out to the people already on my list.  I need to do this so that they're updated about current events on my writing, most notably that the release date for my first novel, Akeldama, has been delayed for a year while I spend time on business in another country.  It's almost to the point of neglect, and it's unacceptable.

The reason is sheer laziness...something I intend to rectify this week.  If I can't even keep touch with the loyal few who've trusted me with their email addresses in the hopes they'd get a book, I don't really deserve the customers I seek.  There's simply too much variety out there for me to not be on top of my game.  Best to get back into it.

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