A Year in the Life of a Writer

For those of you who don't know what I'm about, here's a short
summary.

I'm a writer living in England. I have written a novel, 'St Brodag's
Isle', which is supported by a website (http://www.stbrodag.com) and
a newsletter. 2002 is going to be my campaign year - a year in which
I intend to make a living out of my writing. As I go through the
year, I'll be posting articles such as this one, which will detail
the step-by-step approach that I'm going to be taking. I'll be honest
with my failures as well as my triumphs. And in a year's time I hope
to be looking back at a year that exceeded my expectations.

Right, so what have I been up to in recent weeks? I'm glad you asked.

My subscription list has DOUBLED! Granted, I don't have a list of
20,000 members but I reckon that's not a bad performance since
Christmas. And what about sales of my book? Well, again it's
progress - long, hard, slow progress - but progress nonetheless. I
won't be moving to Monaco just yet but I might be able to buy food
next week!

Now, I'm going to let you into the secret of how I've made a
difference to my subscription list. It's simply this - I've talked to
a few people. Not just any old people. I've interviewed some
published writers and promoted this to people and fan sites that I
think will generate interest.

Before I go any further, let me reassure you that I didn't interview
these people just to get my subscription list up on my newsletter. I
really am interested in what published novelists have to say. I've
picked up a few tips from the people I've talked to.

But never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I just happened to
mention the fact that I was interviewing these people on a few forums
that I visit. I signed up ten people on one day, which for a little
newsletter like mine is superb going.

I bet you're wondering how hard it was to arrange the interviews? In
all honesty, it was one of the easiest things I've ever done. Find a
writer's web page, email them with a request for an interview and
wait for a response. I'm getting a 50% acceptance rate at the moment.

So there you go.

How to increase your subscription list by getting exclusive
interviews!