By Kris Maze

This has been a year of big overhaul for my author website, how I sell my books, and how I interact with my audience. In this post, I will explain the email service I decided to use to interact with my readers. Sendfox is a part of the AppSumo group of website software that manages large email lists, sending and analytics. It was not one that I had heard of in my previous work with author websites, but I am thrilled to share my success with it so far.

In the past, I’ve used many of the popular services commonly used by authors: Mailchimp, Mailerlite, and Newsletter. When Newsletter was no longer an option for me, because it works with WordPress websites, I looked around for new options. 

The Search for a New Email Service

One obvious choice was Mailerlite because it was the service I had used for several years. It did a great job of reliably sending email and tracking how my audience interacted with my emails. It also offered automations which is key to running an author online business smoothly.

Mailerlite

Mailerlite has a good pricing option for author beginning their email lists. On their main website page, they have a nice sliding tool to show what their monthly costs would be for each tier of subscribers. When I started out with under 500 subscribers, it made sense as a low-cost service, which at that time was free. But happily, my email list had grown over the years. Unfortunately, that means my costs have also grown.

Today, according to the Mailerlite pricing plans, the cost for up to 1000 subscribers ranges from free to $18. When I slide to 3000 (my current email list) the options get complicated. The cost for maintaining a list under 2500 ranges between $22.50 and $36.00 per month. But I have more people on my list that I want to interact with, and I want to grow that list to a bigger audience. 

I would now have to pay between $35 and $45 per month. If I continue to grow to 8000 subscribers on an email list, it would cost me $53 to $72 dollars a month. The growth could arguable off set that monthly cost, but it is risky. Although there are certain costs you just can’t escape if you want a working, thriving author business, this level of cost is one I wanted to keep low. So, I looked around.

Convert Kit

Other email service companies are priced in similar ranges for monthly costs, which is usually billed at a yearly rate. I checked out Convert Kit, and a version of Mailerlite that would incorporate my website and book sales, but both were more complex (and more expensive) than I needed as a solo proprietor. The value of their hearty systems of tools would be lost on me, as I didn’t need any team options and the features I found in cheaper companies closer fit my needs.

I asked my author friends what they suggested and I didn’t find any good solutions for my email list size. One suggested that I check out email services in AppSumo, and I compared a few listed there. AppSumo has many solutions for websites, and I do recommend looking around on their site if you are rebuilding your store. There may be less expensive options than the known standards. This is where I found Sendfox.

Taking a Leap with Sendfox

I’m a little leery of the unknown and did a deep dive on this service. They were offering a lifetime subscription for all of their tiers.  They had all of the options I was used to with Mailerlite and Newsletter, but I wanted to know how long they have been in service, how reliable they were, and whether their features, and interface would be adequate for my needs. 

Ultimately, after my review I decided, despite the risks of going with a lesser-known brand of email service, to buy the life license for up to 25000 subscribers. At worst, even if I happened to hate it, the cost for me to figure that out was around 5 months of the other services. I took a leap and uploaded my subscribers.

Adding my Subscriber List

Common Labels for Subscriber emails

This was a great time to cull my list of some of the dead weight all email lists get.  Here are the lists most services track:

• Engaged subscribers (typically broken into lists that track who opens your email and who clicks on your CTAs)
• Confirmed subscribers (They opted in – or double opted in as
• Bounced emails (the email isn’t right for some reason and not deliverable)
• Unsubscribed (no longer want to receive emails for various reasons)
• Complaints (avoid these at all costs, but they happen)

Keeping these emails is helpful and most services have some export function. I will regularly download my latest list to keep this data safe. It is a lifeline in this type of business. Direct sales and interaction with a growing audience is key to running a author business over time. Email interaction will work even when the other big platforms fail. This is something to consider with somber realization.

Adding my Subscribers to Sendfox

So, I organized my spreadsheet into the categories above and separated the complaints and unsubscribes to a new list. This is to ensure I don’t email them. 

The bounced emails also went to a new list.

The remaining list of engaged and confirmed subscribers is what I started with when I uploaded my crew to Sendfox.

The process was easy. A few clicks and my CVS file was inserted into Sendfox. Since I had cleaned up my list it should be effective. The importance of having fewer spam and bounce candidates helps you when you send email campaigns. Email services will flag your account if you get too many spam complaints, for example, so it is important to email your audience responsibly.

Segmenting my List

My email list had been segmented into many different overlapping groups when I was using Newsletter. This left me with a small dilemma: go back and repopulate the lists by hand, or organically let the readers on my current list opt in to the genres I write in. I choose to email my whole list the first few times to get them oriented to the new store. 

Over time, as I release new titles, the people interested in those titles will end up on lists curated to those topics/genres, because in Payhip, a person can be automatically included on that email list when they buy the book.

My first Email with Sendfox

To test my newly revised list and my new store front on Payhip, I created a short set of emails. I hadn’t emailed my list in a few months, with the metaphoric equivalent of a “under construction” sign on my author work in the last email I had sent.

This email would be packed full of new announcements, and CTAs to browse my new store, comment on my new contact page, and an invitation for potential beta readers. I built the email, and two subsequent ones to follow up on Beta Reader Expectations and another email for people interested in my horror fiction to opt in. 

Creating the Email

The process of creating the email was a breeze. I mean it. The text is something I always create in a word document first, and then cut and paste the whole thing into the email box. This interface uses a rich text editor, common in almost every technology one would use. Inserting photos, links and other media, was simple. Just like you would do in any word processing software.

Testing the Email

The testing feature was also very simple and intuitive. There is a arrow button at the bottom to click, it fills in your email you created the account with, and voila! You get the email as your readers would see it, first, before you send it. With other email services, it was always a bit buried and confusing as to when you would get your own test email. In Sendfox, the emails came immediately, I iterated the emails and resent them several times until the final email was exactly how I wanted it.

Scheduling the Email

Then I scheduled the thing. It was as easy as clicking a date on a pop-up calendar and coordinating a time to send the batch of emails. The secondary emails were also finished, so I wanted to send those automatically a few days later, and I tried to schedule them. This was my first hiccup in the whole process so far: I got a message denying me to send any more emails because my account was “warming up”. It was frustrating to get this message and I contacted their customer service to see if there was some kind of work around for this.

How I Tricked the System to Let Me Schedule My First Series of Emails

I was pleasantly surprised at getting an email from Sendfox (via AppSumo) within 12 hours. They explained that the first email was a testing email, and that they needed to send it out in small batches. I understand that this will enable all emails to flow better over time. But I needed to schedule these emails and forget about them! 

The service person suggested that I send a different email and cancel my scheduled one, in order to work through the first email hoopla and to verify the quality of my list (I assume). It made sense, and I crafted a short (under 200 words) email to ask my readers to look for my new, fancy email on the first of the month. 

Cloning an Email

In Sendfox there is an option to clone an email. This was useful in that, I had to reset my first email, and that could potentially make me lose the work in crafting that first, longer, welcome-back post. I clicked on “duplicate”, saw the new version of the email, crafted on the date I created it, and would be able to schedule that exact replica once my test email was finished.

“Warming up” Email for Sendfox

I sent my  mini email “Pssst! Kris Maze has big news coming!” and it went well. I found that my emails were getting opened, and that Sendfox has a good interface to track the data in real time. I could see a few unsubscribes, and how many opens and clicks as people were checking their email. It was uncluttered and intuitive. Less stress and more information to make decisions. 

Note that I was also very happy that I had cleaned up my list before this “warm up” first send. It made my list more reliable for emails, hence helped me pass the Sendfox test.

Once my first email was sent, I was able to schedule all three of my first emails right away.

Building Forms

Creating forms to have people sign up for things (like in my case, beta readers or opting in for a certain genre they may like) happens in your email service. Sendfox did this well. It was quick and simple. The form collects the information as I would hope, and offers an export option if I wanted to use the data outside of their site.

Pros

• Easy to build.
• Fast to create a form. (Under 10 minutes for sure)
• Preview option lets you see what it would look like.
• Can build customized fields.
• Collects data and creates a segmented list in Sendfox with a new sign up

Cons

• There are limited options for what the form looks like.
• The form looks clunky in my Payhip website, but that may be something I can clean up in my Payhip store builder.

Automations

Like building the emails, this process is uncluttered and intuitive. The automations tab is at the top of the main dashboard. When you click on it, you see a list of any automation series you have previously built. Click on the main email to open up the automation series.

I wanted a short welcome email series to give my readers a short story for signing up. This automation is able to send the reader an email immediately. Scheduling the next emails in the series made sense as it gives you the option to delay by a certain amount of time that you decide. The automation kicks off whenever the trigger event occurs, which for me was when someone signs up to my subscibers list.

This was the easiest version of automations I have used. It was streamlined, and easy to use. Some authors may need or want slightly more sophisticated details that this program may not offer, but it was sufficient for my needs. And I appreciated the clarity and simplicity. It kept me from getting caught in the technology trap that can derail my work. This feature works and works well for a simple interaction with my mailing list.

Prefilled Automations

This feature is pretty cool and helped me to form my first automation. When you click on automations, it asks whether you want a prefilled series (that you can customize) or to start from scratch. I have now done both.

The prefilled automation starts by asking a few basic questions about what you are creating. It has templates for a welcome email series, for example, which is what I used. There were many other options, like for sales, or specific goals for growing an audience and following. They ask about what website and the name of the automation and basically gives you a series to finish up.

Welcome emails

My welcome series ended up with four emails that I built out for my needs. The first one was a quick greeting with a button to download their free story. It gets delivered immediately. The next day, a reminder email is sent and includes an inviation to look around my Payhip store. It focuses on features I want them to see, like how to navigate my store by genre (science fiction or light horror).

The third email is to invite them to follow me on social media. It arrives on the next day. This one includes the types of things they would expect to see there. It includes certain perks I have for my readers that they may not get if they are only looking at my website or newsletters.

The last email tells them about the newsletter and what to expect. I like to send readers a shared list of books that indie authors swap, so my readers like the free books they get each newsletter, and I wanted to point out that common feature. This email comes three days after the previous one and I let them know that after this initial series I will only email monthly. 

Email Etiquette Tip

Being careful to not over email, keeps an audience engaged, but not overwhelmed. I let my readers know how often I intend to email them and that this first series is just to show them around. I respect their inboxes, and they seem to stick around, as my lower unsubscribe numbers indicate.

Final Thoughts

After testing the email service for a few months, I am happy to share that it has worked better than I would have expected. There have been no complaints on my part. 

My favorite parts are the clean interface and easy set up to build emails quickly. One cute little aspect to look for is the score card at the bottom of the page after you send an email. An animated fox keeps track of spam and such, and it changes with your email list as you keep your list optimized.

Scheduling and automating emails is a breeze and remove a lot of the technology stress associated with being an author entrepreneur. Now I can focus more on writing and interacting with my readers!

What email services do you recommend to our indie authors? What experiences have you had? Tell us in the comments below.

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About Kris

Kris Maze is a speculative fiction author who crafts suspenseful, heartfelt stories with twisty plots and a touch of the uncanny. Her work blends science fiction, mystery, and emotional depth, often exploring the big “what-if” questions of life and the universe. She also writes darker fiction under the pen name Krissy Knoxx. When she isn’t writing, she’s likely teaching, traveling, or wandering trails pondering the wisdom of Bob Ross.

Follow her author events and join her newsletter found at KrisMaze.com.

New Release coming this fall! (sign up for an ARC at KrisMaze.com)

Parallel Lives - The Paths Not Taken

What if you could see every path you didn’t take?

 A speculative novel about second chances, alternate lives, and the paths not taken.

When Harriet Last, a disillusioned insurance adjuster, steps into The Experience, she is skeptical of its promise to show her a better life. The prototype simulation feels out-of-place at the convention, but it’s also an opportunity to hide from her boss. Burnt out from the corporate grind, Harriet hastily signs the terms and conditions and enters a raffle for an all-expenses-paid vacation.

Inside, she relives her nostalgic memories with invasive, hyper-realistic accuracy. The unnerving emotional depth of her future lives raises suspicions about this machine’s true purpose. When the machine malfunctions, Harriet’s Experiences become anything but the vacation-like trial she expected.

She notices a man, a fleeting figure from her past, intertwined in each scene and she wonders: is she caught in someone else’s memories? When the man shares an ominous warning, Harriet must make a choice… or become trapped in this nightmarish glitch.