Why I decided to quit my mail club

I started a Snail Mail Club for my art, but after 3 months I decided to close it.

Around the end of last year, I discovered the concept of Snail Mail and Mail Clubs and I was mesmerised. I, just like many other creators, thought, “I wanna do this too!” It is a way to share art worldwide and make a monthly revenue. Pretty charming, right?

So I spent the next months wondering how I should create my own snail mail and what I wanted to offer. My art is handmade and heavily inspired by the nostalgic art styles we grew up with. So after 5 months of planning and, kinda doubting myself, I created a bundle of paper goods to offer in my snail mail called Pinpin Mail, named after my character, Pinpin.

My art was not the only thing I wanted to share, but also this new life I started living ever since I moved to a small town in Nara, Japan. It is filled with odd adventures and wholesome moments. People who know me personally sometimes have a hard time imagining what my day-to-day is like until they come spend a day with me. So every month, there would be letters telling stories and memories. I also created a paper doll, something that was part of my childhood, and I believe many others', to give it a nostalgic touch and something analog for people to interact with, since they'd have to meticulously cut out the outfits and dress the paper doll themselves. Along with it came a small stationery item or prints of Pinpin illustrations, which varied every month, and some photographs I would take of details I found worth capturing. Everything was illustrated by hand and printed in my own studio. I loved the concept and spent hours finalising the final product.

But then reality hit. This snail mail was intended for an international audience, meaning I had to put a lot of work into marketing it on social media. Like many other artists, I really dislike posting on social media consistently, especially videos. It consumes a lot of time because you have to film, keep up with trends and post the same thing from several angles on multiple platforms. I did put in the work, even if agonisingly. The first month, 0 subscriptions.

In the second month, I designed a new paper doll outfit and the other paper goods that came along with the new mail. I created new content. Again, no subscribers. I was working on all of that while managing my job at a guesthouse, working on other creative projects, studying and, well, having a private life.

By the third month, I realised what my main problem was. I did what they call “competition research” to see where others were succeeding and where I was lacking. What I began to notice was that many successful Mail Club owners either already had a big following or had built a significant part of their art business around the concept of their Mail Club, which is understandable because some have over 300 subscribers, and this is a lot of work. As another creative said, it can become a full-time job. And I respect that. Others use it as one of their more passive sources of income because it only consists of one print a month. Other artists focus on a theme, using one cohesive design throughout the whole mail bundle. And that is very aesthetically pleasing and draws attention. I was doing none of that. Mostly because I didn't want to. I wanted Pinpin Mail to be slightly whimsical and messy, as if a friend was sending someone a letter.

By the third month, seeing how much time I was putting into this new project with no returns, I had to sit with myself and decide if I should continue pursuing it. And so I decided to suspend it. I don't want to grow my following around a Mail Club, but around my art. My life is so busy with so many things that I needed to prioritise where my time was going. I am creating products at home and selling them at indie art and zine markets around the Kansai region, where I can introduce my art to people here. And this has actually been going very well! Even though the markets are always held at different locations, I have started having returning customers who tell me they follow me on Instagram or bought something from me at a previous event and that they love my art. There is something so special about someone remembering my work after seeing it once and then finding me again somewhere else. It makes my heart so warm, and it also reminds me that people are slowly finding and connecting with my art, just perhaps not in the way I originally imagined when I created Pinpin Mail.

And then there is Pinpin, my beloved ghost. I have so many projects for Pinpin. Pinpin has accompanied me along my art journey for the past year and has slowly been catching other people's hearts too. I think this is a wiser way to use my time.

I do still want to share my life with other people, which is why I am thinking about starting a mailing list where I can send people emails, sharing fragments of my life, the people around me, and the struggles and successes of my art journey. Pinpin Mail might not have turned into what I imagined when I first started planning it, but I don't regret creating it. Sometimes a creative project doesn't have to become successful to have been worth trying. Sometimes it teaches you what you want to make next and, perhaps just as importantly, what you don't want to spend your time making.