My first “mass” email went out today, and I had some pretty exciting results, at least for me. I emailed the people on my “Giveaway” list, which are those who’ve signed up via Instafreebie to get a sample of the book. Meaning…they signed up because I was giving something away for free on a site used by millions of people. They’re not highly engaged with me as an author, or really with my book, beyond the cover I have and the little blurb I wrote.
I’ve been learning a lot about email lists over the past year or so, and one of the things I’ve learned is that the NUMBER of people on your email list do not matter nearly as much as how ENGAGED the people are that you have. Ie- there’s way less value in a list of 10,000 people that have a 1% open rate compared to a list of 1,000 people that open at a rate of 90%…in fact there’s 9x the value in the smaller, more engaged list.
So, this morning I sent out a very personal, very true story about the very un-traditional family I grew up in, and I talked about how that life experience is woven into the fabric of the story that I wrote. Then I told them I really hoped they’d read my book, and offered them some tasty bits at the end, value for more engagement. It worked, I think…I have an open rate right now of 37%, and I doubled my VIP Readers List, which is the list of *organically* gained subscribers; the list of people I hope to have much more engagement from.
I’m hoping that by using these circles of opting-in to emails, that I can distill down a list of people that actually WANT to hear from me, that enjoy my writing, and enjoy interacting with me on a regular basis. Seriously. THAT is the goal. It’s not to try and sell people books. I had an epiphany today, which is that I am NOT in the business of selling books. I am in the business of gaining READERS. I don’t want you to buy my book…I want you to READ it.
Anywho…I also got set up the rest of the way (I think) with Flix work, and I sat down and I categorized all of my actions of projects into my organization app. It’s going to start keeping my life in order, guys. I can feel it. It’s already making a difference. When I think of something, I put it into the app, and I pick a due date and a project to file it under…and then I freaking forget about it. No more being crushed under the weight of all the tasks I need to do that are stressing me the fuck out. Well…hopefully LESS crushing. I doubt it ever goes away completely.
Good night! I sent my paperback for review by Createspace today, and when the proof comes back tomorrow some time…I get to order a physical copy of it for review…which means this time next week, I should be holding my very first book in my actual hands. AHHHHHHHHH.
Artwork tonight is from, of course, Moebius.