When we plan a newsletter for readers, the question often arises, “What should I even write about? What options would work and what would be a waste of time?”
There are three main topics that will invariably be of interest to fans of a particular author:
New book recommendations
Your subscribers like to read and are always looking for good books.
Since they chose you and subscribed to your mailing list, they must trust your taste and will be happy to heed your recommendations.
You can tell them about your own as well as other people’s work in your genre.
Writer shop talk
An author is an authority for readers. He possesses deep knowledge, is able to create new worlds and tell interesting stories.
Many readers are interested to know how it’s done.
But you need to remember that your subscribers aren’t your writer colleagues, and they don’t need to know about authors’ professional troubles. The readers are interested in emotions, stories, characters, and helpful tips they can apply in their own lives.
For example, how you develop your creative thinking, what motivates you, where you get ideas from, etc.
Life through an author’s eyes
An author’s opinion about current events or the values that form the foundation of his books – that’s what creates a sense of kinship between a writer and his readers.
Tell your subscribers what you believe in, what matters to you in other people, how you make difficult decisions, what types of people and topics attract your attention, and so on.
If you think about it, a newsletter is the author’s blog in a different format.
[If you need additional ideas of what to write about in a newsletter, download my guide, “60 Ideas for an Author’s Social Media Page”]
What you need to do:
- Determine your author archetype and decide what type of newsletter suits you best.
- Decide how often you will send out newsletters to your readers.
- Brainstorm a list of topics that interest you and that have to do with your books.
- Make a content plan for the first ten letters.
- Write the letters to your readers.
