What happened to my email?
Ever wonder why you haven’t heard from your favorite author? You enjoy their books, and you signed up for their newsletter. Then . . . nothing. You never heard from them.
But you probably did – you just didn’t know it.
There’s a real problem with email service providers getting emails to the people who want to read them. It’s not malicious, per say, but it is overstepping while trying to be helpful. The intent is to keep out the true spammers. The ones trying to sell you things you didn’t ask for, or worse, trying to deceive you.
Unfortunately, the net to catch the bad eggs, also catches the good.
However, there are ways to ensure you have control over the emails you really want to read. Sometimes all you need to do is add the author to your contact list, but that’s not always effective. I know because I did that to myself. I used a second email address and added myself as a contact, under a different name as a test. Every email to that name went to my spam folder.
The better solution is called whitelisting – and it sounds technical, difficult, and time-consuming. I know, I thought so too. But I can assure you that it is none of those things. In fact, it’s really simple.
One reason it seems complicated is because if you list out the steps, it seems like a lot. It’s better in visual form. I made a landing page with the instructions that I’ve recently added to my welcome email, but it’s a catch 22. If you don’t get the email, you can’t get the instructions.
That’s why I’m putting them here as well.
First, if you’re using any email client other than Gmail, visit whitelist.guide and choose your email provider.
If you are using Gmail, the only foolproof way to whitelist a sender is to create a filter that categorizes the sender’s emails as belonging in the Primary inbox. This is not complicated at all, and takes less than 20 seconds. (It can only be done in a browser, though, not in a smartphone app.)
First, click the three dots in the right-hand corner of the email and choose “Filter messages like these.”
Then, make sure the “From” line says “kellynjanebooks@gmail.com” or any author you’ve signed up to receive emails from, and click “Create filter.”
Finally, check “Never send to Spam,” Categorize the email as “Primary,” check “Also apply filters to matching conversation(s),” and click “Create filter” again.
That’s it! Now you can enjoy receiving the emails you signed up for. I hope that helps.
If you haven’t signed up to receive my weekly emails, be sure to fill in the information to the right and get your free copy of Realm of Sea Castles!