The new publishing for profit model can hinge on something as plain and boring as an email list. In the days of yore before recorded history (prior to 2000) direct marketers/publishers knew that the power of the almighty dollar resided in the list. Back then a list was something you paid a list broker for or, as time went on, cultivated your own snail mail contacts. Today the mailing list has been transformed into an email list but the age old tried and proven techniques remain.

Your best prospective customer is one who has already purchased something from you. Despite the Internet, Facebook, and Twitter, people are still people and the motivations that have always inspired them to buy remain the same and high on the list is trust. If they trust you, you’re golden. The only thing that has changed about the publishing for profit model is the delivery method.

To sell books today, first concentrate on developing your email list. Think of it like this. You have 10,000 loyal subscribers to your newsletter developed over the course of a few years. They have explicitly given you permission to contact them by email. They like what you do and think you hung the moon. Is there a better audience to appeal to when it comes time to sell your next book? We think not. Send a special mailing to the list advertising when and where your newest is available. A certain percentage will buy on the strength of one announcement, which just might be enough to vault you to the top of your category at Amazon for a day.

Careers can be made by hitting the top of Amazon. Building a responsive email list is powerful stuff in the new world of publishing for profit. And the ivory-towered NYC publishing moguls? You don’t need them a bit.