I have resisted the newletter ‘issue’ for a long time, but a recent promotion on one of our books has made me realise that I should probably get ours up and running (and keep it going). 

Most authors have a newsletter which they send out on a weekly or monthly basis, but as a publisher, it seemed a little more complex (although it’s more than likely that I am making things more complicated than they need to be).

I’m not sure I have all that much to say to send a monthly newsletter out, although some of what I do might be of interest to authors who intend to set up their own publishing company (whether it is for themselves or to publish others). There is certainly a lot I know now that I wish I’d known back in 2016, when I started Bolide Publishing. 
Yesterday, I sent my first newletter to coincide with the promotion of one of our books, as well as to inform subscribers about some of our recent book releases. At the time of writing, 44% of subscribers opened the email, two people unsubscribed, and there have been thirteen clicks across the links.

‘s What I really want to talk about here though, is how a newsletter can help with a promotion.

The author whose book we were promoting has a far larger newsletter and the results were far more impressive. Actually, I did very little towards this promotion – all the success from this promo came via her own newsletter and swaps she arranged. I did little more than constantly refresh the sales stat page to keep her updated.

The book made number one in two free kindle ebook categories and got a good overall rank.

There is much more to a free promotion than just the rank, of course, but I’ll save that conversation for another post or I’ll go off-topic.

The important lesson of the day, for me, is that newsletters (the author’s in this case) can and do work. I’ve seen the proof of that now, and shall continue to push myself beyond my worry of making a nuisance of myself, or worse, boring people, and endeavour to send a monthly newsletter in Bolide Publishing’s name.