The October Invite‑a‑thon — Build Your Email List One Tiny Step at a Time I'm going to ask you to do something terrifying today. It will take five seconds. Maybe ten if you have to dig through your browser bookmarks, which, let's be honest, is where most of our good intentions go to die. Open your email service provider right now and write down your exact subscriber count. Not the number you wish you had. Not the number you'll have once you "get your act together." The number that's sitting there at this exact moment, doing nothing whatsoever. If you don't have an email service provider at all — if the whole idea of a newsletter has been sitting in the back of your brain like a dentist appointment you keep rescheduling — then today's mission is even simpler. Go to MailerLite.com and sign up for their free plan. It will take three minutes. You don't need a credit card. When you're done, your subscriber count will be exactly zero. And that, right there, is the entire point of the October Invite‑a‑thon: zero is a perfectly fine place to start. A quick note on platforms: If you already have an account somewhere — ConvertKit, Substack, beehiiv, whatever — stay there. The point is to use what you have, not to switch platforms. In this challenge, I'll be showing MailerLite steps because it's the most beginner-friendly free option (its free tier accommodates up to 250 subscribers with full features, and it's very easy to set up). But every tip and template will translate to whichever tool you're comfortable with. The Problem Nobody Names Most authors I know are quietly terrified of their email list. Not of having one — of not having one. They know it's the one marketing asset they actually own. They know social media platforms can change an algorithm and make their followers invisible overnight. They know email converts at five to fifteen times the rate of a social post. They know all of it. And yet when I ask them how many subscribers they have, they either don't know or they mumble a number and change the subject.

I thought I'd share a couple of groups I'm a member of that are daily follows. Two of them belong to members here @Tiffany Hall and @Emma Wratten and the third is Jason Hamilton's Writing group that got me back into it and many of our members are also members there. I don't care much for the way his automation tool writes but the Community, information and classes are fantastic. Tiffany's two groups make me think and give me new ideas almost daily and Emma is the mistress of cozy graphics prompts and children's books. I learn and take notes on all of these sites daily. Jason Hamilton's Group Write your first novel in 90 days with AI assistance, without losing your creativity, ethics, or voice. Emma Wratten's Group Learn to create inspiring ebooks with AI, from children’s moral tales to adult fiction, complete with illustrations, storytelling tips. Tiffany Hall's two groups. MAKE THAT BOOK! ☕📚 Turn your ideas into well-written stories, unforgettable characters, imaginative worlds, and finished books! Let's learn ChatGPT! Discover how and when to use it, try fun prompts, create images, tackle challenges, and see what else ChatGPT can do!