Tag: email

Amazon Users: Beware!

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Amazon users, beware of fake emails! 

This morning I checked my email and had one of those “Oh NO!” moments when I saw an email from Amazon saying that my account had been put on hold. 

It’s a good thing I have trained myself to breathe deeply twice before reading such emails again to see what the problem is. 

It would have been easy to click on the link they gave me and do as they asked, but I’m glad I didn’t. The email looks completely legit, but it’s a scam. 

Three things gave it away: 

  1. I haven’t ordered anything, therefore there is no payment due that could have caused the problem. 
  2. The name of the department is incorrect, although deceptively close.
  3. The email address this came to is not the one associated with my amazon account. 

Had I clicked on the link and done as the email asked, I would have virtually signed my life away to whoever sent the email. 

My standard practice is to never click on a link in an email from any company, but rather to sign into my account normally to check and see if there is a problem. 

It just goes to show how important it is to read carefully and think before click!ing!

Why I Might Never Send Out Another Author Newsletter

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They say having an email list is crucial for an author. It’s the one sure-fire way to reach your readers.

I am clearly the exception to that rule. 

Either I really suck at creating newsletters, or my subscribers signed up for the wrong list. 
It’s why I am very reluctant to  send out  newsletters now. 

When I send emails with other people’s books in them, my subscribers click through to those books. 
Do they click through to mine? Nope. 
And sadly, I get as many clicks to unsubscribe as I do on the links in my newsletter. 
It really is quite depressing. 

Yet I don’t do anything different than any of the dozens of authors whose newsletters I receive. Well, that part isn’t strictly true:

I don’t spam my books repeatedly.
I don’t email every week, let alone every day or two, like some do.
I don’t use high pressure sales pitches. 
I don’t beg, and I don’t whine. 
I don’t even include only my own content. I always share other books and bookish events that readers might be interested in. 

I have observed all those things happening in various different authors’ newsletters at different times, and have always tried to avoid doing anything I have found off-putting.

Honestly? I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I appear to be doing it consistently. 

I do suspect that maybe newsletter writing is not for me. I’ve given it a fair crack and it hasn’t been at all well received.

For now, I think I’ll stick to blogging.