Ev BogueA month or two ago, I changed the name of my daily blog to free daily letters.
This change in name was signaled by an internal change in the way I do my work. It acknowledged what I already knew: as a writer, I've been growing away from the blog as a platform.
A large number (2,881 at this writing) of my readers are getting my work via email. Almost all of my paying customers are receiving my work in their inboxes.
I started blogging when it was in its infancy in 1999. Over time, I worked at two professional blogging companies: Gawker Media and New York Magazine. I became a professional writer with a blog in 2009-2010, when my blog Far Beyond The Stars was read far and wide.
This year, my engagement with blogging as a platform has been dwindling. And now, as we approach the end of the year, I want to experiment with untethering from the platform entirely in order to focus on an element of writing that I've been exploring for most of this year: writing for inboxes.
The change for me started (as changes typically do for me) during the month-long digital sabbatical I took in July. I began looking over the shoulders of computer users at coffee shops. What I saw was people living in their inboxes.
When I plugged back in, I noticed this in myself too. I enjoyed using my inbox again. I was getting many of my favorite writers delivered to my inbox. I feel safe in my inbox. I know I have control of what it looks like, how it feels, and who emails me there.
Writing for inboxes is different than writing for blogs. As I attempted to write for both, I found myself caught in the middle of two forms, as if I was trying to write for a newspaper and a magazine at the same time.
For much of this year, I see now that I've been shifting towards writing for inboxes. Today, I'm taking the leap, burning my boats.
Starting tomorrow...
The free daily letter will be written for inboxes only. There will no longer be a chronological blog-type archive of my free daily work. If you've been reading on Evbogue.com or via RSS you'll need to subscribe to continue receiving my work.
If you're reading this in your inbox, there's no need to do anything. You'll continue to receive free and/or paid letters as normal.