Friday Fixin's · Word Crafters

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Friday Fixin's

The October Invite‑a‑thon — Day 5: Press Send

We made it. It's Friday. And I'm going to ask you to do one final thing before the weekend.

I want you to send your first newsletter.

Not plan it. Not draft it and "sleep on it." Not perfect it until it's a tiny gem of prose that nobody will ever read because you never actually mailed it. I want you to write something simple, short, and honest — and then press the button.

If your list right now has three people on it — your best friend, your mom, and a stranger who found your back‑matter link on Wednesday — that's enough. This moment is not about numbers. It's about crossing the threshold between "I'm thinking about starting a newsletter" and "I have a newsletter."

That gap is a mile wide and most people never cross it. You're about to.

Why Pressing Send Matters (More Than You Think)

Here's the secret nobody tells you about email marketing: the first email doesn't sell anything. It doesn't even really build your brand. What it does is something more important — it proves to you, in a way no amount of planning ever could, that this machine actually works.

You set up an account. You built a sign‑up form. You put it in the world. People actually signed up. And now you're about to type words into a box, press a button, and have those words land in their inboxes.

Once you've done it once, the spell is broken. You're not waiting to be ready anymore. You are a person with a newsletter. Everything else — the bigger list, the better template, the welcome sequence you'll tweak later — is just improvement on a machine that already runs.

So for today, lower the bar to the floor. Your only goal is to send one short email to the people who opted in. That's it.

What to Write (150 Words. You Can Do This.)

If you're staring at a blank screen right now, use this template:

Subject line: I did a thing (and you're part of it)

Body:

Hey everyone —

This is a quick note to say hello and welcome you to the very first edition of my newsletter.

I'm [your name]. I write [your genre or a one‑line description of your books]. And I've been putting off starting an email list for way too long.

This month, I'm doing a challenge called the October Invite‑a‑thon — one tiny mission a day to build a real connection with readers instead of hiding behind social media algorithms. You're on this list because at some point you said, "Yeah, I'd like to hear from this person."

So here's what you can expect: a short note every week or two — behind‑the‑scenes stuff, book news, maybe a free story now and then. Nothing fancy. No spam. Just one writer talking to the people who read their work.

Thanks for being here. It genuinely means a lot.

— [Your name]

P.S. If you want to say hi, just hit reply. I read every one.

That's 150 words. Tweak it to sound like you — your voice, your genre, your details — but don't overthink it. The goal today is not a masterpiece. It's a handshake.

How to Send It (MailerLite Walk‑Through)

In MailerLite:

From the dashboard, click Campaigns → Create campaign.
Choose Regular campaign (not an automation — that's for welcome sequences, which you already set up on Wednesday).
Give your campaign a name (e.g., "Invite‑a‑thon — First Broadcast").
Subject line: Paste in yours from above. Keep it short and curiosity‑friendly.
Preview text: This is the little snippet that appears next to the subject line in most inboxes. Use something like: "A quick hello and what to expect going forward."
Sender details: Your name and your email address. Use the same "from" name every time so readers recognize you.
Click Design email. Choose your saved template (the one you built yesterday!). Your brand colors and logo are already there.
Paste your email body into the text block.
Click Save, then Next.
Select your group: The list of people who've signed up through your form.
Review the preview. Click Send, or schedule it for later today if you prefer.

That's it. You just sent your first newsletter.

If you're on a different platform: The steps are similar — create a broadcast or campaign, select your template, choose your list, send. The vocabulary varies; the process is the same.

Today's Mission

☐ Write your 150‑word broadcast using the template above (or your own words — just keep it short and warm).

☐ Open your email platform and create a new campaign.

☐ Paste your email into your saved template

☐ Send a test email to yourself first — open it on your phone, check that the links work, make sure it looks human.

☐ Select your list and press Send.

☐ Post your victory in the Skool thread. A screenshot of the "Sent" confirmation counts. So does a photo of you with a coffee and a slightly terrified smile. Just let us celebrate with you.

You Just Won Week 1

Let me put this in perspective.

On Monday, you either had no email list at all, or you had one you'd been neglecting. It's now Friday. In five days — spending roughly ten minutes per day — you have:

A working email service provider
A reader magnet people actually want
A sign‑up form that's live in at least two places in the world
An automated welcome email greeting every new subscriber
A branded, reusable template
And now — a sent newsletter

That's not a theory. That's infrastructure you can build on for the rest of your career.

The rest of October is about adding one new subscriber at a time, tweaking what works, and turning this week's hurried scramble into a habit that runs in the background of your writing life. I'll be back Monday with the next mission. The full October calendar — with GLITCH's owl‑themed daily doodles — drops soon.

But for now: you pressed send. You're a person with a newsletter.

Put this on your Calendar for 20 days from now and set it recur every month: "Write Your Newsletter Update"

Put this on your Calendar for 25 days from now and set it recur every month: "Write Your Newsletter Update"

Put this on your Calendar for 28 days from now and set it recur every month: "Write Your Newsletter Update"

Put this on your Calendar for 30 days from now and set it recur every month: "Send Your Newsletter"

In the meantime send the link to your landing page with EVERYTHING you do online. It should be in your email signature, at the end of every post to every social media feed. As a link in every reel, and on your youtube page if you have one.

And this is the coolest idea given to me by another author:

Print it on cards or keep it as a QR Code on the lockscreen of your phone: "here just shoot this to reach me"

Go enjoy your weekend. You earned it.

KEEL's Note: "Open your spreadsheet. Column B just got a note: 'First broadcast sent.' That line is the launch pad every future subscriber curve will grow from."

PAIGE's Note: "I'd actually be a little proud right now if I were you. You didn't wait until everything was perfect. You did the thing. That's rarer than it sounds."

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Friday Fixin's