Why a Newsletter?

Some of you may have heard or seen it on my home page, but I have started a newsletter! Why would I do that, you may ask? Because of a very good piece of advice that was given to me a few years ago.

Back in October 2023 I attended the Surrey International Writer’s Conference, something that I had dreamed of doing for years (and what a dream fulfilment it was). I attended a variety of workshops and talks, and one theme that kept coming up was “build on land that you own” (a very sensible thing to do in general, of course).

In this case, ‘build on land that you own’ refers to how to build your audience and engage with your readers. The easiest thing to do is to engage via social media—Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, what have you—and build your audience that way. But many of the speakers at the conference recommended starting a newsletter instead, the idea being that social media is ephemeral. Algorithms can change overnight. You can lose access to your account. Your favourite platform can be bought and change its nature. If any of these things happen, you can lose access to your fans, followers, and community. But if you start a newsletter, you own that, and it can’t be taken away from you. Yes, you can still engage on social media, but the idea is that the newsletter is a smarter way to build your audience.

That all makes sense to me, hence the newsletter. I want to let people know what I’m up to and this seems like a sensible way to do it. Plus, I’m very inconsistent on social media, so a monthly newsletter seems achievable to me. We shall see!