January
28
24 Comments

Barebones mailing list for people who only want actual news

Posted in writing.

My server-host has taken a job at Word­Press.

Which means he can’t main­tain or work on private servers.

Which means my web-site has been migrated to a different server (press​able​.com, for those who are curious). Press­able handles Word­Press installs. It doesn’t handle forum soft­ware that isn’t a Word­Press plugin.

Through no fault of anyone’s but me, I don’t think the forums actu­ally worked; I thought I would be able to spend more time (like, say, old Live­journal time) in the forums, but in the end I couldn’t.

Which means the forums are now gone. In future, I will go back to the older model: I’ll make a post about each novel some­time after the publi­ca­tion day, which will be heavily SPOILER marked, for people who want to talk about the books.

In the mean time, because I’d also like to talk about writing process, and a couple of other things that are not related to actual writing or books, I’ve been thinking about the blog noti­fi­ca­tion emails here.

Many authors have mailing lists. I haven’t really been one of them because I figured people could subscribe to blog posts. Since most (not all) of the posts are about the books, I reasoned that people would be okay with getting noti­fi­ca­tions of the posts that went up.

But if I start to post more, there will be more noti­fi­ca­tions, and rele­vant infor­ma­tion might get buried by readers who then begin to ignore noti­fi­ca­tions because there are too many that aren’t rele­vant to their inter­ests.

So, for the first time ever, I am starting a mailing list. There will be no new content on it. If you subscribe to the blog, you will get all of the content on the mailing list, but with a bit more author-related musing.

The mailing list is meant to be entirely about action­able prac­tical infor­ma­tion: publi­ca­tion dates. Sales. Covers. Preview Chap­ters. These will prob­ably be much like the noti­fi­ca­tions you get from the site when a new post goes live — but without the rest of the author clutter.

Everyone who is currently signed up for blog noti­fi­ca­tions will see this, but I did not transfer the email addresses of blog subscribers, so it’s entirely opt-in.

If this appeals to you because you really only want infor­ma­tion about, let’s face, the reason you’ve come here in the first place — the books — the mailing list signup is here, via mailchimp.

24 Responses to Barebones mailing list for people who only want actual news

  2. Michael says:

    That works. Very much looking forward to Cast in Oblivion in a couple of days and First­born in a few weeks!

  3. Aelynn says:

    So if I want all of it, do I just do nothing…? I’m all for getting the prac­tical infor­ma­tion, but I’d still like the rest too. ^_^;

  4. Robert Miller says:

    I came for the books and stayed for the life commen­tary. Like others, I am greedy and want to read every­thing, so I am staying here, if I under­stand the process correctly.

  5. Kerry Kuhn says:

    If I got this email because I am subscribed to your blog, then I’m good to go. Cast in Oblivion is sitting at the very top of my TBR pile, but it still might be a week before I can get to it.

  6. Emile De Antonio says:

    I would like it all, please. I have checked all the boxes below and hope that was the correct move. I have not checked the mailing list signup.

  9. michelle says:

    @hmyers @Carol @Robert @Aelynn: Yes, that’s correct :).

    @Audrey: You do nothing, if you’re already subscribed for noti­fi­ca­tions here – if not, you subscribe to the blog on the side-bar :)

    I think, in retro­spect, that it’s harder to get that news out to people who are on various social media plat­forms (I’m not on-line socially as much as many other authors) because people who are already on social media are often already invested in those partic­u­larly para­digms.

    There are authors whose books I’ve loved — but whose blog­ging I don’t — so I miss announce­ments because I don’t subscribe or read.

    But my favorite Sesame Street char­acter was and is Oscar the Grouch…

  10. SMF says:

    Well, I’m fine staying put! (And hope­fully I’ll get to read this latest release ASAP, assuming my local library is on top of things…)

  11. Mary Allen says:

    Just finished Cast in Oblivion. It is and was great. I just wish you could write as fast as I can read. Your books are worth waiting for and I have First Born to look forward to.

  13. Debbie H says:

    I hope I can do both. More is better. Rereading Cast books in prepa­ra­tion for Cast In Oblivion. Thanks for all your hard work.

  14. Joyce Ronquillo says:

    I started re-reading Cast in Decp­tion last night so I will be refreshed and ready for tomorrow when Cast in Oblivion drops onto my Kindle. So happy to see the next one out finally. It always seems like forever. This is the only series I preorder.

  15. Maureen Panzera says:

    As many of your fans, I love it all. I rarely comment but greedily read all of your blogs. I enjoy them nearly as much as I love your books. Can’t wait for more and more. Will have my pre-ordered Cast in Oblivion drop onto my Kobo tomorrow AM and will imme­di­ately start my read. Thank you for sharing so much of your­self.

  16. michelle says:

    Wow, thanks everyone :).

    We have copies at the store now as well (in print, obvi­ously). I have just come from the store. I left two hours early, because there’s a snow storm. I got home twenty minutes ago. Snow does not look to be letting up until 3:00 a.m. — or later, depending on your weather source.

    On the other hand, the bad news — for us — is that the temper­a­ture is supposed to go up to 1 degree, i.e. above zero, for an hour. Which means rain before it then drops to -8. Or lower.

  17. Carrie Hamilton says:

    Of course, I’d prefer you to focus on your writing so we can enjoy the fruits of your labor. Never­the­less, I’m like many others in that I want to cover all of my bases and receive the info you DO have time to post, what­ever the source. I suspect my concern may be slightly elevated in that I quit receiving your blog links via email several months ago. Since then, I have I reen­tered my infor­ma­tion on your website a few times but to no avail. The fact that I received this blast gives me hope that every­thing is finally ok and my infor­ma­tion will migrate to the new system. Regard­less of these diffi­cul­ties, I greatly appre­ciate you keeping your fans informed and providing us with so many hours of enjoy­ment with your books. BTW, many thanks to you and DAW for plan­ning to publish First­born and War in rela­tively quick succes­sion this Spring after what must have been a diffi­cult recon­fig­u­ra­tion of the manu­script.

  18. kat1e1 says:

    Hey o/

    Just wondering if you could possibly tell me who the Australian retailer (or any retailer who will sell to Australian loca­tions, really) is for the ebook version of Cast in Oblivion?

    Thanks.

  19. Melissa says:

    I want it all!!! … Please and thank you.
    Cast in Oblivion was awesome! Yay you!
    I will now re-read it slowly and care­fully to absorb and details I may have missed in my crazy-frantic first read, lol.

  20. michelle says:

    @kat1e1: IN THEORY Amazon​.com, iTunes, Kobo, etc.

    In prac­tice I am fran­ti­cally trying to find out why the ebook is not avail­able yet. And crying T_T

  21. kat1e1 says:

    I know this is a first world problem, but sitting here reading other people rave on about how awesome Cast in Oblivion is, is pure hell. I have been waiting for this release for months. I’ve been reading and re-re-re-reading the excerpt since it came out in December. During the past 40 hours, ever since it turned the 29th here in Australia I’ve been googling over and over trying to find some way I can buy the ebook version so I can read it *imme­di­ately*. And then, likely, re-read it a few more times over before the weekend even gets here.

    Are there paper­backs that will likely be deliv­ered to my some­what remote loca­tion prob­ably within the fort­night?
    Sure.
    Are there ebook versions I can buy and access imme­di­ately?
    No.
    Are there ebook versions avail­able imme­di­ately to USA loca­tions?
    Yes.
    Will they sell to someone who lives in Australia?
    No.

    Pure. Fricking. Hell.

    I just don’t under­stand why USA version ebooks can be just avail­able in Australia. It’s not like they’ll actu­ally do any changes. I can almost guaran-bloody-tee that the same misspelt english in the USA version will be likely again be used in the Aussie version. So why why WHYYYYYYYYYYYY do they torment us so?

    Argh!

    I need choco­late.

    /end rant

  22. kat1e1 says:

    Hi Michelle,

    Thanks for responding.

    I guess I’m just gonna have to stuff my frus­trated exuber­ance way back down into the depths of my soul, bite the bullet, and purchase the paper­back version.

    Thanks for being such an awesome writer.

    Cheers, kat1e1.

  23. michelle says:

    @kat1e1: Someone on Face­book just posted from New Zealand to say they just picked up CiA on kindle. I’m *almost*, but not quite, posi­tive that AU/NZ would be same terri­tory. Almost. Can you check now? My Australian friends are sleeping, so I can’t pester them (as I have been doing, sadly).

  24. kat1e1 says:

    Nope. Still not avail­able. I’ve been having a thor­ough and engaging customer service oper­ator named Anil who tried his hardest to help me finagle a copy from the UK based amazon store, but we were stymied. Possibly because of geoblocking, I dunno. But I read your updated blog post re: AU & NZ so I’m gonna reign in my eager­ness and bunker down for the next two days, lying in wait!

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