The Life-Taker Novel Pre-Launch Data Stream Pt. 2

January 30, 2023

This is part 2 of my pre-launch data stream for my upcoming novel The Life-Taker. First part is here:

Since then, I found out that using BookSirens for pre-release reviews is not exactly a sure thing.

I submitted my book, and only after that did I see information stating that your book would be vetted, and only if accepted would you be able to use the service.

Once I saw that, I went back and checked the FAQ. They do mention that your book could be declined for a promotion. Always check the FAQ(!)

One reason they give for possible rejection is if they have too many books in your genre, they'll give it a pass.

More here:

I submitted only a couple of days ago, so we'll see if I can get accepted in there or not.

Next, I mentioned using MailChimp for a newsletter service, but I had to switch to a different service instead.

I wrote in my last post that MailChimp allows you 2,000 contacts in the Free Plan. This is true, but in this tier you don't have access to an automated 'Welcome Sequence' where you can onboard new people with a series of messages you might set to be 3 days apart or more.

Looking at the MailChimp plans, I thought I would simply upgrade, and here's where things went left.

I was told I needed the Standard Plan to get access to the automations to do a timed email series, and that one rang in at $14.99/mo.

Not terrible, I guess. Except then I saw that your maximum contacts were diminished. All the way down to 500 contacts.

So from 2,000 contacts with 10,000 email sends on the Free Plan, to 500 contacts with 6,000 email sends on the Standard Plan.

Then, you get charged another $4.99 for every 150 contacts over that 500, and they throw in another 1,800 email sends.

So basically, if you hit 2,000 contacts on Free Plan and then wanted to convert to Standard to use the automation, you'd pay this:

500 contacts = $14.991,500 contacts over the 500 = $49.99 (150 x 10 @ $4.99 each)Total = $64.89 per month (not including any email sending overages).

I could be wrong here. Maybe I'm missing something, but suddenly the deal did not look too good.

So instead, I went over to MailerLite (https://www.mailerlite.com/) and signed up there.

On the free tier, you only get 1,000 contacts (called subscribers at MailerLite), and as usual with anything free, you can't remove their branding, but you do have access to their automation. You also don't get access to their templates, but their drag and drop editor is pretty good, so I'm fine with that.

The upgrade path seems a lot less steep than MailChimp as well.

Why all the fuss over these automated emails? Well, I started by reading here at StoryOrigin:

And I did some more research, which confirmed to me that this is something I want to do to try to engage people and keep them engaged as I get closer to launching this book.

I'm busy making this email welcome sequence now. I'm also making up review copies and review samples, as well as looking into some post-launch marketing strategies, which I will share here as I decide on them.