You’ll need to sign up for my new list on MailChimp IF you want to be on my email list in the future.
This is why:
Recently, the EU passed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). While I am not in the EU, some of you on my email list are. Because of this, I have to delete my old email list and create a brand new one. (There was a way to keep the old list, but I failed twice to make that list work. I’m not tech savvy. I had to create a brand new list.)
The new list is GDPR compliant. I ran a couple of tests, and everything worked fine.
What the new form is about:
I have to notify you that your information is being stored in MailChimp on my behalf. That means I have access to your email and (optional) first and/or last name. The email is required. I can’t email you unless I have an email address.
I also have to notify you that the purpose of having this information is so that I can send you emails about my new books and the occasional special offer (which is super rare). I usually ONLY email when I have a new book out.
There are two boxes you’ll have to check in order to agree to be on the list. These are required by the new internet laws.
What’s the process for signing up again (or signing up for the first time):
Today I am sending out an email via MailChimp to everyone on my old list. The subject will read: “New Internet Laws Require You To Sign Up Again”. This will tell you what to do.
Or, if you’d rather sign up through this blog, click on this link. On the page will be a big red circle with the words “Sign Up”. Click on that to get to the form.
What will happen when you click on the link to sign up:
1. You’ll go to a form to fill out. Once you submit the information, you will confirm you are not a robot. After that, an email will come into your email. (Check your spam folder. Usually, it takes a few minutes, but there might be a time delay.)
2. You will get an email saying “Ruth Ann Nordin’s New Books: Please Confirm Subscription” in your inbox. If you still want to be on it, then click the Yes, subscribe me to the list. If you don’t confirm the subscription, you won’t be on the list.
3. You will go to a screen that confirms your subscription.
4. But wait, there’s more. To make sure you really, really, really want to be on this list, another email will come to your inbox. The email confirms your subscription, along with the information you have allowed me (at my MailChimp account) to hold on file. It’s a confirmation of your consent, which is important for GDPR purposes. It helps to cover my bases.
What I do with this information:
All I do with it is send you an email when I have a new release or (rarely) a special offer. I won’t share it. I won’t give it away. I won’t sell it. Your information is kept private. I don’t store it anywhere but on MailChimp.
I can’t sign up for you.
You have to do this yourself so that MailChimp knows you really want to be on it. Otherwise, I can be accused of spamming. I don’t want to spam anyone. I only want you on the list IF you want to be on it. And when you do this yourself, you’re telling MailChimp that I have your permission to store your information and to send you emails.
Ruth Ann Nordin's Author Blog 
I totally didn’t want to like this post. Mostly because I have to do the same thing in the next week or two and I can’t imagine any of my subscribers wanting to jump through these hoops anymore than I have to set these hoops up. What a pain but I’m glad you got through the process with your sanity intact. 🙂
Shoot. I forgot when I run my virus/spyware programs, all of my login info goes out the window, though it did let me like the post before booting me off to log in for the comment part. LOL…it’s not boding well for me to set up the GDPR thing, is it? 😀
Anyway, I’m glad you got everything set up with your sanity intact. It’s too bad so many unscrupulous people have infringed on the privacy of others so that now honest, decent business people have to make their followers jump through these hoops.
Let me know if you need help on figuring out the MailChimp thing and getting the sign up form to be GDPR compliant. It was a pain for me to figure out, and that was even having a good friend helping me.
As I said, I had to create a new list. There is a way to do it with an existing list and simply getting the current subscribers to accept the terms. I couldn’t figure that out. Maybe you can. I know a couple of authors who did. I lost over half my subscribers, but I expected that since half weren’t even opening the emails anyway.
I don’t think anyone wants to deal with all of these hoops, but I agree that this is the result of unscrupulous people’s actions. It hurts a lot of innocent people.