A story to read.
A story only you can tell.

Sending your letter gives us permission to publish it.

You keep your copyright. By sending a story, you give Letter Between Us non-exclusive permission to publish the version you submitted, including your attached photographs and your chosen public signature, in free or paid online editions if selected, now or later. Letter Between Us may earn revenue from these editions. We do not need another approval to publish that unchanged version under the permissions you choose. Older submissions keep the permissions accepted at the time; we do not extend them automatically. Saving a private draft does not grant publication permission.

Changes to your story need your approval.

If we’d like to change your title, words, or photo captions, we’ll send the proposed changes to your account and wait for your approval before using them. You can agree, ask for different changes, or decline. Your silence is not approval. We email your verified account address when there is a new request. Sign in to read and reply; private messages are not included in email. You can turn off updates for each letter in your account.

Keep up with your letter.

Your account holds your submitted letters, their publication status, and requests from our editors. You can reply to proposed edits or an editor’s questions, and review any later print-proof request or ask for changes. We email your verified account address about new editorial requests and online publication, unless you turn off updates for that letter. These service messages are separate from the Sunday list. Failed delivery does not remove requests from your account.

Publication is a conversation.

Submission does not guarantee publication or payment. Publication permission does not waive any compensation rights under applicable law; any separate payment agreement remains in effect. There is no entry fee or prize competition. If an editor contacts you, you can ask for corrections or withdraw your letter before publication. Printed copies already distributed cannot be recalled.

Your story, your public signature.

Choose Publish anonymously in Your details before sending. Readers see Anonymous; your name, country, region, profile photo, social links and recording stay hidden. Your supplied name and contact details remain available to you and the editors. Review the story, photographs and captions for identifying details; anonymous attribution does not remove them from your words or images.

A profile photo is optional. Add, change or remove it from your account. It appears with letters published under your name, never anonymous letters. We prepare a small portrait and remove embedded image metadata. Profile photos are separate from photographs approved for a printed letter.

Your name is your choice.

Use your first name or a pen name. For letters published under your name, your country and any state or region you add appear beside it. These details stay hidden on anonymous letters. We do not ask for your street address for a public story. Your email is private and available only to the editorial team, for matters relating to your submission. We do not display it with your letter or add you to a mailing list.

Share only what you have permission to share.

The story must be your own, and you must own or have permission to publish the photographs. Leave out private addresses, contact details, and identifying information about other people without their permission. Don’t submit someone else’s confidential story.

A letter, printed and mailed for you.

Choose a letter from The Letter Shop, or prepare one of your own saved letters. Review the folded edition, choose a US recipient, and check the full price before ordering. Printing and postage are paid separately from Between Us membership. You can send a copy to yourself or someone who would welcome it.

Writers choose whether to sell a mailed edition.

A public story stays free to read online. To offer a copy for sale, its writer sets up a separate shop listing, chooses a price, and explicitly agrees to selling it. Listings are reviewed before they appear. Permission to publish a story online or to share printed copies does not, on its own, create a shop listing. Earlier permissions keep their original limits. Changes to a writer’s words or photographs still need approval. Preparing a private postal copy of your own letter does not submit or publish it.

Short passages, shared with permission.

Quote cards are optional. You can allow them when submitting or from your letter’s settings. Editors select a short, exact passage from your words; readers can download a portrait or square image with your chosen public signature and a link back to the published letter. New downloads stop when you turn permission off, though already shared copies cannot be recalled. Private drafts and members’ exclusive letters do not have public quote cards.

Private notes from readers.

Writers can opt in to short, private notes from readers. Every note is moderated before the writer receives it. Notes are never posted publicly, and writers can switch them off in their account.

Optional recordings.

After sending a letter, you can record yourself reading it or upload a recording from your submission page. Give separate permission to publish your voice. Recordings are reviewed before they appear, and the written letter always stays alongside them. Recordings stay hidden on anonymous letters.

The Sunday email.

Join the Sunday list with your email address—no account is needed. Confirm your email before receiving the welcome and weekly letters. Signed-in readers can join using their verified account email. Each weekly email links to the featured story and includes a writing prompt. Joining is a separate choice from creating an account or submitting a story. Unsubscribe in your account or using the link in any Sunday email, without signing in. We use Resend to deliver emails and manage the mailing list; your email address, subscription choice, and delivery information are shared with that provider. We do not include private drafts or contact details from story submissions. Unconfirmed signup requests expire after two days and are removed within nine days. Short-lived hashed request identifiers help limit unwanted confirmation emails.

Between Us membership.

Between Us is a separate $5 USD monthly membership: an exclusive monthly letter, a follow-up with a previous writer, and access to the members’ reading archive while your membership is active. Mailed letters are separate purchases, with printing and US postage priced at checkout. Members’ exclusive letters are for personal reading. The Sunday newsletter and public stories stay free. Paid membership starts only after confirmed payment. Earned referral access is separate and never starts a paid subscription. You can manage billing and cancel future renewals from your membership page; access continues until the end of your paid period. Stripe handles payment details. We store the account and subscription information needed to provide access. Current editions and membership availability are shown on the Between Us page. New submissions explicitly include permission for paid online access to the submitted version. Writers do not need to return to approve the same words again. Older submissions need the appropriate separate permission, and changes to a writer’s words always need approval.

Private letters to yourself and others.

Letters for later can be addressed to your future self, a friend, or family. They stay separate from public submissions, and saving a draft does not contact the recipient. Only choose people you know who would welcome your letter. Save a draft and keep a planned date and recipient details with it. Future email and postal scheduling are not available yet; saving a draft is not a delivery booking. Get by post prepares a separate copy to mail after checkout, without changing or scheduling the future draft. Review the recipient and full order price before paying. Our printing and delivery provider receives the letter and destination to fulfill your order.

Invite friends, earn a thank-you.

Find your personal invitation link in Account → Invite friends. New readers who join through it and confirm their email count toward the milestones shown in your invitation dashboard. The first eligible invitation is remembered for 30 days. Existing readers, duplicate signups, and self-referrals do not count. We keep a protected identifier to prevent repeat rewards and show the inviter only totals, never a friend’s email address. Mention that you may earn rewards when you share your link.

At 5 and 15 readers, earn one month and three months of Between Us respectively. Rewards add up and each milestone is earned once. Membership rewards wait until a members’ edition is ready; activate them when you want to start, after any paid access ends. They never start billing or change an existing subscription. Find full progress and reward details in your account.

Understanding our readership.

We count views of public reading, shop, Club and writing-guide pages, plus the order-preparation page, approximate countries and regions, device categories, and referring websites. A small set of recognised campaign labels helps us understand which shared links bring visitors; we do not collect arbitrary link parameters, recipient identifiers, private letter contents or delivery addresses for analytics. We do not use analytics cookies or browser storage. A short-lived daily identifier estimates repeat visits without storing your raw IP address or linking activity to your account or purchases. Page counts are stored separately from visitor estimates. Private account, editor and future-letter pages are not tracked, and we respect Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control signals. Detailed traffic records are kept for up to 90 days and are only shown as totals to approved editors. Separate purchase totals come from the order and payment records needed to provide the service; browsing activity is not joined to those records.

A small preference saved in your browser remembers whether you’ve joined and already seen the invitation to share. It helps us welcome you back without repeating the prompt. It contains no name, email or reading history and is separate from analytics.

How we handle submissions.

Your letter, email, permissions, and photographs are stored securely using the website’s hosting service. Unsent drafts and their photographs are private to you. After you submit, approved editors can read your story and photographs. If selected, the submitted story and photographs may be published with your chosen public signature. Anonymous letters hide your name and location from readers. Your contact email is never included in the public story. Your saved reading list stays private. Temporary submission limits help reduce spam.