IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A NEWSLETTER...

By Korina Moss

When my son was a toddler, one of his favorite books was If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It starts off, “If you give a mouse a cookie, he’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw. When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a napkin…” and it goes on with more and more requests from the mouse, all stemming from the cookie. Publishing a book sort of feels this way. If you give an author a publishing contract, she’ll need to sell her books. When she sells her books, she’ll need to create an author website. Once she has a website, she’ll want to send a newsletter…

This is the stage I’m at—the author newsletter. Who knew so many decisions were involved in creating a newsletter? Although I only send my newsletters to readers who subscribe, I still feel a responsibility when contributing to a person’s overloaded inbox. I want it to be worth their while. So I did a bit of research about how to write a good author newsletter. I started by reading the ones I subscribe to. I didn’t find too many commonalities, so I searched for articles with tips on writing a newsletter. Some of the advice seemed to contradict itself, such as “be chatty and personable,” but “keep it brief.” There was also the question of how often you should send out your newsletter, which none of the articles agreed upon. So I asked the readers of one of my Facebook cozy mystery groups how often they liked getting newsletters. The answers varied widely from ‘weekly’ to ‘not unless there’s something new to report’. 

I concluded that I was not going to get a consensus on what a newsletter should look like, so I chucked all my research and decided to do it my own way. The purpose of my newsletter is to connect with readers, so what better way to do that than to just be myself? I also wanted to cultivate a sense of community among my subscribers. Hence, we are known as #TeamCheese. Since I decided on a monthly newsletter, I chose repeat topics that I hope readers will come to look forward to seeing every month: Character Meet & Greet, Cheese Chat, Author Trivia, and a changing topic, which will highlight things outside of my books, such as authors, stories, blogs, book recommendations, etc. Since I’m notorious for my many coffee mugs, a new coffee mug of mine shows up every month too. 

I’m still getting the feel for what subscribers may want. Right now, the newsletter focuses on my first book in the cheese shop series, Cheddar Off Dead, but I’m sure the newsletter will develop along with me and my readers as time goes on. After all, when that mouse was finally all set with his cookie, there was a moose who asked for a muffin. 

To become a part of #TeamCheese, subscribe to my newsletter at korinamossauthor.com.

What do you like to see in newsletters from your favorite authors?