One Essential Tool for Writers: Email Marketing
by Susan Finn
Once Upon A Time, Two Women Wrote Their Books….
I want to tell you a story about two authors that I know. Let’s name them Tracy and Lisa.
TRACY
Tracy knew she wanted to write a book and she knew how much hard work it was going to take to write that book. As a person focused on productivity, she was quite sure that she had the system to get that task completed in a timely manner.
She knew exactly what she had to do. She had her book outlined. She knew exactly how many words and pages she would need to write each day in order to keep on her prescribed schedule. She had to stick to her writing times blocked on her calendar. She had to eliminate any distractions.
So that's exactly what she did. She blocked out much of her days to put her head down and write her book. She discontinued many of her normal business growth activities. She stopped going to network meetings. She turned off her social media platforms. She barely even talked about her book with others, for fear of getting distracted by other people’s input.
She simply worked on the book - exclusively - for around eight months.
When the book was completed, she was thrilled. She was ecstatic. She couldn't wait to tell the world. “I wrote a book! Here it is!”
Of course, her closest friends and family were ecstatic for her, as well, and they commented on her posts. They replied to her emails. But what she found was that the ‘next level people in her life’ - those folks from her networking groups or business collaborations - were not really sure, beyond congratulating her, how to support her.
They didn't have any idea what her book was about. They hadn't felt part of the process. They were happy for her. And then, they moved on with their lives.
LISA
The second author I want to tell you about today did things quite differently.
Lisa knew she wanted to write a book. She knew how much hard work it was going to take to write that book. So, she got to work.
Lisa knew exactly what she had to do. She had her book outlined. She knew exactly how many words and pages she would need to write each day in order to keep on her prescribed schedule. She had to block out her work time on her calendar. She had to eliminate any distractions.
Lisa knew she wasn't going to go it alone.
A few times each week, Lisa posted on her social platforms about the progress she was making with her book. Sometimes it would be an image captured from her walk in the morning that inspired a particular section of her book.
Other times she would share photos of her workspace. We would see pictures of her cup of tea and her favorite pen and her computer screen. We might see her cat dozing at her feet.
All along her writing journey, Lisa shared her joy, her frustrations, her dislikes, her inspirations, her curiosity.
Sometimes, when Lisa got stuck in what you might call a block, she would post to prompt on her socials asking for input from her community, instantly sparking conversations. She introduced us to her characters, their quirks, their strengths. We got to know them well.
Every now and then, Lisa would share a paragraph or a particularly juicy quote from her draft. If she loved that blurb, she would say "I love this language. Don't you?". If she was struggling with something she would ask for input. Either way, Lisa was inviting her community to become an integral part of the birth of her project.
As is the way things go in this day and age, more and more people found out about the work that Lisa was doing. More and more people began to follow her progress through the book. Her community grew -with joy and ease. People begin to feel invested in Lisa’s progress and success.
Lisa’s email list grew by leaps and bounds. Her subscribers were exclusively privy to longer excerpts of the book as they developed. She found that emailing no longer felt like a chore - it was simply an extension of this journey she was on. She fell in love with the idea of email being an act of generosity and sharing.
HOW DID BOOK SALES GO?
Our first author, Tracy had, indeed, created a book. But what she hadn't done, was create an engaged community that would not only purchase the book but would be her devoted amplifiers. Her online platforms had languished or disappeared, so there was no audience warmed and ready to receive and celebrate with her. She hadn't had any way to grow her email list, so there were few subscribers to whom she could send the announcement. Tracy had to depend upon her publisher and publicists to sell her book to cold or lukewarm audiences. Books sales were slow and inconsistent. Quite frankly, book sales felt like some of the hardest work in this whole project.
In contrast, when Lisa's book was ready to be published, her pre-sales were through the roof. Her audience couldn't wait to see how she put all of the pieces together. Of course, they wanted to see if she had placed any of their suggestions into the book. They felt like they knew the characters as well as they knew some of their own friends. They could actually envision some of the scenery in the book, because Lisa had shared the photos of her inspirations with them. Lisa’s social community and email subscribers became her best amplifiers, increasing her book sales even further.
THE MORAL OF THIS STORY
We’ve heard it said that it takes a village to raise a child.
I would offer - it takes a village to raise a book.
With gratitude,
Susan Finn
Rise Above Noise
