18 Tips for Authors to Build Relationships with Email Subscribers

Most advice for writers includes the concept of building an email list to forge a relationship with readers and to promote future releases. If you go to most author websites, there is typically some mechanism to join their email list. However, if you’re on the email list of hundreds of novelists (like I am), you’d be shocked at how seldom writers make contact. Most readers would be lucky to get one or two emails a year from an author (at best).

Ironically, it seems as if most novelists just don’t know what to write when it comes to contacting their list. Many resort to writing about writing (yawn) or sharing too much about things unrelated to their work (politics, their kids, their health problems, etc.) — neither of which are of much interest to most readers.

So, what kind of information should you send to your email list in order to nurture those relationships to sell more copies of your next novel and your backlist?

Here are some ideas… Continue reading “18 Tips for Authors to Build Relationships with Email Subscribers”

Tamara McLanahan Wins Flash Fiction Challenge

Tamara McLanahan is the Readers’ Choice in this week’s Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. The winning entry is decided by the popular vote and rewarded with a special feature here today. (In the case of a tie, the writer who submitted an entry first is the winner per our rules.) Without further ado, here’s the winning story:

Continue reading “Tamara McLanahan Wins Flash Fiction Challenge”

Flash Fiction Writing Prompt: Alley

old san juan flash fiction writing prompt copyright KS Brooks
Photo copyright K. S. Brooks. Do not use without attribution.

Use the photograph above as the inspiration for your flash fiction story. Write whatever comes to mind (no sexual, political, or religious stories, jokes, or commentary, please) and after you PROOFREAD it, submit it as your entry in the comments section below. There will be no written prompt.


Welcome to the Indies Unlimited Flash Fiction Challenge. In 250 words or less, write a story incorporating the elements in the picture at left. The 250 word limit will be strictly enforced.

Please keep language and subject matter to a PG-13 level. Continue reading “Flash Fiction Writing Prompt: Alley”

Kindle Unlimited Friday – Free February 2019 eBooks

Kindle Unlimited Hump Day 1 Hey authors – are you enrolled in KDP Select? Then this is for you. Hey readers – do you have a Kindle Unlimited membership? Then this is for you, too! Scroll on down – you can get all these books for FREE. Not sure what Kindle Unlimited is? Our Lynne Cantwell tells you right here. So… Continue reading “Kindle Unlimited Friday – Free February 2019 eBooks”