Newsletters vs. Social Media: What Author and Reader Surveys Suggest

Updated Oct 2026: this editorial has been rewritten and now cites its sources.

Authors are routinely advised to be everywhere at once: on social platforms, in video, on podcasts and in readers' inboxes. Time and money are finite, however, and the practical question is which of those channels actually sell books. The survey evidence available is imperfect, yet it points consistently in one direction: an author's own email list tends to outperform general social media as a sales tool, with some important exceptions. This editorial lays out what the surveys show, where their limits lie, and what that means for an author drawing up a marketing budget.

What authors report

The largest recent survey of American authors was conducted by the Authors Guild. Its 2023 author income survey, which collected responses from 5,699 published authors, asked which marketing channels had proved most effective. The three channels respondents ranked highest were "Kindle Unlimited or other subscription programs, ebook discounts or promotions, and author email newsletters." The Guild added: "Kindle Unlimited was particularly effective for self-published authors, who earned 67 percent more book income from the platform than traditionally published authors make on book-earnings alone." The program is now Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited).

The same survey found that "social media and blogging were typically rated least effective." It also noted a significant exception: "TikTok was a particularly effective platform for romance and romantic suspense authors as well as authors of African American fiction, poetry, YA fiction, and new adult and erotic fiction."

A second source is the annual author survey conducted by Written Word Media, a company that sells book promotions. In a discussion of its 2025 author survey results, the company reported that published authors with an email list earned a median of $300 a month from their books, while those without one earned $15 a month. Among authors earning more than $10,000 a month, respondents rated their own newsletter 4.3 out of five for effectiveness, the highest score of any tactic. The company said authors ranked their own email list as the most effective of the marketing tactics it asked about, a list that ranged from promotion sites to TikTok, social media and Kickstarter campaigns.

What readers report

Surveys of readers point the same way. Written Word Media's 2026 reader survey, which gathered 3,589 responses from the company's own audience, asked where readers most often discover new books. The results were Amazon (68%), email newsletters (64%), Goodreads (46%), friends and family (45%), social media including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and influencers (42%), author websites (30%), libraries (29%) and bookstores (27%). The company concluded that email newsletters were "a top discovery channel, beating social media and even bookstores."

The limits of the evidence

These findings call for careful reading. Written Word Media's surveys draw on its own audience, and the company sells email-based book promotions, so its respondents are likely to be people who already rely on email for books. The company itself acknowledges that its reader data are self-reported and reflect the behavior of its audience. The newsletter figure in the reader survey also covers promotional newsletters such as the company's own service, not only the personal lists of authors.

The income figures demonstrate a correlation, not a cause. Authors with email lists may also have more books, more experience or larger budgets. The surveys do not disentangle those effects.

The Authors Guild survey is broader and independent of any promotion business, which makes its agreement on newsletters more persuasive. Even so, it also reflects authors' own assessments of effectiveness rather than measured sales.

Why email may perform well: an opinion

The surveys do not examine why email performs well. In the opinion of this editorial, several explanations are plausible, though none is measured by the sources cited above. An email list belongs to the author; a social media following depends on a platform's rules and algorithms. A reader who signs up for a newsletter has chosen to hear from the author, which signals stronger interest than a follow or a like.

None of this renders social media useless. The Guild's own data show that TikTok works well for particular genres and audiences, including romance, YA and poetry. For authors in those categories, a strong social presence may rank among the best ways to reach new readers, who can then be invited to join a list.

A practical allocation

Based on the surveys above, a reasonable approach for most authors is:

• Build an email list first. It ranks at or near the top in both the author and the reader surveys.
• Use social media where the genre supports it. The Guild found TikTok effective for particular categories.
• Consider promotions and subscriptions. Ebook discounts and Kindle Unlimited ranked among the top three channels in the Guild survey. Kindle Unlimited has since been renamed: KDP's Royalties in Kindle+ help page shows that Kindle Unlimited is now Kindle+, with audiobooks now included.
• Treat social media as a route into the list. Its value increases when it turns followers into subscribers.
• Track results. Survey averages are no substitute for an author's own sales data.

What the surveys add up to

The surveys point in a single direction. Authors in the Authors Guild survey ranked email newsletters among the three most effective marketing channels, while social media and blogging were typically rated least effective. In Written Word Media's author survey, published authors with an email list reported a median of $300 a month from their books, compared with $15 for those without one. Both findings are self-reported, and neither measures return on investment directly, but together they favor building a list of readers who have asked to hear from the author, with social platforms used where an author's readers already gather. Every author's audience differs, but on the evidence available, the inbox remains one of the most valuable places to reach it.