Starting this week, I’m going to be sending simple, text-only emails to people who are subscribed to my newsletter but who haven’t opened an issue in a very long time. I’ll simply be asking you if you want to remain as a subscriber.

Here’s why:
While I understand that some of those who never open the newsletter are simply not interested, I suspect that many are just not seeing the newsletters at all, probably because they’re ending up in a spam or a promotions folder. This is a problem, not just for a single recipient, but for all recipients. When copies of my newsletter emails get auto-classified by gmail as promotions, gmail is ever more likely to hide other recipients’ newsletters in the promotions folder, so that fewer and fewer people will actually receive it in their inboxes. I suspect the same process occurs with other email systems.

I don’t want to send newsletters to you if you’re not interested in my work (or if you’re just not into newsletters). So if my mail service tells me it’s been a long time since you opened a newsletter, I’m going to ask you to let me know if you want to continue to subscribe. If you do, awesome! If not…hey, you can always visit me here on the blog, on Twitter, or on Facebook (though keep in mind that the latter two are no guarantee that you’ll ever see my posts).

I’ll be sending out the text email in small batches.

If you think you might be one of the non-openers, you can help me by checking your promotions folder (gmail) or your spam folder. My last newsletter went out on October 17, with the subject line “Announcing: SILVER – Inverted Frontier #2”. If you find the newsletter and want to remain a subscriber, please OPEN IT, MOVE IT TO YOUR INBOX, AND WHITELIST ME in whatever way your email system allows.

If you no longer want to be a subscriber, simply click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email.

Among the non-openers, there are many names I recognize as long-time readers. I know you’re long-time readers because you’ve told me so! I want to stay in contact with all of you who have been, and continue to be, interested in my work, so I’m hoping the text email will have a better chance of getting through to people’s inboxes. If I send you a text email and I still don’t hear from you, I’ll sadly assume we have a broken connection. I’ll unsubscribe you on my end, but of course you can always sign up again later.

Thanks for your help! And thank you for subscribing! 🙂

And if this post nudges you to look for my elusive newsletter, please let me know in the comments. (I like to know what works! :))

My September 5 newsletter included a book giveaway. I put up three sets of the paperback edition of the Red trilogy, one set each to three lucky winners. To participate, newsletter subscribers only needed to email me at a special address, indicating their interest.

(I had to limit participants to USA addresses only, because of the cost of international postage.)

The giveaway is over now.
Fifty-one people participated. I used Google’s random number generator to pick the winners. Congratulations, John, Lori, and Paul!

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter but didn’t receive it, please check your spam and/or your promotions folder, and white list my email address.

If you’re not yet subscribed, I hope you’ll sign up. You can use the form in the righthand column of this blog. You’ll receive an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Once you confirm, you’ll be signed up.

The next newsletter goes out on September 26.

Whoops. I see it’s been nearly a month since I posted here, but that’s because I’ve been working hard…

Here’s a quick update on Silver:
I received the editorial letter on it at the start of the month, and I just finished my first pass through the edits. Only the hard stuff is left! 🙂 🤔🚀

September 5 Newsletter
My latest newsletter went out last Thursday. If you haven’t subscribed to it yet, please do! Use that form over there in the righthand column of this blog.

Here’s one of the items included in the newsletter:

A Ring-Shaped World

I’ll speak cautiously to avoid any significant spoiler, but towards the end of Edges there is mention of a ring-shaped world, planetary in scale. A few of my longtime readers have already made the connection. This world is the same world featured in my novel Memory.

When I wrote Memory, I thought of it as being apart from the Nanotech books – a separate story world. But as I worked on the new Inverted Frontier series, I realized these two story worlds could overlap in a very interesting way.

Silver is a direct sequel to Edges, but it also works as a sequel to Memory. You don’t need to read Memory to enjoy Silver, but if you like the idea of exploring in this evolving story world, you can drop by my website to learn more about this earlier novel.

I sent out a newsletter this morning — the first on my new “every three weeks” schedule.

Every bit of advice I’ve read on maintaining a successful newsletter says to stick to a regular schedule, so I’m going to give in and try listening to the experts for a change. (We’ll see how long I keep this up!) 😉

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, but you didn’t receive it, please check your spam and/or promotions folder, and be sure to whitelist me. If you can’t find it there, please signup again. It’s easy!

And if you’re not already subscribed, please sign up! Use the form in the righthand column of this blog, or click here for the main signup page on my website.

I finally managed to send out a newsletter, the first since Edges was released in April.

If you’re subscribed and you didn’t receive it, please check your spam and/or promotions folder, and be sure to whitelist me.

I am going to try to keep a better newsletter schedule. If you’re not already subscribed, please sign up! As you can see, I won’t be overwhelming your inbox. 🙄

You can sign up for my newsletter using the form in the righthand column of this blog, or click here for the main signup page on my website.

Update 4/30/2016: I’ve moved my newsletter list to Mail Chimp and have updated the forms. So please…sign up!

A Grumbly Post

For no reason that I can parse, my newsletter signup forms have started getting several spam signups a day, far exceeding the legitimate signups. This is perplexing for a couple of reasons. First, the form is double opt-in. You receive an email which then requires you to click a link. Have spammers now automated this process? Second…what is the point? Why are spammers asking ME to email THEM with my newsletter? I don’t understand.

Newsletters are considered the best promotion, because those who sign up tend to be the most enthusiastic about a writer’s work, and most likely to be interested in new work. So I am discouraged.

That said, I’m not planning to send many newsletters in 2016. I’ve never sent more than a few a year, but this year I don’t have any plans (so far) for new publications. So instead of dealing with my spam problem, I’m going to put the newsletter on hiatus. I’ll probably send one more newsletter to announce this, and then I’ll wait until I have a new publication or some other worthy news.

Until then — or until I find the time and motivation to try a new email-list provider — I’ve removed the signup forms from my blog, which is the source of the problem. I’ll leave the forms up at my website, at least until the spammers discover those.

So if you’d like to sign up to receive my newsletter, go here. (top left of the page)

If you’d like to view my past newsletters, go here.)

A few times a year I send out an email newsletter, usually to announce new publications, but occasionally with other news. If you haven’t already signed up to receive my newsletter, I encourage you to do so. It’s a great way to stay in touch, and it’s simple to do. I just need your email address and a name. You’ll have to click a link on a confirmation email, and then you’re in.

The next newsletter will go out in a couple of days, so please consider it.

Sign up using the “New Book Alert” form in the righthand column of this blog, or click here for a sign-up form, along with samples of past newsletters.

THANKS!

Cover art for “Through Your Eyes” by
Dallas Nagata White (click image to view large version)

Update: July 19, 2013
This promotion has ended, but the ebook is presently available for purchase at Mythic Island Press LLC for $1.25.

My short story “Through Your Eyes” was published in Asimov’s Science Fiction‘s April/May 2013 issue. It’s never been generally available — until now.

“Through Your Eyes” is a prequel story to my newest novel, The Red: First Light. Right now, I’m offering an ebook copy to everyone who subscribes to my newsletter.***

To get your copy, just fill in your email address and a name in the “New Book Alerts” form at the top of the righthand column, or if you’re using a feed that doesn’t show the column you can go here to fill in the form.

After you submit the form, you’ll get an email asking you to confirm your subscription. Once you do that, you’ll get a thank-you email that includes the web address where you can download both EPUB and MOBI (Kindle) versions of the “Through Your Eyes” ebook, which also includes an excerpt from The Red: First Light Note that it usually takes ten or fifteen minutes for this email to arrive.

My newsletter doesn’t go out very often. Generally I send it when I have new publications to announce, so you won’t be spammed. I hope you’ll sign up. It’s the best way I’ve found to stay in touch with readers.

*** The download is also available to current subscribers. An email has been sent explaining how to get it. If you’re a subscriber and didn’t get the email, please check your spam folder.

And I just sent off my second author newsletter!

My first newsletter went out last October, so as you can see, I don’t email often. So if you’d like an easy way to keep up with my work, I encourage you to add your name to my email list. It’s unlikely that I’ll ever send out an email more than once a month, and very likely it will be less than that–and of course if you ever want to be taken off the list, just let me know.

Follow this link for the sign-up form, and to see what both newsletters look like.

Thanks!