Talking Second Chances

 Way back in 2018 I signed up to Mailchimp and put out a newsletter.

For a while, it went well.

Then one day I could not get Mailchimp to co-operate with me, and I sort of abandoned the idea. Everybody seems to have an e-mail list these days, so I am trying again. You might notice there is a Sign Up now form over to the right of this post. I hope you will use it.

Mailchimp has retained the names who signed up in 2018 and happily sent off the new email to them, so there may be some weeding to do, but that is OK. I hope there will be new people who will sign up this time around. New additions to the list will receive a free e-Book and there will be snippets and chapters, scenes, and general news of what I am doing.

The pic today is of Halton Castle which features briefly in my story Fair Border Bride.  I know the non-castle addition is 17th century, but I am sure the tower was in place in the 16th century. I must have a walk that way again and see how big the "cat "shaped hedge is now. Fifteen years is a long time and there may have been changes!

Mailchimp learning curve

I am desperately mugging up on how to get Mailchimp to send out an ebook! I am sure it will do it; the trick is for me to find out how. 

I've googled how to do it, and it sounds simple; I've changed the cover on my Word copy of Fair Border Bride and re-saved it as a PDF, so I guess I am good to go as they say these days. I hesitate because I'm slightly distracted by an aching tooth and know that an appointment with the dentist is looming in 45 minutes. Might be better to wait until this afternoon when the dentistry will all be over.  I wouldn't want to get half-way through the process and then have to leave it or worse still, make an absolute hash of it.

Also I think my newly ordered mouse will arrive today. I'm hoping it will correct the slovenly way my old mouse is operating - clicking when it feels like it and ignoring me at other times. I suppose they do wear out at some point.

Newsletters

Memories of France

Trying something new at the moment. The internet seems inundated at the moment with “experts” telling us aspiring authors how to sell more books. I followed Mark Dawson’s posts but decided I could not justify spending roughly £600 on an online course even if the information I learned would jump up my sales by x percent. Cynic that I am, I thought that if everyone followed his advice, then every indie author in the land would be earning thousands every day. Now that just isn’t going to be true, is it?

Seems to me that if it works for one or two authors, that’s great, but don’t expect the same result for everyone who tries the same methods. However – takes deep breath – there is some logic in what he says, so I am cautiously dipping my toe in the pool of newsletters. Sent out an exploratory e-mail to everyone I know whose email address I have on hand. You would think I’d have more than I collected together, but in my naïve days I didn’t keep back-ups and through a PC crash and my natural instinct for paper-tidiness and throwing away anything old (I inherited that trait from my mother; she was a devil for throwing things out. I lost several favourite books that way.) I have only a small number. In a way that is good, for I can build up slowly. It would be soul-destroying to discover that half of the emails were “dead links” or that people didn’t want to know me or my newsletter.

So the introductory has gone out, with no rude replies so far. Now I am exploring Mailchimp on advice from family and friends who all seem to think it is great. It probably is, once I’ve worked my way through it, but right now, it seems so complex it is making my brain ache.