Hi, munchkins. Sorry…

Hi, munchkins. Sorry for the quiet -- came back pretty exhausted from each day of Susan's writing retreat (writing is hard!), and just crashed. Then taught yesterday. All going well.

I did have a thought, which I wanted to run by y'all and get your advice. My author questionnaire from HarperCollins asks whether I have a newsletter for my readers -- and I was about to say yes, and realized that in fact, I don't. Bizarre, but true. So I'm thinking I should set something up, which would essentially be very brief occasional mailings announcing places I'm coming to read at, stories or books coming out, new projects I'm starting, etc.

Thinking about this, I also thought, hmm...maybe some of the journal readers would prefer to get the journal in e-mail. Which Jed says would be fairly trivial to set up.

So here's my question:

Would you sign up for:

a) a Mary Anne announcements list

b) a journal-in-e-mail list

Inquiring minds want to know whether it's worth the trouble to set these up. :-) And yes, the announcements list would probably not have any new information that didn't also appear in the journal, but it would be in convenient condensed form. I could imagine that someone might prefer to occasionally dip into the journal on the web, when they had time, but would like to be sure that they heard about events and the like in e-mail. Maybe?

8 thoughts on “Hi, munchkins. Sorry…”

  1. Well I think a journal-in-email is a good thing, but it would miss these here comments – which are certainly an active part of your journal.

    In terms of a newsletter – especially if it condensed and brought together announcements (and heck, soon author signings etc. 🙂 ) it would certainly be a good idea. I check your journal fairly regularly but you can easily get on a streak of lots of posts and if I missed a week or two, might easily miss a post with an announcement of interest etc.

    Anyway, that’s my two cents (or so)

    Shannon

  2. I agree with Shannon. But, in the interest of simplicity, couldn’t you just rename this journal and declare it to be your newsletter? Or does a newsletter have to be more concise and less interesting than your journal is?

    David

  3. Mary Anne Mohanraj

    I could, but I think a lot of people would just prefer having a concise version. I could be wrong, though? That’s what I’m trying to figure out.

  4. I would prefer an annoucement in e-mail and I’ll visit the journal as I have time. That way, when I get something, I know it is important/relevant to seeing you, whereas this is more of a who you are.

    Dawn.

  5. I’d like to get a newsletter, but not as an alternative to the journal entries. I’ve become accustomed to the way you have the journal set up, and… well… it’s like comfort food for the soul, I might not know what you are going to have to say, but it always makes me feel better.

    Jim

  6. I’d like to get both. A journal-in-e-mail list
    will make it easier to read your daily entries
    however, you’d have to include links to pictures
    and things if you have them as part of the entry.

    Congratulations on your new book!

    Kalyani

  7. I read your journal like a newsletter, so I don’t personally need other channels.

    It also occurs to me that the hypothetical people who don’t read your journal but would like to be on your mailing list… Probably aren’t reading your journal. :^)

  8. Have you given thought to creating an RSS feed? Helps readers get the latest postings without having to check the site all the time.

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