How it works
Four steps to set up. Then one approval a month.
You write and approve. The platform handles subscriptions, addresses, entitlement, the print file and the provider. This page explains each step in detail, including the parts that cost money and the parts that cannot be undone.
- 01
Create your publication
A publication is a name, a physical format, a calendar and a price. Setup takes a few minutes and shows you the economics before you commit.
You
- Choose a format: folded self-mailer, stapled booklet or flat letter, with a page count the providers can actually produce.
- Pick a mail date and we propose a cutoff and a production deadline around it. Adjust any of the three.
- Set a monthly price and, if you like, an annual price.
The platform
- Shows estimated print and postage per copy for your format, labelled as an estimate until a provider quote replaces it.
- Creates the first issue drafts on your calendar so there is always a next issue waiting.
- Rejects formats no connected provider supports, rather than letting you find out at approval.
- 02
Start selling subscriptions
Readers subscribe on a page we host for you, pay with a card, and enter the address the issue should go to.
You
- Share the subscription page link wherever your readers already are.
- Connect your own Stripe account during setup. Reader payments are charged there, not to us.
The platform
- Collects a US mailing address at checkout and records its verification status.
- Creates one subscriber record per reader, with their plan, paid-through date and address history.
- Gives readers a self-service page for their card, their address and cancelling.
- 03
Write your next issue
Write in the built-in editor or upload a print-ready PDF. Either way the result is a validated file locked to a version.
You
- Upload a PDF made in any tool, or write in the editor using a print template.
- Fix anything the validation flags: wrong page count, oversized file, pages that do not match the trim size.
- Mark the issue ready for approval before the production deadline.
The platform
- Validates the file against your format and the provider's published requirements.
- Saves a version on every substantive change. The approved version is frozen with a checksum.
- Shows a print preview labelled as a screen rendering, not a press proof.
- 04
Approve and mail
At cutoff the recipient list is frozen. You review the list, the file and the quoted cost on one screen and approve once.
You
- Review the recipient count, the warnings and the quoted total.
- Click approve. This is the one irreversible step, and the screen says so.
The platform
- Sends the locked file and the frozen manifest to the provider, or to our operations team for operator-managed fulfillment.
- Records every provider status change on the run: submitted, accepted, printing, mailed.
- Attaches the provider's invoice to the issue so the profit and loss uses real numbers.
In testing Checkout, the reader portal and provider connections are in testing with early-access publishers. Publication setup, PDF validation, the frozen manifest and approval are live. See the feature list for the label on each item.
The monthly cycle
Three dates run the whole month.
Defaults shown. You can move any of them; the platform keeps the order and warns when the gap between production and mailing is too short for the provider.
Issue draft created
Day 1 of the month
Cutoff
Day 20 · list freezes
Production deadline
Day 25 · approve by now
Mail date
Day 1 · next month
- Day 20Subscriber cutoff
- The entitlement decision is made for every subscription and frozen into the manifest. Address changes after this instant apply to the next issue. Payments that are not through the cutoff exclude the reader from this issue.
- Day 25Production deadline
- Your issue must be validated and approved by now for the mail date to hold. The dashboard reminds you 7, 3 and 1 day(s) before. Approving later is allowed; the mail date simply moves.
- Day 1Mail date
- The target date for pieces to enter the mail stream. Production takes a few business days after approval, so the provider's own cutoff decides whether the date holds. Delivery takes additional days depending on mail class.
Readers are billed on the anniversary of the day they subscribed, not on your mail date. A renewal on the 28th and a cutoff on the 20th never causes a missed copy, because entitlement asks one question only: is this subscription paid through the cutoff instant?
The reader's side
What a subscriber sees, from the first click to the mailbox.
Readers never see the dashboard. They see your subscription page, a receipt, and a self-service page.
- 1
Your subscription page
The publication name, what it physically is (for example 'a 12-page full-color booklet, mailed monthly'), the price and a description you write. Your name and branding, not ours.
- 2
Checkout
Card details and a US mailing address in one flow. If the address does not verify cleanly, a corrected version is suggested before they finish.
- 3
Confirmation
A receipt from the payment processor and a confirmation stating which issue will be their first, based on where the current cutoff falls.
- 4
Their subscriber page
Update the card, change the address, pause or cancel. The page states plainly which issue an address change applies to.
- 5
The mailbox
Your issue, in the format you chose, with your return address on it. Where the provider offers per-piece tracking, your dashboard shows when it entered the mail stream.
When a payment fails
You never pay to print a copy for a lapsed subscriber.
Cards expire and renewals bounce. The rules below are automatic; nothing requires you to chase anyone.
- 1The processor retries. Stripe retries the charge on its smart-retry schedule and emails the reader a link to update their card. We do not send a separate email.
- 2The subscription is marked past due. The reader appears in your list as ‘needs payment’. If their paid-through date is still after the next cutoff, they are still entitled to that issue — they paid for it.
- 3At cutoff, unpaid readers are excluded. Anyone not paid through the cutoff instant is left out of the manifest and listed on the approval screen under ‘excluded’, with the count and the reason.
- 4If they pay later, they rejoin. A successful retry restores entitlement from the next cutoff onward. The entitlement rules support an optional grace period that keeps past-due readers in the manifest for a number of hours after their paid-through date; the default is none.
- 5If the processor gives up, the subscription is cancelled by the processor's own rules, and the reader can resubscribe any time.
Live Entitlement and exclusion rules are live and tested.In testing Live card retries depend on the payment integration, which is in testing.
The approve button
Approving a run is the one thing you cannot take back. Here is exactly what it means.
Everything before approval is reversible. We put the irreversible part behind one button, with the consequences written on it.
The version is locked.
The approved file is frozen with a checksum and can no longer be edited. To change anything, you reopen the issue, which withdraws the approval — possible only until the provider has accepted the run.
The manifest is final.
The recipient list and addresses as they stood at cutoff are what mails. Address changes made after cutoff apply to the next issue and the reader portal says so.
You agree to the quoted amount.
Print, postage and our disclosed markup, as shown on the approval screen. Once the provider accepts the batch you are charged that amount, even if you later wish you had changed something.
The cancellation window is the provider's.
Some providers allow cancellation for a period after submission; others accept the order immediately. The approval screen states the window for the provider on your run before you click.
Exceptions come back to you.
If the provider rejects the file or part of the batch fails, the run is marked 'needs attention' with the provider's message, and nothing further is charged until you decide what to do.
Walk through a real approval in the demo.
The Curious Gardener has a November issue waiting for approval. Inspect the frozen manifest and the quote, then approve it. Nothing is charged and nothing is mailed.