I believe I've been beaten...

[Comicality]

 

So, for the last few weeks, I haven't been able to get into my own mailing list and send out any announcements about the new stories that have been posted. And if I can't tell people the new chapters are out, then they don't know. And if they don't know, then...I'm basically writing for nothing. This has happened before. Updates to my laptop, or to GayAuthors, or to Windows...things get out of sync or some 'bug' shows up and it needs to be fixed before I can operate again. It's <I>usually</I> temporary, but this pesky bug doesn't seem to be going away. I spent the last two or three days trying desperately to fix it, and change passwords and update my laptops and get everything working, but I'm losing hope here. And the stories are backing up as I finish them. (I'm at about 7 new chapters right now that haven't been posted yet)

 

So, if I end up waving a white flag on this one...does anybody here know of a quality free mailing list that I can use to get the word out to the Shack when new stuff is posted?

The thing about searching for a free service is that a lot of them have a lot of 'limits' that I won't be able to work with. So three things that I'm looking for specifically are as follows...

 

1- Instant mailing. If I type up and send out an announcement at 3 o'clock in the morning, I really want the announcement to go out at 3 o'clock in the morning. If there's going to be a 12 hour delay, that's no good for me.

 

2- I'd have to be able to send out multiple notices a week, or possibly in the same day. If there's a limit for the number of notices that I can send out...also not very good for the site. I'd need some room. I don't send stuff out excessively, but it would suck to have to ration things out tooo tightly.

 

3- It would have to be able to hold a LOT of subscribers! My current mailing list had just over 600 email addresses on it. So I would need a mailing list that can handle that kind of fanbase.

 

So...any suggestions? The sooner I get signed up and experiment with how it works, the sooner I can post the rest of these chapters and get things working again. I'll be searching too, plus I'll keep working on getting into my old mailing list. It's just that you guys know more about this stuff than I do! So...once again...

 

...'little help'?

 

[MrM]

Have you considered a Facebook business page? People that follow you there will get email bursts when you make announcements and then you can link to your libraries. They can also leave you posts and comments so you have ready feedback. A lot of highly successful authors use this.

 

I've been considering it myself but I haven't the fanbase to support it yet. You most def do. You can also tie it to your Twitter account.

 

Example: Anne Rice's Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage/

Edited August 31, 2017 by MrM

[Hunter Thomson]

A facebook business page (or any kind of public page could work) would be a good idea if you don't already have one going. I've had relatively good results with Mailchimp, and it works well. It customizes each email for you so that it automatically adds the person's name to the email. So it would take your generic email and add the correct person's name to each email address.

[Comicality]

Thanks so much for the help, you guys! Luckily, the problem has actually been fixed now, so we're back in business! I'll start posting again within the hour!  

[MrM]

Sweetness, you might still consider a Facebook Business Page. You can set up a situation where what you post on twitter can show up on your Facebook page too. More banging for your bouncing, or whatever.

 

Thanks for the update!

 

 

Edited September 1, 2017 by MrM