Last week was the 52nd week of me sending Friday letters to the readers.
One of the beauty of email newsletters is: it is not social media. It is not noisy. There are no likes, comments, shares. The reader can read on their own फुर्सत. If the reader didn’t have time to login to their social media, it’s okay, s/he is not going to miss out on the letter. It will be their inbox whenever they have time.
On the writer’s part, there are a different level of benefits. For one, there is no “reactions” addiction. Nothing much and instantaneous is expected. It is close to what Shree Krishna shared with Arjuna:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥
Loosely translated: You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty.
But that’s philosophical. The writer definitely wants to write better, get feedback, and expand the reach.
THINKING BEFORE SENDING
The most powerful benefit and responsibility for the writer in email newsletter writing is to think twice before sending out the letter. To make homework not to be proven wrong or not to spam the reader. Because there is no “delete” button. A letter landed in a reader’s inbox is a commitment. Quite opposite of social media postings.
The last one year also provided me with a perspective on what else can be improved or introduced in this newsletter readers’ network.
Something that’s easy for everyone to engage with and benefit immensely.
I’m contemplating introducing two things now:
- Opportunity Sharing: Job opportunities shared by readers, for readers.
- Guest Contributions: Collaborative or standalone letter by the readers.
Let’s see when we are able to see these additions to the Friday letters.
THE SYMBIOSIS OF WRITER AND READER
Now, how can I end this post without talking about readers (again)?
Upon delivery of the 52nd letter, I had an interesting exchange with someone. I replied to their email by my way of expressing gratitude. By telling a story: I’m reading Three Body Problem and one of the passages was interesting. (The whole book series is interesting). It says, let’s say we created a perfect computer simulation to mimic Earth’s evolution for last 4 billion years. And we add all known-unknown factors that act on the evolution. But we just remove one factor: living beings. Do you know what the present-day Earth would look like? Barren, Mars-like planet with on water. The Earth needs the living beings as much as the living beings need her.
The writer and the reader are in a symbiotic relationship. One gets barren without the other.
Cheers and thanks to everyone to push a lazy bones like me to continue dropping the letters.
[LINK-1] Get Friday letters in your inbox → fridaynl.clubNo, it is not a club or a cult. It is just the cheapest domain I could get.