Why I Started a Newsletter
I’ve been writing and publishing for forty years. This began before the Internet came to be. Therefore, my “followers” (a term that did not exist for most of my career) sat in front of me. Face to face.
I called them an audience.
I traveled around the country, sharing words and music in churches, schools and small theatrical venues. The words came from the books I penned (thirteen of them). I also wrote the music.
After the concert presentations, some of the folks in the audiences would buy my books and CDs. (And yes, before that I sold cassette tapes.)
Now, I’m not telling you all this to blow my own horn, so to speak. Rather, it all leads up to a confession of my stupidity. Because now I have a sinking realization:
I could have gathered an email list.
I had plenty of opportunity. I encountered hundreds and hundreds of people over the years. But if you had told me I needed to get their email addresses, I would have said, “What? Why would I send an email to that guy in the back row? I mean, I’m sure he’s a nice fellow and I hope he buys my book, but I’m not gonna write him.”
Eleven years ago, I began blogging. I began Jonathots Daily Blog. I had this urge—this inkling—to share the one piece of common sense I felt this world needed and still needs. Here it is:
“No one is better than anyone else.”
Over the eleven years, I have found dozens and dozens of ways to package this message. I started two other daily blogs. (So as not to appear “the salesman,” I will tell you more about those later.) I put out You Tubes. I spent two years tweeting a cartoon I thought up. I’m scattered all over the Internet.
But I never began an email list.
All of this is to say that like Ebenezer Scrooge, I have seen the error of this non-email-gathering path.
That’s why I am here today.
So do me a favor, if you will:
Sign up for my email.
And I’ll send out some stuff to entertain and inspire you. I call this “enterspiration.” (I love to make up words.)
We’ll have a laugh or two while we’re at it.