Newsletter with Free Gift?

[AMObst]

Honestly, I’d be wary of using your own writing as a free gift unless that writing is already for sale and it’s a limited promotion. Your work is a product and you need to treat it as such. People should be signing up for your newsletter because they’ve already read something and are hoping to pay for more. Don’t cheapen your work.

I mentioned print quality digital poster above. An even better choice might be an original art badge with a quote that people can use in signatures and websites and such.

That's an interesting response, because there are a few self-publishing "experts" who are suggesting a freebie short story is one of the best reader magnets to induce readers to sign up. And I'm signed up to a few author mailing lists who do just that. Though if I'm honest, I'm not sure I'd pay money to read those stories anyway, as they generally serve to explain more about events or characters I've already read about, that might lack the power of a real standalone short story.

 

[Ned Marcus]

Definitely give away a sample of your writing. A short story, novelette, novella etc. You're not really giving it away because you're exchanging it for an email address. I think physical gifts would be strange in this context (and expensive). I give a novelette (a posh way of saying a long short story) plus a second short story. I'm sure that a free novel would work better, but I don't have one, so I make do with a couple of shorts.

Don't care that some people sign-up for the story and then unsubscribe—in fact it's best to encourage them to leave your list if they're not really interested. Building an interested email list is one of the best things you can do. It takes time though.

I advise people who don't want to receive regular emails from me that they should just follow me on Amazon or Book Bub. It saves them getting emails they don't want, but most people who sign-up want to receive emails.

I agree with Skip that Mailerlite is better than Mailchimp.

 

[skip.knox]

Good advice from Ned Marcus. Offer a reader magnet, let them unsubscribe and don't fret about it, give them a newsletter with interesting stuff in it, and offer the unsubscribed (new zombie movie: The Unsubscribed) to follow you on Amazon or elsewhere.