Newsletter Effectiveness: Author Brand Equation

March 26th Edition of the CraveBooks Author Newsletter

By Brett Stephan

Author Brand Equation…

Putting it into action with your newsletter.

First things first, a reminder that the goal of your author brand is to sell without selling.

If you build your brand the right way, your newsletter subscribers will do the selling for you (word-of-mouth marketing).

The problem most authors make is that they are looking for book sales, immediately. They feel that if they aren’t selling books right now, then they aren’t being successful authors. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Building your author brand is community building.

And the outcome of having a strong community of readers is an increase in organic book sales (word-of-mouth sales).

So how do you do this with your newsletter subscribers?

“Newsletter subscribers should not feel like they bought a book from an author, they should feel like they bought a book that their friend recommended to them. You are that friend.”

Here’s how to NOT make friends…

• A reader signs up for your newsletter and in the welcome email, you are directing them to buy your books on Amazon.
  • You don’t give them any immediate value —reader magnet.
• In every newsletter, you are telling them to go buy this book or that book (without a good reason —Christmas Discount, etc…).
• You write a very formal newsletter that makes it hard for your reader to relate to you as an ACTUAL human being.
• You stop sending out regular emails (at least 1/month) because:
  • You get frustrated when none of your subscribers support your new book launch.
  • You get frustrated when your subscribers don’t reply to your email.
• You treat your email subscribers like customers —by not asking for their thoughts and opinions.

Here’s how you CAN make friends…

1. Give before you receive: Make sure the value of your reader magnet is equal to or greater than the value of the subscriber’s “privacy” email address.
2. Don’t sell to a new friend: In your welcome email sequence do NOT push a book sale down your subscriber’s gullet.
3. Always Provide Value Consistently: Build trust by giving your subscribers GOOD value. Think ‘Shared Values.’
4. Make new friends: Your newsletter should be personable and allow the reader to see that you are a Fallible Human Being just like them. ‘Humanization.’
5. Ask for help: Asking someone for help makes them feel special and capable, and builds bonds in the community. ‘Engagement.’
   1. ARC team
6. Give more FREE goodies: Your brand is your community, and communities help each other out (without asking for monetary value in return). Always offer your books for free to members of your community, before creating a paywall.
   1. Launch team
7. Sell without Selling: If you have built trust with your subscribers, they will become your community readers. They will buy your books because they feel like you are their friend. And they will recommend your books to other readers because that’s what members of a community do —they help each other out.

Use the Author Brand Equation to set yourself up for long-term success.

Bonus Value Add: Drop this graphic in your author newsletter to let your readers have some fun taking and sharing their results with you! Book Dragon Quiz

Author Resources

Email list Building Giveaways (End in 6 days)

FREE Keyword Research Tool for Authors 2025

Author Letter (a new email service provider for authors) we haven’t done any digging into this platform yet, but it’s worth a look