Here’s the shortest possible answer to this question:
- Neither is better; everything depends on the writer and their goals.
- If forced to choose, a free email newsletter is the better strategic option for writers focused on long-term career development.
- Blogging works better for reaching new readerships, but requires research and skills that take time to develop.
- You can manage to do both without any extra work.
Here is the long answer.
Why authors benefit from email newsletters
The free email newsletter is one of the most effective sales and marketing tools available. Every single professional author with a decent email list knows that it more reliably sells a book (or services or a class) than social media. Book publishers have been focusing for many years now on developing their reach to readers via email; it protects them from being overly reliant on retailers like Amazon. Anyone who is selling something easily purchased online—such as books—will benefit from an email list, assuming that list has been built legitimately.
For example, I’m able to market and promote my paid classes for writers through several email newsletters. These are the strongest source of registrations, and I don’t have to pay for advertising to sell out my classes.
The drawback: your email newsletter is unlikely to reach new audiences
Your own email newsletter is delivered to people who are already interested in what you do. If you’re a published author, then your list will likely be comprised mainly of people who’ve read your work, attended your events, or otherwise have an interest in what you’ll publish next. You’re speaking to the converted; readers tend to give their email addresses only to people they actually want to hear from.
While people may forward or share your email newsletter with others, that’s not really the point of sending an email newsletter. It’s a bonus if it happens, but large-scale sharing is rare unless you have a big list to begin with, or you’re avidly pushing and linking to that newsletter elsewhere. Once you send an email, its lifespan will be a couple weeks at most. It’s unlikely to be discovered through search or social. If the content in the newsletter is super meaningful or valuable, it’s up to you to decide if and how to repurpose it elsewhere.
The other email newsletter challenge: building the list
If you’re an early career writer or unpublished, your list may be very small, and it may feel pointless to send an email newsletter in the first place. It also leads to questions like: How can I build my list?
The simplest answer: write and publish more work, and you’ll get more people on your list. Or: the bigger reputation you have, the more your list will grow organically. Some writers offer a freebie or ethical bribe to get people on their newsletter list, which isn’t a bad idea, but such strategies can lead to lower quality names—people who signed up only for the free stuff.
For tips on building an email newsletter list
- Email Newsletters for Authors by Jane Friedman
- How to Grow Your Email List by Kirsten Oliphant
- How to Grow an Email Newsletter Starting from Zero by Christina McDonald
Why authors benefit from blogging
When I refer to “blogging,” I’m referring to online writing that you publish at your own site or at a group blog. Blogging started about 20 years ago as a very personal, voice-driven form of expression. Today I consider blogging a professional form of writing that may come across as personal and informal, but requires a developed content strategy to be effective.
Great blog content can attract new and sometimes very large readerships to your door. However, most of us don’t avidly follow blogs these days. Instead, if we find something we like, we follow that writer on social media, sign up for their email newsletter or—if we’re really excited and enthusiastic—buy something from the author of the blog.
The drawback: you can’t just blog about anything you want.
It’s hard to be successful with a blog unless you pay attention to the following:
- Focus and positioning. To gain traction with a blog, you have to be fairly disciplined about the subjects you’ll cover and your distinctive angle on those subjects. Changing it up all the time is not a good idea.
- Search engine optimization. This may sound intimidating, but it’s really not. All it fundamentally means is being aware of the search terms that may bring new readers to your blog—or what people search for. But for some writers, this kind of market research is a non-starter and doesn’t interest them.
- Online writing best practices. You have to learn how to write good headlines for your blog posts, write and structure them for a good online reading experience, and house the posts on a decent author website or within an environment that leads to further action (like a newsletter sign-up or a social media follow).
The other challenge: blogging typically requires social media support
Unless you already have an established audience that shares everything little thing you do, then it’ll be necessary to share and talk about your posts through social media. If you’re rarely on social or hate social, blogging makes little sense and you’ll have to rely on search engines and word of mouth to bring you traffic.
For more tips on blogging
- How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors by Jane Friedman
- 10 Ways to Build Traffic to Your Author Website or Blog by Jane Friedman
A way to build a blog and email newsletter at the same time
You can allow people to subscribe to your blog posts via email. This is fairly easy to set up through WordPress or an email marketing service like ConvertKit, MailerLite, or Mailchimp. I’ve long offered this option and have about 10,000 subscribers to my blog posts via email (in addition to a separate email newsletter, Electric Speed.)
Ever heard of Substack? It is essentially a blog with email newsletter functionality built in, or you might consider it an email newsletter that behaves like a blog (you can explore each issue/post through a website/blog interface, comment, etc).
Whatever you decide, do not post at Substack, then turn around and post the same thing at your website. It’s duplicating content, it’s duplicating effort, and it’s causing confusion.
Do you have to do both?
No, and most authors I’ve met do not benefit from blogging. There are many reasons for that, but usually authors fail at blogging because they haven’t paid attention to their positioning or search engine optimization.
Nonfiction authors who have expertise in a specific field have the most to gain from blogging and should seriously consider it. Fiction writers who are avid readers and know their genre inside and out are also well positioned to be successful. But blogging has never been a must. While it’s a good idea to get your name out there in some way to attract new readers, there are many other channels to consider, such as podcasting; conversations on Twitter, Facebook, or Clubhouse; or being a guest contributor at well-established sites.
Parting advice
If you’re still not sure whether a blog or newsletter is right for you, consider what you would prefer to write. If you want to write short, personal takes; offer behind the scenes of your writing and publishing process; or have an intimate conversation that’s not optimized for search, an email newsletter makes the most sense. If you want to write long, instructive articles that would be helpful to a wide audience; if you tackle topics that are frequently in the public eye and get searched for or discussed avidly on social, then blogging may be a better choice for you.
Jane Friedman has spent nearly 25 years working in the book publishing industry, with a focus on author education and trend reporting. She is the editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential publishing industry newsletter for authors, and was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World in 2023. Her latest book is The Business of Being a Writer (University of Chicago Press), which received a starred review from Library Journal. In addition to serving on grant panels for the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund, she works with organizations such as The Authors Guild to bring transparency to the business of publishing.
One reason why blogging may not be right for novelists is the difference between writing and ‘content’. As an old-fashioned writer who grew up in the time of Abraham Lincoln and can remember a time when even the typewriter was considered new-fangled, I am often dismayed at the advice dispensed online about writing blogs. The advice invariably is to create a ‘content calendar’ and publish consistently and often. It makes the writing seem highly disposable, something that may not sit well with someone used to labouring months or even years over a piece of work. I am aware how antediluvian that makes me sound 🙂
Hi Malcolm: You bring up an important point. Most successful bloggers can write new posts rather quickly and don’t labor over them for too long. While some posts might be, let’s say, ephemeral, part of the reason to post frequently is to build up a body of work and to practice as well. Infrequent posting can make it harder for anyone to even know you’re blogging, or for you to know what “works” for a blog.
That said, I’ve seen people who post maybe 1x/week or 1x/month (even less) who ensure everything is super high-quality. This can lead to wide sharing and search traffic over time. This strategy might be preferable for someone like yourself, but it typically demands considerable research, as well as skill.
Speaking for myself, I didn’t become any good at blogging until I was a couple years into it. I learned by doing. If you post infrequently and take the high-quality approach, learning while doing could mean your blog doesn’t “pay off” in a timeframe that makes the effort worthwhile.
Jane:
I’ve been blogging in my niche and on my topic for going on three years, and I sweat over every article that I write to make it as accurate and readable as I can. I have won awards for my work, and so I am humbly grateful.
I consider my blog as part of my writer’s platform, and now I find myself training up to pre-sell my upcoming book on the same topic. I guess that I need to initiate a newsletter for that, and I do have a subscribed blog audience who might also sign up for the newsletter.
However, I am at a loss for what to write about that would interest my audience and also grow my readership. My writer’s journey, the struggles of self-publishing, etc? Would you be able to point me to some examples that might inspire my over-worked brain? I do appreciate your expertise and am a fan of your blog, of which I receive an email notice and summary.
Thanks for your service,
=rdsieber
Hi Ronald: So you’re wondering what to put in your email newsletter?
An easy way to start is to simply roundup all the excellent things you’ve been doing or consuming: a collection of your latest posts/writings and the most interesting things you read/saw/consumed elsewhere (podcasts, TV, social media memes, other newsletters), etc. I call this the “media consumption list” approach, which is used by many writers, including folks like Austin Kleon. So: newsletter as curation tool.
Some writers use their newsletter as an opportunity to feature Q&As, interviews, or reviews related to similar authors’ work.
Or you can put in original content that offers behind the scenes.
You might find this list of newsletters inspiring:
https://janefriedman.com/email-newsletter-recommendation-roundup/
Great points, and while I agree with all of them I want to explain why I continue to blog every week (and offer email signups as you suggest). 1. I finish something each and every work week. 2. It’s a sandbox to try out “smaller” more bite-sized ideas. And of course it is also a weekly reminder to my very small but very devoted list of readers that, eventually, there will be another novel. I think the best blogs are written to learn ourselves; there are other, much more efficient ways to market to others, so that shouldn’t be the primary goal.
I feel much the same way. Mostly, I want to write books, but I also like to write articles about writing so I can share what I’ve learned and maybe help someone else not make the same mistakes I did.
Thanks for your perspective, Carol. Blogging can be a wonderful creative practice and a way to test ideas, as you say. Even if someone doesn’t get a lot of traffic from it, it can produce work that’s useful in so many other ways.
For writers who feel like “Where in the world do I find the time?!” maybe blogging isn’t for you.
I’ve often asked myself this question. I abandon my blog for a time and then pick it back up. I try to write articles to help new writers because my blog/website is two-fold: attract aspiring writers and attract readers for my novels. Maybe that’s the wrong approach? I do send out a newsletter each week to my reader list and my writer list. Back in the day, no authors had newsletters. Then, all of a sudden, newsletters were the “thing.” Then there were so many newsletters that readers were overwhelmed and the market was saturated. I don’t know if doing a newsletter is really beneficial anymore.
I would probably avoid trying to write articles to help new writers unless you also offer services/classes/products for writers. That’s not to say what you’re doing is bad or not recommended (it’s great to be of service to the community), but it can become a shadow career you did not intend. Such work is unlikely to develop you a readership for your novels. Maybe there will be some small crossover, but not much.
I don’t think the market is overly saturated with email newsletters or that there are so many they’ve become ineffective. One could say the same of books—aren’t there too many people self-publishing now that 1 million new titles are published every year? I would say no; there’s room for everyone.
If people are fans of your work, they will subscribe to your email newsletter, follow you on social, or do something to help alert them to your new books or offerings.
I have used my blog writing to gain attention in a very specific niche of mental health. My writing in combination with social media has led to collaborations with experts (I am not a professional therapist or medical practitioner). I agree that well-researched blog posts in a specific non-fiction niche can be a great combination but it took me almost three years before I started getting noticed. It does work but it is a long-term project and I also invested in getting business and writing courses.
Thanks for sharing your experience, Heather.
[…] your website, Lyn Wildwood tells how to write an About page for your blog, Jane Friedman looks at blogging vs. email newsletters for writers, and Lindsay Liedke shows how to add both a contact form and a photo gallery to your WordPress […]
“Nonfiction authors who have expertise in a specific field have the most to gain from blogging and should seriously consider it.” I agree. I for example blog as part of a wider strategy, which I hope will eventually lead to the formation of a foundation; to help the less fortunate in Africa, and improve race relations in the UK. This is slow work. And it is for precisely this reason that I also run a newsletter. Ultimately, it really depends on the objectives of the individual…
Thank you for this informative post. I have both a blog and a newsletter. I find that most of those who subscribe to my author newsletter do not follow my blog. Therefore one advantage of a newsletter is it’s potential to reach those who would not (usually) subscribe to blogs. Kevin
Jane,
This helps though I must confess, I am still trying to figure out what should be in my newsletter for my writing/ arts biz website. (The struggle!)
I will be doing both.
I am really good at curating industry news and exploring tools for indie biz. I have a strong sense of my cultural identity. I already have a writing blog but the new one attached to the site will be more like a LinkedIn audience.
Newsletter:
I want to reach readers/ supporters who will support/ buy books and products and clients who would hire me for writing/ content and also to help solopreneurs like me.
I also don’t want to over commit and disappoint subscribers (my consistency could be better), so I’ll go for a monthly pub to start.
Thoughts?
That sounds reasonable to me. Give it a try – you will only know what works by experimenting.
Great discussion!
I too, was afraid that blogging would interfere too much with my fiction writing. I’ve discovered that in fact, it helps me by keeping me focused and producing, no matter what. Completely the opposite of what I expected.
I run a monthly newsletter where I review children’s books (I’m a children’s writer) and a monthly non-fiction blog on container-grown vegetable gardening, as I’m also an enthusiastic food grower.
It’s too early to tell how well this strategy works but I’m enjoying all of the writing I’m doing. I also really like the feeling of agency and control it gives me over my writing career. It’s a real confidence builder to be ‘publishing’ while I’m submitting manuscripts and fielding rejections.