Email lists — yes? no? maybe?

After reading this post on Indies Unlimited, I started wondering whether I should start using email lists myself. The first question that popped into my head though was — ‘why bother’?

I already blog about all the important happenings in my life as a writer. Isn’t that enough? After all, if people aren’t interested in a particular event then how will sending them a generic email make a difference?

I know professional marketers would say that all marketing tools are important, and should be used, but… I personally don’t like receiving mailing list type notifications.

Rightly or wrongly, my online presence has evolved out of building relationships rather than marketing. Do I really want to risk alienating people I consider to be friends?

Then there is the issue of actually creating such an email list. I can do it, but it will take a lot of time and effort away from what I consider to be more important tasks — such as keeping up with my blog and getting book 2 finished.

I really am torn by this issue. My gut instinct is to say no, yet I also feel kind of guilty at not doing what I ‘should’ to market Vokhtah.

I think it’s time to get readers’ perspectives on the the question of email lists and marketing. How do you feel about it? Do you have enough junk in your inbox already?

cheers

Meeks

p.s. My interview with thebookcast.com is going live late tomorrow. I’ll do a quick post as soon as it’s up.