This spoke to me. lol. Really. As a novelist, I had a MailChimp newsletter for years, because my publisher (along with every blog on book marketing) was insistent that I maintain one, being that newsletters have proven very effective at selling books. But it was never "fun." The formatting was hard and time-consuming, and everything I put together felt like a hard-sell (pure marketing). I pretty much abandoned it until I became a fan of Substack. Now I do a weekly Substack newsletter where I write about a variety of "fun" and (I think) "interesting" things. I pick up free subscribers regularly (I don't have a pay option), and it actually helps with book sales too. It's enjoyable.
Oh hey… I’m mentioned!
This spoke to me. lol. Really. As a novelist, I had a MailChimp newsletter for years, because my publisher (along with every blog on book marketing) was insistent that I maintain one, being that newsletters have proven very effective at selling books. But it was never "fun." The formatting was hard and time-consuming, and everything I put together felt like a hard-sell (pure marketing). I pretty much abandoned it until I became a fan of Substack. Now I do a weekly Substack newsletter where I write about a variety of "fun" and (I think) "interesting" things. I pick up free subscribers regularly (I don't have a pay option), and it actually helps with book sales too. It's enjoyable.