BONUS LETTER: A Letter Between Letters

I want to write to you outside of Monday.

The regular letters — the Considered essays, the Studio pieces, the Field Notes, the Letter column — will continue to arrive on Monday morning at 8:00am PT, as they always have. Today’s note is something different; a letter between letters. I expect I will send one every so often when there is something worth writing about that does not fit the Monday cadence and does not fit into an Instagram caption.

Today’s something worth writing about is the paid tier.

I announced it in soft-launch fashion within a recent letter on restraint, folded into the argument the way I wanted it folded — quietly, once, and then back to main point. Some of you subscribed. Some of you replied with questions. A few of you wrote back to say the letter itself was the most valuable thing you had read this year, which is the kindest thing anyone can say to a person who writes. Thank you.

I want to explain what the paid tier actually is, in slightly more detail, and I want to explain, briefly, why I decided to open it now.

A few months ago, I did not know whether this publication would find its readers. I knew what I wanted it to be – a long-form editorial practice, written in a voice I have spent fourteen years developing, on the topics I care about most – but I didn’t know whether the audience for that existed on this platform, at this cadence, at this length.

It does. You are that audience. Over the last few months, your replies, subscriptions and notes on reading what I’ve written have purely warmed this cozy corner of the internet for me. That response is what has made the paid tier possible. I’ve opened the paid tier because the audience made it obvious that there was more to offer, and that some of you wanted to receive it.

One source list per month.
A subscribers-only post, published mid-month. Five to seven pieces the studio is actively specifying — the vendor, the price range, the reason each piece earned its place in current work. This is the level of detail I share with clients. It has never been public. Now with this subscription tier, it is.

One ASK BE. per quarter.
A subscribers-only post, published in the third month of each quarter. I take five subscriber questions — real questions about real rooms — and answer them at editorial length. Not tips. Not shortcuts. Real judgment applied to the specific rooms you are living in. Subscribers submit questions via reply to any letter, and I select the five that will yield the most useful answers for the broader group.

Early access to HOME by BE.
Paid subscribers receive a twenty-four-hour advance window on every drop, sale, and collection release from the marketplace. The next Autumn Collection lands in early September — paid subscribers see it first.

The Archive.
Every letter, accessible always.

After 6 months as a paid subscriber:
One 20-minute conversation with me, on one room in the home you are living in now or entering soon. Real judgment applied directly to your project. This unlocks at the six-month mark and is available once per year thereafter.

Paid subscription is $8 per month, or $80 per year. Founding Member is $200 per year for readers who want to support the publication at a higher level, with first access to studio initiatives as they launch.

If this earns its place in your life, I would be honored to have you as a paid subscriber. If it does not, the Monday letters will continue to arrive, and I will continue to write them for you. Both paths are welcome here.

See you Monday.

—xobe.