I did it, Dear Readers: I created a mailing list. It should have been easy, at least that was the impression I got from all the forum posts by other self-published authors, but my gods was it absolutely not. Every step took me in a different direction where I had to complete five sub-steps and got hung up on some snag that I thought impossible to break loose of. But I’m finally here, months after starting on the journey.
Doing everything yourself is…a lot. I’m thankful that I’m able to do these things, that I have the money to spend when I absolutely have to invest, that I have the time to dump into learning new things and thoroughly researching next steps, that I’m smart enough to just figure this stuff out to begin with, but it’s still mentally exhausting. And it creates a bit of guilt: I should be writing, but instead I’m putting all this effort into learning how to market, to advertise, to create but not with words. I think it will all be worth it. I think.
The issue now is, how does one get subscribers? I’m using Story Origin, so that might be the secret. I’ve also made some changes to how The Korinniad is listed so that it can be given away as a free reader magnet to attract readers. These are the things I’ve read that I need to do, so I’m doing them.
Oh, and I’m learning. I signed up for Master Class finally after watching all those commercials with Neil Gaiman and Joyce Carol Oates, and, baby, I am so on board with this already. I miss class–not “school” necessarily, and not that feeling of being up in the ivory tower with no real experience in the world–but class? I loved classes. And now I can do them in my pjs.
A.K. Caggiano 