Please don’t be that reader

I need to say something at the risk of being throat punched or blackballed or…Well, whatever. Writers spend an awful lot of time not writing. There’s a HUGE business component to publishing a book and getting it in the hands of readers. One of the things that I’d put aside to do once my 2019 launches were over was to take a look at my newsletter subscribers. **Let’s pause to acknowledge that every time we send out a newsletter that’s taking away from the time that we could be writing books. It’s sort of a necessary evil and I’ve learned that you can make just about anything fun if you try. #findyourPMA** So I downloaded my subscriber list, purged the non-opens, segmented, re-uploaded. You name it. The process took most of my morning when I could have been finishing a draft. I had a takeover later on. One of my posts was a giveaway for the Quints Series Collection (books 1-3). To win THREE books a reader had to sign up for my newsletter. If you’ve participated in an author takeover you know there are always steps to follow after that to get entered in a drawing. But one of the caveats in my rules states: New subscribers ONLY (Really, y'all our mail systems let us know who is subscribing and then unsubscribing. Please don't be that reader.) Of course, when I checked the entries that other reader was there. The one who subscribed during different takeover during the past four months. Who hadn’t even viewed the welcome message. Who had just been removed from my subscriber list because they hadn’t opened a single newsletter EVER. Not only did their entry not count, more than likely that reader didn’t even remember they’d signed up to get information about my books before. Listen, I like free books as much as the next girl. I love giving out free books in the hopes that maybe I find that fractional >1% that may enjoy my stories enough to write a review. But this is the kind of reader that gives freebie seekers a bad rep. So if you’re that reader could you please just stop wasting everyone’s time including your own? And if you’re subscribing to any writer's newsletter and opening the messages that we’re toiling over to bring you fun and interactive content. Thanks. We super-appreciate your support. <3