For authors and creators
The book comes out on Tuesday, and eight hundred people in your phone would want to know
Not your mailing list — your actual network. The people you met on purpose over fifteen years. There has never been a decent way to tell all of them something, and a newsletter is not it.
The problem
Your list and your network are two different things.
The mailing list is people who raised their hand for your writing. They are well served by a newsletter and a newsletter serves them well.
The network is different. It is the editor from two jobs ago, the people from the retreat, the friend who introduced you to your agent, your cousin, the person you sat next to on a panel in 2019. None of them subscribed to anything. All of them would be glad to know. And putting them in a campaign — unsubscribe footer, tracking pixel, Promotions tab — quietly reclassifies a relationship as an audience.
So most people do what you have probably done: send forty by hand, run out of evening, and quietly decide the other seven hundred and sixty do not need to know.
What it is for
The moments worth telling people about yourself.
Launch week
The book, the album, the film, the company. One message, sent as eight hundred separate texts from your own number, each with their name on it.
The ask
Reviews, preorders, a share on the day. People say yes to a person asking them directly and ignore the same request made to everyone at once.
The thank you
The one almost nobody sends, and the one people remember for years. Everyone who showed up, thanked individually, the week after.
How to do it well
Two rules, and the second one is the hard one.
Segment before you write. The twelve people who read early drafts should not get the message that goes to people you met once. Human RM syncs the groups already in your address book, so the segmenting is mostly done if you have ever bothered to tag anyone.
Write it as though you were sending it to one person, because you are. This is where most launch messages go wrong: the writer knows it is going to eight hundred people, and the writing carries that knowledge. Say what you would say to the one person you like most on the list. The preview in the app shows you each finished message before it sends, which is a surprisingly effective place to notice you have written a press release.
And send from your own number. A message about your book from a number your friend does not have saved is a message about a book from a stranger.
Questions
What authors and creators ask first.
›Should I not just use my email list?
Use both, for different people. A newsletter is the right instrument for an audience who subscribed to hear from you. It is the wrong one for the four hundred people in your phone who know you personally — they did not subscribe to anything, and a campaign email is a strange way to tell a friend your book is out.
›Is texting people about a launch not pushy?
It depends entirely on whether you would have texted them anyway. If this is someone whose number you have because you know them, one message about something that matters to you is normal. If you are texting people who gave you a card at a conference, it will read exactly as badly as it sounds.
›Can I send different messages to different groups?
Yes, and you should. The people who read the manuscript need a different note from the people you met last year. Sync the groups from your address book, or bring a CSV, and send to each group separately.
›What about people I only have an email address for?
Email goes through your own Gmail with your real address and signature, so it arrives as an ordinary message rather than a campaign. One list, both channels.
›Can I see who opened it?
On email, with the Pro plan — opens and clicks, so you know which people to follow up with. Texts are not tracked.
Eight hundred people would want to know. Tell all of them, one at a time.
14 days free, the whole thing. Then $12 a month.