Are newsletter swaps still worth it in 2026?

@draft_zero OP

2mo ago

I did a ton of newsletter swaps back in 2023 and they grew my list nicely, but lately my swap signups feel like dead weight. Low opens, almost no buyers. Are swaps still pulling their weight for anyone, or has the well been poisoned by too many of us doing the same thing?

10 comments

@emdash_emma2mo ago

They still work but the bar for vetting has gone way up. The poison is people swapping with anyone to hit numbers. I now only swap when the partner's genre is a tight match and their open rate is above 40 percent. I straight up ask in the booking message. If they dodge the question I pass.

@plotholes_anon2mo ago

What counts as a tight genre match in your book? I write upmarket women's fiction and I'm never sure if 'general fiction' people are fine or a trap.

@emdash_emma2mo ago

For you I'd want their featured book to share comp authors with yours, not just a broad shelf. 'General fiction' is usually a trap because it means their list is a grab bag and your signups will be tourists. Ask them who their top three comps are. If they overlap with yours, swap.

@slowburn_sam2mo ago

The thing that fixed swaps for me was segmenting. Swap signups go into a separate tag in my email tool, and I send them a three-email welcome sequence before they ever touch my main broadcasts. If they don't open any of the three, they get cut. My main list opens went from 28 to 44 percent once I stopped letting cold swap traffic drag the average down.

@draft_zeroOP1mo ago

This segmenting idea is exactly what I was missing. I've been dumping everyone into one bucket and then wondering why opens crater after a swap. Going to build a welcome sequence this week.

@midnight_edits1mo ago

I tracked my last ten swaps in a spreadsheet: signups, 30-day open rate, and buyers attributed by a discount link in the welcome sequence. Three of the ten produced 80 percent of the buyers. Now I only rebook those three and partners who look like them. Swaps aren't dead, undisciplined swapping is.

@draft_zeroOP1mo ago

This thread basically rewrote my whole approach. Takeaway for me: tight genre match, demand the open rate, segment swap traffic, and judge it at 60 days not day one. Thanks all.

@the_understudy1mo ago

StoryOrigin vs BookFunnel matters more than people admit. StoryOrigin's swap matching shows you partner open rates and lets you filter by genre, which makes vetting fast. BookFunnel is better for delivery but you do the partner-finding yourself. I use SO to find, BF to deliver.

@comma_kira1mo ago

One quiet killer: group promos disguised as swaps. A 40-author multi-author giveaway dumps hundreds of freebie-hunters on you who signed up for a Kindle, not your book. Those tank everything. A true one-to-one swap where each of you features the other's actual book still converts for me at a few percent to buyers.

@verse_and_vice1mo ago

Worth saying out loud that swaps grow the list, they don't sell books by themselves. The sale happens later from your nurture and your next launch. If you measure a swap by same-day sales you'll always be disappointed. I measure it by how many are still opening 60 days later.