Share Your News! by Ann H. Gabhart

A popular marketing tool for writers is issuing a newsletter through email subscriptions. I asked author Ann Gabhart to share her experience with this way of reaching her readers. -- Sandy

Ann: Somebody once called me a storyteller. I loved that, but to make a story circle complete, a storyteller needs readers. So how do you get readers to discover your book in the great flood of books published every year? Jump up and down waving a copy of your book in your hand? That might work for your neighbor, but you want thousands of neighbors when you’re waving that new book around. So you climb aboard the internet.   

I’ve been writing for years, but I didn’t venture into the world of social media until after I published my first Christian novel, Scent of Lilacs, in 2005. Facebook. Twitter. Newsletters. I’ve done all those, but writing a newsletter sounded like the most fun because I enjoy talking to people in person and on paper. My starter list of friends and readers wasn’t very long, so I began signing up more readers at book events.

At first, I used my own e-mail until somebody pointed out the rules for sending news updates. Rules? For writing letters? But it turns out you can’t just send anybody a newsletter. They have to sign-up in person or on-line that they want your newsletter to land in their e-mail boxes. So to stay on the right side of spam rules, I found a newsletter service. I put a sign-up link on my website and Facebook page. Then I grew my list more through giveaways that stated contest entries were also a sign-up for my newsletter.

Having names isn’t enough. I need to make these new friends want to read my “letter.” It’s a given that you need entertaining content or some great offers. I use a mix of down home news and book news. My newsletter friends get the bonus of first knowledge of a giveaway or information about free e-book downloads. In hopes of keeping my mailing from being marked spam, I put “how to unsubscribe” at the beginning. I don’t want to be in their e-mail box if they don’t want me there. But I do have many readers who like getting my news. After sending one out, I set aside time to read and answer the responses I get. That shows I appreciate them reading my letter. Plus, I often ask readers entering my giveaway contests to share a story with me. Since my recent giveaway was during my birthday month, I requested memories of special birthday celebrations. I am always touched by the stories shared with me.

So while my newsletter isn’t the average author’s newsletter (we never like to think we’re average, do we?) and it breaks some of the rules for a successful newsletter, it works for me. I get to know my readers better as we share stories and books. 

Here’s a link to a recent newsletter. http://mad.ly/bf8814?o=ps

Happy writing!! 

Do you have an author newsletter? Do you subscribe to other authors’ newsletters? What do you like about them?  

~~~

ANN H. GABHART, the author of several bestselling novels, has been called a storyteller, not a bad thing for somebody who never wanted to do anything but write down stories. She’s published twenty-six novels for adults and young adults with more stories on the way. She keeps her keyboard warm out on a farm in Kentucky where she lives with her husband, Darrell. They have three children, three in-law children, and nine grandchildren. To find out more about Ann or her books visit www.annhgabhart.com. Check out her blog, One Writer’s Journal, www.annhgabhart.blogspot.com or follow her on Facebook, www.facebook.com/AnnGabhart , Twitter, https://twitter.com/AnnHGabhart, or Pinterest, http://pinterest.com/annhgabhart/. 

One Writer’s Ups and Downs of Publishing by Ann H. Gabhart

Did you think that once you got that first book published, you’d be set? That publishers would be clamoring for your attention? Whoa! It’s not that easy—even for someone who has been published many times over. Each book must still stand on its own. But the encouraging side to this is that just because you may be walking through the valley now or in the future, it doesn’t mean you’re stuck there. Read on as guest author Ann H. Gabhart shares her own ups and downs in publishing.  ~ Dawn

One Writer’s Ups and Downs of Publishing

by Ann H. Gabhart

At the tender age of ten, I picked up a pen and started writing a mystery with a character based on me—naturally. Well, perhaps it would be more accurate to say she was based on what I wanted me to be like and not what I was really like—a very shy, farm girl. But my heroine was with it. Jo could solve mysteries like the Hardy Boys. And she was really cute too.

So it all began. In the years since I’ve had my mountaintop moments as a writer and my times of walking through discouragement valley. As a young writer, I was like a person walking along a beach picking up shells with the hope that each new wave of creativity would wash up the perfect story that might get published. I wrote one piece after another. A few actually got printed in magazines and Sunday school papers. Then I wrote a novel and my writing goals shifted. No more short pieces for me. I wanted to write books. 

My first book didn’t find a publisher. My second book didn’t find a publisher. My third book did. Talk about a mountaintop moment! My printed words inside a compelling cover were going to appear on store shelves everywhere. That was way back in 1978, and I embraced the thought of writing success. Warner Books did publish my next novel. Then I tumbled off that mountaintop down into discouragement valley. I wrote two more historicals that were “not quite right,” according to the editors. I wrote more books. Got more rejections. My agent told me editors said my historicals were “too clean,” so I decided to reinvent myself and look for a new audience for my “too clean” stories.

 That decision took me up some more mountain trails while eleven of my coming-of-age stories for young readers were published. I liked writing for young people, but then the wheels came off my writing vehicle. My new stories began collecting rejects again. This time the trudge through discouragement valley went on for years. I told myself I should stop writing, get a job with a weekly paycheck instead of merely the hope of someday pay.

But I couldn’t quit. I had to keep writing. So since I wasn’t cornering any markets, I wrote the book I wanted to write instead of one I hoped an editor might like. The Scent of Lilacs with characters who sprang from my heart found a loving editor on its first trip out. Once more, I was up on one of those writing peaks.  

Early on in my writing career I read something about treating rejections and acceptances the same. They might both knock a writer off course, because to be successful a writer has to keep plugging whether on the dark valley road or the sparkling mountain peak road. Up or down, a writer has to keep writing. That’s what writers do.

Ann H. Gabhart has published over twenty novels for adults and children including her bestselling Shaker novels. Ann lives on a farm in Central Kentucky with her husband, Darrell who sings bass in a Southern Gospel quartet. They have three children and nine grandchildren. Ann’s latest releases are The Blessed, her fourth Shaker novel, and Angel Sister, a novel inspired by the stories her mother told her about growing up during the years of the Great Depression.

You can keep up with Ann on her website, www.annhgabhart.com; her blog, One Writer’s Journal, www.annhgabhart.blogspot.com; Facebook author page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-H-Gabhart/132862247566, or follow Ann on Twitter, user name annhgabhart.