Your collection of email subscribers who have opted in to receive updates about your writing and books.
A mailing list is the group of people who have given you their email addresses because they want to hear from you. You build it through sign-up forms on your website, social media, reader magnets like free short stories or bonus chapters, and in-person events. The list lives on an email service provider like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, or MailerLite. It is the raw infrastructure that powers your author newsletter and, ultimately, your book sales.
Your mailing list is one of the few marketing assets you truly own. Social media accounts can be suspended, algorithms can bury your posts, and platforms can shut down entirely. But your list of email addresses goes wherever you go. Every successful indie author will tell you the same thing: they wish they had started building their list sooner. Even a small, engaged list of 500 people can meaningfully boost a book launch.
Weir built a loyal following through his website before The Martian was published. Those early readers became evangelists who spread the word far beyond what any marketing budget could have achieved.
Howey grew his mailing list alongside his serial fiction. Each new installment brought more subscribers, and those subscribers drove each subsequent release higher on the charts.
Blake built a dedicated readership through self-publishing and online engagement. Her mailing list and reader community were so strong that a traditional publisher picked up the series.
Set up a free account on an email service provider like MailerLite or ConvertKit. Create a simple sign-up landing page with a one-sentence description of what subscribers will get from you. Then write a reader magnet idea - a short story, deleted scene, or bonus content you could offer as an incentive for signing up. You do not need to write the whole magnet today, just outline it.