After sharing how my co-author and I wrote and launched a book in (almost) thirty days, I wanted to have a simpler episode geared toward YOU. Here are some ways to market your book while you write and where to stop wasting your time. 

You want to write a book. You want to self-publish (or, as I like to say, publish independently) on Amazon and/or other retailers.

But marketing?

Ick. Overwhelm. No. Help!

If that is YOU, then I want to help make this a little more accessible. Ready for it? Here are some tips for marketing your book WHILE you write.

HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK WHILE YOU WRITE

Many of you might think that you don’t want to market while you write. You want to write a book and THEN figure out marketing.

That’s not BAD…necessarily. But you want to talk about overwhelm? That is someone who has written a whole book and now thinks, “Oh, I guess I should consider marketing.”

Honestly, even if you aren’t taking steps to think about marketing actively, you should at least consider marketing in terms of where your book FITS.

What category does it go in? What are the reader expectations for that category? What do the covers look like? How long are the books?

Those are things to consider before or AS you write. I mean, if you want to sell books. If you are just writing a labor of love, then do what you want. But I’m assuming that I’m speaking to people wanting to SELL books. In that case, you should look at the market, even if you aren’t marketing.

But here is my very big, very simple advice on marketing while you write:

Write everyday. Do one marketing task daily. 

That’s it. The end. Simple.

Too simple? Yep. So, let’s dive into some things that you can do daily.

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LISTEN TO EPISODE 171 – MARKETING YOUR BOOK WHILE  YOU WRITE

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

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DAILY MARKETING TASKS

I’d honestly love to make a freebie for this. I probably will… soon. But not today.

Overall, I would say that you should focus on things that have lasting power, like building an email list. Create a freebie that relates to the series you’re launching, or give away a teaser of a few chapters in exchange for an email address with a site like Bookfunnel, Story Origin, Book Cave, or Prolific Works.

Join author group promos and send paid traffic to that freebie to grow your readership WHILE YOU’RE WRITING. So huge. When you go to launch your book and you have even a few hundred subscribers, that’s POWERFUL!

Also see:

• A Simple Book Launch Framework
• How to Start Building Your Email List

Some potential marketing tasks to do one day at a time:

• Pick categories on Amazon that might work for your book
• Look at other book covers in your genre
• Take note of other blurbs for books in your genre
• Research keywords
• Set up your author profile on Bookbub
• Add your books under your author profile on Bookbub
• Set up your author profile on Goodreads
• Add your books on Goodreads
• Come up with cover concept
• Order a cover
• Start a short story, prequel, bonus scenes, or first chapters teaser to use as a reader magnet/freebie
• Order cover for reader magnet (I do paid covers for these too)
• Write description for reader magnet/freebie
• Create email welcome sequence for reader magnet to promote the preorder of book 1
• Promote your reader magnet/freebie
• Send paid ads to reader magnet/freebie
• Post in appropriate Facebook groups/social media about reader magnet
• Format reader magnet and upload to Bookfunnel (I use Vellum to format, but you could use Draft2Digital or just format in word)
• Write description for the book
• Set up preorder (if you’re going to do a preorder)
• Claim the book with your pen name through Author Central (more on that here)
• Start sharing preorder with your email list and on social media
• Create graphics to promote the book
• Join a bunch of FB reader groups (see below for tips on good/bad groups)
• Join a few author groups for the genre
• Start setting up newsletter swaps in the YA swap groups
• Post engaging content like graphics and teasers on social media
• Sign up for author takeover in YA academy group
• Start FB ads to the reader magnet
• Email list about the new series

There are so many more things you could do. But this is a start.

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THINGS TO STOP DOING TO “MARKET” YOUR BOOK

This is where (if you listen to the audio) I get a little rant-y. Now, hear me: there isn’t always ONE way to do things. So, take this with a grain of salt. BUT GENERALLY SPEAKING, these things will not help you sell more books. Period. 

Wasting Time on Social Media

Realize that if you think that building your Facebook likes or Twitter followers is going to sell books, you’re probably wrong. Email sells more books. Focus on email lists, not follower counts.

Facebook is amazing for groups and collaborations and newsletter swaps with other authors, but many authors go into FB groups for a genre and then just drop links to their books. Any group that is filled with authors dropping links to books with no likes or comments is a WASTE OF TIME. Look for actual reader groups with actual readers and see what their rules are for self-promo. Or just listen and learn what readers in your genre like.

Designing Your Own Book Cover

I once designed my own book cover. In the time it took me to create a cover (and I’m okay at stuff), I could have paid someone $15 on Fiverr to do it better and saved myself hours. Unless you’re GREAT at book cover design (not just graphics) you’ll waste time and money and lose sales because your book cover won’t hold up against other books in your genre. Stop it.

Blogging

Blogging isn’t dead. But it’s shifted. People don’t read blogs like online diaries anymore. Authors didn’t get this memo. They either write blogs that are diary-esque (which really only appeal to hardcore fans) or they write blog posts that are not to the right audience. An example of the second one is a fiction writer blogging about writing tips. That attracts other authors and writers, not the people who’ll read your romance novels.

If you want to drive sales on your blog, you’ll have to actually take the time to create a content strategy based around things your readers are already searching for. You’ll use things like SEO (search engine optimization) and Pinterest to actually drive long-term traffic and then have your site set up for sales. This is a lot of work. Your efforts are likely better spent elsewhere.

Making Bookmarks and Swag

I’m biased because I hate bookmarks. But even beyond that, bookmarks don’t sell books. They’re fun. If you have time and money to put into swag, cool! But don’t make this a priority. This isn’t how most readers FIND a book. So, if you’re focused on sales, then stop focusing on swag. Superfans like swag. But if you’re working on your first book(s),  you don’t have enough superfans to make this important.

Setting Up a Patreon

There have been some successful Patreon campaigns for books. But FOR THE MOST PART, this adds one more thing to do and dilutes your effort. When you sell a book, the most important thing is driving traffic TO THE BOOK. When you add Patreon, that’s one more thing to do (set up, giving out prizes, the bonus content, etc) and one more place you’re sending people THAT ISN’T YOUR BOOK.

I see people setting these up trying to help pay for launch and I’ve looked at the breakdown of what they’re paying. Usually? It’s too much money on things they don’t need to spend money on. My first book launch for Emma St. Clair probably cost under $300. I got a cover (that I still love) from an artist on FB having a sale. I paid $125 for editing. And I think I bought 2-3 paid promos. The end.

Creating a Patreon just takes away your time and effort and gives another place to send people that is not your book. Keep it simple. Bootstrap. Focus on sending people to your book to buy books, not to a site like Patreon to focus on bookmarks and bonuses.

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DO YOU HATE ME?

Was that too mean? Too honest? Feels a little bit that way.

But here’s the thing: I hate wasting time. And I hate the thought of you out there, wasting your time when you could be writing and doing marketing tasks that WILL SELL BOOKS.

Want to disagree? Have ideas of what is or isn’t important? Leave a comment or head over to the Facebook group where we can talk and you can call me a meanie. 😉

When I wrote this post, I got overwhelmed. You might too! Fair warning. But in the moment, this was FUN. Not overwhelming. I’m going to share what I did with my co-author and then will have follow up posts that are more geared toward a practical-for-YOU way to launch. There will still be takeaways here for you in the details. Just pinky swear you won’t read and then get overwhelmed and stop writing? Please? Okay. Great. Let’s go!

*This post contains affiliate links for products I use and love. This is at no extra cost to you!

Over the past 18 months, I’ve written more books than I ever thought I could write in a year. I had no idea I was capable. Truly.  Here’s an image I made for my Facebook cover of my books (and two short stories) I wrote in the last 18 months:

So, let’s just start with this fact: I write fast. Maybe or maybe not fast than you. But fast. I’ll be sharing the timeline here for my most recent book, but that does NOT mean you need to ever attempt my timeline.

Just focus on the launch and the action steps. You can even move them around! You do you, friends.

You’ll get some good nuggets on how to launch a book, EVEN if you know in your heart of hearts you’ll never launch that fast. You don’t need to! It’s not a race! I just like to go super speed. That’s me.

Whatever your speed, you’ll find the steps you need to launch a book here! Future posts will go into more detail in a more accessible way.

Prepare to be overwhelmed! But remember, this was 100% fun for me! I promise.

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Listen to Episode 170 – How to Write and Launch a Book in (almost) a Month

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

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HOW TO LAUNCH A BOOK IN A MONTH – OUR TIMELINE

DAY 1 – June 29

• Wake up with an idea for a genre I’ve been following that’s hot (YA paranormal academy)
• Email a friend that I think would do great on this project with me — she agrees
• Write out a not-very-legal contract in Google Docs (I would recommend a real one, but I’m okay with my choice in this circumstance)
• Start a planning Google Doc + a manuscript Google Doc (usually I write in Word, but this worked for co-writing)
• Start writing and finish the first few chapters
• Come up with cover concept
• Find stock photos on Depositphotos
• Create mock-up cover & send to my designer
• Write a rough outline/summary of all three books in the trilogy (we’re both pantsers)
• Create a chapter list and an ideas section in our planning doc
• Talk a LOT on FB messenger

DAY 2 – June 30 

• More writing on the novel
• Start a short story prequel to use as a reader magnet

DAY 3 – July 1

• Keep writing on the main book
• Many, many FB messages with co-author
• Finish reader magnet
• Research keywords + comp books

DAY 4 – July 2

• Order cover for reader magnet
• Edit reader magnet
• Research keywords and comps
• Write description for reader magnet

DAY 5 – July 3 

• Format reader magnet and upload to Bookfunnel
• Send reader magnet to betas
• Write description for book one
• Set up preorder for the first book
• Claimed the book with my pen name through Author Central (more on that here)
• Continue writing

DAY 6 – July 4

• Start sharing preorder with my list for this pen name & on FB
• Continue writing

DAYS 7 – 16 – July 5 – 14

• Keep writing on the main book
• Continue trading ideas with my co-author
• Join a bunch of YA reader groups, esp ones around paranormal + academy
• Join a few author groups for YA urban fantasy (the broader genre for paranormal academy)
• Start setting up swaps in the YA swap groups
• Created graphics for promotion with the book covers & source files using Canva
• Form a FB group with my co-author
• Post engaging things in the FB group
• Create welcome sequence for reader magnet to promote the preorder of book 1
• Send paid ads to reader magnet
• Post in share threads in paranormal academy/YA groups about reader magnet
• Sign up for author takeover in YA academy group
• Start FB ads to the reader magnet
• Email list about the new series

DAY  17 – July 15

• Order cover for the second book in the trilogy
• Write description for book two (super brief & bad, updated later)
• Set up preorder for the second book in the trilogy

DAY 19 – July 17

• Finish writing the book
• Start editing (I let my phone feature read it to me while I followed along to check for errors)

DAY 20 – July 18 

• Format edited book, format, send to betas
• Send out the first betas (I talk about the difference between ARCs and Betas in THIS post)
• Bite my nails while waiting for feedback

DAY 25 – July 23

• Finish edits
• Format for ARCs
• Upload to Bookfunnel
• Email to ARCs
• Send to paid proofreader
• Order cover for the third book in the series

DAY 26 – July 24

• Start writing book two

The goal is to publish as soon as we’ve gotten the paid proof back as well as some feedback from the ARC readers. If we need to make any last minute tweaks, we will. The launch date on the preorder was August 20, but we hope to release early. The goal would be to launch each book in the trilogy within 2-3 weeks of each other, making use of that Amazon algorithm that favors new releases.

My plan right now is to set up some Amazon ads for the preorder as we continue to work on the second book in the trilogy. As of now (day 27 – July 25) we are 15k words into book two. Book one ended up being just over 60k words.

TOOLS WE USED TO LAUNCH OUR BOOK

• Google Docs for writing/planning (free)
• FB messenger to chat (free)
• Canva to create graphics (free)
• Depositphotos for pics (I always buy the deal with AppSumo so already paid)
• Fiverr for covers (~$50 each)
• Vellum for formatting ($250, one -time fee – I used for all books, so already paid)
• Bookfunnel for the reader magnet and the beta/ARC copies ($150 annually I’m on midlist paid plan + upgrade to email list)
• Publisher’s Rocket to search keywords ($99 one-time and I’ve owned for a while)
• Mailerlite to email list (I think with my two pen names, I’m paying a total of $20/month)
• Book Doggy + Insta books to send paid traffic to the reader magnet (~$30)
• FB ads to promote the reader magnet ($175 at 14 cents per click, slowed down now to $5/day)
• AuthorsXP to build list ($55)
• Proofreader ($75)

Would I recommend you invest in all these things to launch a book? NO. If you look up there, other than tools like Vellum I use for all my books (so the cost for this ONE book isn’t $250), the bulk of our cost went into ads to grow the email list. The FB ads build the list. BookDoggy and Instabooks build the list. AuthorsXP builds the list. If you’ve been around for a while, you know I believe the money is in the list.

WHAT I’D RECOMMEND SPENDING IF YOU HAVE A SMALLER BUDGET

• Mailerlite for email (starts free or $9)
• Bookfunnel to deliver your reader magnet (starts at $20)
• BookDoggy and Instabooks (Fiverr) to send traffic to your reader magnet ($12-18)
• Covers ($25-50 for a premade cover or on Fiverr)
• Proofing ($75-1000 – this varies WIDELY depending on what you need and what the editor charges)

The biggest investment would be email list. I’m all about getting email subscribers. Create a freebie related to your book or give away the first three chapters. Build a group of fans you can contact directly to tell them about your book. If you just put up a reader magnet, you’ll struggle to get a big list going. (If you don’t get eyeballs, aka traffic, to your freebie, you can’t hope to grow it.) 

If you don’t want to pay to send traffic to your reader magnet, join a multi-author promo at Bookfunnel or Book Cave or through Story Origin. You need traffic to get subscribers.

I would NOT recommend FB or Amazon Services ads if you haven’t used them. My FB ads were fantastic at conversions. 14 cents per click was fantastic. We grew our list to over 600 with these methods. I haven’t gotten the emails from AuthorsXP, but I often get 700-1000 with a promo. I already had over 1000 on this pen name list (growing it with a different reader magnet using these same strategies over months), so when we launch, we’ll likely be at over 2000 emails.

WHAT WE ALREADY HAD GOING FOR US

I knew this market well, so we didn’t do market research. I hadn’t planned to write in this market, but I’d spent so much time looking at books there (because I was interested) that it inspired an idea. As soon as I had the idea, I knew which books were comps, which weren’t, and what the cover needed to look like.

I also had a list already for this pen name, a designer I love, and editor I’m trying out, and a knowledge of where the readers and authors are hanging out on Facebook. I’ve launched so many books this year that it’s really old hat to put it up on Amazon and do this process.

The more you write, the more you publish, the less overwhelming and more easy this will be for you. Don’t get overwhelmed if you’re a first time author and are looking at this list.

A NOTE CO-AUTHORING AND SPEED

I am not going to cover writing with a partner (yet) but may have my co-author on to talk about this. When I first asked her, my thought was that having two of us would help with speed. Honestly, I think I could have done it alone at the same speed, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do it alone. This project really shined with BOTH of us bringing things to the table. I love the characters she created and continues to create as we go. A storyline she brought into book two is amazing me right now!

Co-authors CAN help with speed if you are both writing around the same pace and figure out a split. But working with a partner can also slow you down. That didn’t happen for us. We’re both pretty fast.

Why do I keep talking about speed? Why publish a book in a month?

As I flexed my writing muscles this last year, I learned JUST what I could do. I didn’t ever ever EVER think I’d write a book in a month, much less two weeks. But last summer, I penned my fourth novel in two weeks, mostly on an elliptical machine in the gym, typing on my phone. I still love that book and it has over 100 reviews!

I’m not speed obsessed. I don’t think you should try to be faster (unless you want to). I love speed. I have a million ideas and want to get them out there. This is just me personally–what I like and how I work.

Also? We are trying to hit a hot genre. Paranormal Academy is super hot right now. We are writing to market (as in, writing a book that readers are already hungry for) and the faster we can get it out, the more we can take advantage of that market. If you want to write to market, especially hitting a hot trend, you need to be faster.

WHAT’S NEXT: 

In the next post, I’ll talk more in detail about aspects of the launch. Not sure which ones yet! You should join the FB group and tell me what you want to know more about! JOIN NOW! 

Ever wondered if should write under a pen name? Or why some authors choose to write using a pseudonym? In this post, you’ll learn why you might want to write under a pen name (or not) and how to navigate having multiple pen names.

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A year ago, I tried an experiment.

I found a genre that was selling well where I thought I could find success. I didn’t really want to use my already-established email lists and social media, so I started almost completely from scratch.

You can see how that worked out after one year in this post. (Spoiler alert: month to month it’s up-and-down, but has been four figures–sometimes closer to five-figures–a month for over a year.) 

So why write under a pen name?

For me personally, it was more about marketing and testing the waters than anything else. In terms of marketing, I have a few nonfiction business books under my own name. These are NOT the same genre as the clean romance I wanted to write as Emma St. Clair. That can provide a muddy brand and reader confusion. A new name seemed like a good option.

To test the waters, I wanted to know if I could use the knowledge I’ve gained over the past however-many years in this online space to find success self-publishing without using my already-established platform.

I’m actually about to launch a second pen name (Sullivan Gray) who will do Young Adult paranormal and contemporary books. I’m planning the same strategy as I used to launch Emma and we’ll see how it goes.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT PEN NAMES

Listen to Episode 169 – How and Why to Write Under a Pen Name

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

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WHY DO AUTHORS WRITE UNDER A PEN NAME?

Authors might choose a pen name if the subject that they’re writing about might cause conflict with their actual life. I’ve seen this a lot when authors write steamy romance and don’t necessarily want their mom reading it. Some steamy romance authors also write clean romance and don’t want any crossover.

In this case, authors will be very careful to keep their pen name completely apart and separate from everything else they write. It’s a lot more hidden.

Authors might choose a pen name if they write in multiple, unrelated genres. This is the main reason I chose a pen name. When we shop online, we don’t realize how many quick snap decisions we make on things. Having a pen name can keep ultimate clarity in terms of branding.

Are my sweet romance books that different from my Christmas devotionals or my book on email lists? No… but the readers aren’t the same. The crossover is likely minimal at best. And when a reader glances at my author name and the books that customers also bought on the Amazon sales page, it presents a problem to see unrelated books. It would be confusing to see a romance book next to a book on business. Readers need quick and easy cues with clean author branding.

Whenever you’re as big as Stephen King or JK Rowling, you could write whatever and people will buy it. (Big authors still sometimes write under pen names!) But when you’re starting out, it’s much easier to have one author name PER GENRE for crystal clear marketing and branding. I’ve seen personally how well this has worked for me and I’ve also seen authors struggle trying to keep multiple unrelated genres under one name as they start out. It was HARD.

• Some people in the space (whom I really respect) say that you don’t need to worry about a pen name. I disagree when it comes to branding and marketing, but if you want to see another side to this, check out this great post by Anne R. Allen. 

WHEN SHOULD YOU NOT USE A PEN NAME?

Amazon will only let you have three pen names under one Author Central account. It isn’t TERRIBLE to have multiple pen names (more on that below), but if you can keep things easy, DO.

If you’re writing books that are related or might have a larger crossover audience, then don’t do a pen name. An example might be writing clean romance and clean romantic suspense. These are the same steam level in terms of sexual content (which matters to readers), though the audiences might not be a 100% match.

That said, my Emma St. Clair clean romance books will have a similar steam level to my YA content, BUT the YA books will have more violence and intense action. Some have paranormal elements. The crossover might be there (I read both genres!) but it’s going to be a way smaller number. Just look at what these different covers convey!

You can see how these are likely not the same audiences, right? Everything from the color to the tone of these book covers sends signals to the readers, even subconsciously. Pen name = good plan.

If you don’t NEED a pen name and already have an established brand or public-facing name that you could use, don’t create more work for yourself.

If you don’t care as much about branding and sales and just want to write for the love of it, put it all under your name.

If you have a HUGE platform under your name and people will buy whatever you write, then don’t worry about a pen name.

If you know it would be easier to write under pen names but you can’t handle the idea of juggling them all, you might want to consider not writing under pen names.

 

HOW DO YOU HANDLE MULTIPLE PEN NAMES TECHNICALLY SPEAKING?

Speaking for Amazon, you can create up to three pen names under one author central account. That means that you’ll be getting paid in the same place and don’t need to worry about technicalities or weird legal stuff. Publicly, they are separate. Privately on the back end, they’re all under your account.

That said, some people want more separation even than THAT. This post talks about ways to find more separation.

If you want to know how to set up a new pen name in an author central account, here’s a brief video I made walking you through the process.

WHAT DO YOU NEED IN TERMS OF AUTHOR PLATFORM FOR A PEN NAME?

Now we’re getting into the nitty-gritty of what it takes to juggle multiple pen names. It’s less than you think! This also may vary wildly depending on how you want to promote books. With my pen names, I’m not very actively blogging (if at all). I don’t post much on a Facebook page or Twitter. My main focus was email list (which sells more books), a FB page for ads, and a FB reader group.

My basic suggestions for a pen name: 

• Set up an email list (this is my main focus and I use and am an affiliate for Mailerlite)
• Set up a web page with yourauthorname dot com or something similar (I use Siteground for hosting and am an affiliate: SIGN UP HERE)
• Set up a Facebook page (so you can run ads)
• Set up ONE social media account that you’ll use (this could just be the Facebook page)

Important note about Facebook: It’s against Facebook’s terms of service to have two personal profiles (where you add friends vs a business page where you get “likes”). Don’t create a personal profile for your pen name! You could get completely booted from Facebook. A page may not see a lot of organic growth or reach, but if you want to create ads, you need a page. Plus you can use a small page with few likes to market to a broad audience.

That’s really not that much to do. For one of my pen names, I own AuthorSullivanGray.com, but if you go there, you’ll just get a landing page to sign up for my email list. I don’t have a full web page set up.

I focused on growing my email list through Bookfunnel and other author promos and I send weekly content to subscribers. I barely post on my Facebook page, but do run ads. My social media focus is Facebook groups and I am working to build active reader groups where I share my books, teasers or bonus content, other people’s books, and have discussions.

HOW DO CHOOSE A PEN NAME?

I think it’s a good idea to check your genre. For some, gender (or perceived gender) may send a signal to consumers. (Joanna Penn talks about that in this post under #3.) I personally chose names I liked that fit more with the genres.

Emma is like everyone’s BFF. You can’t hate Emma! So of course, she writes sweet romance.

Sullivan is a great name. (We almost used it for our fifth daughter!) It’s tough, cool name that generally is a last name. Because it’s not as common as a first name, I think it probably might speak to being a guy’s name, but could be either. This felt like a great, edgy pen name for my more intense YA.

• Dave Chesson at Kindlepreneur has a great post on choosing a pen name.

DO YOU NEED TO CREATE A WHOLE PRETEND PERSON FOR YOUR PEN NAME?

The answer to this goes back to whether or not you’re trying to keep things separate for marketing purposes or SECRET. If you just want some separation, then it doesn’t matter as much if you use the same photo or you have the same bio. If you’re trying to keep it a secret, then you’ll want to consider how to handle the personal info, bio, and images for that person.

I like to create a PERSONA for my pen names. Emma St. Clair is still me. It’s just the part of me focused more on clean romance than the part of me that loves sarcasm and shows like Arrested Development. In my Emma emails, I don’t talk about my love for horror movies, but focus on romantic comedies or Hallmark romances.

Emma isn’t untrue, but is more an edited bit of who I am. We all have a lot of facets to our personality, so for me, I let the pen names shine a light on a facet that relates to the genre.

Some people might be fine with creating a fake person, but it’s hard to keep secrets in the digital age. Just be aware of that. I’d be fine for anyone to know that Kirsten is Emma is Sullivan.

• If you’d like get a fun avatar made for your pen name, I’ve used this artist on Fiverr and been really happy with their work.

 

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So… do you need a pen name?

Maybe. Maybe not.

I think there are strong reasons to create pen names for clear branding and marketing in different genres, especially if you are newer. I don’t think you have to do a ton of work to create a pen name. Keep it streamlined and simple. Don’t feel like you have to be all the places all the time. Do what sells books.

One day, my own personal brand might be a large enough umbrella to house everything, but for now, I’ll keep my own name and the two pen names to write and publish books across multiple genres.

For more discussion on this and other topics, join the Create If Writing Facebook group!

Want to get weekly news, tips and tools? Subscribe to the weekly Quick Fix email. 

This post comes after the news that Mailchimp is making some big changes in 2019. I’ll break down what these changes mean for YOU and whether or not you should switch. Spoiler alert: YES. I’d recommend changing. 

When I very first got started with email in 2013, I used Mailchimp. I heard a speaker talk about the importance of an email list and that’s what she recommended. They had a free plan for up to 2000 emails and were a trustworthy company. I stayed with them until 2015, when my goals were different and Convertkit won me over with their fabulous features. I haven’t looked back.

I’ve still recommended Mailchimp to readers as an okay place to start, though they aren’t my favorite. But coming on the heels of their announcement in May 2019, I’m changing my tune. Here’s why and what YOU need to know.

WHAT’S CHANGING IN MAILCHIMP

Mailchimp has been providing a service: allowing businesses big and small to send emails to their customers. (LEGAL emails. Read more about being legal HERE.) 

Now Mailchimp is moving to become a “marketing platform.” They are adding features that allow them to be more of a CRM (customer relationship management) tool. That tells us a lot. The keyword being: CUSTOMERS. 

In simplest terms, Mailchimp is moving its focus toward bigger businesses and business as a whole. Not mom-and-pop blogs or authors (as much as we really are running businesses). Most of the email services I’ve recommended handle that ONE thing: email. Other big companies like Infusionsoft call themselves a CRM rather than an email service provider. The difference is a different features and a heckuva lot more money.

For most of us, Mailchimp is not focused on providing our needs. But they’ll still provide email, right? Yeah. But I wanted to look at the big picture FIRST–they aren’t here to serve YOU, the author or blogger or creative with a starting-out to average income and business.

Now let’s break down some of the specific changes.

WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

If you are still using Mailchimp and don’t have more than 2000 subscribers, you’re probably thinking that you’re find and can just stay. You CAN. But there are current and coming changes that will affect you. 

What’s changing:

• (as noted) the focus is now on bigger businesses as a CRM
• free subscriber count now includes unsubscribes as well as active users
• limited audiences for free plan members
• pricing/credits for month-to-month users
• changes to automation (looks like you can’t add new ones now on the free plan)

More things WILL change, but we simply don’t know yet. My guess would be that they lower the free plan to 1000 or less. There is no need for them to keep people on who are just using them for the free plan. Plus, if you’ve been cleaning your list regularly to stay under 2000, those emails you cleaned will now still count. Under that, my old list wouldn’t be a free plan anymore.

If you’ve been on the legacy PAID plan, you’re grandfathered into their pricing. If you are on the FREE plan, when you hit paying levels, you’ll be getting the new pricing. And the month-to-month users’ credits will stop being active.

In short, you’re getting less bang for your buck.

SO, SHOULD YOU LEAVE MAILCHIMP?

You don’t HAVE to. I mean, if you have 200 subscribers, you’re probably thinking, why waste my time moving?

Here’s the thing: before this, I was barely recommending Mailchimp. Their features are clunky and should be way better and easier to use for as long as they’ve been around. They are a powerhouse and should have had features where you could click a link in an email to add a tag or move you to a group. That kind of thing is so hard in Mailchimp that even after watching tutorials on merge tags, I didn’t get it.

They kind of try to hide this by calling some of their features automations and tagging, but where other companies have sophisticated features called the same things, Mailchimps features just don’t do the job.

The best thing about Mailchimp has been the giant free plan. That will likely change, and fundamentally does now that they are counting unsubscribes.

With average features, they are trustworthy in terms of a reputable company, but their goal isn’t to serve YOU. They don’t even have customer service AT ALL for the free plan.

If you have considered a move, I think this is the kick in the pants that you should use to just do it. 

WHAT EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER SHOULD YOU USE?

I’ve tried all the biggies. Well, almost. I haven’t tried Send in Blue or Active Campaign or Infusionsoft. But I’ve tried Mailchimp, Mad Mimi, Tiny Letter, Aweber, ConvertKit, and Mailerlite. That’s a lot. I’ve paid for plans to test things SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO.

Here are my top two recommendations and who should try each one. I’m an affiliate for each and will share my link, which won’t cost you extra. (And NO, I’m not promoting them because I’m an affiliate. I became an affiliate because I USE and LOVE them.)

Cheapest and Simplest: Mailerlite

This email provider gives you 1000 free emails. They also have features that Mailchimp doesn’t. Their automations are much more powerful and do more. Much more. Once you start paying, it’s not that much AND you have customer service on the free plan.

I use Mailerlite for my Emma St. Clair list, where I essentially have an easy entryway onto my list and sell books. The end.

TRY MAILERLITE! 

Most Powerful and Amazing: ConvertKit

I’ve long been an advocate of Convertkit and still am. Their features are fantastic and streamlined. Easy to use and powerful. If you are simply selling books, this is more than you’ll need. But if you have other things going on like sales funnels and lots of lead magnets and things like that, Convertkit’s features beat Mailerlite’s.

I use Convertkit for my Create If Writing List, where I’ve run webinars and hosted live summits and set up sales funnels.

TRY CONVERTKIT!

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If you’re still unsure, you can check out my post where I go more in depth on which email service provider you should use. READ IT HERE.

You can also read more about Mailchimp:

• David Gaughran-  Big Changes at Mailchimp
• Written Word Media- Mailchimp Changes: Everything Authors Need to Know

For now, you CAN stay with Mailchimp if you’re way under the limit. But you might not want to. Eventually, you WILL want to move and it’s much easier to move now than move later. Trust me.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 166 – SHOULD YOU LEAVE MAILCHIMP?

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app!

 

Also, stay tuned. I’m going to be updating my book, Email Lists Made Easy. Soon. (Every time I want to update, there are new changes…) 

Advice I hear frequently in passing (but apparently not in Google search) is that it may be a good idea NOT to promote your first book until your second book is out. What gives? In this post I’ll tackle whether you should promote your first fiction book AND your first non-fiction book. 

Some of you may have already heard this advice passed down, especially from indie authors. Others of you might be scratching your heads. Why wouldn’t you want to promote your book? Isn’t every book a special snowflake that deserves all the love we can give it?

I want to clarify before I dive too deep that I’m mostly talking paid promos and GIANT promotions that take tons of your time, effort, and calling in favors from other people.

Books won’t generally sell if you just upload them to Amazon. Even if you have great keywords and all the things. We aren’t living in the “if you build it, they will come” era. So, don’t mistake this post to mean that I don’t believe in promotion or that you can sell books without promoting.

I really want to save you money. So this post is for you guys trying to decide when to INVEST in paid promotions for your books.

(And when it comes to paid promotions for your books, you can read this post.) 

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WHEN YOU SHOULD PROMOTE YOUR FIRST FICTION BOOK

Let me start by saying that it matters whether we’re talking first book EVER or first book in a series. If it’s your first book EVER and not in a series, yes! Promote.

If it’s your first book ever and it IS in a series, yes… promote. But maybe don’t pay as much until you figure out what you’re doing.

If you are publishing on a more traditional publishing schedule of like once a year or something, also yes! Promote.

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WHY YOU MIGHT WANT TO WAIT TO PROMOTE YOUR FIRST FICTION BOOK

You might want to wait to promote your first book if… 

…you’re totally new to all this. 

…it’s part of a series that has to be read in order.

…you’re releasing books more quickly.

First of all, I often recommend bootstrapping and starting slow. If you think that you’re going to write multiple books, not just the one, it’s a learning experience. You’ll get better at writing and you’ll get better at promoting and basically all the things. It can be helpful to wait on your spending until you know what you’re doing.

I’ve seen posts from authors who spent hundreds and thousands on books that didn’t ever bring in that return. In some ways, a first book is testing a concept. Can you write? Do people want to read what you’re writing? Are you writing in a niche that sells?

Secondly, if you’re writing a series, you might consider waiting to promote the first book until you’ve got the second one either published or on preorder. Why? Because then when you promote the first book, you are more likely to make more money because if you’ve done a good job hooking readers, they will read through to your next books. The money you spend on promotions will have more ROI because you have more books to buy.

Lastly, if you are releasing books more quickly, it can make more sense to wait. When you’re on a more traditional publishing schedule where you release once a year, this idea of waiting to promote would be crazy. You might promote AGAIN with the second book coming out, but waiting a really long time is silly.

If you’re writing a book a month or every two months, you could more easily wait to invest money in promotions when you have more books to buy. With my first two books, I got way less ROI when I paid for promotions. I sold some of those two books. The end. Now that I have something like ten books, I see a bump in ALL sales (especially other books in the series) when I promote one.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 164 – SHOULD YOU PROMOTE YOUR FIRST FICTION BOOK?

 

 

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SHOULD YOU PROMOTE YOUR FIRST NONFICTION BOOK?

The answer here is a little bit (maybe a LOT) different. I feel like there is a vast difference in how promotion looks for fiction and nonfiction. I’ve found WAY more free options for promoting nonfiction books.

Why? 

Well, nonfiction books (other than creative nonfiction, like memoirs) often contain information that can be parsed out and packaged into other content. For example: I have a book on email lists. I have written a TON of content on this blog on email. (Find that here.) Many of the posts allow me to link to the paid book. I can also write guest posts where I gain authority and promote the book on email. I’ve heard tons of people go on podcasts to talk about the topic they wrote about in their nonfiction book.

Nonfiction books also may have a different purpose. Rather than just sales and money for the book, many authors write nonfiction books to gain authority. Want to start a speaking career? Write a book on something you know. Want to sell coaching packages? Write a book related to what you’ll be doing in your coaching packages.

You can also use your nonfiction books as a sales funnel. I could use my book on email lists to sell a course (which I used to do, but don’t anymore). Or coaching packages (which I also don’t currently do). Your $4.99 nonfiction book could help sell your bigger-ticket items.

All that being said, your nonfiction book may be serving other purposes than just making money in and of itself. That makes the promotional aspect a little different ballgame.

Readers also don’t read nonfiction in the same way. They might read a how-to book on a topic they’re interested in, but they aren’t necessarily going to go buy ALL of that author’s other how-to books. They’ll buy if they’re interested in that topic, whereas in fiction, if readers like that writer’s story, they’ll want more of that AUTHOR.

In case you missed it, YES YES YES YES YES promote your first nonfiction book. Yes. But before you dump in a bunch of money, realize also that you have a ton of other kinds of opportunities to promote that book for FREE by guest posting and going on podcasts.

LISTEN TO EPISODE 165 – SHOULD YOU PROMOTE YOUR FIRST NONFICTION BOOK