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Let’s talk about the annoying, unglamorous side of being a romance author in 2025—

Getting your emails into your readers’ inboxes

If you’ve ever poured your heart into a newsletter—maybe included a steamy bonus epilogue, a book promo, or a slightly cheeky subject line—only to have it disappear into your subscribers’ spam folders, you are not alone. I know, because I’ve been there. (And if you haven’t yet, buckle up. It’s coming.)

Email providers are getting stricter every year. The very things that make our emails fun for readers—links to group promos, freebie offers, and words like “swoon,” “sexy,” or “steamy”—are the same things that can make spam filters clutch their pearls and toss our messages into the junk pile.

How can you tell if your emails are being flagged, dropped in spam or not delivered?

1. Your open rates suddenly tank
If you usually see a steady open rate and then, out of nowhere, your numbers nosedive, it’s a big red flag. Romance readers are a loyal bunch—if they’re not opening, it’s probably because your email never made it to their inbox in the first place. Most email marketing platforms like MailerLite and SendFox provide analytics so you can track these patterns over time.

2. Readers tell you they didn’t get your email
When your ARC team or newsletter subscribers start emailing (or DMing) to say, “I didn’t get your latest freebie!” or “Where’s the link to the bonus chapter?”—that’s a clue your messages are being gobbled up by spam filters.

3. Your emails land in the Promotions or Spam tab
If you’re using Gmail, be sure to subscribe to your own list with a personal address. If your newsletter shows up in Promotions or, worse, Spam, you can bet that’s happening for your readers too.

4. You notice a drop in click-through rates
If your links to book promos, giveaways, or new releases used to get lots of love and suddenly
nothing? It could be that your emails aren’t making it to the inbox, so nobody’s clicking. Your email platform’s analytics will show you if clicks have dried up.

5. Bounces and unsubscribes spike
A sudden uptick in bounced emails (addresses that can’t be delivered to) or unsubscribes can also signal a deliverability problem. Sometimes, if you include too many links or “spammy” words (like “free,” “steamy,” or “exclusive offer”—I know, the nerve!), your emails get blocked before they even reach the inbox.

6. You don’t get your own test emails.
If you send a test email to yourself and it never arrives—or lands in spam—it’s time to investigate. Try sending from a different address or ask a trusted friend to check their inbox, too.

What to do if you suspect deliverability issues?

1. Send your draft emails to a spam testing site like Mail Tester.

  • There are several but this is the one I use.

2. Ask your readers (especially your most engaged ones) if they’re getting your emails.

  • Fun fact: when they hit reply to your message, it improves your reputation which improves your deliverablity. So it’s a good idea to ask for reader feedback of some kind in every email.

3. Remind your subscribers to whitelist your sending address—sometimes a gentle nudge is all it takes.

  • See detailed instructions below for how to do this.

4. Review your email for too many links, images, or words that might trigger spam filters.

  • How many links is too many? The short answer is, it depends. But most experts say more than 5 links looks sketchy to spam filters. The length of your email also plays a role too. A short email with several links looks more suspicious than a longer, content-rich message with the same number of links.
  • One trick I used when I was building my list at the beginning, and particpating in lots of BookFunnel and StoryOrigin group promos and book link swaps (up to ten links per email) was to create a single landing page on my author website with all the links. So my email had one: the promo page on my website. This was good for deliverability and also great for my future Facebook ads since I had the FB pixel installed and was able to build a look-alike audience with my own email subscribers!
  • And don’t forget that if you have links to your website, and a few social media accounts, and maybe your Goodreads or Amazon accounts as little icons in your footer—those count, too!
  • For a fun experiment in 2023, Laura Belgray of Talking Shrimp fame, included a loo-oong and rambling block of text at the very bottom of her email. If you want to read what was written in 5 pt font, I’ve included it at the end of the section of Email Whitelist Instructions.

5. Use a reputable email marketing platform with strong deliverability features.

  • MailerLite and SendFox are both recommended for their analytics and reliability. They are the two ESPs (email service providers) I use—Sendfox for cold sign-ups from group promos (since it’s a one-time payment of $49 for 5,000 emails so I can build my list quickly without paying a fortune) and Mailerlite for readers who download my bonus chapters after they’ve read one of my books (since it’s much more expensive—but still the best deal I’ve found for high deliverability for the price). (And those are partner links. If you use them, I may get a referral fee but your price will be the same as if you’d clicked directly).

    What is whitelisting, and why does it matter?

    Whitelisting is just a fancy way of saying, “Hey, email provider, I actually want to hear from this person.”

    When your reader adds your sending address to their contacts, or marks your messages as “not spam,” it gives your emails a VIP pass to their inbox. No more missed launch announcements, no more “I never got your ARC link!” panic, and no more wondering if your witty PS about laundry day is floating in the void.

    How to ask your readers to whitelist your emails

    If you’re feeling a little squeamish about asking readers to whitelist you, trust me, you’re not alone. I used to think, “Who am I to ask for a spot in someone’s contacts list?” But then I realized: if someone signs up for your newsletter, they want to hear from you. They just might need a nudge (or a gentle how-to) to make sure your emails don’t get lost.

    Here’s how you can walk your readers through the process—without sounding like a robot or a spammer yourself.

    I highly encourage you to copy and paste the info below to your own website. Just be sure to replace author@authoreverafter.com with your own email address first!

    Email Whitelist Instructions

    If you want to make sure you never miss a new release, a bonus chapter, or a surprise book deal, would you add my email address to your contacts? It’s the best way to tell your inbox that you actually want to hear from me (even when I get a little too enthusiastic with the exclamation marks or links to book boyfriends).  Please take three seconds to whitelist author@authoreverafter.com. It’s the easiest way to guarantee you keep getting my emails.

    How to Whitelist author@authoreverafter.com (so you never miss an email)

    📬 Gmail (Webmail + App)

    Add me to Contacts:

    1. Open an email from author@authoreverafter.com

    2. Click the three-dot menu in the upper right

    3. Click “Add to Contacts”

    If it landed in Promotions:

    • Drag the email to your Primary tab

    • Gmail will ask: “Do this for future messages?” → Click Yes

    If it landed in Spam:

    • Go to Spam folder

    • Find my email and click “Not Spam”

    📬 Yahoo! Mail

    1. Open your Spam or Bulk folder

    2. Unmark as spam:

    3. Click “Not Spam”

    Create a filter:

    1. Click the ⚙ icon → Settings → More Settings

    2. Click Filters → Add new filters

    3. From: contains → author@authoreverafter.com

    4. Move to folder: Inbox → Save

    📬 Outlook / Hotmail / Live / MSN

    Mark as safe:

    1. Open an email from author@authoreverafter.com

    2. Click “It’s safe” (if prompted)

    Add to Safe Senders list:

    1. Click ⚙ Settings → View all Outlook settings

    2. Mail → Junk Email → Safe Senders

    3. Add author@authoreverafter.com → Click Save

    📬 Apple Mail / iCloud

    Mark as Not Junk:

    1. Open your Junk folder

    2. Find my email → Move it to Inbox

    3. Tap “Move to Inbox” and confirm future messages go to Inbox

    Optional: Add me to Contacts for good measure

    📬 AOL Mail

    1. Open the email from author@authoreverafter.com

    2. Hover over my name → Click Add Contact

    3. Confirm details → Save

    If in Spam: Open the message and click “Not Spam”

    📬 Comcast

    1. Open my email

    2. Click

    • Add to Address Book

    3. Confirm details → Save

      📬 Thunderbird

      1. Click Address Book → New Contact

      2. Paste author@authoreverafter.com in the email field

      3. Save contact

      📬 Earthlink

      1. Check your Suspect Email folder

      2. Find email → Select “Move to Inbox and Add Contact”

      📬 McAfee, Norton, Trend Micro, SpamAssassin, Barracuda, etc.

      If you’re using a third-party spam filter:

      • Add author@authoreverafter.com to your Friends List, Approved Senders, or Whitelist

      • Check their instructions for how to manage safe senders

       

      The Tiny Text Laura Belgray had at the end of her emails in 2023.

      You aren’t meant to read the following. You certainly can, it’s in your inbox and it’s yours to ignore or pore over, whichever’s your thing—but this tiny-print section is merely to see if I can get this email to avoid the dreaded non-primary tab. (Just using the name of said sad tab can get it sent there, apparently.) It’s a struggle lately, figuring out which words the ol’ gmail bots are sniffing for, to put these much-loved emails in that collection of unloved, low-priority, too-commercial messages. I don’t want these ending up there where you have permission to ignore them. I don’t want to be among all the silly billies you signed up for just to get that fifteen percent off on the jeans you didn’t end up getting after all. I’m totally babbling here. I don’t know if it’ll make an iota of difference but my biz lives or dies by how many people get these and open them, and that depends on where I end up. I don’t want to be in Unread Jail. I won’t make it in there. I’m not built for prison. I’m a delicate sleeper, for one. I have to take sleep aids now, which I won’t specify because that will probably land me in the junk folder. But they just became legal in my state, the great state of New York. Where I’ve lived all my life except for 4 years of college, in Connecticut. Not Yale. I know people who say they went to college in Connecticut usually mean Yale, but those people are smart enough to specify New Haven so you don’t have to guess. You know. I went to Wesleyan, which is full of interesting people who become famous in the arts but I, for some reason, was determined to hang out with jocks. It’s not an athletic school but it had its share. Most were DKE brothers. Their parties were in the basement and the floor was sticky with beer. On St. Patty’s Day, it was green beer. Think this is enough? Are you actually reading this? I know you probably want to see what I’m doing here in this mysterious box. Usually, I put it in a light color that makes it easy to miss, which is what I want. Someone said I should put it in black so it’s readable, because they wanted to read it. Maybe they knew there were tidbits about my college life in here. Wanna know one of those interesting people who was there at the same time, whom I never met because I hung out with people who came home talking about how much they lifted at the gym? Mike White, that’s who. Most recently, he made White Lotus, which I just realized has his last name in the title. Genius. Or accident. Who knows? As for this weird paragraph, if you’re reading to see what tricks I’m up to in my emails, I’ll tell you, it doesn’t work all the time. The algo has started to hate me? I don’t know what’s happening. I still stand by email all day long. I like social fine but it’s rented land, and you don’t want to build your whole platform on that. You want to build it on land you own, which is your subscriber list. The percentage of people who see and interact with any post on Insta, for instance, is miniscule compared with that of your email subscribers who will see a message that goes to their inbox. So there’s that. Still. WTF with this p—o tab stuff? I don’t get it. Do me a favor and move this to primary? If you’re reading this, that is. And this went to a different folder. The following is more gobbledygook, trust me not worth reading. It’s a copy-paste and there’s nothing fun or smart hidden within, trust me. And when I say we, I mean me. OK, here’s the blablabla. We at Talking Shrimp are strongly committed to protecting your privacy and providing a safe online experience for all of our visitors while offering a high-quality user experience here at https://talkingshrimp.com We know that you care about how the information you provide to us is used and shared. We have developed this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of Information we receive from users of the Website. Talking Shrimp, Inc. operates the Website.
      This Privacy Policy, along with our Term & Conditions, governs your use of this site. By using https://talkingshrimp.com or by accepting the Terms of Use (via opt-in, checkbox, pop-up, or clicking an email link confirming the same), you agree to be bound by our terms and this Privacy Policy.
      If you have provided personal, billing or other voluntarily provided information, you may access, review and make changes to it via instructions found on the Website or by emailing us at hithere@talkingshrimp.com. To manage your receipt of marketing and non-transactional communications, you may unsubscribe by clicking the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of any related email from the Company. Emails related to the purchase of orders are provided automatically – Customers are not able to opt out of transactional emails. We will try to accommodate any requests related to the management of Personal Information in a timely manner. However, it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases (for example, if we have a legal obligation to keep it for certain timeframes, for example). See? Told you it was super boring. If you actually read through this, wow. Why don’t you spend time reading the stuff I wrote with you in mind, all over the site https://talkingshrimp.com? If you want the story of why “Talking Shrimp,” check out the About page. And if you want assistance writing your own About page, check out the Work With Me page.