That’s such a great point about generic advice, Jennifer! It’s like book marketing advice in that it’s not one size fits all. I have to get a lot of information before I can answer a question I get all the time: “How should I market my book?” If I don’t ask a lot of questions to get more information about the book and its audience first, the author will get generic advice that might or might not apply to their situation.

The Mailchimp prompts? They’re for email marketing, and that’s not what you’re doing with your accountability check-ins. You’re emailing info that your list needs, wants, and expects, and you’re not trying to sell them anything. That means that advice is useless for your situation. But I wonder if they’d be helpful for email marketing. What do you think based on what you’ve seen from the prompts? Still too non-specific?

Sandy

I send out a newsletter to an accountability group three times a week. Every time I send it out, Mailchimp tells me to “click here to learn more about writing better subject lines.” That’s because my subject line is always something long and boring like, “Accountability Group – Wednesday, May 31 check-in.”

But I get a more than 90% open rate. I defy Mailchimp to help me come up with a subject line that will do better AND not confuse anyone regarding the content of the email. I won’t hold my breath.

It’s generic advice because some automation noticed my subject line is long.

For writers, it’s like the generic advice “Don’t use abverbs.” Maybe that’s good advice but maybe it’s not. For a middle-grade author trying to help a reader understand how to read a bit of dialogue, an adverb may be exactly what’s needed.

And just deleting adverbs doesn’t get at the underlying reason for why an author might be using them. This is often something to do with not getting the emotion across in a scene. Fiddling with adverbs is never going to solve that problem.

Sometimes you have to pay to get the specific advice *you* need in order to get better.

Judi, I’m so honored to be one of your trusted sources. Thank you so much for letting me know.

You are an inspiration. What do you write about? (And yes, you CAN do it!)

Sandy

Thanks for the helpful validation, Trish. I appreciate the feedback. Thanks for stopping by.

Sandy

Back before I became an author, I was a songwriter. I learned about writing songs by purchasing a book on how to write songs that was written by a professional songwriter who has written hit songs. I followed the advice in his book, and my songs ended up being played on radio stations around the world. I probably could’ve found some information about writing songs online, but I wanted information from someone who had been successful at it, and I didn’t want to waste time piece mealing it together on numerous websites. So, I agree with this article.

Thanks PJ

You get what you pay for, right, Melanie?

Thanks for weighing in!

Sandy

Thanks, Karen. I’ve noticed that about the pamphlets disguised as e-books, too. I don’t mind shorter books, especially those focused on a very specific topic, if the price reflects the page count.

Sandy