I would’ve died on this hill, Reader.

In fact, I still kind of live on this hill, just somewhere in the middle of said hill, in a beautiful cave, not unlike Bilbo Baggins's home at Bag End. Cue another layer of my eternal nerdom being peeled back, but I'm not wrong. That home, lovingly carved into the side of a rolling hill in Middle Earth, is very appealing to both introverted writers and most people who want to escape from today's realities. You know the one and you KNOW you'd move in in a heartbeat! Just look at that writer's dream home!

Even as recently as a few months ago I would have told you that longer storytelling emails were the way you needed to go in order to build a brand that sold more books from email. And the thing is, I still firmly believe that. However, how those stories are presented has changed in the few short months of 2025.

The thing is, this strategy worked beautifully—for a while. A very long while. But now? We are here. In a place that feels hard more often than not. And the way consumers consume marketing has changed so very quickly that even I have some whiplash.

Are you ready to be blown away?

New studies are showing that marketing emails (and I'd like to offer the clarity here - these are mainly emails heading to direct buyers - however, more and more of those types of readers are appearing in our general news inboxes) that have between 50 and 125 words are getting 50% more conversions than long emails.

Think about it.

We have now shifted to a majority of readers using mobile to read your newsletters. Lots more scrolling. A lot less attention being given to the newsletter's content.

Gen Z and Gen Alpha are adults or becoming teens with buying power and the way they consume emails is vastly different than perhaps you or I. They don't have time for that. It's how they're consuming anything. Quickly.

The world is heavy right now. Many of our readers' brains are busy thinking of a LOT of other things that feel much more important. So, how do you keep the brand-building storytelling inside your emails AND attack your email marketing in a new way?

It's important to note before I move into some strategies that this isn't the case for every single author. Your audience will already be telling you how they want to be marketed to. Pay attention to it. Watch those metrics and learn. Perhaps your audience is still in the space where they love a good, long email. Just make sure Google isn't cutting it off on you, but otherwise, keep on with that. It's still a viable strategy.

Here's what I recommend you do.

1. Test. Do you remember last week when I sent out my new 10-second email? I've NEVER had such a response to one email in my entire career. Never. And the response was 100% positive. But here I am, back with a lengthy email. I'm testing and watching and pivoting.
2. Launching off of point 1, mix it up. Send a short email, then a longer email. Short emails are great for when you're just too busy or creatively empty to talk about a book. They can come in quite handy!
3. Use white space, font and images to move the eye forward. Check out this email from my archives to learn more.
4. If you're promoting a book, shorten up. If you're between releases, lengthen it out.
5. Get to the point quickly. Employ the TLDR method. A quick one liner at the top of the email and then dive into your longer message.

Whatever you decide to do, change is essential to continuing to serve your readers the marketing they want to consume. Change and DATA. I'll repeat myself here.

Use DATA to make business decisions, not emotions. Yes, emotions are a valuable asset and should never be ignored, but if you're doing a 'thing' because you've always done that 'thing' or you're doing a 'thing' because you assume everyone likes it because you like it, then you're doing your business a disservice.

What are your email metrics telling you? I've had way too many conversations with authors this past week about their metrics suddenly tanking and their emotional response to it.

Test. Observe. Gather data. Pivot.

How can I help further? Let’s work together → Click here to book your early June audit to gain some perspective and insights into how to evolve.

Or click here to grab my latest course now on pre-order where I'll be talking a LOT about content and structure for direct sellers, Klaviyo For Authors.

Because, you don’t always have to write long emails anymore, but they still need to drip your brand out, tell your stories and still deliver on the 2025 structure that works. And that's not an easy task. I'm happy to help where I can so this doesn't add to your 'overwhelming 2025 thoughts bucket'. Trust me, my bucket fell over last week and I'm on to a new one LOL. No one needs to be out there doing this alone. If it's just a quick email question, let it fly or if it's a deeper dive, just reach out and let's see if we can work together.

Holly