Newsletters, Reader Groups or Leave Me Alone? By S.C. Wynne

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Good morning, all!

I hope your day is going well. It's the weekend and that is usually awesome, right? Of course, I write full time so there are no weekends for me. In fact, I rarely even take a day off. Which I really hope to change in the coming year. But that's not my topic for today. (By the way I am not whining, at least I don't mean to. I count my lucky stars every day that I can write for a living!)

I wanted to wax poetic about my thoughts on author groups, newsletters etc. The idea of course is that you have a close group of people who really like your work, and you can interact with them and sell to them and generally have fans for life. I'm not sure that actually works. I think my problem with all of these things is if everyone has a group or a newsletter, it's a lot to expect your fans will only belong to your group and not fifty others. In which case, those poor fans would be receiving fifty newsletters!

I only send a newsletter usually when i have  new release or a special, but I know authors who send newsletters EVERY DAY. Sometimes TWICE a day! I'm sorry, that seems like way too much to me. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe readers love getting newsletters that often. *Shakes head*

But I find that a lot of readers belong to so many groups they don't really interact that much in any of the groups. Who can blame them, they'd be online all day talking to authors. lol

Because of how many groups there are to belong to, I'm not sure if readers groups are really that useful as far as using them as a sales tool. Of course, they're fun to hang out in, and I love talking to my readers. It really does make things feel more personal, which is actually kind of nice. I'm not a natural salesman, so I find pushing my books painful. But talking with readers is one of the best parts of being an author. (Hint, hint, feel free to reach out anytime!)

What do you think? Do you belong to a bunch of authors groups? Do you watch what is going on but maybe not interact much? It's possible lots of people are watching the fun, and enjoying it, but not actually interacting. I do that a LOT with writing groups. I watch and learn, but don't ever post.

Tell me what you think!

S.C.

www.sc-wynne.com