Guest POST BY Donna Galanti: 10 Ways To Build Your Author Email List - EVEN Before Your Book Comes Out!

Your email list, whether for a blog or newsletter, is one of the best things you can build as an author that is all your own. Building a strong social media following can be resourceful in making connections and promoting your book, but you don’t “own” those followers. If those social platforms went away, you would lose all your followers – not with your email list.
Check out the 10 ways you can start building your email list right now, even if you’re not published yet.

1. Start with who you know. Ask all your friends and family to sign up. Sending a personal email or Facebook message request gets a higher engagement response than sending a mass email.
2. Do a book giveaway! Glean your bookshelves for gently-used books in your genre to giveaway. Use Rafflecopter (free) and offer extra entries to the contest for those who follow you on social media or sign up for your newsletter.
3. Do joint giveaways using Rafflecopter with other authors or writers in your genre. Each author chips in a few $$ to include a gift card. The more that participate, the more cross-promotion to gain more followers. Again, offer extra entries to the contest for those who follow you on social media or sign up for your newsletter.
4. Power of a free story in exchange for subscribers. Offer a free story when potential readers reach your website or blog to sign up. This is called a lead magnet. Don’t have one? Write one! Could be a side story about your characters or a new story in the same genre. Create in a PDF. Get an inexpensive eye-catching cover on Fiverr.com.
5. Create a call-to-action in your website banner or in your blog. “Get My Free Story! Sign up here.” Using pronouns like “my” or “your” gets a higher response of engagement.
6. Promote it. If you do in-person events like panels, readings, or group events then have a physical sign-up sheet. Mention it before and after the event and how they can get a free story as well.
7. Add your list opt-in everywhere. On your Facebook author page (which you can create before you are published!). Add the link in your Instagram or Pinterest profile. Add it to your email signature. And add it at the end of each blog post.
8. Add a welcome or exit pop-up on your site. When a user arrives, or is about to leave your site, they will get a pop-up that prompts them to opt-in to your list.
9. Add an option for your readers to share author newsletter in the newsletter itself.
10. Include social media share buttons on each blog post.

Your homework! Time to get out the pens (or laptops):
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• List names of friends and family you can ask personally to subscribe to your news.
• Review your bookshelves and list a few like-new books in your genre that you can use for a Rafflecopter book giveaway.
• Research and list other authors, writers in your genre, or soon-to-be-debuts who might like to be included in a joint Rafflecopter giveaway. Here’s a joint giveaway example I did that had 12,770 entries and gained me several hundred followers across my subscriber list and social media platforms. Brainstorm ideas for a reader-connect story you can write and give away for free to new subscribers as a lead magnet.
• List all the places you can add your opt-in message and add it in!

 
Now go – build your subscriber list and new fans!
 
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Want to know more about how to connect with a reader audience?
Donna just released her new online course, Launch Your Author Brand & Platform, a 10-Step Author Marketing System to Build Brand, Connect with Readers, and Sell Books. In this step-by-step marketing system, you will learn exactly how to plan, create, and launch your successful author brand and platform – even before your first book comes out.
There are no prerequisites to this course! This course is designed for debut authors, new authors looking to boost their platform, or any writer seeking publication. Normally $129.99, Donna is offering readers here a special course launch discount of only $19.99! Get the full course details and special price here.
What’s included in Launch Your Author Brand & Platform:
✓ 10 Step-By-Step Lessons
✓ 15+ Awesome Bonuses (video and downloadable PDFs)
✓ 7 “Bigger Than a Bonus” Meet the Experts (insider secrets to success from the Masters – other authors!) training on goodies like do’s and don’ts for new authors, agent advice, book club visits, public speaking and more
✓ Each lesson includes Rookie Mistakes to Avoid, Myth Busters, and How to Go the Extra Mile!
ENROLL NOW!
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About Donna:
Donna Galanti is the author of the middle grade adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road, which the Midwest Book Review called, “A heart-pounding thrill ride full of unexpected twists and turns from start to finish”. She’s also the author of the follow up, Joshua and the Arrow Realm, is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine, and a writing contest judge at nycmidnight.com. She regularly presents as a guest author at schools and teaches at writing conferences on marketing and craft. When she’s not writing you can find her on Twitter or Facebook where she loves to share all things about her outdoor adventures and children’s books. Donna has lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer, and has had a long career in corporate marketing. Visit her at donnagalanti.com or yourawesomeauthorlife.com.

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Awesome advice, Donna and thanks for stopping by today!

xo,
​Karen