In this week's episode, we take a look at best practices for indie authors' email newsletters.

This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Frostborn series at my Payhip store:

CALLIANDE25

The coupon code is valid through May 18, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this spring, we've got you covered!

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 301 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is May the 1st, 2026, and today we are looking at the effective use of email newsletters for indie authors. We'll also have an update on my current writing, publishing and audiobook projects and a Coupon of the Week.

So let's start off with Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code, we'll get you 25% off the ebooks in the Frostborn series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is CALLIANDE25. And as always, the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store will be available in the show notes for this episode. This coupon code will be valid through May the 18th, 2026. So if you need a new ebook for this spring, we have got you covered.

Now let's have an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. My main project right now is Dragon-Mage, the sixth book in the Rivah Half-Elven Thief series. I'm pleased to report the rough draft of that is done at 82,000 words. So I think this will end up being the longest book in the series to date by a slight margin. I believe the previous longest one was Half-Orc Paladin, which came in at 78,000. I've started editing. The first editing pass is 9% through. Hoping to get a little further with that after I record this episode. I'm hoping to have this book out before the end of May, if all goes well. My secondary project is Blade of Thieves, the fifth book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. I am currently 8,000 words into that.

So once Dragon-Mage is published, Blade of Thieves will be my new main project. My new secondary project then will be Cloak of Frost, the 15th book in the Cloak Mage series. I thought I should mention that in the podcast because I had two questions in my email about that today. So I will be starting on Cloak of Frost sometime in the second half of May, if all goes well. Hopefully it will be published in July, with Blade of Thieves coming out in June (if all goes well).

In audiobook news, recording is underway for Cloak of Illusion, and that will be narrated by Hollis McCarthy and Blade of Wraiths, which will be narrated by Brad Wills. We're making good progress on both. I am looking forward to sharing those audiobooks with you before too much longer. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects.

00:02:28 Main Topic: Email Newsletters for Indie Authors

Now let's move on to our main topic, email newsletters for indie authors. If you are listening to this podcast, there's a pretty good chance you're also subscribed to my newsletter and if you are not subscribed to my newsletter, I recommend you do so because not only do you get three free ebooks when you subscribe to my newsletter, then every time I have a new book announcement, I give away a free short story as well through links in the newsletter. So it really is to your benefit if you want to read my books to be subscribed to my new release newsletter. But there are other reasons for an indie author to have a newsletter and we're going to talk about some of those reasons in this episode and some of the things you should not do with a new release newsletter or an email newsletter (if you have one).

For a while, email newsletters were considered obsolete in the age of social media. Why not just put things on Facebook or Twitter? Well, for one thing, Twitter doesn't exist anymore. For another, as social media algorithms changed and it became harder for people to see content in their feeds consistently, many authors began to look for alternatives to social media and ended up back on email newsletters or Substacks. The main benefit of an email newsletter is that you have control and it's not dependent on a specific platform. You don't have to worry about your account being flagged or closed by some random AI glitch and lose your ability to communicate with your readers. Most importantly, you're targeting people who want to know more about you instead of trying to fight through all the digital noise that is the modern internet. So today, we're going to talk about five things to try with your author email newsletter, and five things that would probably be the best to avoid.

#1: Give people a reason to care.

People need a reason to subscribe to an email newsletter, and it should be substantial enough to be a motivator. For myself, I offer three free full length books to new subscribers, Malison: Dragon Curse, Blade of the Ghosts, and Frostborn: The Skull Quest, and they arrive in a three book bundle from Book Funnel. People also need a reason to open the emails once they subscribe. For myself, I offer newsletter subscribers free short stories, usually timed around the release of a new book.

For example, I just published Blade of Wraiths, and that came with a free short story, Halfling Alchemy, and I gave away a bunch of copies of Halfling Alchemy when Blade of Wraiths came out. For Dragon-Mage, yesterday I finished writing a short story called Paladin and Priest, and that will also be given away for free to newsletter subscribers when I send out the new release newsletter after Dragon-Mage is finally published (hopefully later this month).

Other things you can try are offering exclusive discounts, sneak peeks of new books, and giveaways. When I have a BookBub featured deal, I will usually send out a newsletter like the day before or two days before that to share the upcoming discount with my newsletter subscribers as well. Sometimes when I have special sales like that, I will also use the newsletter to send things out to try and generate interest in the sale.

#2: Get to the point.

It's good to get to the point as quickly as possible in an email newsletter. People are skimming emails at best. We all get lots and lots of emails, and the longer the email is, the less likely it is to be read. Make it easy to scan for the main points and try not to have a long, rambling introduction.

Good formatting also helps people who are skimming to find what they want quickly. Good formatting also helps people who are skimming to find out what they want quickly. Based on my own email data, what gets the most clicks are the images of book covers I put on there. Usually I have an image of the book cover that goes to Amazon and an image of the short story cover that goes to my Payhip store where I'm giving away the short story for free, and those consistently get the most clicks in my email newsletters.

So that is an example of getting to the point and good formatting because the point of the newsletter is to let people know that I have a new book out or that something's on sale and the good formatting in the form of the cover images lets people quickly get to the thing I am offering them.

#3: Use data to figure out what's working.

Once you've done a few newsletters, you will have the data to see if there's certain types of newsletters that are more successful than others. You can go even further and test if there's certain days of the week or times of day that are more likely to be successful. Conventional wisdom is to send things early on the day on a Monday or Tuesday and avoid Friday afternoons when people are already distracted by the weekend. For myself, I've generally gotten the best results with newsletters sent on Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. Now, obviously many people are at work at that time, but you'd be surprised how many people have signed up for the newsletter with their work email address and seem to welcome the distraction during the workday when a new release announcement arrives. I have sent newsletters on Fridays and weekends. It's never as effective. Usually Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are the most effective days to send out a newsletter.

#4: Use a consistent format.

Using a consistent format for your newsletter can make it easier for people to find the information they're looking for and makes reading a newsletter more of a ritual. For example, author James Clear does a weekly newsletter with three quotes from his own books, two quotes from other people, and one reflection question each week.

For myself, my newsletters almost always follow the same format. I'll have one section with the cover image and links to the main thing I'm selling and then below that, two smaller areas, which are for the short story I'm giving away for free, and then another one with another short story I'm giving away for free or some other item I want to promote. Sometimes it's an audiobook. Sometimes it's another author's book who has asked me to include it in a newsletter swap. It's usually something of that nature. I've been using that in the same email format for like the last 10 years or so, and it's been working pretty well.

#5: Be sure to preview and proofread before sending. Be sure to preview how the newsletter will actually work before sending it out. Proofread the text, make sure none of the images are pixelated, and make sure all the links are working correctly. If you include a wrong link in the newsletter (which I have done in the past), people will let you know about it. It might be helpful to have someone else test it before sending it out.

So those are five tips that you want to do with your newsletter. And I'm also going to add a bonus sixth one: follow the law.

There are several regulations related...