An email list is a great way to build authentic relationships with your readers. Through an email list you can share updates, promote your book, or give sneak peeks to excite your readers. You can use these 10 simple steps to create an engaging email list.

1. Create Interesting Content for Your Readers

Creating valuable content is a great way to keep your readers engaged, strengthen your brand, and build a community. Consider starting with a website or blog with a sign-up form and offer free content (see step 10) like e-books, sample chapters, writing guides, or exclusive short stories in exchange for email sign-ups. We have some more tips on creating content in our guide How Authors Can Win With Content Marketing. 

2. Set Up an Email Marketing Service

To create an email list, you will need to find an email marketing service that is tailored to your needs. Some great cost-effective email marketing services for newsletters include MailerLite, Brevo, and Moosend. Kit, an email marketing service created specifically for online creators, is another good option for subscriber growth, although it is a little more expensive. Additionally, Mailchimp is one of the more popular but more expensive email marketing platforms. You can learn more about the best email marketing platforms in 2026 in Jordie Rijn’s guide 15 Best Email Marketing Platforms 2026 (Review & Comparison)

3. Design Attractive Sign-Up Forms

After setting up your email marketing service, you get to design your sign-up form. You can personalize your sign-up form to your personal preferences and make it as fun, professional, and interesting as you are. 

You can place the sign-up form on your website in prominent embedded placements (e.g., header, footer, sidebar), as a pop-up, or on a landing page. For an example of a great sign-up form, look at John Grisham’s author website or Gretchen Rubin’s creator website.

Here’s an outline you can use for your sign-up offer:

• Headline: Get Exclusive Access to Free Stories and Writing Tips
• Body: Join my mailing list to receive 
  • A free e-book with my best short stories
  • Monthly writing tips and advice
  • Exclusive previews of upcoming books
  • Special discounts and promotion
• Sign-Up Button: Yes, I Want to Join!

Erin Ford from MailerLite gives some great advice for creating an attractive sign-up form. She explains these forms should include persuasive content to convince people to sign up and a prominent location so people can sign up easily. Learn more from Ford in her guide 13 Newsletter Signup Form Best Practices To Skyrocket Conversions. 

4. Promote Your Sign-Up Form

After you have created your sign-up form, you can promote the form on social media, your author bio, and with collaborators so people know about it and want to sign up. You can include a sign-up link regularly on social media, in your author bio across platforms, and when you partner with other creators. You should use your book promotion material already in place to also promote your sign-up link. Learn more about promoting your book with our guide 26 Ways to Promote Your Book (or Brand) in 2026. 

5. Start with Your Existing Network

After promoting your sign-up form, you can start building your email list using your current contacts and collecting emails from book signings and events. Don’t forget to invite friends, family, and colleagues to join your email list.

After starting your email list with your already existing network, you can also use other professional email lists to help grow your network and build your book branding. For more about growing your network by collaborating with other professional email lists, read David Hancock’s guide Leverage Other Email Lists to Supercharge Your Book Sales.

6. Host Giveaways and Contests

Next, you can promote giveaways or contests with attractive prizes like signed books, merchandise, or exclusive content. You can build your email list by requiring giveaway participants to sign up to enter. This is similar to creating a lead magnet (see step 10), but you can create a stronger sense of urgency. You can learn more about hosting giveaways and contests with MailChimps guide The Power of Giveaway Emails: Engage Customers and Drive Business Growth. 

7. Engage Frequently with Readers

When you have your email list established and growing, engage your readers by sending them regular newsletters with updates, behind-the-scenes content, and exclusive offers. Keep their attention by personalizing the email. You can address your reader by name and target specific readers based on their interests.

8. Optimize and Test to See What Works Best for You

After sending your first emails, you can experiment to see what works best. A/B Testing is when you send emails with different subject lines, sign-up forms, or content to different groups to analyze what works best. 

You can test different subject lines, preheaders, calls to action, email body content, images, and delivery timing,. After creating different variations, divide your email list into groups to send each email variation, collect the data from the emails, decide which variation did the best, and apply the best-performing element. You can learn more with Salesforce in A Complete Guide to Email Marketing A/B Testing. 

Don’t forget to use analytics to track open rates, click-through rates, and subscriber growth. You can use this data to learn what appeals to your readers. 

9. Comply with Legal Requirements

Another important step in creating your email list is complying with legal requirements like GDPR in the European Union and CAN-SPAM in the United States. Different states (like Colorado and California) and other countries have different requirements as well, so be sure to comply with their regulations as well.

The GDPR is the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Ben Wolford, editor-in-chief of GDPR EU, said, “A good marketing email should ideally provide value to the recipient and be something they want to receive anyway.” Marketing emails under GDPR should include an unsubscribe option, be sent to the person who signed up for the email, and advertise content related to the content the recipient uses, Wolford explained in his article, “How does the GDPR affect email?“

The CAN-SPAM Act for email marketing in the U.S. The Federal Trade Commission gives the following guidelines for complying to the CAN-SPAM Act:

• Don’t use false or misleading header information.
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines. 
• Identify the message as an ad. 
• Tell recipients where you’re located. 
• Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future marketing email from you. 
• Remember that subscribers and members can opt out of marketing emails, too. 
• Honor opt-out requests promptly.
• Monitor what others are doing on your behalf.

For more information on complying to the CAN-SPAM act, visit the FTC’s guide CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.

10. Use Lead Magnets

Lastly, you can create specific lead magnets based on your expertise that appeal to your target audience. MailChimp defines lead magnet as a “lead generation tool that you use to trade for a customer’s contact information for free stuff, like a free sample, resource, or tool.” The most popular type of resource is one that educates your readers about your industry, according to MailChimp. Try offering free content like e-books, sample chapters, writing guides, checklists, video content, or exclusive short stories. This will build your email list.  You can learn more about creating your lead magnet with MailChimp’s guide What Is A Lead Magnet And How to Create One.

Bringing It All Together

Building your email list should not only promote your book, but also build a loyal audience of readers who trust you. 

Be careful not to lose sight of providing useful information to your readers and be open about your email marketing practices. If you follow these guidelines, you can create an engaging email list that helps both your readers and you.

While your email list is just one part of connecting with readers, strategic book publicity helps expand your visibility and credibility. At PR by the Book, we help authors secure meaningful media coverage that builds awareness and supports long-term career growth. Contact us to learn more about our book publicity services.

For more insights on using social media to promote your book, explore these articles:

• 6 Social Media Trends for Authors in 2026
• How to Maximize Media Hits: A Social Media Strategy for Authors
• LinkedIn Strategies Every Author Needs to Know for Success