Organizing a newsletter crossover can be a huge boon or it can make you hate humanity. Sometimes both simultaneously. A newsletter crossover is when you gather a few like minded authors and all of you send out a newsletter linked to a landing page where all your books are listed in the hopes of attracting new readers. Other than sweat equity, this is free to you, and if you use affiliate links can earn you a little bit. I’ve done a couple and this is how I do it and what I’ve learned.

1. Decide on a theme, a title, and parameters. The temptation to get as many authors on board is great, but remember, if you have any and all titles readers may get overwhelmed making the entire promo is less effective. In my experience, once you get past 20, effectiveness takes a nosedive. You’ll also have to decide if all the books are free or under a certain price or if that’s not an issue. I don’t do discount crossovers and I don’t think it’s harmed me. It also means I can put the landing page on my blog and throw up the link whenever the opportunity arises with most of the information still valid. I noticed someone recently asking about Good Guy romances and linked that crossover’s landing page to the comments. YMMV.

2. Settle on timing. I wouldn’t recommend any more than 2-3 weeks from the time you post the call to the last day of the promo. You will need at least a week to get other authors on board. Most people will sign up within the first two days of the call, but there are stragglers and I like to give everyone a chance. Allow a couple of days to put together the landing page, but if you have a week for the call, you can start building the landing page before your deadline. You’ll want to give the other authors a couple of days to a week to send out their newsletters. You could have everyone send out on the same day, but some authors send religiously on a certain day and if you happen to have not picked that day for your send, you will lose them. Other authors may only want to send so many emails over a certain period and if your one-day push falls within that stretch, they will also pass. I prefer to have more participants over time than one big bombshell day. You can choose your own preference.

3. Put together a Google form for information. At the top detail your objective, theme, and parameters as well as the deadlines. You can C&P this information when you put out your call in whatever groups and forums you belong to, but it should also be at the top of the form. STICK TO THE DEADLINE. In my experience, authors who ask to join late are most likely to flake and waste your time. I once went back and forth with an author for a week before they admitted they didn’t have a cover and wouldn’t until after the promo ran.

On your form you will need the author’s name, a reliable email address, a short blurb (I ask for 100 words because that displays well), somewhere the cover can be downloaded, and newsletter and buy links. Get everything the first time because you may not be able to catch the author to get it when you’re building the landing page. You could also ask for Bookbub author page links, Amazon author page links, Pronoun author page links, Goodreads author page links, Facebook links, whatever is going to satisfy your objective. I have learned to save effort by keeping the Google doc generic and using the same one over and over. That way I can tweak the description as I learn new things and not have to start from scratch every time.

4. Make graphics and build landing page. You’ll need a banner with the title and the dates on it. If you have the URL, you can throw that on too. I like 800×300. When I build the landing page, I use my affiliate links. This will need to be finished a day or two before the promo starts so you have time for the formatting to go wrong and to discover mistakes.

5. Send graphics and landing page link to authors a day or two before the promo is to start. This will give them time to put together their own newsletters and check their links. I like to schedule my own newsletter at this point.

Then you can just sit back and enjoy. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments because I’m sure other people will have them too.