Did you do it?

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Holy Moly. The reception to last week's email was amazing. I got so much positive feedback, and am especially grateful for the few people who offered suggestions on how to make these emails even better.

Last week, I told you why you need to be doing a newsletter. Honestly, if you only do one marketing thing, this should be it. And you should make it freaking amazing.

Thats what we are going to talk about today. What should you be doing in your newsletter? *spoiler* You should be telling stories.

In February of 2025, I attended a little event in Houston, Texas, about email newsletters. I had sent thousands of marketing emails prior to attending, so I thought I knew what I was getting into. Boy, was I wrong.

First, there is a difference between email marketing and content newsletters. I think most authors get this wrong. Here is the thing: you need both.

Marketing emails are obvious. It’s an email you send to your audience that tells them about something you have to sell, or something you want them to know about, and is typically determined successful based on how many people do the thing you ask them to do in the email.

Content newsletters are emails you send with the primary focus of delivering information or entertainment. Some of my favorites are:

3-2-1 by James Clear - https://jamesclear.com/3-2-1

Morning Brew - https://www.morningbrew.com

and 1440 - https://join1440.com/

The coolest thing I learned at the conference in Houston is that people are building lists of millions of people who look forward to getting their emails in the same way you and I are waiting for the next Beth Brower novel. That idea literally changed the way I think about emails.

What I see from most author “newsletters” is marketing emails. It’s deals on their books, with the occasional event of life update sprinkled in.

This begs the questions. How can you do this? Well, I’m giving you information about marketing, and look, you opened it. Hehe, it’s working. It’s working because that’s what you want from me. So what do your readers want from you? They want your stories! They want your world-building, your character development, and your voice.

Here are some ideas I’ve had for author newsletters.

1. episodic storytelling. Every edition you send is a short episode of an ongoing story. Readers eat this kind of thing up.
2. alternate endings/scenes from your books. Ownership of rights comes into play here, so check your contracts. I will finish a book and want to know what the character's life looked like 10 years down the road, want to see a picnic scene with my two favorite side characters, or to relive a memory that was briefly mentioned in the book.
3. a newsletter exclusive novel. Remember Kindle Vella? There is a lot of advice on the internet to have a book or a story that you give away for free to people who join your email list. Yes, this is great, but it doesn’t give them a reason to actually open the emails you send. What if you sent them a chapter or a scene in every email?

These are big ideas. You can also do small things like tell a story from your life. What matters here is you are telling stories in a way that your readers have come to expect from you.

Do you want help figuring out what to write in your newsletter? Something you’re able, and actually excited to do?

Book a call, and we can brainstorm together.

Click This: StoryFirst Strategy Session

Or don't, that's totally up to you. But if you need an extra incentive, I will be donating the entire cost of the call to Operation Literacy for the first 5 calls.

Here is where this gets real. You actually have to do something.

I have had conversations with multiple authors who say, “I like the idea, I just have to figure something out that would work for me.”

How do you figure that out? Sure, you can spend some time actually thinking about it, but you need to do it. Ask your readers what they want, or just start sending story-focused emails and see what people like. If you want, you can send me an email with a few ideas, and I’ll pick my favorite.

Next week, we are going to take a break from talking about newsletters. I want to share my approach to social media, or at least part of it.

Be great,

Eric Anderson

P.S. This is a new project for me. I want nothing more than for it to be good and provide real value for you. It would mean the world to me if you could reply with what you liked, and what you didn't!