Mailing lists

Mailing lists let you email the readers who signed up to hear from you. Readers join through a signup page and confirm by email. You write emails and send them now or at a time you pick. You can also give new readers a free file. You can also send them an automatic welcome email. This guide covers each task in the order you meet it.

Open Mailing lists in the sidebar, under Marketing. Every workspace starts with one mailing list, named after the workspace, and one signup page for it.

Who can do what, by default:

Editors, administrators and the owner run the list day to day. That covers readers, labels, emails, signup pages, the welcome sequence and reader magnets.
Only administrators and the owner can import readers, export readers or erase a reader’s details.

The getting-started steps

The Mailing lists page opens with Get started with “list name“ and a count of the steps done. Each step has a button that takes you to the right page:

Step	Button	What you do
Tell readers who you are	Fill in your details	Set your From name, postal address and reply-to address on Settings.
Get your first readers	Add readers	Add people, import a spreadsheet, or share a signup page.
Write your first email	Write an email	Start an email from a design.
Send it	Send your draft	Send it now, or schedule it.
See how it went	See the results	Open the email’s results.

A step is ticked when you have done it. Below the steps, Optional: welcome each new reader with an automatic email opens the welcome sequence.

To put the steps away, click Hide these steps. To get them back, open Settings and click Show the getting-started steps again under the list’s name.

Once every step is done, the page shows You’re all set with “list name“ once. After that it shows your last email, your emails, your readers, and how people join.

Settings: your details

Open Settings from the link at the foot of the Mailing lists page. Each section has its own Save button.

Postal address

US law needs a postal address at the foot of every email. Enter it under Postal address and click Save. A PO box or a mail-forwarding address is fine. The address appears only at the foot of your emails.

If your publisher already has an address, the box starts with it filled in. Check it before you save.

Your sending address

Your sending address shows the address every mailing list sends from. The field is the part before the @, for example news.

Change the field.
Click Save.

Replies go to

Each mailing list has its own section on Settings, headed by the list’s name. Replies go to is where readers’ replies arrive. Use an address kept for this mailing list, not your personal one.

Enter the address in Replies go to and click Save.
Pubblish emails a link to that address. Open it and press Confirm.

The link works for 7 days. Until you confirm:

A list with no reply-to address sends nothing and takes no signups. You cannot add or import readers to it, or switch on its welcome sequence.
If you are changing the address, replies keep going to the old one.

The field’s help text says which address is waiting. If the link has not arrived, check the spam folder, then save the address again.

From name and other list details

In the same section:

Name is the list’s name.
From is the name readers see in their inbox, usually your author name. Readers know your emails by this name, so changing it can confuse them.
Imprint sets the brand color of the list’s emails, signup pages and signup boxes. Choose None: use the publisher’s color to use your publisher’s.

With your own sending domain, Gone quiet after this many emails also appears. A reader has gone quiet when they open or click none of their last emails, this many of them.

Click Save in the list’s section.

More than one list

To add a list, open Add another mailing list at the foot of Settings, enter a Name and click Add. Each list gets its own signup page, From name and welcome sequence. With two lists, the Mailing lists page shows a Showing dropdown. Use it to pick one list or All lists.

To retire a list:

If nobody has joined it, click Delete in its section.
Otherwise, click Close. A closed list sends nothing and takes no signups. Its readers stay on file.

Click Reopen to open a closed list again. You cannot close your last open list.

Privacy notice and your own domain

Under Privacy notice, leave the field empty to use the notice Pubblish writes from your workspace details. To use your own page, enter its full address, starting https://. Click See the notice readers get to read Pubblish’s.

Under Your own sending address, you can send from your own domain. Only the owner and administrators can add a domain.

Under Your own sending address, click Your custom domains are in Settings. This opens the Custom domains tab in Settings.
Type your domain in the Domain box, for example janeauthor.com.
Click outside the Domain box. The domain saves.
If this is not your main domain, open the mailing-list Settings page. Under Custom domain on the list, pick the domain and click Save. Details shows no email records until a list uses the domain.
On the Custom domains tab, next to the domain, click Details.
Copy each email record shown. Add each one where you manage your domain, at the company you bought it from or your DNS host.
Below the records, click Check my domain.
Back on the mailing-list Settings page, under Your sending address, type the part before the @, for example news. Click Save.

Until Details shows The email records are in place., emails send from your Pubblish address.

With two or more custom domains, each list’s section on this page shows a Custom domain choice. Pick the domain that list sends from. The default is Your main domain: the one marked Main on the Custom domains tab.

To stop sending from a domain, click its bin icon (Remove) on the Custom domains tab. A domain a list or website has picked can’t be removed until you pick another there.

Readers

Open See all readers from the Readers section of the Mailing lists page. The Readers page lists each reader’s email, name, mailing lists and when they last opened or clicked. You can search by email or name. You can filter by mailing list or label. You can tick Gone quiet.

Adding a reader

On Readers, click Add a reader.
Enter their Email address, and their First name and Last name if you have them.
If you have more than one list, choose the Mailing list.
Under How they agreed, say when and where this person asked to hear from you. For example: “signed up at my book launch, May 3”.
Click Send them a confirmation email.

The reader joins the list when they confirm. An unconfirmed signup is deleted after 7 days.

Importing a spreadsheet

Only administrators and the owner can import. During a free trial, importing waits until your first payment has gone through.

On Readers, click Import readers.
Under Spreadsheet, choose a .xlsx or .csv file with a column called Email. First name, last name, labels and the date they joined are read too.
Choose the Mailing list, if you have more than one.
Fill in How they agreed for everyone in the file.
Tick These readers asked to get my emails. I didn’t buy, rent or copy this list.
Click Check the file.

Nothing is imported yet. Pubblish shows What this file will do: how many readers it adds and which rows it leaves out, with the reason for each. Click Import number readers to go ahead, or Cancel.

Imported readers join straight away. They get no confirmation email. A file can have up to 100,000 rows.

How they agreed

Every reader carries a record of how they agreed to your emails. Open a reader from Readers to see it under How they agreed. If the reader asks for a copy of their details, it is included.

Reader statuses

A reader’s page lists each list they are on, with one of these statuses:

Status	Meaning
Waiting for confirmation	They have not confirmed yet.
Subscribed	They confirmed and get your emails.
Left	They left the list.
Removed by you	You removed them on an email’s results page.

Emails bounce means email to them stopped arriving. Reported spam means they get no more emails.

Exporting and erasing

To download your readers, click Export on Readers. The download uses the search and filters you have set. Only administrators and the owner can export.

To erase someone’s details, open their page and click Erase their details. The page lists what goes and what stays. This cannot be undone.

Readers join through a signup page. Open See all signup pages on the Mailing lists page. The Signup pages list shows each page’s web address, visits and signups.

Click a page’s name to edit it. Click Add another signup page for a new one.

Name is only for you, to tell your pages apart.
Heading, Description, Button words and Consent words are what readers see. The consent words go beside the tick box.
Untick Taking signups to stop new signups. The page stays, so a printed link still leads somewhere.
Under More options, Ask for first name adds a name field, and Title puts a title’s cover on the page.

Click Save. For a new page, click Add the signup page.

A page takes signups only while all of these are true:

The page is open.
Its list is open.
The list has a confirmed reply-to address.

Until the reply-to address is confirmed, the list shows takes signups once your reply address is confirmed.

Click Share beside a page. The Share page gives you:

The link, for a post, an email or a book’s back pages.
The short address, for your first signup page only.
A QR code, to download as SVG, PDF, for a print designer or PNG.
A box for your own website and Just the button, code to paste into a website.

To add a signup box to a Pubblish website, choose the page in the website’s settings. See Author & Book Websites.

Reader magnets

A reader magnet is a free file that readers get when they join, such as a short story or a sample chapter.

To add one, open See all reader magnets on the Mailing lists page and click Add a reader magnet:

Enter a Name. Only you see it.
Under What readers get, describe the offer in one line.
Choose Files readers get from Files, or upload one under Or upload a file. EPUB, PDF, MOBI, text, image and audio files can be sent. An edition file must be marked Final first.
Optionally set a Last day. After it, new readers no longer get the file.
Click Save.

To offer it, open a signup page and choose it under Reader magnet. You can also make a new one there. Readers get a download link when they confirm. The link never expires.

Writing an email

On the Mailing lists page, click Write your next email.
Choose how to start: A blank page, a title under Announce a title, one of the Starter designs, Your designs, or Your past emails. Click Start from this.
Fill in the Subject and the Message. Under More options, Inbox preview is the short line shown after the subject in an inbox.
Click Save to keep it as a draft.

A design marks the parts to fill in with square brackets, such as [Book Title]. Pubblish will not send the email until you replace every one.

Other buttons on the email:

Send a test to me sends it to your own address.
Save as a design keeps it for Your designs.
Delete draft removes it.

Sending and scheduling

On the email, click Next. The next page sets who gets it, and when.
To narrow who gets it, open Choose readers. Tick Only readers with these labels or Leave out readers with these labels.
Under When, choose Send now or Send later. For Send later, set the Date and time.
If your From name, reply-to or postal address is missing, fill it in on this page.
Click Next. Pubblish asks Send to number readers?
Click Send, or Schedule it for a later time.

On Pubblish’s shared domain, readers who have gone quiet are left out. With your own domain, you can choose under Readers who have gone quiet.

Your plan sets how many emails you can send each month. This month’s sending on Settings shows how many you have used.

Don’t send yet

A scheduled email shows Don’t send yet on the Emails list and on its results page. Click it to stop the email. The email becomes a draft again, so you can change it. You cannot stop an email that has started sending.

Results

Click a sent email’s subject to open its results. The table shows how many readers it was Sent to, Opened, Clicked a link, Couldn’t be delivered, Reported as spam, and Left the list. Links clicked lists each link and how many readers clicked it.

Three days after sending, click Send again to readers who didn’t open to make a copy for them.

A week after a Still want to hear from me? email, its results page offers Remove the number readers who didn’t answer.

For trends over time, click Numbers at the foot of the Mailing lists page.

The welcome sequence

The welcome sequence emails each reader automatically after they confirm. Readers you import do not get it.

On the Mailing lists page, under How people join, click the line below Welcome sequence. It says off or on.
Click the first email’s subject to edit it. Pubblish starts you with a short welcome. Click Save.
Click Switch on. If the list still needs a reply-to or postal address, the page asks for it first.

To add more emails, click Add another email, a few days later. On each email, Days after they join sets when it goes. 0 sends it as soon as they confirm. Untick Switched on, under More options, to skip one email.

If a signup page gives a reader magnet, its download link goes in the first email. Click Switch off to stop the sequence.

Labels

Labels are your own notes on readers. Use them to choose who an email goes to.

To label a reader, open their page, type in Add a label, and click Add. Click × on a label to remove it.
A spreadsheet import can bring labels in too.
To rename, merge or delete labels, click Labels on the Readers page. To merge, tick two or more, click Merge, and choose the one to keep.

Readers see their labels if they ask for a copy of their details.