Build your email list first

By R. S. Breed · Updated Sep 28, 2026

If you do one piece of marketing before your first book comes out, make it an email list. Social media accounts, stores and apps come and go. A list of readers who asked to hear from you is the one audience you can take anywhere.

This guide covers why the list matters, how to start one, how to keep it healthy, and the legal basics if you're sending from Australia.

Why the list comes first

What the survey says

Written Word Media's 2025 survey of 1,346 authors, mostly self-published, called the link between email lists and income "one of the sharpest correlations in the entire survey". Among published authors, those with a list earned a median of about $300 (US) a month, and those without earned about $15. The same survey found that 44% of respondents earned $100 (US) a month or less from their books, and 8% earned more than $10,000 a month.

Be careful with what that shows. It is a link, not proof that a list causes higher income. Authors who earn more have often been publishing longer and have more books, and both of those grow a list too. But the pattern is strong enough that many working indie authors treat the list as essential.

You don't own the platform

Every platform can change its rules or close. In the past two years:

Kindle Vella, Amazon's serial fiction platform, closed in February 2025.
The serial fiction app Radish told users it would shut down by the end of December 2025.
Tapas, a webcomic and serial platform, is due to close by the end of 2026, according to reports in September 2026.

Authors who had built their readership only on those platforms had to start again. Authors with an email list could tell their readers where to go next.

It sells the next book

When your next book comes out, the store's algorithm decides who sees it. Your list doesn't depend on that. A launch-day email to readers who liked your last book is often the most reliable burst of sales you'll get.

Getting started

You need three things:

An email service provider. This is software built for mailing lists (not your personal Gmail). It handles sign-ups, unsubscribes and delivery. Many have a free tier for small lists. Check what each one charges as your list grows, because prices usually rise with list size.
A sign-up page. Your provider can host one. Keep it short: a line about what readers get, an email field, a button.
A link in the back of your books. The back matter of your ebook is a natural place to ask, because readers have just finished your story. Many authors put the link right after "The End", before the acknowledgements.

You can start before your first book is out. Friends, family and early readers count.

Reader magnets

A reader magnet is something free you offer in return for signing up. For fiction, it works best when it's a taste of more of the same:

A short story or novella set in the same world
A prequel about a secondary character
A bonus epilogue or deleted scene (for readers who've finished the book)
The first book in a series, if you have several

Match the magnet to what you publish. A romance reader won't stay subscribed for a thriller short story.

Delivering it

Sending ebook files to readers yourself is fiddly, because people use different devices and apps. Services such as BookFunnel and StoryOrigin handle delivery for you. They host the file, deliver it, and give readers tech support for getting it onto their device. Both also support group promotions, where several authors in a genre share one page of books to build their lists together.

Check what each plan includes before you pay. At the time of writing (US prices):

BookFunnel starts at $30 a year, but that plan doesn't connect to your mailing list. Mailing list integration starts on the $200-a-year plan.
StoryOrigin has a free plan that covers file delivery. Group promotions, newsletter swaps and collecting reader emails need its Standard plan, at $10 a month or $100 a year.

The trade-off with group promotions

Group promotions can add a lot of addresses quickly. The catch is that many of those readers signed up for a free book, not for you. Expect a lot of them to unsubscribe or never open your emails. That's normal. Measure these sign-ups by whether they open and click in the months after, not by the headcount on the day.

What to send

A welcome sequence

Set up a few automatic emails for new subscribers:

Straight away: deliver the magnet and say who you are in a couple of lines.
A few days later: a bit about why you write what you write, or the story behind the book.
A week or so later: point them to your first book, or the next one in the series.

This introduces you while they still remember signing up.

Regular emails

Send often enough that readers remember you. For many authors that's monthly, plus launches. Ideas that work for fiction:

Cover reveals and release dates
A short excerpt from the book you're writing
Behind-the-scenes notes: research, settings, the character you nearly cut
Books you're reading and recommend in your genre
A question readers can answer by replying

Every email doesn't have to sell. The ones that don't are what make readers open the ones that do.

List hygiene

A big list isn't the goal. An engaged one is.

Use confirmed opt-in (sometimes called double opt-in). The subscriber clicks a link to confirm. It filters out typos and fake addresses and gives you a clear record of consent.
Clean out inactive subscribers every few months. If someone hasn't opened anything in a long time, send a "still want to hear from me?" email, then remove the ones who don't respond.
Don't buy or borrow lists. Addresses you didn't collect yourself hurt your delivery rates, and in Australia sending to them without consent breaks the law.
Tag or segment by how readers joined (which book, which magnet) so you can send the right news to the right people.

Why bother: inbox providers such as Gmail judge senders partly by how recipients react. Google says that if your messages are often reported as spam, future messages are more likely to be marked as spam, and it suggests unsubscribing people who don't open your email. Poor list habits can push your messages into junk folders for everyone, including your keenest readers. Many providers also charge by list size, so dead addresses cost you money.

The law: Australian Spam Act basics

Australia's spam rules are in the Spam Act 2003. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) says a message is commercial if it offers, advertises or promotes a product or service, even if that's only one part of it. An author newsletter that mentions your books will usually count. ACMA's guidance comes down to three things:

1. Consent

You need the recipient's consent before you email them. It can be express (they signed up) or, in limited cases, inferred from an existing relationship. You can't send an email asking for consent, because that is itself a marketing message. It is up to you to prove consent, so ACMA suggests keeping a record of who consented, when and how. That's another reason to use confirmed opt-in and keep your provider's sign-up records.

2. Identify yourself

Every message must accurately identify you (your name or business name) and include correct contact details. ACMA says to use the correct legal name of your business, or your name and your Australian Business Number (ABN). That information must stay correct for at least 30 days after you send.

3. Unsubscribe

Every message must include a clear way to unsubscribe. It can't charge a fee, and it can't require the person to log in, create an account or give extra personal information. It must keep working for at least 30 days after you send, and you must act on a request within five working days.

Most email service providers add an unsubscribe link and process requests for you. ACMA is clear, though, that you stay responsible if a provider gets it wrong. Your job is to get consent properly, fill in your sender details correctly, and check the unsubscribe link works.

Readers outside Australia

Your subscribers may live anywhere, and other countries have their own rules. Two examples:

United States (CAN-SPAM Act): every marketing email must include a valid physical postal address (a registered post office box counts), and opt-outs must be honoured within 10 business days.
United Kingdom: email marketing to individuals falls under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). You generally need specific consent, can't hide who you are, and must offer an easy opt-out.

Getting consent properly, identifying yourself and honouring unsubscribes quickly covers a lot of the ground, but not all of it. If you have many readers in one country, read that country's regulator guidance.

Your first month

Sign up for an email service provider (on its free tier, if it has one).
Build a one-page sign-up form.
Write or choose a reader magnet.
Set up the welcome email that delivers it.
Add the sign-up link to the back of every book you have out.
Fill in your sender name and contact details, and turn on confirmed opt-in if your provider offers it.

Then send your first real email. It doesn't need to be clever. It needs to arrive.

Sources

Platforms change their rules often. If something here is out of date, tell us in the forum and we'll fix it.