Blogger: Rachel Kent
Location: Books & Such main office, Santa Rosa, Calif.
Many of you have author newsletters, which are great, but if you can take newsletter marketing to the next “circle of influence,” you can reach that many more people and hopefully they will come to join your “inner circle.”
Here are a few ways you can take newsletter marketing to the next level:
1) Send an announcement about your new release, with the book cover and a link to your website, to your Alumni Association or college magazine. I know the U.C. Davis magazine will publish alumni news snippets. Many colleges have an alumni newsletter.
Cost: The cost of a stamp (or free, if you can email your announcement) and the time it takes to put together the news item.
Rewards: Exposure to thousands of graduates. Hopefully building your inner circle through those who check out your website and sign up for your personal newsletter.
2) Send an announcement about your new release to your church for publication in the church newsletter. Again, include a book cover and link to the website. Offer to host a book group/potluck at the church if enough people are interested.
Cost: The time it takes to put together the announcement and to possibly host a book group.
Rewards: Exposure to the entire church congregation. Hopefully some will join your personal newsletter list.
3) Approach a local bookstore or two about sending a newsletter or e-newsletter for you announcing that a local author has a new book out. You might get lucky and the bookstore might do this for free (especially an e-newsletter, if you are willing to do an in-store event) or you could offer to pay a little for the use of their newsletter contacts and time. It’s pretty likely they have had requests like this in the past, so they’ll know what do tell you. In Santa Rosa, we have an independent store, Copperfield’s Books, that’s very willing to work with authors to promote books. Check out what they do here: Copperfield’s Online
Cost: The time to put together the announcement and to possibly do an in-store event.
A fee of some sort for the newsletter exposure, if that is how the store operates.
Rewards: Your name and book title will go out in a newsletter to book lovers, and you might even get a chance to speak and sell books at the bookstore. Might get some personal newsletter sign-ups to expand your inner circle.
Can you think of other ways that you can take newsletter marketing beyond your immediate circle of influence?
Love these ideas, Rachel. I’m holding a contest only open to my subscribers. My heroine is a cook on a cattle drive, so I’m asking for readers favorite recipe and memory w/ that recipe. Three winners will be published in the newsletter + other prizes. It’s a way to have readers become involved. I’ve gotten some awesome respones so far.
I’ve sent invites to food contacts on twitter and mommy groups. Everyone could use a great new recipe. 🙂
I also ask other writers (whom I already have contact w/) to write a guest article for my writer’s corner. I provide a link to their website/blog and they usually will forward it to their own contacts or make a mention on their website. It’s a win for both of us.
Thanks for all the great ideas!
Libraries are a really, really, REALLY great place to do this. Depending on how your local library is structured, you can potentially reach millions of people this way. (For example, the county where I live runs the libraries within its borders, so if someone gets information in the library newsletter or on its website it reaches residents in the cities, suburbs, and rural areas within our county; sometimes it might even get mentioned in the newsletters of the libraries in the rest of the counties within the state).
Book club newsletters are another good way to get the word out. Since the people there naturally love books, they’re the best word-of-mouth marketing you can get, and many are flattered to simply know an author takes his or her time to contact them and initiate dialogue.
For non-fiction, see what sort of trade groups might be open to mentioning you to their members in a newsletter.
Depending on what you have written, there might be websites with substantial membership dedicated to your genre (I recall some folks mentioned they write sci-fi or fantasy, so this is especially true for your books) who are always hungry for new industry news. Give them a try.
Hope that helps!
I love these ideas, Rachel. I haven’t put together a personal newsletter yet. It’s something I should consider. I wonder if our local bookstore would work with me on something this fall, since my book is seasonal for Christmas. Thanks for putting the idea in my mind.