At the time of this post, I've just finished my first year of direct sales and building my email list, starting in May 2016 at a local library-sponsored Comicon (The CRRL Con), and ending at the 2017 Gaithersburg Book Festival. I'm also gearing up for my second year, which starts with my second time around at Awesome Con.

At first I was a little fanatical about checking the stats of my email campaigns and worrying about the amount of people signing up, mainly because I wanted to see if it worked, but as the year wore on I was able to settle in for the long haul. That was the original plan: spend a year going where the people who like my work are and build my list.

If I've made a sale at a conference or a convention, that's great. But the chances of ever meeting that person again are slim to none, which was why it's always amazing to me when I see other authors or vendors at the cons and festivals I attended who don't build their lists. Some blow it off. Some see what I'm doing and say "Can I steal that idea?" (like I came up with it.) I don't pretend to be a marketing guru, but I know that having an email list is really easy, and if you're publishing more work (and you should be), it's a great way to stay in contact with the people who, having already bought and consumed your work, might want to buy and consume more of it. In terms of a long game, your goal is to keep them in the loop for the next thing you're doing. And the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing.

One of the first steps I took was to set up an automation string of emails in my Mailchimp account. It costs $10 a month for automation, but it's pretty easy to use. Essentially, once a fan signs up for my list, he or she gets placed in a queue and cycles through a series of pre-written material.

Each automated campaign should have a specific goal in mind, and each email—like good storytelling—should follow an arc to get to that point.

For example, the purpose of my first automated campaign was to:

1. Start the funnel

2. Talk to my list about what I'm doing

3. Market my news series (The Bonesaw Series), the first book of which (The Rabbit, The Jaguar, & The Snake) is due out in the fall of 2017.

The Funnel

I started with the free stuff: An ebook version of "Beta," the audiobook, and the theme song. In fact, if I promise something for free in an email, that's the first thing I add to the top: links to the free stuff. And I give away a lot of free stuff: short stories, music, illustrations, audiobooks. I use it to create a segment of my list who I can retarget with ads for something that costs a little more, like an ebook version of one of my books (A Knife in the Back, You Will Be Safe Here, and Burn All The Bodies).

Talking to my list

After the free stuff, I wrote an intro email that just said "hello and welcome." I explained the purpose of the automation, added a disclaimer about my sense of humor, and thanked them for reading. One week later, the automation sends out my second email: an offer for my Customized Story Service (Be The Star Of Your Own Horror Story!) One week after that, my list will get a CTA ad, what is basically an image of my first book, reviews, and a link to buy. Then it's back to the newsletter. That's how the whole series works: I write about my life, my take on creativity and creative strategies, I offer something free or talk about a new service, I send out a CTA. By the time that first campaign is over, my list will have received twenty eight chances to get to know me and read my work.

Market my new series of books

The first book in this series, The Rabbit, The Jaguar, & The Snake, will be released in September 2017, so the last couple of emails in the first campaign are geared toward marketing that book, and prepare my list not just for its release but for the next automated campaign.

For the new automated campaign, I'll release some of my favorite chapters, talk about the editing process, and share pictures of all the notes, notebooks, and scrap pieces of paper I've filled up writing the novel. I'll also release other marketing materials I produced: a few free pieces of flash fiction (with audiobooks) which are basically outtakes from the novel, music, illustrations, and other goodies. I'll also give people a chance to win a free copy in exchange for a review, invite people to my launch day reading, and then, when the launch is over, release the audio from that event.

Notice that I'm not trying to hard-sell anybody. I look at email marketing as a way of keeping up with anybody I met out on the road who was kind enough to buy my book(s). If it results in a sale, awesome. If they unsubscribe, no worries. (Just don't call me a spammer. I'm not.)

I suppose the only negative aspect to this kind of marketing is that it does require a lot of planning and work; however, the benefits of being able to interact with fans year round (despite how far away they might actually live) are more important. And the list does work. Here's a great example of what I'm talking about:


I recently caught up with Mike, a reader who bought my first book (A Knife in the Back), about a year ago at Awesome Con. He was at the Tidewater Comicon. He read in my email that I was going to be there, stopped by my table, and bought the other two books in the series (You Will Be Safe Here and Burn All The Bodies.)

So that's it. Start your list. Interact with the people who like your work. Repeat.

Next Up: Tip #3—One-off email blasts

Are you a fan of horror or post-apocalyptic fiction?


Go here to join my email list and receive a free short story, audio book, and theme song for "Beta": www.jamesnoll.net

A monster terrorizes an isolated village in the mountains of Eastern Europe, draining the blood of its victims, leaving them frozen in the snow. The villagers hunt wolves, decapitate “vampires,” but the murders continue. As each new body is found, the residents grow more and more paranoid. Who will be next? Will it ever end?