The Personal Newsletter Fad Needs to End

I know it feels nice to write about you. But really, it’s just another bloody thing to read.

Illustration: César Pelizer

If 2018 was the year of the personal newsletter, it would explain why 2019 is the year of inboxes crammed with newsletters we just don’t have time to read and can’t bring ourselves to unsubscribe to. Sure, 2018 arguably perpetrated worse crimes against human sanity — children trolled for not wanting to be shot at school, families separated at the border, wildfires soundtracked by further denial of the climate emergency — but still, I’m reserving a small space for newsletter resentment. Here’s why.

I now feel guilty for not doing a newsletter

Many writers I admire started knocking politely on the door of my inbox last year, offering monthly or even weekly updates on their lives, reading habits, and travel jaunts. I started wondering, Am I supposed to be doing a newsletter? Am I even a writer without one? (Spoiler: yes.) Am I supposed to be “building my brand” in this same way, creating weekly or monthly hype around myself as a walking, talking product?

I abandoned the idea quickly. I don’t want to work on marketing material for anyone, especially myself. I’m already cancanning for preorders on a book that’s not even…