The newsletter has a name! I’m calling it Five by Five, and it is now a combination publication for all of my subscribers: science fiction, fantasy, gamelit and more! Five by Five is also the motto for my reader community, since we’ve worked pretty hard to get reliable communications established.
After almost four months of work, this site now has a pristine email configuration, meaning other sites treat my email as legitimate by default, absent some kind of bizarre error. It used to be my messages would land in promotions, or spam or what-have-you, largely because my outbound email wasn’t configured properly. It now passes all the tests, both necessary and unnecessary, so there isn’t any further work to do on my end.
That said, my subscribers may still not be getting my messages for whatever reason. There are solutions to this problem which I plan to implement. Alongside my newsletter improvement campaign, I intend to include premium work in future issues, work which my readers deserve. However, in the interests of making sure that work actually gets delivered, I have constructed a system to make sure those readers remove as many obstacles as possible. Here is what I’ve come up with:
Note: Your Newsletter Tier will be included in all emails. This new system goes into effect June 17, 2026 starting with issue number #248. One note on issue numbers: Each unique newsletter gets a new issue number, so any particular tier of subscriber may get newsletters that are out of sequence, since each tier may get something different on any given day.
Tier 0: This is the default status of every new subscriber. If we acquire a new email address, we start here. The only messages Tier 0 subscribers get are “if you would like to subscribe to Shane’s newsletter please reply to this email.” If they reply, Tier 0 subscribers are considered to have “opted in” and are advanced to Tier 1. If a Tier 0 subscriber does not reply, they are eventually dropped.
Policy: The reason we do “opt in” and “double opt-in” is because email providers take great delight in penalizing us. We are therefore forced to relentlessly analyze our list to avoid including subscribers that simply park on the list and never participate. It makes it look like they don’t want our newsletter. Whether that is true or not is immaterial. Our subscribers must be active or they can’t remain on our list.
Tier 1: A Tier One subscriber is someone who has “opted-in,” meaning they gave us an email address and they explicitly requested a newsletter subscription. That’s a good first step. The next step is to make sure our sending addresses are whitelisted and/or added to a contacts list so we are recognized by foreign email servers automatically. So we ask Tier 1 subscribers to send us confirmation via email that they have added us to their contacts list or address book. That step advances a subscriber to Tier 2.
Tier 2: At this level, subscribers start receiving newsletters because they have “double opted-in”. That means they responded twice to requests. The standard edition of Five by Five goes out to Tier 2, meaning they get updates on new work, new site features, new art, keywords and so forth. Standard edition newsletters are occasionally enhanced with images and interactive buttons, but are often text only to avoid being relegated to promotions. Standard newsletters announce special offers from time to time as well. In order to advance from Tier 2 to Tier 3, a subscriber must make at least one purchase from Getabook.today using the same email they subscribed with.
Tier 3: Tier 3 subscribers get standard newsletters with one important difference. Tier 3 gets you access to discount codes. These are included with Tier 3 newsletters on a regular basis. Only Tier 3 and 4 subscribers get access to discount codes. To reach Tier 4, a Tier 3 subscriber must make at least one purchase from Getabook.today with a discount code. When they do, they are advanced to Tier 4.
Tier 4: Tier 4 subscribers get the premium newsletter. These issues are the gateway to the all-access-pass: exclusive offers, premium story chapters, priority keywords, hidden surprises, access to experimental publishing projects, the option to test Battlebooks™, Videobooks™ and so forth. Almost all premium editions of Five by Five are enhanced with color images, interactive buttons and other features. Tier 4 subscribers also get invitations to our message board where they can interact with other readers and myself, discuss interesting topics, review brand new works before they are published, participate in community projects like Every School in America and so forth.
Special Provision: If you subscribe to Five by Five with a Proton Mail address, you automatically advance to Tier 4. The above referral link also gets you a $20 credit from Proton Mail.
Special Policy: The reason we favor Proton Mail is because they actually deliver what we send. Their app also opens links in a web browser instead of a security nightmare. It should also be emphasized that deliverability deteriorates, so we will occasionally send “control” emails to various subscribers that require a response. A subscriber who does not respond to a control email is either returned to a lower tier or dropped to preserve the quality of our list. Our plan is to provide subscribers with value. All we ask is that our subscribers return the favor.
