Controlling which emails you receive

You don't HAVE to have all my articles landing in your inbox

Oh my word! Not ANOTHER article from Terry?!

Before I wax lyrical in this article, I just wanted to give a huge shout-out to Emily Miller, who writes the Substack newsletter Emily Posts, by

Emily Miller

. I’m still finding my way around this platform, and she very kindly told me not only how to take charge of which sections of someone’s newsletter you receive, but even gave me permission to copy an email she sent to her own subscribers. Thus the two paragraphs beginning “I know that…” and “To do that…” are copied from hers. Having just subscribed to Emily Posts, I’ve yet to explore it fully, but it seems to cover several different aspects of America’s politics and commentary on the news.

Greetings!

Look, I know I write a lot. When I am in full swing I give the word “prolific” a bad name. I can’t help it. I know I could schedule posts to come on particular days and at particular times, but the problem is I can’t wait to see my name in print — even if it’s only me who is printing it. (At least I’m not as bad as an obituary writer I read about who said the trouble with writing obits is that you have to wait until the person is dead before you can see your masterpiece in print, so part of you wishes they would hurry up.)

Anyway, let’s cut to the chase.

I know that some of you are interested in everything I write. But I also know some of my readers want only specific things. If you come into the latter category, you will no doubt be delighted to learn that you can control what emails or notifications on the app you get from me.

To do that, you just need to click on your account settings and look at the “notifications” for all my newsletters. (By default, you’re subscribed to all of them.) Here’s what to do:

1. Log into your Substack account.

2. Click on the circle next to “Start writing”:
   

   

3. Then click on Settings:
   
   

   

4. Then click on Edit next to the name of this newsletter:
   

   

5. You’ll then see a screen like this. All you have to do is untick the sections you’re not interested in.
   

   

In case you’re wondering what these sections are about, here’s the low-down:

Eclecticism

This is about anything and everything. I like to share some of the things I’ve come across or thought about, whether that’s books, articles, music or life in general.

Sample article: Review of The Comfort of Strangers, by Ian McEwan.

Head of Department

This is a rather niche topic. It’s about leading and managing a department in a school, so it’s what is known in America as a school administrative position. It includes articles about teaching as well.

Sample article: Some handy hints about the job interview.

Turning Points

This section is about people, books, music or whatever that actually changed my life in some way.

Sample article: Dear Mr Dale.

OuLiPo

The OuLiPo is a French writing movement that uses constraints. For example, one constraint is the lipogram, which excludes a particular letter from a piece of writing. The most famous example of this was the novel A Void, by Georges Perec, which doesn’t use a single ‘e’. Amazingly, neither does the English translation.

Sample article: Three collections of Oulipo writing

Finally, please do consider taking out a paid subscription, for $5 a month or $50 for a year. And please do share the free articles, such as this one.

Thanks

All the best

Terry