Five Reasons I No Longer Have a Newsletter.

New authors often hear a lot of talk about setting up a newsletter, claiming it is a necessity in your author toolbox. Three years ago, despite having some reservations, I went along with this advice. After all, people with more knowledge, and a bigger audience than I do, know what they’re talking about.

After three years, here are five reasons why I’ve decided to ditch my newsletter: –

1. Health

Sometimes things happen in our lives that are unpredictable, and we need to make compensations. For over two years now, my health has been an ongoing issue. My doctor is concerned the recovery of my chronic pain is going slower than she would like, and I’m now being referred to a pain specialist. The situation has also affected my mental health, and my writing has become somewhat erratic. This caused me to make changes to my newsletter over that time, cutting down from once a month to once every two months.

2. Unexpected Changes

The ‘experts’ say that if you have a newsletter, you ‘own’ it, so unlike social media, you don’t have to worry about changes that are out of your control. Recently, however, there have been changes to gmail when it comes to how newsletters are sent out. Also, if you are on Mailerlite, like I was, they’ve created changes from the free classic format to a new version. I was happy with the classic format but had been forced into using the newer version. After a free 30-day trial on using all the newer features, if there are some you like, like say, a particular template, then *surprise* you have to upgrade again, which of-course means $$$.

3. Finances

Being a one income family, like many people right now, our household is having some struggles financially. This is one of the reasons why I have been looking for work over the past twelve months. I’m still looking and hope to get something soon. With this, comes the realisation that I am not a full-time author, at least not at this stage in my life. So, from a financial point of view, something had to give.

4. Low Subscriber Numbers

After three years of having a newsletter, the number of subscribers I received over that period was less than forty. Don’t get me wrong – I valued each and every one of them for subscribing and sticking with me, and I was genuinely surprised once I made it into the double digits – but the expense of calling myself a business and having a newsletter for such a low number over that time was unjustifiable. It is far more affordable to stop calling myself a ‘business’ and stick to blogging.

5. It’s Like Blogging, anyway!

While I had a newsletter, I believed it was like blogging: I was writing to my subscribers/readership regularly and keeping them informed of my writing progress and what was happening with my books. The only difference was, there was a ‘freebie’ as an incentive to subscribe (which I can now put up for sale with all my other books).

Overall, I did enjoy having a newsletter. However, because I found it to be like blogging, which was something I had continued to do during this time, it seemed pointless having both. For some years now, ‘people’ have been saying that the blog is ‘dead,’ but it makes me wonder who exactly these ‘people’ are.

I think when starting out, having a newsletter is fine if you do not already blog, and you can afford the expenses. You need to weigh up these things before you dive in. The cheaper alternative is to have a blog, and it is just as effective.

Yes, I’m going against the norm, but I’m trusting my intuition and going with what works for me right now. It’s also what makes me happy, and with writing, as with anything in life, that’s the main thing! 😊

Authors, have you decided to stop having a newsletter, and if so, why? Are you getting fed up with all the advice for authors when it comes to marketing? Do you feel you are spending more time marketing than writing?