Unsubscribing

​When I published my first historical novel in 2013 (can it be three years ago already?) I felt alone in the writer’s world.  Yes, I had friend writers and a cadre of friends and writing professionals that helped me launch that first book.  However, I wasn’t connected to the rest of the world.
At the time the solution was simple.  Join.  I joined everything came to my notice from people on twitter, facebook, blogs, and many author groups.  I could receive up to 10 e-mails a day with newsletters, notifications and people wanting to sell me services; especially people wanting to sell me services.  At the time, everything landed in one giant e-mail box.  I didn’t want to set up separate e-mail accounts for personal and author business.  Through my website (www.rexowens.us) I have a web e-mail account and it is rarely used, except by companies who want to sell me a service or software.
Sometime in the past two years, I don’t recall when G-mail started categorizing e-mails into primary, social, promotion and forums.   I must have set up filters to distinguish each e-mail received or maybe g-mail recommended how to do it and I just followed their recommendation.  That is the most likely isn’t it?  Anyway, that was useful and for the first time I saw how many social an promotion e-mails I receive – a lot more than primary e-mail from people I actually know.
In the last few weeks I found myself spending a lot of time deleting e-mail that I don’t read.  My wife asked me why I spent so much time in that useless activity each day.  I didn’t have an answer.  The she uttered the magic word:  Unsubscribe.  I had to ask how.  It turns out that at the very bottom of the e-mail in the tiniest print allowed there, buried among a lot of other rubbish, is the word – “Unsubscribe.”  When you click on it you’re whisked away to a screen that gives you a lot of choices about how to unsubscribe.  I always choose “All”.  There is always a box provided to tell them why you don’t want to receive their e-mails any longer.  I never fill that box in, although from the business perspective, it is useful information.  I’ve learned that if you don’t give them a reason in some cases the Unsubscribe becomes nil and void and you continue to receive the e-mails.  I think that is rude.  I keep unsubscribing until the company tires of my request and finally drop my name from their list.
It’s a refreshing experience and I estimate that I’ve gained about an hour a day which is 365 hours a year or more than 45 days.  I can do a lot of things with 45 extra days.  So, my advice to readers is – review your e-mail.  If you have e-mail that is deleted and not read – Unsubscribe.