Starting a Writer’s Newsletter: A Neophyte’s Journey

What do you do with twenty years’ worth of articles about writing, presentation handouts, charts, etc.? You could start an author’s newsletter. Which, one day in a fit of boredom, I decided would be just the thing to do. I’d been getting Jane Friedman’s newsletter for years as well as a few others. They were wonderful and full of useful information. Some of the same sort I had sitting in my files. It hurt to see all of the work I’d put into creating those files go to waste. So now, that info is being shared. 

Here are some of the things I did/learned:

Step 1.  Get someone to help you. I hired Debbie Gonzales who has worked with social platforms and newsletters.

Step 2.  Decide on a software. Constant Contact and MailChimp are two of the most common
ones. Mailchimp allows you to use their software free for up to 2,000 contacts in one
audience. I decided on MailChimp and used one of their free templates to get started.

Step 3.  While playing with the design, I had to think about my audience. Who was I going to
send my newsletter to? How was I to get their subscriptions? Mailchimp has a form that
is easily embedded on a website/landing page. So I created a static page on my website
for that at: https://shutta.com/wordsmiths-playground-sign-up.

Step 4.  Then I rooted through the more than 600 personal emails I had to sort out the folks that I
thought might be interested. I downloaded 220+ of those and sent an invitation to
subscribe through my website via MailChimp.

Step 5.  Once the invitees had clicked on the subscribe page and entered very basic info, I was
able to mail out the first monthly edition in early January of 2021.

There were some glitches:

Once I got used to finding where things were in the MailChimp dashboard, most of what I had to do was pretty easy. (Plus, I had Debbie G. to hold my hand and guide me!) There is a preview screen so you can see how your newsletter looks on a desktop or mobile. And you can send a test mailing to your own email first. One caveat: you can’t control the settings folks have for their email providers. So it may not always arrive as neatly as you see in the preview! For ex.: I had three columns across the middle of my first month’s newsletter. However, because of settings, a few friends only had room for two columns across and the third appeared below the others. Next month I may play around with only two columns and see how that looks.

The most difficulty I had was with my audience (my contact list). I soon sorted that out. MailChimp does not have a preliminary kind of designation for a first contact like “invited,” or some such. So, when I downloaded more than 220 contacts they were all listed as “subscribed”—though they really were not. However, MailChimp keeps all kinds of statistics and it told me which ones had clicked through and actually subscribed. Then I used MailChimp’s tagging ability and tagged those folks as actual subscribers. When you mail out a “campaign” (their term for a mailing/newsletter/other) you designate who you want that to go to. So I simply sent my newsletters out to the tagged “actual subscribers.” But I was left with this large contact list—which was only partially correct. I didn’t want to erase all of the others who had not clicked though, in case I want to send another invite at a later date. However, it turns out that MailChimp has an archiving ability. So, I archived those contacts that had initially been invited and who were not yet subscribers. That cleaned up my contact list.

In essence, it just took a bit of fiddling with things. Now, I only check once a week, or so, for new folks (and send them the most recent newsletter), as well as continue to use my template for each month’s news. In addition, I will advertise the newsletter a couple of times on Facebook and at any programs I do. Now that it is set up, it shouldn’t be a huge drain on my time. 

One last thing:

Content is king, as they say. I would not have considered doing a newsletter without all the content I already have. You need something of value to offer. You can, of course, start from scratch writing, interviewing, and creating all new material. If you decide to do that, be sure to study other newsletters already out there so you won’t simply be duplicating what’s available.

Here’s to wishing you all, the best!

Shutta Crum is the author of several middle-grade novels and many picture books, poems and magazine articles. THUNDER-BOOMER! was an ALA and a Smithsonian “Notable Book.” MINE! was reviewed by the N.Y. Times as “a delightful example of the drama and emotion that a nearly wordless book can convey.” Her books have made Bank Street College lists as well as state award lists. WHEN YOU GET HERE, a collection of poems for adults, won a gold medal from the Royal Palm Literary Awards, 2020 (FL). For more information: www.shutta.com. 

To subscribe to Shutta's newsletter: https://shutta.com/wordsmiths-playground-sign-up/

To reach Deb Gonzales: http://debbiegonzales.com 

To learn more about MailChimp: https://MailChimp.com

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