Evan Gow is the indie developer (and one-man-show!) behind StoryOrigin, a platform to grow authors’ newsletters among many(!) other features. Evan Gow handles engineering, support, marketing–all of it. Yet somehow, amidst all of that, he was gracious enough to jump on a call and share his thoughts on email newsletters for self-published authors who are just getting started. After six years developing and growing a beloved indie platform for authors, he has some fantastic insights on building a list from scratch, using that list to get more reviews, and creating a sustainable cadence of relationship-building newsletters.

Putting credibility before sales

Out of everything that has helped StoryOrigin grow to what it is today, Evan says “A newsletter has been one of the most important things. It helps me have a stronger relationship with my customers. They get a sense of who I am as a person. They see I'm not a robot.” That’s as true today as it was when he sent his first newsletter six years ago.

“StoryOrigin launched in April 2018 and then was in an open beta for three years,” Evan explains. “All of the features were 100% free.” A sacrifice for sure, but one that paid off as recommendations for his platform began popping up in groups like /r/selfpublish and 20BooksTo50k, building StoryOrigin’s reputation as a valuable tool.

In April 2021, he felt he’d reached the goal he set out when starting StoryOrigin (to build a one-stop-shop for authors to replace their existing hodgepodge of service and spreadsheets) to come out of beta. “It's one of those things where you have to say ‘Hey, I know you've been using the software for free for the past three years. But can you pay me now?’ You don't expect it to go over well. But because I had a relationship with my audience and they knew who I am, they basically said ‘Yeah, I'd be happy to support you, Evan.’” It’s a tried and true strategy that works as well for writers as it does for software developers.

“Usually what I recommend is for fiction authors to focus on building their mailing list first, with a reader magnet for new subscribers.” In Evan’s experience, that should be a “10,000- to 20,000-word prequel or short story. Ideally, tied to their next book or series release. Give it to as many people as possible, for free, to increase the number of subscribers to their mailing list.” That will expose people to your work and show that you’re a serious writer. One worth buying from. After someone signs up, it’s tempting to ask for a sale. But you want to prioritize something else first.

With those early newsletter signups, focus on getting book reviews. “A common mistake I see authors make is focusing on sales too early,” Evan argues. “They write a book and start setting up newsletter swaps with other authors to promote it. They quickly realize ‘I'm sending a ton of clicks to this book, but my sales are abysmal. Why?’ Because they have no reviews. When most readers go to buy a book, they're going to look at three things: the cover, description, and reviews. How many reviews are there and what’s the average rating? You need at least 10 or 15 decent book reviews before directing traffic to it. So it seems like this chicken or the egg problem where you need sales to get reviews, but reviews to get sales.”

In a vacuum, a higher newsletter subscriber count would usually lead to more book reviews. That takes a while though. You can put your finger on the scale with a handful of basic newsletter automations, like personalized welcome emails for new sign-ups. Here, Evan suggests dropping in an invitation to join your review team, framing it as “‘Hey! Do you want to get all of my books for free, forever?’ And if they request a review copy from you and write a review, then you'll give them the link to another review copy.” Your subscribers get more free content (something you know they want if they downloaded the magnet and stayed subscribed!) and you get more reviews. Everyone wins.

What comes after list growth

After giving away some of your work for free to earn newsletter signups, inviting those signups to request more free books in hopes of increasing your positive review count, and watching all that social proof feed into more book sales...what’s left to do with your newsletter? Evan is a big fan of getting personal.

“I send out updates about StoryOrigin features I've built and about resources I've been working on to help authors out. But, I always include a little vignette from my life. For example, our neighbors had the slip-and-slide out the other day. All the neighborhood kids were going down the slip-and-slide. So I had a picture in my newsletter of me doing it too. Maybe that’s dubious, sharing a picture of yourself goofing off. Look at Mr Important Founder over here! But those things build a stronger relationship with my customers.” And that’s true for any newsletter run by an individual or small group, including writers.

Being more connected to subscribers is worth it for the encouragement and positivity alone. Evan often receives emails out of the blue saying “I love StoryOrigin. It's great. I share it with all my author friends.” Sometimes, though, being candid pays off in other ways as well.

Evan needed authors to explain their workflows and pain points to him if he was going to create an all-in-one tool. That would’ve been a big ask from some unknown man behind the curtain. But because he has a relationship with his audience, and they know him well, they are happy to help. When you leverage your newsletter to befriend readers rather than sell to them, they become true fans.

Champions of your work will “post about your new release on social media. They'll join your review team. They'll be a beta reader for you,” says Evan. “Having a mailing list allows you to do so much that would be extremely hard to accomplish in other ways.”

It all starts with a newsletter

“Build a mailing list, then use the mailing list,” is how he sums it up. To build it, create a page on your website that shows off your reader magnet. Set up a welcome sequence that makes it easier for new sign ups to leave reviews. Sign up for reader-magnet newsletter swaps on a platform like StoryOrigin. Then, as more and more people join your list, keep them around by establishing real, human connections.

A newsletter was one of the most important things Evan built to grow his sales. While launching an app isn’t one-to-one the same as promoting a self-published book, six-plus years of working with authors has shown that the overlap is significant. He is working, all by himself, to create something he’s proud of and people enjoy. It wasn’t always easy. But he made it. And so can you.