Email Studio

Email Studio

Build and nurture relationships with your readers through the built-in email marketing platform — campaigns, automations, forms, and unlimited contacts.

What is Email Studio?

Email Studio is where you write to your readers. Send news and updates, welcome new readers automatically, add signup forms to your site, and keep your readers organized with lists and tags. There is no limit on how many readers you have.

Tip

Your email list is often called your most valuable asset as an author. It is the only direct line to your readers that you fully own.

Features

Email Campaigns
Create and send newsletters to your subscribers
Contacts & Lists
Manage your subscriber database
Tags & Segmentation
Organize your audience for targeted emails
Email Archives & RSS
Your sent emails as a public web page and feed
Custom Form Domains
Host signup forms on your own subdomain
Signup Form Questions
Ask readers more and save answers to contacts
Reader Subscription Choices
Let readers choose which lists they get
FluentCRM (Legacy)
For accounts still using a FluentCRM connection

How Email Studio works

  • Unlimited readers. There are no pricing tiers based on how many readers you have.
  • Your choice of sending. Send through StorytellerOS ($3 per 10,000 emails, on top of your plan), or connect an email service you already pay for.
  • Your list is yours. Export your readers anytime.

Connected an email tool before?

Accounts that connected an outside email tool before the built-in email tools launched can keep using that earlier connection.

What You Can Do

Create Email Campaigns

Design and send professional emails to your subscribers:

  • Use the visual email builder with drag-and-drop blocks
  • Add images from your GitHub repository or Google Drive
  • Preview how emails look on different devices
  • Schedule emails for the perfect send time
  • Track open rates and click rates

Manage Your Contacts

Keep your subscriber list organized and up-to-date:

  • View all your contacts in one place — with no contact limits
  • Add new contacts manually or import in bulk
  • Update contact information and preferences
  • Handle unsubscribes and bounces

Segment Your Audience

Send the right message to the right readers:

  • Create tags based on reader behavior
  • Build lists for different genres or series
  • Segment by purchase history from Sales Studio
  • Target specific groups with relevant content

Getting started

Open Email Studio and pick your pen name. The page shows how far your setup has come and, under What should I do next?, at most three things that need you. Choose Set up Email Studio for a step-by-step guide. You can skip any step and come back later.

  1. Set up sending. Send through StorytellerOS ($3 per 10,000 emails, on top of your plan), or connect an email service you already pay for. If you send through StorytellerOS, add the DNS records we give you with your domain provider; we check again automatically. Only the account owner can change sending.
  2. Make your first list. A list is the group of readers you write to. You can make it right on the setup page.
  3. Publish a signup form so readers can join from your site.
  4. Turn on a welcome email. It goes out on its own when someone joins your list. It counts once it is on and has an email in it.
  5. Send your first email. Nothing goes out until you press Send.

Already have readers somewhere else? On the setup page, the optional step lets you import a spreadsheet or add readers from the other tools you use.

Finding your way around

The Email Studio menu has four groups, in the order most authors use them:

  • Readers: Readers (your contacts), Lists, Tags, Saved reader groups (segments), Reader details (custom fields), and Unsubscribes and bounces.
  • Write to readers: Emails (your campaigns), Welcome emails and sequences (automations), Templates, and Past emails online (your public archive).
  • Grow your list: Signup forms, and Add readers from other tools (incoming webhooks).
  • Settings: Set up Email Studio, Sending, and Signup page web address. Sending and the web address are for the account owner.

Integration with Other Studios

Email Studio connects with your other studios:

  • Link campaigns to books from Project Studio
  • Trigger emails based on purchases from Sales Studio
  • Use pen name branding from Project Studio

Email Marketing Best Practices

A few tips for successful author email marketing:

  • Be consistent — Send on a regular schedule so readers know when to expect you
  • Provide value — Every email should give readers something (updates, content, exclusive previews)
  • Be personal — Write like you are talking to a friend, not broadcasting
  • Test and learn — Try different subject lines and content to see what works
  • Respect unsubscribes — Make it easy to leave (they were not your readers anyway)