One essential aspect of the creator life is an email newsletter. It is a powerful tool for building a connection with fans and customers. As a writer, your email list is one of your most valuable assets. It’s a direct line to your readers and potential readers.
Screenwriters, filmmakers, podcasters, and musicians all benefit from having an email list. Everyone should have an email list!
What are Email Newsletters and Why Do You Need One?
Email newsletters are emails sent regularly to a list of subscribers who have opted-in to receive news from you. They can include updates about your projects, exclusive previews, personal anecdotes, and more.
The best thing you can do to set yourself up for success as a novelist, screenwriter, and creator is to start building your email list and writing and sending newsletters. That way, when you are ready to publish, have a project to pitch, or song to sell you have a list of interested and eager buyers.
Why are Email Newsletters So Important?
1. Direct Communication: Unlike social media algorithms, which are always changing, email newsletters ensure you have direct communication with your audience. Social media platforms come and go in popularity and influence (I’m looking at you Twitter), but email is forever.
2. You Control Your List: You own your email list. With social media, you can lose your account, or an app can go out of business, and then you have no way to reach your followers. All of that hard work building an audience goes up in smoke. With an email list, you have your readers’ email addresses and can always contact them.
3. Build Relationships: Newsletters help you build lasting relationships with your readers by providing consistent, personal updates and an easy way for readers to interact directly with you.
4. Promote Your Work: Email newsletters are an excellent tool for selling your creative projects (books, movies, music, art) to readers by promoting new releases, events, and sales.
Think of your newsletter as a tiny writers’ room that lives inside your reader’s inbox. When it dings, it’s you walking in with:
- A quick update from the frontlines of your draft.
- A stolen scene or bonus chapter.
- A celebration that your episode is airing.
Social media is a noisy convention hallway. Your newsletter is the booth where someone actually sat down across from you and said, “Okay, tell me everything.”
A newsletter is another way to tell your stories and build your audience.
How do I Send my Newsletter?
You can’t use Gmail or Outlook to send out mass emails. You will need an email marketing service to send your newsletter. There are many services out there to choose from. I use Kit to send my newsletter. I like it because it’s built for creators. You get simple ways to:
- Your own creator profile like this (that you can use as your website.)
- Collect email addresses with clean, non-cringe landing pages like this.
- Send newsletters that feel like you, not like a corporate memo.
This article is adapted from How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel.
More on Newsletters
How to Build Your Email List with Reader Magnets
How to Build a Writer Platform
How to Write Emails that Readers Want to Read
Newsletter Ninja by Tammi LaBrecque
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