Author: RJ Crayton

RJ Crayton is a former journalist turned novelist. By day, she writes thrillers with a touch of romance. By night, she practices the art of ninja mom. To learn more about her or her books, visit her website or her Author Central page.

Authors Should Find a Mailing List Service to Meet Their Needs

mailinglists2_newsletterLast month I talked about using InstaFreebie to build an author mailing list. This month, I thought I’d discuss finding a mailing list service to meet authors’ needs.

While authors could just send newsletters from their personal email addresses, most don’t. Generally, personal email companies frown upon their members sending massive amounts of email to people, and will sometimes suspend the account for being a spammer. So, people tend to go with mailing services. In addition to allowing an author not to be labeled a spammer, mailing services provide a wealth of data about the emails sent. They tell the sender whether the emails were opened, which links were clicked, and who unsubscribed. Continue reading “Authors Should Find a Mailing List Service to Meet Their Needs”

InstaFreebie Offers Authors a Chance to Build Mailing Lists, Find Fans

new-2016-instafreebie-branding-tealIn part one of this article, I discussed InstaFreebie, the site that lets you give away a book for free in exchange for the person’s email address, in order to grow your mailing list. I also mentioned I ended up with almost 2,000 new names on my mailing list because of InstaFreebie promos I participated in.

I was very excited to get the new names, but a little hesitant, because people signed up for the list with the express purpose of getting a free book. We’ve all signed up for lists we’re not interested in to get something free (well, at least I have). Given that, I was concerned I’d have a 50 percent unsubscribe rate, or some ridiculous number, because people didn’t want to be bothered with additional emails. It didn’t help that a few of the email addresses indicated the person was giving me a junk address — stuff like [email protected].

I decided to test out my new subscribers to see what happened. Continue reading “InstaFreebie Offers Authors a Chance to Build Mailing Lists, Find Fans”

InstaFreebie Offers Authors a Chance to Build Mailing Lists, Find Fans

new-2016-instafreebie-branding-tealBack in August, I started hearing authors talk about a site called InstaFreebie, where you could give away a free copy of your book in exchange for recipients signing up for your mailing list. Both Jim Devitt and Shawn Inmon have discussed the importance of mailing lists. Authors on different online groups said they’d scored upwards of a thousand names added to their lists using InstaFreebie.

Obviously, this sounded very cool to me. I thought I’d give it a try. What do you need to participate in InstaFreebie? Simple. A book you’re willing to give away for FREE. The book cannot be in KDP Select because it violates Amazon’s terms of service. (I will note, some authors give away a KDP book sampler — the 10 percent you’re allowed to post elsewhere — to drive sales to the actual book on the Amazon store. I don’t know how successful this is.)

Once you’ve picked a book you want to give away, you need three things: Continue reading “InstaFreebie Offers Authors a Chance to Build Mailing Lists, Find Fans”

How to Get Reviews via Goodreads

goodreads logoIn the writing community, people often suggest soliciting reviews via Goodreads, but for the new author, how may not be immediately obvious. Today, I’ll give an overview of how to use Goodreads to solicit reviews.

Generally, the best way to solicit reviews via Goodreads is through the Goodreads Groups, which are established and run by members. Many of the discussion groups have programs that allow authors to offer a free eBook copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. The programs tend to be called R4R (read for review), R2R (read to review) or Authors Seeking Reviews. If you’ve never done R4R, here are the basics. Continue reading “How to Get Reviews via Goodreads”