Announcing Letters in the Mail
The Rumpus is finally starting a print subscription. We’d like to say this was the plan all along, but we’ve actually never had a plan.
It’s called Letters in the Mail. Almost every week you’ll receive a letter, in the mail. Letter writers will include Dave Eggers, Marc Maron, Stephen Elliott, Janet Fitch, Nick Flynn, Margaret Cho, Cheryl Strayed, Wendy MacNaughton, Emily Gould, Tao Lin, and Jonathan Ames. Think of it as the letters you used to get from your creative friends, before this whole internet/email thing.
And it’s only $5 a month, cheap. Unsubscribe anytime. You can subscribe using the subscriber options below (or just pay for a year upfront):
Purchase a Subscription:
- Domestic ($25)
- International ($42)
- Poetry Domestic ($22)
- Poetry International ($33)
- Book and Poetry Domestic ($42)
- Book and Poetry International ($63)
- Mystery Subscription, Domestic ($18)
- Mystery Subscription, International ($26)
- Letters In The Mail (Domestic) ($5)
- Letters In The Mail (International) ($10)
- Letters For Kids ($4)
- Letters For Kids International ($8)
Already have a subscription? Log in to update it.
January 3rd, 2012 at 12:31 pm
How much do the letter writers get paid? Or do they do it for free?
January 3rd, 2012 at 1:58 pm
The letter writer gets paid. It’s going to depend how many people sign up, but the writer will definitely be paid.
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Is there a way for subscribers to write back? Or would that become problematic?
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Does the writer send a letter to each subscriber or does everyone get a copy of the one letter they wrote to everyone?
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:27 pm
If they include a return address you can write back. It’s up to them.
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:27 pm
The same one is sent to everyone. Otherwise we would have to charge more.
January 3rd, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Thanks for the answer, Stephen!
January 3rd, 2012 at 3:03 pm
So, people pay monthly, but do they know who will be writing each month ahead of time? For example, if I want, say, to hear from Janet Fitch but not from, say, you, will I be able to pick and choose my writer/month? And will that account for a pay differential among writers?
January 3rd, 2012 at 3:12 pm
What, exactly, does “almost every week” mean?
Numerically speaking.
January 3rd, 2012 at 5:33 pm
I’m in. Great idea, Stephen!
January 4th, 2012 at 2:11 am
I. Love. This. We are talking about $5 a month here, right? I mean I don’t mean to demean the whole weekly/less-than-weekly thing because I’m just so fucking eager to have mail from people who don’t want a payment beyond the stated $5/month–but, yeah, I’m just so fucking eager to have mail from people who don’t want a payment beyond the stated $5/month-so-I-don’t-care-how-often-it-actually-happens-because-I-like-surprises-how-bout-you-asshole? Fairly sure I don’t ever actually have a point beyond that.
January 4th, 2012 at 6:46 am
Step outside the echo chamber and get called an asshole?
Nice.
They are valid questions. After supporting DoubleTake, Oxford American, backstreets and various other fanzines, I don’t like “surprises”. And the whole “intern” business model is something I reject, too.
YMMV, but that doesn’t make you an asshole. Not to me, anyway.
January 4th, 2012 at 8:37 am
Happy to pay $5 to get mail other than reminding me what I already owe or offering me the opportunity to owe in the future.
$5 for a friend? A smart, creative friend?
I pay a lot more for sex and don’t get to keep it in my handkerchief drawer with a ribbon and a touch of perfume..
January 4th, 2012 at 8:48 am
Uh… I don’t get the prices listed above. If I pay $25 domestic (the first one listed), does that mean i get 5 letters in the next 5 months? Does that mean all the amounts listed are for a 5 month subscription?
January 4th, 2012 at 9:12 am
agree with Mim. not sure what’s what up there. i like ‘mystery subscription’ but is it the letter thing? is there a number to call? like letters in the mail i like numbers to call too. but an explanation here will suffice too.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:13 am
Ignore all the other options, Mim. Those are different subscriptions that we offer (Book Club, Poetry Book Club, etc). What you’re looking for is Letters in the Mail $5 (or $10 if you’re not in the US).
Thanks!
January 4th, 2012 at 9:18 am
Oh, thanks! Guess I shoulda read the whole list before asking. Story of my life.
January 4th, 2012 at 9:31 am
Uh… one more thing, me (mim) again. i just registered on rumpus for the first time (avid sugar fan, but never bothered to register before) because i thought this would be a cool thing to subscribe to. but as my fingers hovered over the keyboard, about to enter my credit card info, i stopped. You wanna know why? it was the scary open-ended-ness of this — $5/mo automatically charged to my card until i choose to cancel.
But what if I forget all about it? What if the letters stop coming and I never remember to cancel? I would feel much happier to pay for a finite period of time — 6 months? A year? and then have the option to renew, but to know that at the very least i’ll get some official renewal notices in a year and will have to actively renew rather than be charged in perpetuity.
Hell, I’d even be willing to pay $30 up front for 6 months, and then you don’t charge me anything else until i explicitly extend my subscription in July. Any chance you guys will restructure this so it’s not $5/mo, automatically, forever and ever til you cancel it?
January 4th, 2012 at 10:12 am
Hi Mim,
You can pay upfront here: http://therumpus.net/shop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=77
Thanks!
-Isaac
January 4th, 2012 at 10:19 am
if i do the recurring 5 what day of the month will it come out on? yes, i am that broke that i need to keep track down to 5 dollars. i imagine it’ll be the day i first subscribe, but could you please verify this before i go ahead? thanks.
January 4th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
That’s right, you will be charged $5 the first day you subscribe and on that same day monthly.
January 4th, 2012 at 12:18 pm
You seem to have it right, Sarah. $5 per month, recurring. Every letter from a different writer. You’re automatically re-billed. We don’t expect there to be a significant difference of subscribers month to month. It’s not like everyone will just suddenly unsubscribe. Right now a writer would be paid $125. We’re going to raise that if we get significantly more subscribers.
January 4th, 2012 at 1:12 pm
I hope that means Isaac is getting a raise. The quick math (using the current number of subscribers from today’s Daily Rumpus, 4 letters a month and factoring in postage) amounts to a yearly profit just over $8,000. This isn’t a diatribe against making a profit, I just hope a brotha’s beer fund can get some padding!
January 5th, 2012 at 8:28 am
I’m going to sound like a cheap bastard, but if we choose to subscribe for a whole year instead of month by month, a small discount (say, $10 off the whole year) would be the friendly thing to do. I also think the question about what “almost every week” means is valid.
Will the letter come from the writer directly (thus signed, etc.) or are the letters sent to the Rumpus and printed/mailed from there?
Good luck on this innovative idea.
January 5th, 2012 at 8:55 am
I’m trying to subscribe and pay monthly, but I can’t log in with the info I use in the Rumpus Shop. And when I try to re-register by following the Letters in the Mail link, it tells me that my email address is already in use. And if I go to the Rumpus Shop, the only option is to buy annually, for 60 bucks. What’s a girl to do?
January 5th, 2012 at 10:29 am
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane…
January 6th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
I love this!!
January 6th, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Shanna – exactly. 100% my experience as well. Sucks.
January 6th, 2012 at 3:47 pm
Hi Betsy/Shanna/Diamond,
The letters won’t come from the letter writer. They’ll usually be signed, and we’ll copy them, then we’ll print the letters and mail them to you. The margins are too small to give a discount on the year long subscription. We could’ve done that if we hadn’t already started at such a low price. Almost every week means 3 to 4 letters a month. Shanna/Betsy, you can create a new account using a new email address or purchase the year-long subscription. That’s the only solution we have for you. We don’t have a full time technical person at The Rumpus. This is a small operation and we have to keep it simple on our end.
Sorry.
stephen
January 6th, 2012 at 5:05 pm
i’m sorry, too. i love you guys. rock on.
January 7th, 2012 at 9:05 am
Hi, I meant to subscribe to Letters in the Mail a few days ago, really I did, but I didn’t have my payment info with me and I couldn’t get to it and life mightily got in the way and blah, blah, blah, but I’ve got my shit together now, and I’m going to do it, but now I’m stricken because I know that you are mailing them today and I’m gutted because I’m going to miss yours, Stephen, and I really want that one…so I’m asking you, just this once, just because it’s the first one, for me, if I pay for the whole year in advance, might you please send me the first AND second one next week/time? Please?
Actually, you might want to consider, as a matter of policy, offering “back” copies of the few that a new receiver might miss if they subscribe mid-month, particularly since you don’t plan on getting a huge number of incoming subscribers every month…just a thought…
January 10th, 2012 at 12:12 pm
I love the idea. Not sure I love the flat pricing for “international” — I think those of us in Canada might be paying a slight premium over people in, say, Australia.
January 10th, 2012 at 3:08 pm
Would you consider letter by authors for kids in the future?
Just an idea… Rumpus Jr? It kills me that my daughter will never know the connection say- between a pencil and a cassette tape…. or that yes, people once wrote in something known as cursive… or most importantly, things are worth waiting for.
If interested, send me an email, and perhaps you could use my daughter’s school as a test model.
-J
January 11th, 2012 at 10:52 am
ok, peeps. calm down and untwist the knot in your panties. give the rumpus guys/writers a break. a little tweeking of the subscription info and all is well. enjoy!
January 11th, 2012 at 11:38 am
If the letters are as much fun to receive and read as the comments I just read through—life is going to be exciting!!
January 12th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
I concur on the idea for letters by authors for kids, I know a few kids who would be thrilled to get letters in the mail!! And what a great present!
January 12th, 2012 at 4:03 pm
I have been a snail mail letter writer for ages. Can I become a pen pal of someone who wants my whacky British grandmother humor/wisdom, and YOU pay me to write to them? I’d do it in a heart beat. I can rattle off 4 sides of two pages of paper in 45 minutes. Who wants to write to me and I will write back. Plus, I will use commemorative stamps on the envelope. Will you? I sure hope so. Not only will this gladden those of us who are longing for the snail mail letter to arrive, but it will feed the albums of the philatelists who are gloomily awaiting the demise of the postage stamp altogether.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:31 pm
I one hundred % agree with Aureol! I am under 30, and have been writing at least a handful of letters/month since I was a kid corresponding with my grandma in California. Letters are precious, and the ones from my school crushes are in a box that now also includes love letters from my hubby and the scribble drawing soon-to-be-writing of my 3 year-old god daughter. Specifically, to those of you wondering about something like this for kids, my god daughter and I have been trading some neat interactive nature-based letters recently. I would be delighted to participate as one of the pen pal writers, and to perpetuate the letter love.
January 12th, 2012 at 4:54 pm
I am so excited about this – but any chance I can purchase 1 year in advance International
January 13th, 2012 at 6:13 am
Wow. I think this is a great idea and that you guys/gals are to be commended for doing it. I’m kind of amazed, however, at how many petty things people have managed to find wrong with it. Don’t like the idea? Don’t subscribe. End. Thanks, Rumpus.
January 13th, 2012 at 6:33 am
Is Sugar participating?
January 13th, 2012 at 7:49 am
Sugar is participating.
January 15th, 2012 at 11:16 am
how can i gift one month of letters in the mail to a friend?
January 15th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
Hi Jacqueline, we don’t really have a way to gift one month. You can subscribe, and use your friends address for the shipping address, and then cancel your subscription after a month, right away, or whenever you’d like.
January 15th, 2012 at 6:37 pm
I am innamorata with SE and this brilliant idea.
Guess what? Today a virtual friend asked me (amidst a slew of tentative “you can say no…”s) if she could write me a real letter.
It’s a revolution!
January 19th, 2012 at 7:28 am
Has anyone gotten their first letter yet?
January 20th, 2012 at 11:36 am
I got my first letter today! It was from Margaret Cho.
January 21st, 2012 at 5:44 pm
I just received my first letter as well! Quite exciting. The letter was signed Margaret, with no last name included. That was a disappointment. Out of curiosity, how am I supposed to know it was “Margaret Cho”? Thanks.
January 22nd, 2012 at 10:38 am
I have to reiterate comment by Kathleen above. I loved getting a letter from Margaret Cho, but would have appreciated her last name somewhere. Also, I would love to see more distinctive envelopes (there are tons of more interesting stamps out there and please don’t ever get so big you move to pre-printed envelopes). Also maybe a swipe with a highlighter to make the envelope stand out. I love stamp art, for example:
http://ctchew.com/pages/2011/earthsizeelephant.html
and
http://envelopeissi.blogspot.com/
Abrazos,
January 25th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
so, you’ll only bill from the actual date of opening an account? so that means i’ll always be billed on say the 10th if I begin paying on the 10th? It’s a problem with the day i get paid. i’m counting every $5.00 too.
February 6th, 2012 at 10:38 am
Haven’t gotten any letters yet, but it’s been over a month since I registered. Money back or a letter, please! And I hope that my subscription for Jan will cover me for March since I received exactly nothing for my $25.
February 9th, 2012 at 2:36 am
This is a great idea.
February 15th, 2012 at 10:05 am
Unfortunately, I am having the same problem as mlew. I signed up about a month ago in anticipation of Marie Calloway’s letter and have yet to receive it or any letter. Who do I contact about this?
February 22nd, 2012 at 4:36 am
I want to sign up and I have my card ready though I just read a comment saying someone did not receive anything for a month ? Any one clarify why that is ? I don’t want to waste money just because.
April 10th, 2012 at 3:02 pm
If you want handstamped, fun, mail art evelopes for your letters I’d be willing to make them for a cut of that $5. I send between 60 and 80 pieces of mail a month, not including the post cards that I send through postcrossing.com!
You can check on my old blog to see what kinda stuff I make…I’d love to do your envelopes, even if its only every other month or so — to keep things fresh. OOOOhhhhhh, collaborative mail. Very nice!
Seren