We’re all tired of screens. Even ereaders are wearing thin on my eyes. To refresh my brain, I’ve been looking for new ways to read offline. The coolest new thing I’ve found are snail mail subscription clubs.
There are hundreds of them now, and they’re all a little different, but the basics are as follows: Once a month, or once a week, you’ll get an envelope in the mail with a letter. Sometimes that letter will include a self-contained story, and sometimes the stories will build from letter to letter or month to month.
Snail mail subscriptions are a really cool category, but because the category is growing so fast, it can be difficult to decide which clubs to try first.
Here are my fifteen favorite letter clubs for book lovers. These are my personal favorites, but if you want to see the full range, Letterclubs.com has a directory of 250+ clubs.
1. Famous Author Letters (by Letterjoy)
Price: From $14/month | Frequency: Weekly | Ships: Worldwide
This is for those of you with dreams of writing the next great American novel. You’ll receive weekly letters with writing advice from Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and other famous authors, reproduced on parchment or stationery in period-appropriate style. Reading Woolf write to a friend about her own work is a different object than reading her novels. It gives the writing a context that a biography can gesture at but never quite deliver. Rated 4.8 stars.
Best for: Literary history fans, aspiring authors, and anyone who wants to know the writers behind the books.
2. Mythbridger
Price: $25/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: Worldwide
Mythbridger is an editor’s pick on Letter Clubs, and the distinction holds up. Subscribers get handcrafted letters from characters inside an original mythological world, plus lore documents, hand-drawn maps, and collectible artifacts. No spine, no table of contents. For fantasy readers who have burned through their TBR list and are tired of waiting on sequels, it scratches the same itch one envelope at a time. Rated 4.8 stars.
Best for: Fantasy readers, worldbuilding enthusiasts, and gift recipients who like interactive fiction.
3. Dear Holmes Mysterious Mail
Price: From $14/month | Frequency: Weekly letters, monthly mysteries | Ships: Worldwide
If you like mystery novels or detective games, this is the letter subscription for you. Every month you’ll solve a victorian-era mystery using four letters mailed to your door. Weekly letters from Holmes, Watson, and other canonical characters, plus a full monthly mystery case. And you can even write back! Rated 4.8 stars.
Best for: Mystery fans, Sherlock Holmes devotees, and readers who want to participate rather than just receive.
4. Epistolary
Price: From $8.25/month | Frequency: Twice monthly | Ships: US only
Enjoy epistolary delivers stories told through letters, documents, and physical artifacts mailed over 12 months. Genres rotate: mystery, romance, horror. It is not a binge read. The narrative builds across a year of arrivals and the format requires that you sit with it. Under $10 a month for twice-monthly delivery puts it among the more accessible options for readers who want to test the format before committing to higher-priced tiers.
Best for: Literary fiction readers, fans of epistolary novels like Dracula or The Color Purple, and readers who like stories that take their time.
5. Storyville Letters
Price: From $11.41/month | Frequency: Twice monthly | Ships: Worldwide
Most letter subscriptions wrap their fiction in a puzzle mechanic or a roleplay conceit. Storyville skips that and delivers the story directly. Twice-monthly pacing keeps it close to what serialized fiction readers expect, and worldwide shipping under $12 a month is rarer than it should be. Covers mystery, romance, and literary fiction.
Best for: Fiction readers who want a story first. A practical pick for international gift-giving.
6. Mail Order Mystery
Price: $29.99/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: US and Canada
Each month: a new case, physical evidence, suspect profiles, a mystery to solve. This is less a reading subscription than a participation one. Readers who have worked through most of the mystery genre and want something that pushes back will get more out of it than passive readers will. Rated 4.6 stars.
Best for: Active mystery readers, puzzle fans, and crime fiction enthusiasts who want something hands-on.
7. Tin Box Letters
Price: From $14.99/month | Frequency: Twice monthly | Ships: US only
Twenty-four letters delivered over a year, each one a chapter in a single unfolding story. Victorian serialized fiction ran on the same model; Dickens and Conan Doyle both published their works in installments. The appeal here is the same as it was then: anticipation between deliveries, and the satisfaction of knowing there is an actual ending coming. Subscribers get a complete arc, not an open-ended correspondence.
Best for: Serialized fiction readers, Victoriana fans, gift recipients who want a beginning, middle, and end.
8. The Mossheart Mail Club
Price: From $11.42/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: Worldwide
Each Mossheart delivery includes a letter, original watercolor art, a cozy fantasy story, and an accompanying audiobook. Readers who move between text and audio get more per envelope than a single-medium subscription offers. The illustration-heavy packaging photographs well and usually lands as a gift before the recipient even opens it.
Best for: Cozy fantasy fans, readers who also listen to audiobooks, and anyone who responds to art alongside words.
9. Literary Letters Co
Price: $6.50/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: Worldwide
The most affordable subscription on this list at $6.50 a month, and it ships worldwide. Personal letters from literary figures throughout history: the raw material that biographers spend careers quoting from. A letter from Keats or George Eliot formatted as physical mail lands differently than the same text in a footnote.
Best for: Serious literary readers, biography enthusiasts, and readers who want primary sources.
10. The Poetry Post
Price: GBP 8/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: Worldwide
One poem a month from an emerging poet, printed on letterpress paper. Based in the UK. The format treats the poem as a physical object rather than a scroll-past on a screen, and for readers who find full collections hard to get into, a single poem arriving in an envelope is a lower barrier of entry than buying a book. The letterpress printing makes each delivery look like something worth keeping.
Best for: Poetry readers, literary gift-givers, and anyone looking for a snail mail subscription that does something different.
11. The Soulmates Post
Price: $14/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: US and Canada
A monthly letter subscription built around a single book: a personal essay about it, handwritten notes, and occasional literary extras tucked inside the envelope. The writing is the thing here, not the packaging. For readers who like to hear how someone else moved through a book, the format delivers something a review or a book club meeting rarely does: an intimate account of what a piece of writing actually did to a person.
Best for: Devoted readers, book club members who want something more personal, or anyone who reads with a pen in hand.
12. The Analog Life
Price: $12/month | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: US and Canada
A monthly letter from a book lover to book lovers: reading recommendations, literary essays, and curated finds. The premise is simple enough that it could go either way, but the execution is what holds it. For readers fatigued by algorithm-driven recommendation engines and newsletters that read like content, a handpicked letter with a point of view is a different kind of arrival.
Best for: Readers who want curation from a person, not a platform. A good gift for someone who reads broadly and trusts recommendations from people with taste.
13. Letters by Lanternlight
Price: From $59.99 | Frequency: Twice monthly | Ships: US only
Another option in the mystery category. Immersive, handwritten cozy mystery stories delivered through the mail. The pricing reflects what the format actually requires: these are handwritten, not printed, which puts them in a different category from most subscriptions on this list. Twice-monthly delivery keeps the story moving. For readers who find cozy mysteries too formulaic on the page, getting one in an envelope changes the texture of the reading experience.
Best for: Cozy mystery readers, anyone who finds handwritten letters more engaging than printed ones, or gift-givers looking for something with high production value.
14. The Max Letters
Price: From $12.99/month | Frequency: Twice monthly | Ships: Worldwide
A year-long fantasy adventure for younger readers, delivered through crafted letters twice a month. The structure mirrors chapter books: each delivery advances the story, and the year-long arc gives it actual stakes. Ships worldwide, which is less common for kids-oriented subscriptions. For parents or gift-givers shopping for a child who resists sitting down with a book, getting the story in the mail is often a better angle of attack.
Best for: Young readers aged roughly 6 to 12, parents who want to encourage letter-reading, anyone shopping for a bookworm gift for a kid.
15. Tales from Lanternlight Hollow
Price: See website | Frequency: Monthly | Ships: US only
A monthly box built around a cozy mystery: the story arrives alongside a craft, a recipe, and snacks. It sits at the intersection of a book subscription and a gift box, and the combination is the point. Readers who want to slow down and spend an afternoon with a story rather than burn through a novel get a whole experience: snacks, a craft, and pages to read.
Best for: Cozy fiction readers, anyone who treats reading as an occasion rather than a habit, gift-givers who want something that looks good on a table.
How to Choose a letter subscription
Fifteen subscriptions cover a lot of ground. Here is how they break down:
- Serialized fiction: Epistolary, Storyville Letters, Tin Box Letters deliver ongoing narratives with a defined arc. Best for readers who want a story, not a stunt.
- Interactive mystery: Dear Holmes, Mail Order Mystery, Letters by Lanternlight ask something of the reader. Best for people who want to participate.
- Historical correspondence: Famous Author Letters, Literary Letters Co are grounded in real literary history. Best for readers with a biographical bent.
- Fantasy and atmosphere: Mythbridger, Mossheart Mail Club, The Max Letters prioritize world and feeling. Best for readers who love immersion.
- Literary and essay-driven: The Soulmates Post, The Analog Life are for readers who want a voice alongside the books.
- Cozy and experiential: Tales from Lanternlight Hollow is for readers who treat a reading session as an event.
- Poetry: The Poetry Post is short, considered, and unlike anything else on the list.
You can find more fiction clubs here.
