Who bought my book? What’s their email name?

Updated 8 Dec 2025:  If you’ve been wondering, “Who bought my book?” there are only two answers:

1. if you sold your book on Amazon or any other online book publishing or distribution platform, they will not provide you with any buyer email names
2. if you were clever and added an eye-catching box in the front and back of your book which offered a freebie of some kind, you WILL end up with an email name 🙂

I have included some examples below of how I achieve this – and I love offering freebies to my potential readers 😀

Why would I need to know EMAIL NAMES?

EXCELLENT question which goes with, “Who bought my book?” 🙂

As an Author, if we have email names of (1) people have bought one or more of our books AND (2) email names of people who have NOT bought our books but HAVE downloaded our freebies, that’s an excellent way to keep in touch.

Imagine we’ve written a new book, and we have a list of people which includes previous customers and people who’ve downloaded one or more of our freebies.  This is absolute GOLD! We can now email our list/s and let them know the exciting news about the upcoming book, or the Meetup in person (or online), the new Podcast episode or the new PDF or download etc.

This makes future marketing to folks who like our writing style sooo much easier 😀

 

Example  #01 • Inside the book

In this marketing book I wrote several years ago, I added a “box” on page 3 suggesting that Readers “register this book” for free book updates and video training. The link I provided was for a form created through Google forms,  and this work very well.

• You may notice that the link starts off with 42 jump.com – this is my own website that I have set up to create short links for myself and clients
• I did this, because other links can be way too long to publish in a book and expect people to type without any errors .

 

Example  #02 • Offer a Freebie Download

Talking about our books on social media is a great way to be found, for example I have created a Koala Colouring book, and I mentioned it on Facebook Groups where they talked about Koalas.

I offered a freebie colouring page as a download, in exchange for an email name, and on the page where people typed their email name I included text to advise they would be added to my Koala updates via email.

This is important because as authors we are not allowed to email people with a view to adding them to one of our lists, unless they know this will happen, and agree.

In the example below:

1. I added a “Pre-Launch Bonus” for my Koala Colouring Book
2. and I provided a LINK so the reader could download a Koala Colouring Page, simply by typing in their email name
3. I now had permission to email each person again and discuss my Koala books – a win-win situation 🙂
4. please note that anyone can download the freebie – it is not necessary to BUY the book or spend any money
5. this type of freebie is quite popular.

This image below is on one of my Author website pages – view it and click the link on this page:

• visit this page – https://teenahughesauthor.com/pre-launch-bonus-for-koala-koala-book-1/

 

Example  #03 • Offer a Short Info Series, via Email 

Depending on the type of books we write, we may want to share information via a series of short emails.  Examples might be:

1. For Artists:  5 daily emails offering one painting technique per day, with text, images, video clips – whichever makes sense for the type of book it relates to
2. For Business Owners:  7 daily emails with clear and simple instructions on a different marketing tip each day, which could include video clips, images and/or text
3. For Authors:  3 daily emails which might provide background info on a story’s location, characters, back stories etc, which might be as downloadable PDFs, mini flip-books on our website etc
4. there is no limit to the type and number of freebies we can offer to keep our audience entertained and keen to see the next book 😀

An example of this is one of my books which you can read more about here:

• https://teenahughesauthor.com/book/50-marketing-secrets-of-successful-women-2017/ 

Another example is from 2010, when I created a Series of 33 Video Tips which became hugely popular! Each day for 33 days, an automated email was sent out to Subscribers including a link to that day’s Video tip 🙂

 

Got more questions about Who Bought My Book?

Did you ask, “Who bought my book?” I hope these ideas helped!

Now you’ve reached the end of tthis article,  I do hope it helps authors understand why it is extremely important to capture email names of customers and potential customers, every day.

Email names have proven time and again that they are the lifeblood of any business as the most reliable way to keep in touch with clients, students, customers etc in a non-pushy, non-invasive way by sharing more information as freebies.

I wish you the very best of luck and if you would like to share any techniques you’ve used which could help other authors, please do let me know and I’ll add those to this page.

Cheerio for now,

Teena Hughes

Check out my Author Tips on Facebook:

• https://www.facebook.com/TeenaHughesAuthor/