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Hey, I should probably preface this by saying that the Czechs have a dark sense of humor. During the communist era, writers were often sent to the uranium mines for contrived infractions or perceived disloyalty, their profession flagging them as troublemakers — much like journalists or teachers or intellectuals or university professors. My partner is Czech so one running gag, when I miss a deadline or get a one-star review, is “Off to the uranium mines with you!” The all-seeing overlords controlling our destinies in 2026 take the form of algorithms. And the companies deploying them — e.g. Amazon, Facebook, or Google — have incredible power to make or break your publishing business with one simple tweak. Critical services like Gmail tend to keep their cards close to their chest so we often have to reverse engineer theories from the smoking wreckage of a marketing campaign gone wrong — which can be especially damaging if it strikes during launch week. When something big changes in Gmail Land, you need to know about it ASAP. So, let’s not bury the lede any further. Gmail is now actively punishing newsletters which don’t send regularly and consistently. The second part is very important here but don’t panic. The details truly matter, and I have a very clear and manageable path for everyone to follow — once I explain what is going on. I had an opportunity to speak with the Head of Deliverability at Kit this week who helped me work through these changes, and what they mean for authors with different sending cadences, to use the parlance of the industry. Side note: how come jargon is never cool? Anyway, this is something that will ultimately impact everyone, but it’s a change which will particularly hurt authors who have been slipping on emailing readers recently. Of course, that goes double for those who never did it in the first place, and who only hit their list when they have a launch. But it will also affect a larger group of people too, perhaps, those who are just a little disorganized and tend to be all over the map with when and how often they send newsletters. Yeah, the consistently part is just as important now as the regularly bit, and I think that will catch people unawares. I say all this without judgment BTW. Everyone has limited time. The world is on fire. And there’s always something else to be getting on with. Newsletters are one of those tricksy “always important, never urgent” tasks that can slip through the cracks all too often. Regular readers will know I missed many sends last year while dealing with medical issues; life happens. But that has given me some insight now into how Google is increasingly penalizing a change in your sending cadence. It took a while to figure out — indeed the main Email Marketing Services are still in the process of figuring all this out, and there is a lot that is not yet clear at this point. But here's the key point: Gmail now places great importance on being consistent with your newsletter — to a far greater extent than before. And after discussing this in detail with the Head of Deliverability at Kit, it seems the system is surprisingly sensitive. If Gmail detects a change in that sending cadence, it can lead to a drop in open rates on your next send(s), and what are called Delivery Errors. To give a concrete example, if you email weekly like me, and let things slip for a few weeks while off sick, you are likely to have issues on your next send. And you may see things like delayed delivery, emails dropping in Promotions or Spam (or not getting delivered at all), manifesting in depressed open rates until Gmail establishes you’re active again. Or if you have a monthly newsletter, far more common among authors… and then skip a month while finishing a book… and then suddenly become active again for launch week, then you might see a sudden spike in Delivery Errors and drops in your open rate while Google kinda sits on a portion of your send to determine if you are legit or not (or until your email marketing service interfaces with them on your behalf). This sounds a little ominous, given that authors are not exactly known for being organized, but it can be more manageable than you might think as long as you take a few steps. 1. Maintain a regular and consistent sending pattern.If you normally email weekly, then stick to that schedule. If you email monthly, then keep emailing monthly. What you don’t want to do is be irregular and/or inconsistent. So something like 2 emails in one given month, followed by no emails at all the next month, followed by a flurry of emails again might trip the system. Increasing the amount of emails you send during a launch or something like that is fine — as long as you don't go overboard; don’t fret about sending a couple of emails during the week of release. I’ve been monitoring this issue on two large lists which experienced some sending disruption over the last six months and if my experience is anything to go by, issues are more likely to occur in the other direction: i.e. if you go dark for a couple of months and then suddenly start emailing again, rather than if you are emailing monthly and then do 2 sends in a week to push a new release. And if you don’t send regular newsletters outside of a launch or whatever, I urge you to reconsider. Sending regularly (i.e. at least monthly) used to be considered best practice. I’d argue that it is now an imperative. You can send weekly. You can send once a fortnight here is that’s your speed. Or you can send monthly. But I wouldn’t recommend being more infrequent than that or you will likely face issues. Pick a cadence and do your best to stick with it. To be clear, it’s not that a specific length of time between sends will cause issues, it’s a change in your typical sending pattern. Regularity was always desirable, but now regularity and consistency are key. 2. Life happens, nobody’s perfect.I recommend a simple monitoring system to detect issues — which I’d argue you should have in place anyway. Your list is your most important asset, after your books. Consider this a way of monitoring its health. Google Postmaster Tools is free and easy. It will track Spam Reports, authentication and domain reputation issues, as well as those Delivery Errors I mentioned.
Above is an example of the kind of easily-digestible data you get. This is the Delivery Reports section of Google Postmaster Tools and you can see the large spike I had in Delivery Errors after an absence of several weeks. Even a list like mine with excellent open rates and engagement levels (thank you!) can experience these issues now if the send cadence changes. You don’t need to understand all the jargon in Google Postmaster Tools (although some like Spam Reports is obvious). But it can be handy information for your provider if you have issues. 3. Speak with your EMSIf you see Delivery Errors (or other issues like a spike in Spam Reports) in Google Postmaster Tools, contact your Email Marketing Service. Often, they will have already proactively solved the issue by interfacing with Gmail on you behalf — it's what you pay for, folks! At least that is certainly true of the two services I use and recommend: Kit and MailerLite (aff links). Anyway, it’s worth contacting Support for whatever service you use, if you experience issues, and following the advice they give you. Although in most cases that advice will simply be: “Email regularly. Be consistent.” One last tip — which I got from the team at Kit — is this. Have an backup email or two in the freezer which you can whip out when life gatecrashes your work party and you miss a send. Write a couple of spare newsletters, with evergreen content, and you will be glad of it when your schedule goes sideways. Otherwise, it’s off to the uranium mines with you! Dave P.S. Writing music this week is Dan Deacon with Become A Mountain. |
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