Building an Email List as a Pre-published Writer

If you are new to the publishing industry, just getting your feet wet in this game, you will have likely encountered an insane number of posts and advice tidbits on how an email list is incredibly important to include in your writer's platform. Email is much more reliable than social media in getting your messages in front of your fans. But even if you're not new to the industry, the advice on building an email list can totally do your head in.

Some advice is contradictory. Very little advice gives you solid information about what you should do or how to even start. And for those who are working on their first publications, the idea is often too overwhelming. In fact, most pre-published writers put building an email list into the too-hard basket, saying that they'll do it later—except that later never comes.

Today, I want to explore the insecurity that the debut writer faces when building an email list, and I want to tell you about a venture that I'm taking on to put some science behind some valid tactics.

So… Google has tagged me as SPAM

Mailing Lists: Unsubscribe Doesn’t Mean Forgotten

The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation for the EU) is now a few years old. As a global internet-based society, we're still trying to get our heads around the implications of the legislation. As a small business owner, I too have been trying to understand. However, over the past few years, I have noticed a few quirks about the way email mailing lists are handled, identifying some of the hidden traps within the systems. There are things that we need to be aware of from both sides of the equation.

The biggest hidden trap is associated with the right to be forgotten. Under the GDPR, if you want your email (and other contact details) to be removed and deleted from a database, you have that right. However, most people assume that just by unsubscribing to a mailing list that is what you're doing.

WRONG! Unsubscribing from a mailing list does not mean that your details have been deleted from the database. Let's delve into this particular issue based on my personal experience.

Privacy is World-Wide: The Impact of GDPR

If I was say “GDPR is here,” would you know what I was talking about? Be honest. There’s nothing to be ashamed of if you don’t.

Now for the next question: if you have heard of the GDPR, have you bothered to take the steps necessary to protect yourself? Or are you one of those who believes that because you don’t live in the EU that it doesn’t concern you? Again, be honest. It’s perfectly okay to think that.

However, believe it or not, if you are a public figure of any kind (e.g., writer, podcaster, musician, artist), then the GDPR could have huge consequences if you don’t take the steps now to protect yourself. Because of the way the internet works, there is a whole level of complexity added to the privacy of information issue that most people don’t realize or understand.

It’s time to get the picture straight.