Every Email Counts

Since the beginning of 2004, I've had a newsletter called Right Writing News. Ideally, I write one a month but because of my schedule and other responsibilities, the newsletter hasn't gone out as frequently recently. There are 38 back issues of Right Writing News and it's free to subscribers. These back issues contain more than 400 pages of how-to write articles and information--a rich resources for anyone who wants to learn about writing.

Also anyone who subscribes will receive three valuable Ebooks worth over $100. The main page of Right Writing.com has a pop-up menu which offers the newsletter and anyone can instantly subscribe. It isn't automatic--but generates an email which I manually add the person to my email newsletter list--and they confirm they want the subscription. I know the system isn't perfect but I've been using it for five years and it is what it is. This list has almost 7,000 emails which have been collected over the years.

For many reasons, I've not kept up on processing the emails which go into the web mail for Right-Writing.com. In fact, part of me has been ignoring it. This weekend I looked in the email box and it had over 500 emails. I started to check the emails against my master list to see if the subscriber had gone ahead and gone to the newsletter page and subscribed. In fact, I was hoping they had subscribed, then I could delete the email and move through the pile of unprocessed emails.

Instead I learned that only about two in 100 emails had subscribed. If I had been rushed, I would have deleted 98 people who requested my newsletter yet didn't get on my list. It reminded me of a simple lesson when it comes to newsletters and subscribers: every email counts. It's part of the discussion that many publishers and writers frequently discuss--platform. If you want to sell a book to a traditional publisher, you need a platform. You can build your platform in many different ways (get this free Ebook for some of my ideas) but one of the keys is to gather every email and add it into your newsletter. Then through the newsletter continually build your relationship with the individual. It's something I've been encouraging writers to do and faithfully modeling for several years.

Platform building and building an online presence are two chapters in my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams. Part of my motivation in writing this book was to encourage every author to understand some proactive steps they can take to build an audience and presence in today's marketplace.

During the next few days, I will be processing the Right Writing email address--and adding those emails to my list. I want each person who wants the free newsletter to have it and profit from that valuable information. Once again I was reminded of the value of each email.