All the News That's Fit to Send

Today is the third Saturday of the month, which is notable because that's the day I send out my monthly author newsletter.

Here it is, in case you want to see it: December 2024 author newsletter

I've written about newsletters on this blog before. At first, it was painful to come up with something to write, but over the years I've gotten reasonably comfortable with sending something out. At least 50% of my content is about foster kittens, not writing, so that makes it easier.

I'm probably doing it wrong

But would my newsletter be more effective if I followed the guidelines more closely? Here are some ways I'm doing it wrong:

• Instead of having one newsletter for each pen name, I have one for both. Does it matter? Do the cozy mystery people get sick of the SF/F content and vice versa? I have no idea.
  
  
• I send my newsletter out one time every month. Most recommendations suggest sending one out every other week or even more often than that. It doesn't really matter if that would be more effective, because I don't think I can get my act together to send out a newsletter every week.
  
  
• I haven't "cleaned" my list to get rid of the subscribers who don't bother opening it. I never have. (It affects whether the newsletter gets delivered to the rest of the list.) I guess I probably should. Maybe I'll put that on my list of things to do in the new year.
  
  
• I should probably try to put in more stuff that gets people engaged. Romance authors often have polls to come up with the dream casting for their books, or even just "which guy is hotter" type things. But I can't think of any poll that I could do that wouldn't just make me cringe, so... 
  
  

So there we are.

Reader participation time

Do you subscribe to any author newsletters? What do you like or dislike about them?

Kitten prize

All the tuxedos have been adopted! Here's a picture of Kittyenne Westwood.