Twice this week I’ve been placed on a 24-hour Internet time out where I’ve been forced to sit on a virtual stool in a corner, and told I was being a bad girl for sending out too many e-mails.<\/p>\n
Guess what?\u00a0 I’m guilty as charged because I did send out a lot of e-mails.\u00a0 I didn’t know I had crossed the limit until AFTER I crossed the limit.\u00a0 At that point, they told me in a virtual sense that my mail wasn’t going anywhere until I had done my time in a cyber-hoosegow.<\/p>\n
Here’s how it happened.\u00a0 While I was off on tour and trying to let people know where I’d be doing appearances, it occurred to me that there were lots of people in my list for whom I had no physical location.\u00a0 And so, on non-creative down time–in airports, on planes, and living on no known time zones–I decided to do what I could to rectify that situation–by going through the entire list, one record at a time.<\/p>\n
Usually when I go all OCD on something, my first instinct is to start at the very beginning–with the A’s which means the A’s are in really good shape, but I never get anywhere near the Y’s.\u00a0 This time I tried something different and started with the K’s instead.\u00a0 I went backing and forthing through the entire list, sending out requests for city and state to all the e-mail addresses that didn’t have them.\u00a0 And people answered–lots of them.\u00a0 I found some people near locations where I was going in a timely enough manner that I was able to invite them to events–and they came.\u00a0 I also found folks who lived within a few miles of places where I’d already been, and they missed out.<\/p>\n
In the process I discovered people whose records had multiple e-mail addresses.\u00a0 I asked those folks which address they preferred for newsletter purposes.\u00a0 Lots of those folks answered, too.<\/p>\n
In the process I discovered several interesting things.\u00a0 My out-going e-mail form lists my name as Judith Jance.\u00a0 Any number of people wrote to me to say “Who are you and why do you want this information?”\u00a0 I’ve been J.A. Jance for so long that it didn’t occur to me that some people out there still don’t know that J.A. stands for Judith Ann.\u00a0 (My original publisher’s marketing team didn’t think male readers would accept a homicide detective\u00a0 named Beaumont if they knew the author standing behind J.P. was someone named Judy.)<\/p>\n
A number of people also complained that when they looked at the schedule on the website, all they could find was a listing of the events in Washington.\u00a0 That’s because it never occurred to them to go to the map and click on the state where they happen to live.\u00a0 It turns out some of my readers require a certain amount of cyber hand-holding.<\/p>\n
I have a big list.\u00a0 Somewhere along the way, working obsessively, I crossed the iCloud boundary of too many e-mails, and Apple cut me off.\u00a0 Twice with a twenty-four hour wait each time.\u00a0 Even so, I made it through the entire alphabet.\u00a0 People are responding, and I really appreciate it.\u00a0 Having that information is vital when it comes time for me to help publishers plan\u00a0upcoming book tours.\u00a0 I want to go to the places where my fans are thick on the ground, because that’s the whole point–getting out and seeing the people, MY people, the people in my list.<\/p>\n
When I was in the insurance business, we used to call the people who bought small policies and kept them forever the “bread and butter” business.\u00a0 And that’s what the people in my list are.\u00a0 They’re the loyal readers–the early adopters, the ones who’ve been reading my books forever, and who pre-order my books as soon as they can.\u00a0 They’re also the who read everything.<\/p>\n
So here’s the deal.\u00a0 If you received an e-mail from me this week, asking for your city and state, it really did come from me–personally–and from no one else.\u00a0 My list is MY list.\u00a0 It’s not a list that gets sold to anyone else. If, on the other hand, you receive an e-mail from me offering to sell you Viagra or telling you that I’m in Spain and have lost my purse, please send money.\u00a0 Those are scams.\u00a0 Those are not from me.\u00a0 Don’t open the e-mail and absolutely DO NOT open any links inside the e-mail.\u00a0 My list is all about books and nothing else.<\/p>\n
A few years ago, my publisher told me, “If you’ll send us your list, we’ll be happy to send out the notices.”\u00a0 Nope!\u00a0 Didn’t happen.\u00a0 My publishers have lots of mystery writers, and I didn’t want to share my list with any of those other guys.\u00a0 Let them get their own darned lists!<\/p>\n
So thank you to all who responded.\u00a0 Now it’s time to let the list be and deal with copy-editing on Cold Betrayal, the next Ali book.\u00a0 I also need to get my head wrapped around writing the next Beaumont book, and to answer just a few more e-mails.<\/p>\n
Time flies when you’re having fun.<\/p>\n