Don’t lose interested readers and customers before you have a chance to connect.
Every time someone expresses interest in your work, you have a chance to stay connected. It’s worth starting your email list now—even if you’re not ready to send a newsletter yet.
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I often hear clients say something like:
“I can’t start collecting emails because I don’t have my newsletter yet.”
or
“I don’t need a subscriber list until I launch my book.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It’s never too early to start building your email list. Even if you have no idea what you are going to send, or when your book will be published, you should be collecting opt-in subscribers.
When a person subscribes they are saying that they actually want to hear from you. That is important! When you ignore this interest you are losing potential readers or customers.
You can’t go back in time
It feels great when the people you meet are interested in your book or offer!
It’s nice to have a website that you feel makes a great impression and introduces your work.
But the truth is, no matter how interested someone is, if they don’t subscribe, they will probably forget about you.
Scenario 1: Visitors come to your website and they have a positive impression. They are genuinely interested. Then they leave and they forget about you. Because they are human and have busy lives.
Scenario 2: People meet you at conferences or events and they are really excited about the book you are working on. Then they go home and completely forget about you and your book. Because they are human and have busy lives.
If someone discovers you months before your newsletter launches or your book is released, there’s no way to go back in time and add them to your mailing list. That’s a terrible shame because it’s not exactly easy to find readers in the first place!
One of the biggest reasons to do email marketing is to simply not be completely forgotten.
Start collecting emails from Day One
It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what exactly you will write or when exactly you will begin sending email.
Take it from me, I literally took years before I finally got it together and started writing a newsletter. And it turned out fine. No one was angry and surprisingly few people unsubscribed. Many were pleasantly surprised!
You don’t need to have everything figured out. You don’t need to have finished your manuscript. You don’t even need to have a website or have opened a Mailchimp account.
You just need a piece of paper and permission.
Simply ask
Start a document for capturing emails. As you talk to people about your book, if they express interest simply ask them if you have permission to add them to your email list. Then add their email to your document. Later, once you have picked the tool you will use for email marketing, you can easily import them.
If you already have a website, encourage visitors to complete a subscribe form. It can send you an email or it can automatically add them to your list behind the scenes.
Growing your email list
Growing your email list is one of the biggest goals, and challenges, facing writers and small businesses. Finding people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer isn’t easy. Don’t waste the opportunity to be able to reach out to them in the future.
Every subscriber is someone who has raised their hand to say “I’d like to hear from you.” Make it easy for them to do so!
A note about permission
A central concept of anti-spam laws is that all your subscribers must have given you permission for you to email them. Or put another way, they must have “opted in” to your list.
If you go to a trade event, a writing conference, or give a presentation and have an email signup sheet, the people who use it are “opting in” to be on your email list.
If you have a form on your website, and they complete the form themselves, they are also opting in.
Opting in is their choice, not yours.
If you just take your address book or contact list and add it to your subscriber list – that is not them opting in. If someone gives you their business card, that is not the same as giving you permission to add them to your email list. Be sure to always ask and ideally get their signature or initials.
In short: always get permission.
Not ready to send a newsletter? You can still connect
It is perfectly acceptable to spend months quietly building your list while you finish your book, develop your services, and decide what your newsletter will become. Nevertheless, there is something you can do in the meantime.
Rather than leaving subscribers wondering if anything happened after signing up, send them a welcoming confirmation message.
Also consider sending a few introductory messages over the following weeks to introduce your new subscribers to who you are, what you write or your services, and what to expect next.
The good news is that all email marketing tools (like Mailchimp, Kit, and MailerLite) have the ability for you to prepare a sequence of pre-written emails. Prepare three to five messages in advance and space them apart by days or weeks. This kind of email automation is often called a “nurturing sequence.”
For example, a typical nurture sequence may consist of
Confirmation and appreciation (Thank you for subscribing!)
Introduction (About you and your writing.)
What’s next (the book you are working on and when you expect it to be published.)
Conclusion
Every interested person who cannot subscribe is someone you may never have another chance to reach. Don’t let those opportunities slip away simply because you aren’t ready to send a newsletter yet.
Whether you’re writing a book or building your online presence, start collecting email subscribers as soon as possible. You just need permission and a simple way to capture their information.
Your email list will grow one subscriber at a time. The best time to start collecting those subscribers is today.
If you would like help setting up your subscriber list, reach out. I regularly help authors and small business owners create email systems that are practical, approachable, and built to grow over time.
Further Reading
- Jane Friedman Email Newsletters for Authors: Get Started Guide
- Dan Blank The most important part of your platform as a writer
- The Writing Biz Podcast: Why Every Writer Needs An Email List (Even Before Publishing)
