What is an author CRM?
- A database tracking everyone relevant to your author career.
- Common tools: Notion, Airtable, HubSpot, spreadsheet.
- Working authors maintain informal CRMs; career authors maintain formal ones.
- Typical scale: 200-1,000 contacts.
- Categories: readers, reviewers, fellow writers, agents, editors, journalists.
An author CRM (customer relationship management system) is a database that tracks every reader, reviewer, fellow writer, agent, editor, and contact relevant to your author career. Most working authors maintain an informal CRM in a spreadsheet or Notion; serious career authors use dedicated CRMs like HubSpot, Notion, or Airtable with 200-1,000 contacts tracked.
Chapter i·Why it matters
Author careers compound through relationships — every reviewer who covered book one is a likely reviewer for book two. Authors who track relationships in a CRM have warm outreach lists for every launch. Authors who don’t track lose 60-80% of their existing network between books.
Chapter ii·What to include
- Reader contacts: newsletter subscribers, super-fans, beta readers.
- Reviewer contacts: BookTokers, bloggers, Goodreads reviewers, journalists.
- Fellow writers: critique partners, blurb sources, conference contacts.
- Industry contacts: agents, editors, publicists, marketers.
- Status per contact: cold, warm, active, dormant.
- Last-contact date and notes.
Chapter iii·Example
A working romance author’s CRM in Airtable has 740 contacts across five categories. For each launch she filters to "warm" and "active" reviewers (about 220 of the 740) and reaches out personally. Her reply rate from this warm list: 35%. From cold outreach: 12%. The CRM compounds value across launches.
WriteLoom holds an author CRM alongside your manuscripts and launches — so relationship context surfaces when you open the launch project.
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