The #1 Marketing Tool for Authors (and Everyone, Really)

Happy New Year, my friends! 

To kick off 2026 with a bang, I want to share with you a deep dive into what I consider the #1 marketing tool available to authors today: The email newsletter list.

I recently sat down with Yrmis Barroeta on The Story Cure podcast to talk about this vital topic, which I feel every author needs to understand, whether you're just starting out or you've been writing for decades.

Yrmis helps authors, entrepreneurs and anyone who wants to be a thought leader to grow their email lists into the tens and even hundreds of thousands. What she shared during our conversation reinforced my thinking about how critical it is for you to own your audience in today's fractured digital landscape.

"Influence is money," Yrmis said. While that might sound blunt, she went on to explain exactly what she means. When you build authentic connections with readers, followers and fans who actually want to hear from you, who have invited you into their inbox, then you're building something that no algorithm can take away and no platform can delete overnight.

The problem with social media is that when you post on Instagram or LinkedIn or TikTok, you're essentially renting space on someone else's property, and the landlord can kick you out whenever they feel like it. Yrmis shared a cautionary tale about a doctor who built her entire practice around her social media following, only to have her account banned without warning. Just like that, years of work and tens of thousands of followers vanished into the digital ether.

Your email list, on the other hand, belongs to you. Nobody can take it away, nobody can throttle how many of your subscribers actually see your content, and nobody is going to insert paid ads between your carefully crafted words and the people who signed up specifically to read them but you.

Yrmis pointed to James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, as someone who has mastered this approach. His weekly newsletter has no advertising whatsoever, and yet when he released his Atomic Habits workbook, he sold millions of copies in days because he was able to recommend his new book directly to his list. The newsletter was the original engine that drove his book sales, as well as his speaking engagements and an entire empire of influence, all without having to play the exhausting social media marketing game that so many of us dread.

People with engaged newsletter audiences of 10,000 or more subscribers can attract corporate sponsors willing to pay up to $5,000 per issue, which means your weekly email could also become a significant revenue stream in its own right. Tim Ferriss figured this out years ago, and his email list remains the cornerstone of everything he does, from podcast promotion to product launches to keeping his readers informed about what matters most to him.

What I love about Yrmis's philosophy is that she approaches email marketing as a form of service rather than salesmanship. The goal is to provide genuinely valuable content that your readers look forward to receiving. When you treat their attention as the precious gift it actually is, you can create a two-way conversation where engagement flows in both directions. With social media, you’re shouting into the void. With email, you can actually track who opens, who clicks, and who responds.

If you’d like to join me and several Your Bestselling Book coaching clients in growing your email newsletter list, then just hit “Reply” and ask for a personal introduction to Yrmis herself. 

Aloha,

MeiMei

P.S. You can watch my full conversation with Yrmis on The Story Cure YouTube channel, where we dive even deeper into the specific strategies she uses to help authors build lists that actually convert.

TIP OF THE WEEK:

Start Before You're Ready

If you don't have an email newsletter yet, start one this week. 

You don't need tens of thousands of subscribers to begin, and you don't need perfect branding or a fully formed content strategy. What you need is a simple way to collect email addresses from people who want to hear from you, whether that's through your website, at speaking events, or from readers who finish your book and want more. 

If you want a ready-made tool, try Substack. It’s become a wildly popular tools for authors and readers. You can easily start your newsletter there, and retain direct contact with your audience. It also acts like a social media platform, so you can follow other authors, like and comment on their content, and build a network of people who will recommend your book when the time comes. 

The key is to show up consistently with content that actually helps your readers. Quality trumps frequency every time. Don't overwhelm your subscribers with daily emails they'll learn to ignore. Rather, give them something worth opening when you do appear in their inbox. (I publish The Next Chapter once a week.)

Let me know how it goes!