Everything most people ask before or right after signing up. If yours isn't here, email owen@bookshelfsignal.com and I'll get back to you, usually within a business day.
No. We ask to be added as a collaborator on your own email platform account, at the lowest role that can still draft and send campaigns (never Owner, Admin, or billing access). Newsletters go out under your name, from your account, to your list. You can revoke that access from your platform's settings at any time, no need to contact us first.
The setup guide walks through the invite steps for MailerLite, Kit, Flodesk, Mailchimp, and a few others.
No. Neither plan includes ad spend management. The Shelf plan includes up to 4 ad creative variants a month for you to run through your own ad accounts, but you keep control of the account and the budget.
That's fine. If you're just getting started, we build a list-start plan instead of a straight newsletter calendar, and shift into regular sends once you have subscribers coming in.
Yes, we plan around it. KU and wide authors get different promo cadences (free/discount day timing for KU, multi-platform pacing for wide), and we ask which you are as part of getting started so the calendar fits your setup from week one.
Every cycle, we clean and re-segment your list: removing hard bounces and spam complaints right away, and sorting subscribers into engaged, at-risk, and cold groups (with your ARC team and recent buyers protected from ever being pruned just for going quiet).
It matters for three reasons. First, deliverability — email providers watch bounce and spam-complaint rates, and a dirty list can land your newsletters in spam for everyone, including your most engaged readers. Second, better targeting — future sends and re-engagement campaigns go to people who actually respond, instead of wasting a send on a cold list. Third, early warning — if engaged readers are sliding toward cold across the board, that's often the first sign of a content or cadence problem, and we flag it before it tanks your open rates further.
No. Both Signal and Shelf are month to month. Cancel anytime, no notice period required.
A short Brand Brief form covering your books, voice, and what's live right now, plus collaborator access on your email platform. Both take about ten minutes, and the start-here page links to both once you sign up. After that, a two-minute monthly update keeps your calendar current, no ongoing back-and-forth required.
Kickoff is async by email, so no scheduled call is required. Ongoing, you approve drafts in minutes rather than writing them yourself, that's the point of the service.
Yes. New clients start with a 30-day pilot at no cost (extended to 60–90 days for debut authors without a track record yet), so you can see what a few weeks of ShelfSignal actually looks like before paying anything.
Every deliverable runs through a two-tier check before anything reaches your list, so nothing goes out unreviewed. During your first several weeks, everything gets a full founder review as we calibrate to your voice and titles. Exact turnaround depends on what's due that week, but the weekly report keeps you posted on what shipped and what's next.
We remove our collaborator access from your email platform right away. Any of your material we hold on our side is retained for 30 days in case you want to come back, then deleted.
Email it over and I'll reply personally, usually within a business day.
Email owen@bookshelfsignal.com