NINC

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Nink: Growing Newsletter Engagement ~ A Case Study

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the January 2022 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Newsletters remain one of the most valuable tools authors have to promote our work. Our newsletters can be created without filters on content. We aren’t restricted by anyone else’s ideas about whether an image or a word is offensive. We manage the frequency of communication without being forced to bid for the privilege of reaching our audience, as we must for cost-per-click advertisements. And we can turn our newsletters into conversations, deepening our bonds with our readers.

Newsletters, though, are under fire. Apple now gives recipients the ability to obscure their data, so that senders of email no longer receive accurate reports on which emails were opened. (Google is likely to do the same in the near future.) Newsletters have long been subject to spam-fighting rules, often being shunted off to recipients’ spam or promotions folders based on specific “trigger” words or an email service provider’s disfavored computer server.

Now more than ever, a newsletter is far more likely to reach a recipient’s inbox (and to be read and acted upon) when the recipient has communicated with the sender in the past. While that communication may be in the form of opening an email, more valuable contact occurs when a recipient clicks on a link in the message or replies to the message with an email of their own.

One author, Pru Warren, has built an avid, active base of readers by using her newsletter to collaborate with her readers on a multi-part novel with a variety of choices for each installment.

A rose by any other name
Warren calls her project You Decide. It is a madcap romantic suspense story, complete with gorgeous spies, an octogenarian trickster, and a plot to derail a presidential candidacy. It functions, in many ways, like the popular multiple-choice novels marketed under the federally registered trademark Choose Your Own Adventure.

Beginning in April 2021 and continuing through November 12, 2021, Warren emailed a new installment of You Decide to her mailing list. The installment included:

  • A one- or two-paragraph summary of the action thus far.
  • A chapter of the story, generally between 1,000 and 1,500 words, usually ending with a cliffhanger.
  • Three options for the next installment—typically along the line of “Follow Character A, B, or C from this encounter”—along with a reminder that readers could always submit their own idea instead of selecting from the list.
  • A promotion of Warren’s current standard-book release, including an image of the cover, a short summary of the plot, and a link to purchase the book.

The course of true love
Warren modified her storytelling approach as You Decide proceeded. As an initial matter, she quickly realized that she needed to label the point-of-view character for each installment. With a week between entries, readers didn’t necessarily immediately recognize the tone of each perspective.

Similarly, after the first dozen or so installments, Warren realized that she needed to include a short summary of the preceding action. Readers had to be reminded of secondary characters’ names and functions. Occasionally, they also needed to be refreshed on plot threads that had been launched several episodes earlier.

Approximately one-third of the way through the story, Warren polled her subscribers, asking them what level of heat they wanted in the book’s love scenes. Readers voted overwhelmingly for “spicy.” Warren’s published novels include spicy scenes, so the vote was not surprising. Warren did announce the results of the vote, though, so that readers who wanted sweet romance could adjust their reading habits, possibly skimming some episodes.

Occasionally, Warren had strong ideas about where she intended to take her story. Those ideas could be encouraged by giving readers one or two very appealing options, making the third a relatively weak contender. (Once, when Warren was determined to write the long-promised love scene, she told her readers no vote was necessary for the following week. No one complained!)

The final two episodes coincided with a long-scheduled vacation when Warren would have no internet access. Of course, story options were quite limited by that point, as Warren was writing the climax and brief denouement of the novel. The penultimate segment did not offer readers any choices; instead, it promised a short epilogue (thus preserving readers’ expectations and Warren’s vacation plans).

All’s well that ends well
In general, Warren considers You Decide to have been successful. When she launched the story, she created a new newsletter segment, sending only to the subscribers of her general newsletter who expressed interest. In the course of writing You Decide’s 36 installments, Warren received at least one vote from approximately 90% of the You Decide subscribers. Approximately 5% of the subscribers voted on every installment.

Warren successfully strengthened her connections to her readers. Consistent “opens,” frequent replies, and occasional clicks on embedded content all made it more likely that future emails from Warren will arrive in her readers’ inboxes, rather than their spam or promotion folders. While the inner workings of email service providers are obscure, the benefit of having a highly connected segment of subscribers (You Decide readers) may provide a “halo effect” to other Warren subscribers, connoting the overall strength of Warren’s list.

There were, however, some shortcomings that became apparent as the experiment progressed. While one subscriber joined the reading list approximately halfway through the story (after meeting Warren in person and hearing about the venture), the reading base did not otherwise expand once the story began. The “barrier to entry” was simply too high, with a large backlog of story segments to be read by anyone joining partway through. (Warren did provide the entire “story thus far” on her website, along with the choices for each preceding installment. Those entries are available here.)

Writing the story also took time during Warren’s busy writing week. In addition to writing her weekly You Decide installments, Warren sent her more traditional newsletter to her subscribers (weekly, for her most engaged subscribers, and monthly for everyone else.) Of course, she also wrote novels as well.

Warren is publishing the complete You Decide story as a novel, Emma’s Mission (which should be available by the time this article is published). She intends to list as a co-author all subscribers who voted on every installment. She’ll send an ebook copy to every subscriber who voted on even one installment.

And one final measure of the experiment’s success: Warren intends to launch a second You Decide project in the coming year!

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USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky’s most recent novel is the romantic comedy The F Word, the second volume in her Love in the Age of COVID series. Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Klasky has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, Mindy knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

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Nink ~ Don’t Pants Your Career: Career Plotting For Mid-Level Authors

This article by Tara Wyatt is from the October 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership.  

When it comes to writing our books, some of us are pantsers—those who write by the seat of their pants without a solid outline to guide them—and some are plotters. Some of us are a combination of the two. There’s no one right way to write a book. In fact, if your method is resulting in completed projects that you’re happy with, I’d say it’s working for you.

However, when it comes to our careers, too many of us are pantsing it—moving forward without a plan, goal, or solid vision as to where we’d like to be six months, 12 months, or two years from now. While it’s perfectly acceptable to pants your books (I’ve written more than 20 books this way), you can’t pants your career.

If you’re unsure where to start when it comes to career planning, keep reading.

Organize your workflow
Before you start planning, first do some reflecting and analyzing. Creating an effective and realistic plan requires a level of self-awareness when it comes to not only your goals, but also your capacity and capabilities. Open a blank Word document or grab a journal, and answer the following questions:

  • How many books do I write a year, on average?
  • How long does it take me to write and edit each book?
  • Is my current pace sustainable? Could I do more? Should I do less? Where is my happy medium?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Answer them honestly, and pay attention to how you feel as you answer them. Don’t take on more than you know you can realistically handle, because that’s a sure path to burnout.

Once you have a clear picture of how many books you can comfortably release in a year, create a spreadsheet with a column along the top labeled “new releases.” Down the side, create a row for each month of the coming year. Now that you know how long it takes you to write a book, slot in your releases for the next 12 months. (Note: If planning this far ahead stresses you out or doesn’t work for you, cap it at six months).

Plan your promotions
Now that you have a clear picture of your upcoming release schedule, it’s time to plan your promotions around those releases.

When you have a new release, look for what’s similar in your backlist to promote. If you write in series, this could be an earlier book in that series. If you write standalones, it could be a book with the same or similar trope, setting, or overall theme. It’s up to you when you’d like to run the promotion—a few weeks before the release, during the release, immediately after the release. Experiment and find what works best for you. Discounting a backlist book creates a low barrier to entry into your series or your books, enticing new readers. This is especially helpful if the new release is a later book in a series, which is more difficult to market to new readers. By discounting an earlier book in the series, you reclaim some of that marketing power. Once you’ve selected the backlist title to promote in support of your new release, note how you plan to promote it. Will it be on sale for 99 cents? Temporarily free? How are you going to market the sale? Are you going to apply for a BookBub? Submit to other newsletters such as Robin Reads, Ereader News Today, or Fussy Librarian?

When you’ve selected your backlist promotions, create a new column in your spreadsheet called “Discounted Backlist Book” and slot in your planned promotions next to your new releases. Now you’ll have a clear picture of not only the new books you’re releasing, but the backlist books you’re going to promote to support them.

Marketing activities
Now that you know what new books you’ll be releasing as well as what discounted books you’ll be promoting in support of that release, it’s time to plan your other marketing activities. Take a look at what you currently do and/or enjoy doing when it comes to marketing. Some examples of marketing activities outside of a discounted book promotion include:

  • Social media: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter
  • Newsletter swaps with other authors
  • Cost-per-click ads on platforms such as Facebook, Amazon, and BookBub
  • Giveaways (joint giveaway with other authors, Goodreads giveaways)

Please note, I’m not saying that you should do all of these things. These are merely examples of marketing activities. What do you usually do? Is it working for you? How do you know? Analyze what you’ve done in the past to make the best possible decision for the future. When you’ve decided what marketing activities you’re going to undertake, create a new column in your spreadsheet called “Marketing” and slot in what you plan to do. It could be a Goodreads giveaway, a Facebook ad campaign, newsletter swaps with other authors in your genre, all of the above, or something entirely different. But figure out what you’ll be doing, and slot it in.

What if I’m a slow writer?
As we all know, the pace of the market is increasingly relentless. There are authors releasing a book a month, and if that’s the speed where you’re comfortable and fulfilled without burning out, power to you. However, many of us are not writing six, eight or 10 books a year, and that’s fine. If you only write one or two books a year, there are ways to boost your income and round out your calendar.

1. Rebrand an older book or series. If you have a series that isn’t selling well and is a few years old, consider putting new covers on the books (pay attention to what’s selling in your genre to make sure your covers are right for the market) and writing fresh blurbs. Then discount the first book to 99 cents or free and promote it as best you can. Freshening up an older series can attract new readers, especially if you treat the rebrand just like a new release, with cover reveals, a sale, and other activities you do to promote your new releases.

2. Write a free prequel to an existing series. Consider writing a short story or novella that serves as a prequel to an existing series. Adding content to a series and creating a new entry point can bring in new readers. You could also treat the prequel just like a new release. Because it’s shorter, it won’t take as long to write but will still help boost sales of that series.

3. Create box sets of existing content. If you have a multi-book series that’s at least five books long, you could create a box set of the first three books in the series and treat the release of the box set just like you would a new book. This box set can also act as an excellent promotional tool in the future. For example, if you have a new release in that series, you can offer the box set for 99 cents or $1.99 as your discounted book. You could also create a box set of three or four first-in-series books if you have multiple series to play with, and treat that box set like a new release as well.

If you don’t write in series, you could create a box set of two or three books with the same trope, theme, or even setting. Be creative! Another idea would be to team up with other authors in your genre and offer a multi-author box set for free for a limited time. This type of cross promotion is excellent for finding new readers.

4. Create audio versions of your books. This is a pricey option, to be sure, but audiobooks are a growing market. Creating audiobook versions of your backlist books is a way to find new readers, round out your release calendar, and diversify your income streams. However, it does come with a heavier investment than, say, putting together a box set. But it’s an option if you have the cash flow.

Putting it all together
You should now have a clear picture of the next year (or six months, or possibly even 18 if you like to plan that far ahead) and all of the big, important pieces. What new books are you releasing and when? What backlist promotions will you do to support those new releases? What other marketing activities are you planning?

You can customize your spreadsheet to reflect your workflow and plans. For example, some people create a separate column to track applying for BookBub Featured Deals. Others create a column for cover reveals, or series rebrands, or audiobook releases. It’s up to you how to use it. But I do encourage you to use it, even if you’re a pantser when it comes to your writing. With a little planning, strategy, and organization, it will be that much easier to grow your author career and take it to the next level.

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Tara Wyatt is an award-winning contemporary romance and romantic suspense author of more than 20 books. She lives near Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Nink ~ Behind the Curtain: Talking Covers with Tordotcom’s Christine Foltzer & Indie Authors

This article, written by Patricia Burroughs is from the October 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Following up on my August 2021 Nink interview with Guido Carotti, senior designer at Harper Collins Mass Market Paperbacks, I interviewed Christine Foltzer, associate art director at Tordotcom Publishing. Then the voices of indie authors, who serve as their own art directors, were added to the mix.

In the beginning, marketing?
For Christine Foltzer, everything begins when she receives a cover memo from the book’s acquiring editor. The cover memo includes genre/subgenre, story summary, notes and/or visuals of locations, objects, characters, and comp covers of existing books that are representative of the mood, style, format, art, or other elements the author and editor like.

But before arriving in the art department, Tordotcom Marketing has already had input in the book’s future, including determining which catalog the book will be in—spring/summer, fall, or winter—and thus its publication date. Work on the cover begins about a year in advance.

Foltzer adds the book to her bullet-point list of upcoming books. Many NINC authors also recommend scheduling far in advance, for many designers are booked solid for months.

Some authors are so prolific they also have to keep their version of a bullet-point list to keep up with multiple covers at a time.

But marketing is always the priority.

The purpose of a book cover is to market the book, which means visibility to the target readers.

That’s where comp covers come in for the indie writers, too.

One NINC author spent “hundreds of hours” studying recent bestselling covers in her genre to find comps for the covers she DIYs herself. Again and again, our members stressed the importance of comp covers, of studying the competition, knowing which cover trends are current, and, most of all, understanding the common elements of your genre’s/subgenre’s covers.

Important and overlooked aspects of finding and choosing comp covers

  • They shouldn’t be written by authors whose names alone sell books. King, Rowling, Patterson, etc. Those books fall into an entirely different category.
  • They should be successful. You don’t want to emulate a cover with minimal sales and an unknown author. It’s already not working for them.
  • They must be in the exact genre/subgenre.

Too obvious? Not really. It’s easy to fall in love with a cover or a style and know it’s perfect for your story and want it—even though it fails the above tests. It’s even more common to dislike the cover conventions of a genre/subgenre and decide to use something to your own preference.

You’re the art director. And unless the author’s going to buy 100,000 copies of their own book, our authors overwhelmingly say, kick that “author” to the curb and let marketing rule the day.

Regrets, we have a few

NINC indies mourn the money and time squandered on covers that didn’t work yet could have had they understood the importance of genre conventions in a book’s visibility and sales.

Several authors ditched the bare chest covers common in romance. Low sales changed their minds, and with new covers sales have surged. Readers can now identify them as “their kind of book.”

The reverse can also be a problem. Without realizing it, some authors sent the wrong signals with their book covers. Reviewers told two authors that they expected a different kind of book from the cover. Coincidentally, both books—one a mystery and one a comic thriller—looked YA.

Book covers are labels, and readers expect to get what the label tells them is inside, whether authors like that labeling or not.

Foltzer shares cover ideas with editors, who consult their author. After adjustments and getting approval, Foltzer then starts the cover on its way to the actual art. She commissions original art for some, commissions freelance book designers for others, and does some in-house.

Regrets, we have more
The other top regret shared by many indie authors? Not commissioning professionals who are experts at book cover design and also the genre/subgenre of the book.

This is a three-pronged error:

  • “Knowing Photoshop” isn’t enough.
  • Even knowing graphic design isn’t enough.
  • Even an award-winning book cover designer isn’t a good choice if their portfolio is in an entirely different genre.

You wouldn’t take your Corvette to a diesel mechanic. So why would you put your career and bank account in the hands of your neighbor/niece/coworker unless they are experienced, successful book designers in your genre? Most indies reported regretting that kind of early choice and would do it differently today.

Where to find a designer

  • Word of mouth from successful indie authors in the same genre/subgenre
  • Sometimes listed on copyright pages
  • Reddit and other online communities where authors and artists gather
  • Genre-specific Google searches (book cover designers + subgenre)
  • Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc. (Twitter hashtag #portfolioday)

Rights and licenses
Questions to ask; not all necessarily apply to any specific situation:

  • The prices of print and audiobook covers?
  • Does your license include using the cover on web pages, store sites, social media, merchandise?
  • Is the art/photo exclusively yours or also available for other authors?
  • Can you share in-progress drafts with your readers to vote on options?
  • How many sample designs, drafts, and revisions are provided?
  • Do you provide other options, such as behind-the-scenes videos of photoshoots that the author can use in promotions?

 

Designing your own covers
DIY is a growing trend and one that, while tempting, can be as disastrous as using an inadequate designer.

Some respondents admitted that they liked their early attempts and were proud of them at the time. But down the road, they recognized the work was amateurish, which hurt sales. Readers assumed the insides were as amateur as the cover.

Many authors are thrilled with the skills they’re learning and the new covers they are making. The learning curve on Photoshop, for example, has been tough but gratifying, and they know their covers will only improve as they learn more.

BookBrush and Canva
One writer says the combination of graphics experience and BookBrush has led to replacing older mystery covers.

Stock photos and premade covers
Book designers use stock photos as a starting place and then manipulate, layer and add objects or characters that are also digitally changed. But unadorned stock photos with text can work in some genres. Book designers often have premade covers on their websites. Authors sometimes find covers there. Two writers regretted snapping up premades, assuming they could write something to fit. They acknowledge they’ll never do it again and wish they could have that money back.

It’s amazing how many of us decide to learn to create book covers without any knowledge of Photoshop and go for it anyway. Some look at the many long hours of frustration and less-than-stellar results and consider the experience time and money wasted. Others take courses to learn or watch YouTube videos and ask for help in Facebook groups.

Several members can’t visualize what they want until they play around with the elements themselves, which led to them finally acquiring enough skills to take on the task for good. Some take on DIY because they can make effective covers. Others are happy to turn the job over to the professionals when they can. And some take the hybrid road in covers, making some for themselves and hiring professionals to do others. One such author mentioned hiring a romance cover designer because getting those right is imperative, whereas some of her other book covers are less demanding.

How do you know a cover works?
Crowd-sourcing your readers is a popular method to test covers. Some share on social media and may even let readers vote on options or models. Some create a private Facebook group or subset of their email list for this use.

One author showed three different male models to readers to choose between, only to have one of them dismissed overwhelmingly because the readers said he was on too many covers already.

Authors ask for the above feedback as a way to build anticipation for their new book, even if they’re already pretty sure what they’re going to do.

Keep in mind:

  • If there’s a free promotion and not a lot of downloads? Very likely, the cover isn’t doing its job.
  • Reviewers saying they expected a different kind of book from the cover? Again, the cover isn’t doing its job.
  • Some people change covers and sales surge.
  • How many clicks an ad gets may be indicative of your cover’s appeal.
  • Your cover reveals on social media or in your newsletter should get responses.
  • One author tested her covers with Facebook ads. Once she found the best, she went ahead and recovered an entire series.

Once is not enough
Several authors say they update covers every few years. Others change covers as soon as they suspect one isn’t working. All say updated covers usually boost sales.

 

Summing up
Indie authors relish the control they have over their own covers, despite the learning curve they may hit and hard lessons learned through experience. If something isn’t working, they have the flexibility to change it. And if it is working, they can enjoy the profits and perhaps use the lessons learned when designing their next cover.

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Patricia Burroughs is a novelist and screenwriter. She is an Academy Fellow, having received the Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting (awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences). She loves Pratchett, Aaronovitch, Dunnett, and Heyer. She desperately needs a maid.

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Christine Foltzer is art director at Tordotcom Publishing. She has overseen the development of covers and marketing since the launch of the imprint in 2015. After graduating from Pratt Institute with a BFA in Illustration, she also worked at St. Martin’s Press, Oxford University Press, and Grand Central Publishing.

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Nink: Selling Direct Through Author Websites

This article, written by Mindy Klasky  is from the September 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

This article discusses U.S. and international taxation law, which varies by country, state, province, territory, and municipality. The information here may not apply to your specific circumstances and is not legal advice.

Authors wear multiple hats, including writer, researcher, editor, and marketer. As e-commerce continues to expand, authors can add yet another identity to their figurative wardrobe: owner/operator of an online store.

Online stores allow authors to control the sale of their books far more than they can through traditional vendors. Authors can set prices without worrying about artificial pricing floors or ceilings.* They can also offer unique products not available at traditional vendors.

Authors generally earn higher royalties on sales through their own websites than those through traditional vendors. The details vary, depending on store platform (e.g., Payhip or WooCommerce), payment gateway (e.g., PayPal or Stripe), and product cost, but most authors receive 80-85% of the cover price of their goods.

But website stores present some challenges—most notably issues in delivering goods to purchasers and in handling taxation.

I conducted a survey in late June 2021, asking authors to report on their experiences running stores on their websites. All percentages noted below are derived from that survey. (Due to rounding, not all numbers add up to 100 percent.)

Building the store
There are many customizable e-commerce platforms designed to provide individualized stores on websites. Each integrates with an existing website to display goods, allow customers to order, and accept payment. Some systems also take care of fulfillment (delivering goods to buyers).

Popular e-commerce platforms include Payhip (used by 35% of survey respondents), WooCommerce (29%), and Shopify (12%). It is also possible to build a store entirely from scratch, using HTML code to create buttons and accepting payment through PayPal or Stripe.

Not all e-commerce platforms function on all website platforms. For example, WooCommerce is designed to work as a plugin on WordPress websites; it’s not available on other website platforms such as SquareSpace, Wix, or Weebly.

Some authors (including approximately 64% of the survey respondents) set up their stores themselves, adding the code to their existing website and optimizing it to best reflect their brands. Another 6% had their personal assistant set up their stores, while 30% hired a programmer or web admin to create the store.

Once a store is created, it needs to be maintained. Software requires occasional updates to run smoothly and to minimize the risk of hacking. New products (e.g., newly published books) must be added. Authors can run sales, including special prices for specific time periods. Eighty-two percent of survey respondents reported maintaining their own store or having their personal assistant maintain it. The remainder hired a programmer or web admin for at least some of the maintenance.

Stocking the store
Once a store is installed on a website, an author has a lot of leeway about what products to stock. Among survey respondents, 60% sell ebooks and 53% sell print books. Thirty percent sell audiobooks, 35% sell swag, and 6% sell membership in classes, seminars, or public appearances.

Owning a store allows an author to develop unique products only available at that store. For example, they can build unique boxed sets, including the first book in multiple series, books collected according to tropes, or books related to a specific holiday. Authors can also pair books with swag in unique packages.

Moreover, authors can provide a high level of “fan service,” offering books in their own stores prior to releasing those books through traditional vendors. Such early releases reward dedicated readers while simultaneously increasing the value of an author’s newsletter (because interested readers will click on links in that newsletter, further building ties to the author and increasing the deliverability of future newsletters).

Delivering goods
When customers purchase electronic goods (e.g., ebooks, audiobooks, class memberships), they typically expect those products to be delivered immediately. The leader in electronic goods fulfillment is BookFunnel, which walks customers through the process of “sideloading” (adding new purchases to e-readers or computers, without the delivery apparatus of a traditional vendor). Sixty-five percent of survey respondents report using the service, which automates delivery of electronic files.

Fulfillment is somewhat more complicated for physical goods (e.g., print books,  swag). Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents report that they or their personal assistant handle shipping of at least some physical goods. In addition, 18% of respondents rely on a print-on-demand store to deliver products. (Shipping directly from a print-on-demand store avoids paying twice for moving the same items.)

Tax concerns
Many authors shy away from website stores because they are concerned about the tax implications of running an online business. Recent United States Supreme Court rulings have clarified that online store owners are obligated to collect and remit sales tax for all states where their customers reside. (This represents a change from the earlier rule, where owners only needed to remit sales tax in states where the owner had a business presence. In the United States, sales tax is managed on a state-by-state basis; there is no federal sales tax.)

Some states classify ebooks as “electronic products” that are not subject to sales tax. And most states further relieve the burden through “garage sale” laws, stating that it’s not necessary to remit sales tax on small or “de minimis” sales. (One of the last holdouts for a de minimis exception, Kansas, rectified the oversight with an exception that became effective on July 1, 2021.) Laws change frequently, though, and store owners should remain current on the requirements to collect and remit sales tax. An overview of U.S. laws on sales tax can be found at Tax Jar.

Store owners may also be liable to pay value-added tax (VAT) on sales made to residents of foreign countries. While some countries have exceptions that cover ebooks, others explicitly state that all sales of all goods, no matter how small, remain taxable.

Store platform Payhip, which is based in the United Kingdom, proudly handles collecting and remitting VAT for store owners. As of this writing, no other major store platform provides that service.

Store owners take a variety of actions regarding collecting and remitting taxes. For authors based in the United States, 79% of respondents accept customers from anywhere; the others limit their sales based on country. (All respondents based in other countries accept customers from everywhere.)

Store owners based in the United States exhibited a great deal of confusion when surveyed about taxes. Some know that they’re selling taxable items. Many aren’t aware that their goods might be taxable. Many rely on the de minimis exemptions (although most say they have not researched those exemptions specifically). Some rely on Payhip (although Payhip might not remit taxes to all tax authorities worldwide).

Overall cost to set up store
The cost of installing a web store varies widely. The store requires a website (usually the same as the author’s), which in turn requires hosting from a service like SiteGround, Bluehost, or GoDaddy.

The website must use a theme or template that is capable of supporting a web store. Many of those themes and templates are free, but paid themes and templates tend to provide a greater range of functions, a more specialized design that might stand out in a crowded field, a higher level of customer support, and more frequent updates. Popular themes include Storefront, Divi, and Astra.

Some store software is free (such as WooCommerce). Other store software—e.g., Payhip and Shopify—have tiers of pricing, providing different features at various price points. Most store software providers offer a free trial for users to experiment with the features for 14 days.

Finally, website stores generally rely on payment gateways such as PayPal or Stripe to accept customers’ payment for goods. Those gateways charge a transaction fee for every sale (e.g., $0.49), plus a percentage of the cost of the item sold (e.g., 2.49%).

Of course, no single author’s store is going to challenge the reach of the Amazon behemoth or other traditional vendors. Ninety-five percent of surveyed authors noted that their website stores were less profitable than any of their top three venues. (The remaining 5% were unwilling to answer the question.) While one author reported website sales equaling 10-24.99% of their total sales and another reported website sales of 5-9.99%, all other respondents who answered the question were equally divided between sales of less than 1% and sales of 1-4.99% of their total income.

The future of stores
Many respondents noted that their stores are not currently key income-generating pieces of their sales strategy; however, they are bulwarks against the harsh strategies and potential failure of traditional vendors. Several respondents called for authors to increase the training of their readers, helping potential customers become more comfortable with sideloading.

Website stores remain a tantalizing prospect for authors. In the short term, they offer increased income, with a huge potential as customers become receptive to buying outside the structure of traditional vendors.

At the same time, creating and maintaining a store (especially the international taxation issues associated with the operation of that store) are intimidating for many authors. While there are rumors of third-party sites offering the opportunity for authors to create self-branded stores with minimal fuss, those rumors are not yet public.

 

*While Amazon reserves the right to match prices to other vendors—including authors selling direct—they’re unlikely to discover pricing on most authors’ websites.

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USA Today bestselling author Mindy Klasky’s most recent novel is the romantic comedy The C Word, the first volume in her Love in the Age of COVID series. Klasky learned to read when her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere through stories. As a writer, Klasky has traveled through various genres, including romantic comedy, contemporary romance, and traditional fantasy. In her spare time, she knits, quilts, and tries to tame her to-be-read shelf.

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Nink: The Care & Feeding of Your Newsletter

This article by Tara Wyatt is from the July 2021 edition of Nink, the monthly newsletter of Novelists, Inc.  (NINC). Nink, which is packed each month with informative articles for career novelists, is a benefit of NINC membership. 

Newsletters, while an incredibly useful author tool, can be frustrating. What do you send? How do you find subscribers? Most importantly, how can you get the most out of your newsletter?

How to get started
If you’ve never set up a mailing list before, the first thing you’ll need to do is to pick a provider. There are dozens of mailing list services available, and the options can be overwhelming.  Let’s look at the three most popular platforms:

  • MailChimp is one of the biggest and best-known email marketing platforms. If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, the platform is free to use, but pricing quickly jumps to $31 per month for 2,500 subscribers and $79 a month for 10,000 subscribers, making it one of the more expensive platforms.
    • Pros: MailChimp’s reporting and the metrics available to users are thorough and extensive, and they have several beautifully designed templates, making it easy to send eye-catching emails to your subscribers.
    • Cons: Automations are difficult to set up (we’ll talk more about automations shortly), and affiliate links are not allowed.
  • MailerLite is a newer service, but is very similar to MailChimp in terms of its design and ease of use. The biggest difference is that they are significantly cheaper than MailChimp, as 2,500 subscribers will only cost you $15 a month, or $50 a month for 10,000 subscribers. However, only the first 1,000 subscribers are free, as opposed to the first 2,000 with MailChimp.
    • Pros: Extremely user friendly with an easy-to-use interface and helpful customer service, and features such as integrated automation and a landing page editor.
    • Cons: The reporting isn’t as comprehensive as what you get with MailChimp.
  • Aweber has been around for nearly 20 years and is a giant in the email marketing industry. The first 500 subscribers are free, which means they have the smallest free plan of the three services, but the pricing is reasonable: 2,500 subscribers, $29 a month; 10,000 subscribers, $69.
    • Pros: Aweber offers A/B split testing, analytics, and a highly functional mobile app for stats. They also offer user-friendly templates, and automation and list management tools. Their customer service is top notch.
    • Cons: If you’re not into the reams of data available on Aweber, there are cheaper options. Users have also reported deliverability issues with Aweber.

If you build it, will they come?
Now that you’ve chosen your email list service and set up your account, the next step is to get readers onto your list. Sadly, it’s not as simple as creating a newsletter sign-up form on your website and hoping readers will find it and subscribe. However, enticing readers to join doesn’t have to be difficult. Here are a few strategies that will help you start growing your list.

(Note: Integrating the sign-up on your website with the back-end of your newsletter is sometimes seamless and sometimes complex, depending on what platforms you’re using. You may need some technical assistance to get that set up).

Reader magnets
A reader magnet is something you’ve written that you offer to your readers for free in exchange for signing up for your mailing list. Your reader magnet can be anything, from a short story to a full-length book. If you’re just starting out, you could write a prequel novella to your first novel. If you’re uncomfortable giving away entire stories for free, you could create detailed character profiles for readers to download, or put together a sampler that contains the first chapter of each of your books. The idea is that the reader magnet will entice readers to give you their email address in exchange for this bonus goodie, so make it relevant and interesting to your target readers.

Another example of a reader magnet is a bonus epilogue. Include information about this at the back of the book, giving readers the link to sign up to download their copy. This is a highly effective strategy and attracts the readers you want—the ones who read and enjoyed your book—onto your list.

Once you have your reader magnet chosen (and you can have more than one, especially if you have reader magnets specific to certain books), advertise it not just on your website, but also in the back matter of all of your books. A reader who’s just finished your book is more likely to be “warm” and willing to hear from you on a regular basis.

As long as what you’re offering is enticing, reader magnets are a fantastic way to grow your list.

Onboarding automation
Once someone signs up for your list, what happens next? They need to hear from you right away, especially if they’re expecting the delivery of their reader magnet. This is where onboarding automation comes in. When you set up your mailing list account, you’ll also want to set up a welcome sequence containing anywhere from one to several emails that are sent automatically. (The process for setting this up will vary from platform to platform, but there is technical support available on all of the major platforms.)

The first email should welcome them to the list and thank them for signing up while providing them access to their free content. Follow up with a second email a few days later—here, you could highlight a permafree book (or offer them links to other free books if you don’t have any freebies of your own to offer), or give them more information they would find interesting and relevant. A third email could once again thank them for signing up while letting them know what to expect going forward (how often you send, what type of content you include, for example).

BookFunnel
Now that you’ve chosen your reader magnet, you might be wondering how to deliver it to your readers. While it’s possible to simply host the bonus content on your website (or on a site like Google Drive or Dropbox), you could also use a service like BookFunnel. The main drawback is that BookFunnel isn’t a free service, but it offers numerous benefits you should consider.

If you’re using BookFunnel, you simply upload any reader magnets to the site and use the generated link they provide in your onboarding sequence, directing readers to the BookFunnel site to download their content. Any technical glitches or requests for help will go through BookFunnel and not to you.

Another advantage to using BookFunnel is that they offer monthly promotions where you can team up with other authors in your genre to offer readers a free book in exchange for signing up for your list. If you’re focused on building your list, this is an excellent way to find new readers.

However, if you’re on a budget, BookFunnel isn’t a necessity, and you can deliver your reader magnets by providing a link to a shared Google Drive folder, for example. You could also team up with other authors on your own to do newsletter building cross-promo. This is more time intensive, but a good option if you’re on a budget.

The care and feeding
Now that you have a mailing list and are starting to attract readers through your reader magnets, joint promotions, website, and back matter, the next step is to start sending on a regular basis. Whether you’re sending weekly, on the 1st and 15th, or monthly (and this will vary from one author to the next), be consistent. Sending regularly trains your readers to expect to hear from you and allows you to develop a relationship with them as opposed to simply showing up in their inbox when you’ve got a new book or a sale. Finding out how often your readers want to hear from you will take some trial and error. One way to fast-track this process is to survey your readers about their email marketing preferences and incorporate what you learn.

The content you include will be up to you and dependent on your readers and your brand. However, it’s a good idea to keep a list of content ideas so that you’re not stumped for what to send. Make sure that your content is relevant and engaging for your readers. If every single email is nothing more than a sales pitch, readers will lose interest and your open rates will drop. Some non-sales content ideas include a behind-the-scenes look at your work in progress, character profiles, book recommendations, a personal story, memes, news stories relevant to your books, recipes, updates on what past characters are up to now, and things that have inspired you, such as songs or places.

Another key to success is to pay attention. Subscribe to newsletters from authors who would have the same target readers as you, and look at what they include in their emails. What resonates with you? What gets clicked or elicits a response in your newsletters? Make a note of what type of content works best.

In addition, include a link to the reader magnets at the bottom of every email, as some readers may have missed content and will appreciate the link. It’s also a good idea to include a link to your most recent book and/or the first book in your series at the bottom of the email.

Hit send
A successful, fruitful mailing list is one of the most powerful marketing tools in your author arsenal. Focus on growing your list, sending regularly and giving readers interesting, click-worthy content, and you’ll reap the rewards.

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Tara Wyatt is a contemporary romance author who lives near Toronto, Ontario. Known for her heat and her humor, her books have won several awards. When she’s not writing, she can be found playing with her daughter, reading, or binging Netflix with her husband.

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