Wednesday, July 11, 2007

A Fan!


You gotta love it when someone writes to you all excited that they found your book on a Borders shelf! A woman in New York wrote to let me know she found Marshal in Petticoats on the shelf at her local Borders and bought a copy. She also said the next time she goes in she's going to have her husband take a picture of her holding the book in front of the store shelf! LOL Now that's a fan! The kind I love to hear from. She also wants to be added to my Newsletter list to know when more books are coming out! Which got me to thinking.

I haven't started a newsletter. I don't think I have enough information to put in one. Hmmm. Guess I need to go read other author's newsletters to see what I can put in one. Any suggestions on good newsletters you like to read?

My other thought is keeping up this blog is kind of like a newsletter, so maybe I should mention to her to stay tuned to my blog. Which would you prefer a newsletter that comes to your e-mail or dashing over to someone's blog to get info?

4 comments:

Danita Cahill said...

I think newsletters are a great idea for writers to do. I signed up for hard copies of Janet Evanovich's. She doesn't send one very often, just before a book is due to come out. You could do the same. It jogs people's memories into picking up your book.

I owned and operated a greenhouse/nursery business for 12 years. I tried all sorts of advertising, but the most effective was sending out postcards 3 or 4 times a year. I ran specials and printed them, but I think the key to the effectiveness was the personal touch: I hand addressed them (or had an employee hand address them) It was old-fashioned, and time consuming, but personal feeling. I had many people come to the nursery with the colorful card gripped in their hand, and thank me for the "invitation".

The nursery was only opened spring-summer. I had customers tell me they'd wait to receive a postcard each spring, then come in to shop for their flowers.

Anonymous said...

I love to read your blog, but it's because I know you personally. I don't go read my favorite author's blogs. I tried, and I didn't like it.

A newsletter is a great idea and I always read the newsletters that my favorite authors send. They only come out about twice a year because they send them just before their books come out. I get them from Galen Foley, Julia Quinn, Eloisa James and Christina Dodd. I always read them and I click on the links they give to check out the other stuff on their websites and read their excerpts from their new books.

Newsletters are really fun. They often include a few personal things about the author's life as well as what's going on with their writing.

It's going to be a lot of work to get the first one drafted and all the bugs worked out, but in the end I think you'll get great response by putting yourself out there to your fans in such a personal way.

Good luck! And sign me up for your first newsletter! LOL

Anonymous said...

BTW...

Big congrats on the New York fan! That's just soooo awesome!yv

Paty Jager said...

Thanks Danita and Piper. I've now signed up for some newsletters from some authors I like and hope to glean info on what I want to put in one and how I want it to look. Don't know if I'll have it ready before Perfectly Good Nanny is released in e-book, but I should make it by the time Outlaw in Petticoats is released in e-book.