I turned a mail club into my full-time job
The long version of how I launched a mail club and sustained it for a whole year (and counting!)
How I launched and sustained a mail club for a whole year
or, Reflections on a Year of Poem Club
This past June (ie, four months ago lol) marked a year since I started Poem Club. Poem Club is a monthly subscription in which I (an artist-poet) mail you (if you’re subscribed) a poem and a letter every month. In the mail, with a stamp and everything. You can sign up for Poem Club here.
Each month I either write a new poem, or pull and edit one from my archives. I write an accompanying letter that’s conversational and personal while also giving context to the poem. While the poems are usually very considered and tight, I try not to overwork the letters. I want them to feel like I’m writing to just one person. Every letter is hand stamped and hand signed. Poems get folded into the letter, closed with a sticker or bow, stuffed into envelopes, and sent all over the world.
I started this project half on a whim and half because I’ve been thinking about it for years. The whim was actually deciding to sit down and do it one day. There are lists of ideas for my studio that date two years prior that include a monthly mail project, even going so far as to call it Poem Club. But it’s equally true that I didn’t plan any of it before throwing it into the void. I didn’t price my materials out or set goals or create a new email address. I didn’t figure out all the details and I definitely didn’t think more than 20 people were going to sign up. The last time I wrote extensively about Poem Club was July 2024, after a video I made about it blew up (for me, virality is different for everyone) and I went from 213 members to 1,011 in the span of a few days.
Since then I often get questions about how I did it, how they can do it, how I marketed it, how I grew it, etc. etc. etc. My answer is always: it was an accident. The second answer is that there are a lot of different ways you can do something like this, and a lot of other people besides me doing it. I’m not really qualified to give anyone a how-to. I frequently google questions like “Failed payment segment Shopify” and “Best printer envelopes.” I study other artists who are doing the same thing and wonder how they’ve managed to do xyz. I actually have no clue what I’m doing a lot of the time.
So, this isn’t a how to. This is simply an account of the first 12 months of Poem Club, with some technical details. It feels a little self involved to write a whole long post about this. Like, maybe I should shut up and move in silence or whatever. But I’ve spent the past year putting all of my energy into this project, and I want to recognize all the tiny agonies that went into it.
Ooops I started a business
(June, July & August)
The first few months of Poem Club were a fever dream of figuring out a bunch of details I hadn’t even considered, like how I was going to export address labels when I’d never done that before, or where I was going to get everything printed and how much it would cost.
I was so convinced that first month that not many people would sign up, that I didn’t want to put it on Shopify or upgrade my Squarespace plan to be able to sell a subscription product. I was scared I wouldn’t break even. So, I followed the lead of my internet friend Catdroool, who has a risograph print club, and created a subscription product link directly through Stripe. Stripe takes a cut of the CC fees, but every platform does, and there’s no overhead because it’s not a e-commerce website, it’s a payment processor. When you create a product link you’re basically creating a check out page. I’m sooo grateful to have found Hannah, knowing she had done something similar made me feel like it was something I could do too.
That first day, I laid out a poem from my archives (four copies on one 8.5x11 page) to be printed on ivory card stock, and trimmed into 4x5 cards. I filmed a video of me packing the first prototype, set up the Stripe product, put the link in my bio, and posted the video. I went back and forth on the price—$5 or $7? I didn’t price out my costs, I chose $5 because it seemed more approachable. The first video performed better than I could have expected. When I hit 50 members, my partner R bought me a bottle of champagne, which is really sweet when I think about how big the list is now. By the time I shipped the first month I had just over 200 subscribers.
I planned to print them myself, but realized pretty quickly that I would have to outsource, mostly because my printer kind of sucks. I was super brave and called a bunch of places to price check, and the cheapest option ended up being the local one (s/o Chip, who helps me print every month). In the span of a few very long days I packaged the June poems. I didn’t have any production workflows or have any idea how much time things were going to take me. There are a lot of small production steps that make up a month of Poem Club, and I was new to every single one of them. (Not new to all the actions—but new to the quantity and flow.)
In July, the second video I made about Poem Club took off on TikTok and Instagram, and I went from having 213 subscribers, to just over 1,000. I was actually out of town when it happened, and I ended up capping the list at 1,011 members because I knew I was going to have to cram all the production into a few days when I got home. Sitting on my friend’s couch watching the list grow felt unreal. That was the first time I let myself really think that supporting myself this way full time might actually be possible.
I realized pretty quickly that I wanted to move Poem Club onto a real platform. The downside to Stripe is that it isn’t really built to manage customers or set up for shipping physical things. There’s not a way (as far as I know, I might be wrong) to export shipping information from the list of active subscribers, only from the list of payments, which is annoying, and I was updating info and cancelling subscriptions manually. (There is actually a customer portal you can enable, but I didn’t realize this until after I’d moved to Shopify—re: I have no clue what I’m doing.) So I decided that I’d close the list, and then re-open it in the fall when I figured some shit out and could move it to Shopify. In the meantime I set up a waitlist so I’d have some way to reach people directly that didn’t involve an algorithm.
I inched along during July & August figuring out my workflows. I timed myself doing literally every step of the process. Everyday I felt like a baby deer walking on brand new legs. In August I got married and went on a honeymoon, which in retrospect, no clue how I managed to get everything done. It helped that we got married on August 22, which was after I shipped out the poems for the month.
Let’s try that again, but this time good
(September, October)
In September I put in hours of work to set up Shopify. Setting up a Shopify store could be a whole post in its own right, because it’s kind of complicated. I had to decide which subscription app to use (I use one called Seal Subscriptions), set up flat rate shipping, do my best to build a homepage, link a subdomain, etc. etc. etc. I am not an expert in Shopify. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and did a lot of googling, which is what I recommend doing if you need to set something like this up on your own. I got a PO Box, made lots of “longterm” lists, confronted my fear of failure, and maybe my fear of success.
I quietly opened the list for a couple dozen spots in the middle of September, keeping myself hovering around the 1,000 member mark. Production still felt really overwhelming, though I was finding my footing with it. In October I did my first big opening for another 500 spots. I was so so so nervous that none of them would sell, that it was “too late” and that no one would care anymore. Those spots ending up filling up in about 3 hours. If you want to listen to me verbally process my emotions about that opening, watch this video.
F*ck I overcommitted
(November, December)
The holiday season was super hectic and honestly I didn’t prepare properly. In addition to doing Poem Club, I also made and sold calendars for my project (Today is), and ending up selling a stack of original paintings too. Oh, plus I made a zine to go with the calendars and put it off until the last minute. There was a lot of scrambling to get the zines made, calendars promoted, listed, and shipped, while also getting the poems out.
In early December I opened the list again and added another 500 members, going from 1500 to 2000. I am glad I did that, because I was able to continue the momentum from the waitlist, but it meant my workflows and timelines once again had to shift to accommodate the additional work. As a result I was pretty stressed out for most of December. I worked a lot of long days and drove home crying more than once.
Another thing to note is that there is a lot of administrative work that goes into a project like this. Not only figuring out how to set up a website, take payments, charge for shipping, etc, but also answering emails, dealing with returned and/or lost mail, and all of the customer service work that comes with any consumer business. While the admin has never been a full-time job hours wise, there is literally always something that needs to be handled, someone that needs to be responded to, and something on the back end that I probably need to update. The never-endingness of customer service and the lingering feeling that I was always letting someone down was super stressful to me, which is why I decided in 2025 I would prioritize hiring a virtual assistant.
Baby’s first employee
(January, February, March)
In the new year, while emotionally recovering from November & December, I bought a paper folding machine, which has saved me so much time. There are 12 production steps to get the poems from me to you. Printing poems & letters, stamping letters, signing letters, folding letters, collating poem cards, sticker closures, bow closures, stuffing envelopes, sealing envelopes, printing address labels, adhering address labels, putting stamps on. (This doesn’t count all of the creative or administrative tasks, of course.)
The bows technically take the longest—30 seconds to tie one bow—but because of this I only tie 100 letters with bows every month (they get sent out randomly). The second longest step was folding the letters. The folding machine (a WBBM 98M) turns this 12 hour job into a 45 minute job, so while it was an investment at $940, it was a worthwhile one.
Streamlining things was important because in February I traveled to Portland to work for Valentine’s Day (my other job is floristry) and I wanted to be 90% done with February Poem Club by the time I left. I was so proud of myself for getting everything done on time, and I felt so prepared being ahead on production.
In February I also created a job listing for my VA, reviewed resumes and emails, and scheduled interviews with four people. It felt so weird to be in charge of hiring someone. I remember sitting at the airport bar before Valentine’s Day, drinking a glass of white wine and setting up interviews, feeling soooo grown up. My VA started working for me in early March, and though the workload is small enough that I could technically still do it myself, it is so worth it to me to pay someone for a few hours a week. Just to know I’m not the only person looking at the emails is amazing.
God Bless GCal
(April, May)
In April I really fine tuned my process for creating a production calendar. In Google Calendar, I assign each production task to a day in the month, using a different color for each month. I always mail the poems on the 20th, so I can work backwards from that date. Only doing one production task per day helps me stay sane, and also in the future will help with growth—I could add another 1,000 members because while it would add more production time, limiting one task to a day gives me space to add that extra work.
My production calendar is my life line. You can watch a video of me talking about it here. There are many more complicated ways to do this, with more functionality, but this way works for my brain. I was able to take a trip for my best friend’s baby shower at the end of April, and work Mother’s Day at a flower shop in NJ, and mail out the May poems on time. I have since mapped out my production through February 2026, and doing this will allow me (barring anything out of the ordinary happening) to take the week of Christmas off this year so hopefully I won’t cry so much in December.
It took nearly the entire year to truly feel like I had a handle on my production workflows. And while there is a part of me that wishes I hadn’t capped my list, wishes that I’d encouraged the momentum from those first viral videos, I know that I would have been so overwhelmed. Now that I truly feel confident in my production and have the support of a VA, I know that if (hopefully when!) Poem Club grows, I’ll be able to manage it.
Happy Birthday Poem Club!
(June, again)
It’s been the longest and shortest year. And of course, now it’s been quite a few months since the anniversary. I had every intention of writing this in June, but it was a busy month. I shipped all my supplies to Portland, OR and worked there so I could support my best friend when she gave birth. I was able to do all the production in one of my mentors studio spaces, so it sort of felt like a little residency. It is amazing to be in charge of my schedule and have the ability to move my work across the country for a whole month.
I wanted to make the first anniversary extra special, so in addition to designing a sticker to go with the poem, I decided to tie bows on all 2,000 letters. This took about a week of production time. I tied bows on friends couches, during book club meetings, outside, and while watching so much TV. Hopefully I’ll be able to make that an annual tradition, so look for a bow next June.
In June I also raised the price of the membership for new members, from $5 to $8. While it is a significant jump, this price is still less than two cups of coffee (or one fancy coffee, lets be real) and it ensures I’ll be able to maintain this project. I really recommend pricing out your materials and overhead before deciding on how much to charge, which I did not do, lol.
I’ve since opened the list up on a more permanent basis—I’d like to grow Poem Club to 3,000 members. Though I do still have a waitlist, growth has been slower the last few months, so it will probably take me a while (or another viral video) to hit that number. Regardless, I am so lucky to have spent the last year writing poetry and sharing it with so many people. If you’re one of them, thank you so much for being here. If you want to be one of them, you can join Poem Club here.
Resources & Platforms I use:
Shopify
Poem Club is hosted on Shopify with the help of Seal Subscriptions, I use Locksmith to password protect products when need be, I use Shopify’s native Email app to communicate with the waitlist.
Stripe
The original members (of which there are about 500 remaining) are still hosted on Stripe.
Google Sheets & Docs
To print address labels each month I maintain a Google Sheet with the addresses for original members, and export the Shopify orders into a super smart Google Sheet my little brother programmed for me, which separates all orders by shipping location (domestic and international) and product (Poem Club and Postcard Poem Club). Addresses are exported into a Google Docs template and printed with my laser printer onto label sheets.
Notion
I track all my production steps in Notion, as well as host a team page with SOPs and tracking pages for my assistant and I to use. I <3 Notion.
InDesign & Pages
Poems and letters are usually formatted in Pages and occasionally in InDesign when there are graphics (February & July this year). Letters are set in Courier and poem cards are set in Adobe Calson Pro.
Paper
My standard ivory paper is Neenah index ivory, provided by my local print shop. Colored paper comes from a variety of sources including The Paper Mill, French Paper, and Paperworks. Envelopes are currently sourced from Amazon, I would really like to find a better wholesale source this year (if anyone has a good envelope source lmk).
Paper Folder
I use a Whittaker Brothers WBBM 98M Manual Tabletop Paper Folder. The price has risen since I purchased it but I would still buy it today!
Ink Stamps
Both my return address stamp and my circle Poem Club stamp are from Vista Print. The featured poet stamp is from Simply Stamps.
Postage
Postage is by far the most expensive part of this whole thing, so I’d be remiss not to mention USPS, where I buy all my stamps and with whom I deliver all of the poems. <3
Final Note:
While this post is obviously quite long, I know I didn’t cover absolutely everything. Feel free to drop any questions in the comments here and I will do my best to answer them!
Xo,
B
Hi Brittany! This was so helpful and inspiring! A huge congratulations on your success with it ✨️🫶 I just turned my design-centered substack newsletter into an e-zine (just published Issue 1 the other day 🤗) and have been thinking about starting a mail club for my illustrations for the past many months... maybe this is the sign i needed to start! 🤗✨️🫶
this is incredible. I have been thinking of doing something similar with songs, but was missing some dots... this connected it for me. thank you for your generosity in sharing so openly your process.