How to attract newsletter subscribers without giving away a free book #WriterWednesday #AuthorMarketing #AmWriting

If you’re a writer, you’ve already heard the advice – probably ad nauseum. You must (!!) have a free book to attract readers to your newsletter. Some marketing gurus call this a lead generation, others call it a cookie. Whatever you call it, the theory is the same. Give away the first book in a series to attract readers to your series and your newsletter.

Sounds great? *Shrugs* I don’t know about other writers, but I don’t have any books I’m willing to give away. My three cozy mystery series are each three books. I simply don’t have enough read throughs to justify giving book 1 of any of my series away.

But I finally found a solution to attract newsletter subscribers without giving away a free book. My latest novel, About Face, launches on August 29th. It’s the first book in a three book series in the romantic comedy genre. Now, obviously, I’m not giving a brand new book away. Instead, I’ve made a pdf of the first few chapters as a teaser. Using bookfunnel, readers can download the sample for free if they agree to join my newsletter list.

I’m trying to accomplish two goals with this: (1) gain newsletter subscribers and (2) create some interest in my new release.

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I just started a Facebook ad. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Anyone else give away books for free to gain newsletter subscribers? If so, how has that worked out for you?