The Things I've Learned In The First Month Of My Snail Mail Club
Last month I launched The Cottage Diaries - a countryside lifestyle magazine, distilled into a charming monthly hand-illustrated mailing. I thought I'd sit down and tell you honestly what it's actually been like so far.
The part nobody warns you about
I thought starting a mail club would simply be a way to get my art out into the world. I wasn't prepared for how much else would come with it.
Getting subscribers is hard. Genuinely hard. I knew this going in, on some level, but knowing it and living it are different things. It's tempting to scroll through other people's accounts and think everyone else is gaining subscribers effortlessly, and you're the only one struggling. I don't think that's true. I think most of us are just quiet about the slow parts.
Becoming a content creator by accident
A big part of that slowness comes down to promotion, which turns out to be a skill in its own right. Learning how to stop someone mid-scroll isn't a switch you flip, it's something you build slowly, through a lot of trial and error. That's meant becoming a content creator almost by accident: trial reels, visual hooks, sound hooks, product photography, lighting, layout. It's a lot to learn all at once, and I wasn't prepared for quite how much skilling up it would take.
Even the paper fights back
The physical side of the club has its own learning curve too. Every card, every insert, every vellum wrap takes far longer to format than I expected. If you're printing everything yourself, get ready to go through a tree's worth of paper before something finally looks the way you pictured it.
The parts I didn't see coming - the good kind
Alongside all that steep learning, there's been a lot I've genuinely enjoyed. I made my own playlist for the first time. Worked out how to turn it into a QR code. Discovered there's a whole world of decorative paper punches out there, perfect for finishing off a bookmark edge. Small things, but they've added up to a month of learning I didn't see coming.
Making space for the slower parts has changed something in me too. Giving myself time to really sit and think about how I feel about the seasons, and about that particular month, has made me notice my surroundings in a way I didn't expect. I hoped my subscribers would feel more present because of the Diaries. I didn't expect it to do the same for me.
Why I keep going
Underneath all the new skills is the part that keeps me at it: using my artwork like this, letting it actually live inside something someone holds in their hands, that feels good. I love letting my imagination run wild with what to put into each mailing, digging into research, bringing together everything I love: painting, noticing nature, watching the seasons change.
And when a new subscriber signs up? It feels like winning the lottery. Every. Single. Time.
What I'd tell you, one month in
Don't compare your beginning to someone else's end.
The unglamorous parts, the wasted paper (always recycled), the postage, the trial and error, these things are the job, not a detour from it.
Slow doesn't mean small forever.
The frustrating days are still part of the good thing you're building and embrace it all because whilst you are building a snail mail club, you are growing too!
I'm only into my second month, but I think I've found my life's work. I really do. And I'll take the frustrating moments, because alongside them I'm learning things that are quietly changing how I work and think, in ways that go well beyond the mail club itself.
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