To get people’s attention, you must give them something at least as valuable in return. Writing online makes that exchange explicit—brutally so, when a piece flops and the writer is forced to realize it just isn’t worth readers’ time.
Publishing this newsletter for the last two years—this is the anniversary edition—I’ve learned more about this exchange of value, and the unpredictable ways it can pay off. If you can win attention, it’s worth a lot.
I began writing the newsletter on the advice of a friend consulting on strategic communications. As a one-man business selling my services as an author, collaborator, and writing coach, finding clients is the hardest part of my job.
When I have a well-developed book proposal of my own, my literary agent, Gail Ross, takes it to the publishing marketplace. But I cannot go out that way to find clients to coach or collaborate with. They have to find me.
The newsletter spreads the word. But it isn’t advertising. Quality and engagement matter more than reach.
These short essays are free samples. They show what I can do and open the door to learn more. For anyone who is curious, links lead to testimonials from past clients and pages with my books, articles, speaking engagements and broadcasting work.
But for this strategy to work at all, people need to open the newsletter as an email or click on the social media version. After publishing 75 editions, I’ve averaged a 66 percent email open rate, which MailChimp tells me is good.
The social media version reaches more people, but with less engagement and ongoing connection. A recent link in the New York Times brought lots of traffic, but I’m not really looking for big numbers. The point is to reach people interested in literary writing and to develop a relationship with them (so please subscribe to the email!).
In an online environment of fakery and the sugar-rush of viral content, my experiment has instead been to think seriously and write 500-word essays that are worthy of readers’ deeper consideration. And it’s working.
For me, this has been a pleasure. Most of my other deadlines are months or years away, with reader responses delayed and indirect. The newsletter gives me a chance to write about ideas I have during the week and to hear back right away, in thoughtful emails and comments you send, and in metrics of reader attention.
The stats do tell a tale. There’s no more objective measure of whether a topic and essay were worth your time.
My investment in this exchange is to think of interesting things to say about the literary topics I have chosen: Alaska, books, coaching, ethics, history, journalism, non-fiction practice, people, publicity and sales, publishing, style, and writing theory (all the pieces are cataloged by these subjects).
Readers invest when they engage and return. Attention is a precious, finite commodity. While trillion-dollar companies fiercely compete for it, I’m grateful to have three minutes of yours three times a month.
Thank you for helping keep it going for two years.
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