Midnight Publishing is an editing, ghostwriting and marketing publishing company that works very closely with a variety of self-published and hybrid authors. As a self-published author, you know that one of the best ways to sell books and keep selling them is by starting a newsletter. Research has found that newsletters are one of the best ways to create conversions from visitors browsing your website to readers who buy everything you publish—but why?

Because newsletters get you in somebody’s inbox.

It’s not a tweet or a Facebook Page announcement (both of which quickly become buried amongst other status updates), and it’s more intimate than a blog post—as this Bowker article by SelfPublishedAuthor discusses, newsletters address those people who are genuinely interested in your work. They also allow you to reward your newsletter subscribers with prizes, early announcements and act as a way to enhance the personal relationship between author and reader.

The best part? You can set one up for free!

With the two products listed below (both of which have free options), you can get your newsletter up and running within an hour or two.

1. MailChimp

MailChimp is one of the most popular email marketing services in existence today, and boasts user numbers in the millions according to their website. Their drag-and-drop style of newsletter design allows for you to create a “campaign” that perfectly evokes your author brand, so that you can include book covers, photos, excerpts and other important info when making announcements.

Easy steps to get started:

• Create a MailChimp account
• Decide which page on your website that you’d like to include the newsletter signup
• Add a signup form to your website, either by adding MailChimp’s embedded HTML code to a designated place on your website’s page, or by linking your own website’s form to MailChimp’s subscriber list. Find detailed information on how to do this here.
• Once your list is gathering subscribers, create a campaign to send it on out!

Do YOU know what to put in your newsletter to make a valuable asset to your publishing career and readership? Check out Midnight Publishing’s expert tips on how to craft the perfect newsletter here!

2. SumoMe

SumoMe is a site that offers a plethora of tools designed to increase your website’s traffic—with one of those being a website popup that encourages readers to subscribe to your newsletter! Some of the sites that utilize SumoMe’s products include airbnb, Canva (one of our favorites for designing your own e-book cover, as we detail here in this blog post) and theCHIVE.

Easy steps to get started:

• Create a SumoMe account
• Add embedded HTML code found on SumoMe’s website to your own hosting site. Find detailed instructions on how install SumoMe on any website here.
• Decide which SumoMe free resources to use. Midnight Publishing recommends the List Builder for collecting newsletter subscribers (SumoMe’s list can be connected to your MailChimp account by following these instructions).
• Design popup and start collecting subscribers!

With both of these tools, you will soon be growing a supportive list of readers and potential book buyers who will have a closer and more intimate relationship with you.

Contact Midnight Publishing today to discuss all of the other essential editing, marketing and writing services we tailor toward indie and traditional authors alike. Let us take you to the next level in your publishing journey! We’re Midnight Publishing: trusted with over 10 million words and your go-to professional book editing service in Phoenix, Arizona!