What on Earth Is a Newsletter? (And Why Authors Keep Telling Me I Need One)

With the teaser now live and the countdown officially underway, I’ve (mostly) stopped refreshing the stats every ninety seconds — which means it’s time to turn my attention to the next step in this adventure: building the newsletter everyone keeps insisting I need.

As a Young Adult Fantasy author, I signed up for the job with a very specific, highly romanticised vision: I would sit in an oversized, incredibly cozy armchair, drink entirely too much lukewarm coffee, and spend my golden days crafting epic sagas about Elves saving the Realms.

Simple, right.

One would like to think so — but no such luck.

Somewhere between plotting fictional regicide and designing entirely unnecessary elven dialects, I realised that being a modern author means moonlighting as a marketer, a social media pundit, a website designer, and — most terrifyingly of all — a newsletter host.

Still, I’ve survived learning how to post on Instagram without accidentally tagging my cat. I managed to slap together a website teaser without breaking the space‑time continuum. So writing a newsletter can’t be that hard… can it?

Cue me, staring blankly at a glowing screen at 2:00 AM, muttering: What on earth is a newsletter? And why does everyone keep telling me I need one?

☕ The Quest for Knowledge (And More Coffee)

After exhaustive internet searches, deep dives into marketing blogs, and consuming coffee strong enough to make a wizard vibrate through a wall, I had to admit I was none the wiser.

The advice out there is a labyrinth of jargon.

“Build your funnel!” “Optimise your open rates!” “Deliver high‑value lead magnets!”

Excuse me. I write about teenagers with glowing daggers and forbidden magical academies. Do I look like a Wall Street broker.

As a writer, I persevered. I’m five books deep into a YA fantasy saga with branching plotlines and emotional depth that surprised even me — surely I can figure out a simple email.

But this burning desire to share my stories has dragged me (kicking and screaming) into new territories: self‑promotion, website design, public engagement… and yes, newsletters.

📨 So… What Is a Newsletter?

If I’ve understood this correctly, a newsletter is basically a digital letter you send directly to people who actually want to hear from you. Think of it less like junk mail (the kind offering carpet cleaning discounts) and more like a handwritten note you slide under the door of your biggest fans.

It’s personal. It’s direct. It sits in someone’s inbox right beside emails from their boss and frantic messages from their mum.

And unlike social media — where algorithms change overnight and your posts vanish into the void — a newsletter is yours. Nobody can take your email list away from you.

If Instagram suddenly decides nobody wants to see your book cover unless you pay a toll in gold coins, your newsletter still reaches the readers who care.

🧭 Why Authors Need One (The Plot Twist)

For a long time, I resisted.

“I have Instagram!” I yelled into the ether. “I have a website! Isn’t that enough?”

Turns out, relying solely on social media is like building your fantasy castle on a swamp. One day you’re getting thousands of views; the next day, the algorithm decides you’re invisible.

A newsletter is stable. A newsletter is yours. A newsletter is a direct line to the people who genuinely want to join you on the journey.

Once I finally understood that, something clicked.

Now that I know what a newsletter actually is, I can finally picture what mine will look like. I’ll share more soon — but for now, I think it’s time for a celebratory cup of coffee, don’t you!