Can you imagine a time without cell phones?

If they’d been in common use when I was 17, it could have saved me some mockery and shame.

My boyfriend and I had gone camping, and when it was time for dinner, we went to the public phone to call my mother.

"Can you tell me how to make pancakes?" I asked, and people around me burst out laughing

Apparently it was something stupidly simple that every Dane knew how to do.

Except me.

Still today, when I’m cooking something I’m not used to do, I use a cookbook. What’s wrong with that?

That’s how we learn, right?

The same can be said about a skill every writer and author needs to learn: Writing emails.

Those days, one of the safest issues you can rely on is your mailing list. You have to build that list.

And you have to mail that list.

But what do you say?

You: "I have published a new book."

Reader: "Oh, yeah? Yawn."

You: "Guess what… Two months has gone, and I’ve published another book."

Reader: "Who are you? Is this spam?"

Yeah, that won’t work.

You need a cook book. A cook book that will tell you which meals to prepare and how to prepare them.

In other words, when should you mail your list? And what can you tell them?

The Author Email Recipe Book is written by David Martin and Geoff Shaw, two successful, self-published authors.

They are worth learning from.

Grab your recipe book here, while it’s available: http://malka.im/authorcookbook