Support for Indie Authors discussion

Hello. I hope I'm posting in the correct section... *nervously looks around*

Everywhere I check, people recommend building a mailing list. And most books from independent authors show a link to Eepurl... but the site seems to be down for good.

Anyone has a recommendation for a similar service, meaning starter size ML and free? And is it really that important when you already have Twitter, Facebook, long etc.?

Mailchimp is free up to 2000 list addresses.

I use MailChimp for my newsletter. I would say that a newsletter is worth doing because you can make sure your readers hear about new releases. In fact, I pretty much only send emails with information about new releases, and occasionally about offers. Because I send very few emails it doesn't take much time and I feel that it's a good way of making sure readers see your news because on Facebook or Twitter (which I also use) there seems a good chance readers just won't see my posts.

What I'd be more interested in knowing is comparing mailing list to "follow author" either directly on Amazon (for Kindle books) or here on GR.
Especially when Amazon sends me 2-3 newsletters each week and it seems to take into account authors I've been reading - from reader's PoV, of course. I have no experience from writer's side (yet).

Thank you, guys. I got Mailchimp, but it seems that for a newsletter address it gives a super long and very non-professional-looking link, really huge compared to Eepurl (or maybe there is a way to make it shorter?). I'd like something better-looking if I could.

Well, you can always use HTML code to make it look better, into a link with any description you choose.

Hey, that's a quite smart idea! Thank you! It would mean two clicks instead of one, but it would avoid some link that looks like a spam page.

Tomas wrote: "What I'd be more interested in knowing is comparing mailing list to "follow author" either directly on Amazon (for Kindle books) or here on GR.
Especially when Amazon sends me 2-3 newsletters each ..."

The advantage of a newsletter is that YOU control when your followers get information and YOU have the list (email addresses) of who your followers are. If they follow on Amazon etc those places have the emails.

Also on Amazon they sometimes take up to a month after an author has released a new book before they notify the followers [that is from personal knowledge from an author I followed on amazon].

Haru wrote: "Thank you, guys. I got Mailchimp, but it seems that for a newsletter address it gives a super long and very non-professional-looking link, really huge compared to Eepurl (or maybe there is a way to..."

When you are on the "form builder" for your mailing list on mailchimp it has a box that says "signup form URL". This has a short eepurl link in it to your sign up form.

Thank you, L.K.! I'll check that.