If you do one marketing thing this year, make it an email list
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R. S. Breed Founder
Of all the marketing jobs a new indie author could take on, the most useful is an email list. Start it before you think you need one.
This isn't just my hunch. Written Word Media's 2025 indie author survey (1,346 authors, published in December) called the size of an author's email list the one metric that consistently predicts higher income. Authors with a list earned a median of about $300 a month, against about $15 for those without. Same survey: 44% of respondents earn $100 a month or less, and 8% earn more than $10k a month.
Usual caveat applies. Correlation isn't causation. Authors earning more have usually been at it longer, have more books out, and have had years to grow a list. But a list is also the one thing in this business you actually own. Retailers change royalty rates and rules, social platforms throttle reach whenever they feel like it, and your list comes with you regardless.
If I were starting from zero:
- Put a sign-up link in the back matter of every book, straight after the last page of the story. Not behind the acknowledgements, not after the preview of someone else's book.
- Offer something small for signing up. A short story, a deleted scene, a side character's point of view. It does not need to be a novella.
- Pick a rhythm you can keep. Monthly is fine. Quarterly is fine. A year of silence followed by a launch email is not, because half the list won't remember who you are.
- Write like a person. People signed up to hear from the author, not from a brand.
- Skip giveaways that bribe people with a prize unrelated to your books. You end up with a big list that doesn't open anything, and you pay your email provider for the privilege.
Two hundred readers who genuinely want your next book is worth more than it sounds. That's two hundred people you can tell on launch day without paying an ad platform a cent.
For those who already have one going: what got you your first hundred sign-ups?