A quick one this month. I’ve been absolutely swamped lately, to the point where I haven’t even had time to start on the next Arbiter book. Disappointing, I know, but that’s what a new profession gets you, I suppose.
This month I thought I would have a quick chat about something I have found helpful: newsletter swaps.
First of all, if you’re an author without a newsletter, I would definitely do some research into the benefits. There are plenty of authors who say they make most of their money through advertising their books on their newsletters. It’s also handy, as you can give away freebies to entice people to join. I won’t try to give advice on the ins and outs of newsletters, as I’m still very much a novice.
For those of you with newsletters, however, I would like to talk about swaps.
What are newsletter swaps?
Essentially, they involve you featuring another author’s book (image, link and – sometimes – blurb or tagline) in exchange for them doing the same for you. They’re super simple to set up, I find them a lot of fun, and a great way to connect with other authors in your genre.
You can keep them genre-specific, or offer a wide range.
How do I start?
There’s a few websites out there which cater to this sort of thing. Personally, however, I use www.artofthearcane.com‘s newsletter swap digest. The gentleman running it, Carlos, is very helpful and compiles lists of eligible swap books by genre. Every week, you receive an email with the genres you’ve picked, and a list of books for swap. From there, you can use the site to send other authors a request through Google forms. He’s continuing to refine the process as he goes along, but I find it very easy to use. The weekly emails make it much easier to find a swap and sometimes I don’t even have to, as other approach me.
How do you do yours?
Personally, I like to keep my newsletter nice and brief so that I know people read the entire thing. Others have a very long email with a huge list of books they’re promoting – it really depends on how you want to run your newsletter. I take on 1-2 swaps per month so that I can really highlight the chosen books.
Any tips and trick?
Always have a good way of tracking who you’re sharing and when (I put it in my calendar with a note about who I’m swapping with and where the details are). Others keep a document with a list. If you’ve got a large amount, I definitely recommend finding a good way to keep track of them all.
That’s all from me for the moment. I will, hopefully, get back in to writing very soon once I settle in to work a bit. In the meantime, if you want an example of how my newsletter looks, you can subscribe through this link (you’ll also get a free eBook). Or take a look at my prior month’s newsletter here.
tl;dr – newsletter swaps are a good idea.
