Terms

The short version

What this comes down to

What this service is

The Long Letter is a written correspondence service. You write to me, I write back, and in each letter there is something to think about and usually one thing to do.

Letters are written by a person. Where more than one writer is involved, you will always be told who is writing to you, and you can ask to be matched with someone else at any time without giving a reason.

What this service is not

This matters more than anything else on this page, so it is in plain words.

• It is not therapy or counselling. I am not a licensed clinician and this is not treatment. If what you are carrying needs a therapist, I will say so.
• It is not legal advice. I may explain in general terms how a process works. I will never apply the law to your particular situation, predict an outcome, or represent you. No attorney-client relationship is created by writing to me, paying me, or reading anything I send you.
• It is not financial or medical advice.
• It is not an emergency service. Letters take days or weeks. If you are in danger, call 911. If you are in crisis, call or text 988. For domestic violence, call 1-800-799-7233.

You are responsible for your own decisions. Nothing in a letter is a professional recommendation, and acting on it is your choice.

Who can subscribe

You must be eighteen or older. You do not have to be a single mother, though the letters are written for one.

Paying, pausing, cancelling

Subscriptions are monthly and renew until you stop them. Prices are shown on the site and you will be told in advance if they change for you.

You can cancel any month. If a letter has already gone to print, you will still receive that one. You can pause instead, which holds your writer so you return to the same person.

If a letter is late, tell me and I will either send it or refund that month, your choice. If you cancel partway through a month, write to me and I will deal with it fairly. I would rather refund someone than have them feel trapped.

Delivery

Replies are aimed at fourteen days from your letter reaching me on First Class and Airmail, and three days on Special Delivery. If a reply will be late you will hear from me before you notice it is missing.

Post is post. Once an envelope leaves, delivery times are not in my hands.

Who owns the letters

You own everything you write. I own everything I write. Neither of us gets to publish the other without written permission.

By writing to me, you allow me to read your letters, keep them, reply to them, and include them in your own Bound Year if you order one. That is the whole of it. It is not permission to publish, quote, post, or use your words anywhere else, and I will ask separately every time if I ever want to.

The Bound Year

At twelve months, your correspondence can be made into a book: your letters, my replies, your plans, the letter you wrote to yourself, and up to twelve journal pages you choose to send from A Page for Tonight.

The book is made for you. It is not sold to anyone else, not listed anywhere, and not shown to anyone. Delivery can be sent to a different address than your letters, and can arrive in plain packaging, if you ask.

Gifts and sponsored seats

A gift subscription is paid by one person for another. The recipient decides whether to accept, and can decline or cancel without the buyer being told why. Buyers are never given access to the letters.

A sponsored seat is paid by a donor for someone who cannot pay. The recipient is never told who paid. The donor is never told who received. Neither is given anything about the other.

Organizations

Shelters, programs and coalitions are served under a separate written agreement covering seats, term, reporting, insurance and safeguarding. Nothing on this page replaces that agreement.

Ending a correspondence

I may decline or end a correspondence if someone is abusive toward me or a writer, uses this to reach or harm another person, or asks for things this service cannot responsibly give. Where I end a subscription, I refund the unused part.

The legal tail

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Florida. To the extent the law allows, liability is limited to the amount you have paid in the previous twelve months.

If part of this page turns out to be unenforceable, the rest of it still stands.

If these terms change in a way that matters, I will email everyone affected rather than quietly editing the page.

Questions, complaints, or anything that feels unfair: writethelongletter@gmail.com. I would much rather hear it from you than not.