By Shaunta Grimes
I spend a lot of time talking to writers and one question that comes up a lot is whether or not an email list is really (really, really) necessary.
I get it. Email list building is a little bit on the scary side. There’s some technical hoops to jump through, a learning curve that you might rather avoid if possible, and the whole icky marketing thing to consider.
All of that often adds up to a great big steaming pile of I don’t want to and you can’t make me!
And of course, I can’t make you. But I can tell you, gently, that if you’re a writer you are a marketer and you should have an email list. A proper one. And you should start building it now.
Not when you have more traffic. Not when you have more followers. Not when you have something interesting to say.
Right now, today.
Once I’ve gotten that message through, inevitably, someone brings up some kind of alternative that seems easier and less scary. There are a few levels of email list building. And all of them are legitimate and to be honest, I do some level of pretty much all of them.
Let’s go over all of them and talk about what they’re good for.