Why I Fire My Email Subscribers

I love having a list of subscribers that I can keep in touch with.

But sometimes I have to fire them and unsubscribe them from my list. And if they're really persistent and try to re-subscribe, I block them too.

But why would I do this? Isn't having thousands of subscribers the way that writers make money?

Yes...but...

Using an email marketing service isn't cheap. And I get charged for how many subscribers I have.

So to protect myself and keep costs down, I sometimes (regrettably) have to fire subscribers.

And below are 3 types of subscribers that I fire.

1. Bad Customers. These are people who buy my products but don't even know how to download them, so they repeatedly email me about it, and not in a polite way either. Sometimes they send several abusive emails in less than an hour, while I'm asleep (different time zones). 

2. Too Friendly. Sometimes I get subscribers who think they're my friend and every time they receive an email or blog post, they reply to it as though I sent them a personal message, and they tell me all their private family business. They also get annoyed if I don't become email buddies with them.

3. Clickless. Now and again I check my email stats and look at anyone who hasn't clicked on a link in one of my emails in over a year. This usually happens because the someone is deleting all my emails unread, or they're not interested in anything I provide a link to, not even the free ebooks, audios and other freebies. Either way, they don't want my emails so I unsubscribe them.

But like I said earlier, I love having subscribers that I can keep in touch with, but it comes at a high price and I don't want to pay for verbal abuse, email pen pals I don't want or those who have no interest in hearing from me.

Thankfully, 99.9% of my subscribers are decent intelligent, hard-working writers.

And THEY are why I don't mind paying a yearly fee to my email service provider.

And if you have an email list and some of the people on it don't really want to hear from you, but for whatever reason they don't unsubscribe, don't be afraid to remove them from your list. Because not doing so is costly.

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Get two free ebooks to help you with your own email marketing by clicking on the two images below.

3 Reasons I Sell More Books With Email

Selling books can sometimes be harder than writing them.

I love to sit and write books, to be 100% focused on my work and write thousands of words a day.

And as a novelist, Dean Wesley Smith so eloquenty put it, "Sitting alone in a room and making shit up isn't work. Sorry. It's play."

But after the writing comes the marketing.

And because I'm a writer, marketing my books by writing emails, isn't difficult.

All it takes is more writing.

But why email?

There are other ways like online marketing, social media and press releases (just to name a few), and these should all be done too.

But email marketing is more personal because you're writing to people who already know you.

And email heps me to do 3 other things.

1. I can announce that my books before I even finish writing them.

2. Announcing books early gathers interested readers long before publication.

3. Books sales are immediate because people are already waiting to buy them.

If you're serious about making money from writing books, using email can not only hlep increase sales, but help you to get more sales faster.

Readers want to know when your next book is going to be published, and email can help.

You can read my latest article about How to Sell More Books With Email over at my website. 

And click on the images on this page and download 2 free ebooks to learn more.

Earning Money As A Writer

"How much money do writers earn?"

This is a question I get asked a lot.

And I always give the same answer. "I don't know. How much do you earn?"

It's funny how people don't care about asking me how much I earn but don't want to talk about their own income. Hmmm...

Anyway, I can't answer that question even if I wanted to because different writers earn different amounts of income.

When I first quit my job to write full time I was a bit worried about tax and other income related things and I had to get an accountant - and pay her!

This was scary at first because I didn't understand all the tax laws but it turned out that I didn't have to because that is what I pay my accountant for.

But when I first started writing I didn't worry about the money side of it because I was still working at my job.

It wasn't until I quit working that I went to see an accountant who explained everything to me.

All I had to do was keep an Excel spreadsheet of my income from all my different books and other sources, and of all my expenditures, and she did the rest.

At first, it's scary because writing income isn't regular.

But it does arrive in my bank account several times a month and I've learnt not think that I can spend a lot of money just because I earned it.

I have to make it last because the amounts can be so different.

And earning money as a writer means that I have to write every day, 5 days a week, and sometimes more.

But it's worth it.

And even though the money isn't as steady as having an income from a paid job, I do get regular payments every month from places like Amazon.

So I guess in a way it is a steady income.

But I still don't know how much money other writers make.

So don't ask me.