How Inkling works
Hand-penned, one at a time
Every letter is written by a real pen on real paper, with pressure, pause, and small variations you can feel under your thumb. Not a font. Not a print. A letter.
A story you steer
Each pen pal lives in a world with its own cast, its own small mysteries, its own arc unfolding across a year of letters. Your replies, mailed back or sent through the code on the front of the card, steer what happens next. Over time, your pen pal references what you’ve shared, remembers the things that mattered, asks after what you told them. No two subscribers ever get the same story.
Original art on the back
Every postcard has a piece of art made for that month’s letter, in the style your pen pal sees the world. No two are alike. Keep them on the fridge, pin them on a wall, frame the ones that land.
A year, kept
After twelve months, we bind your entire correspondence, every letter, every reply, every piece of art, into a hardcover book. A year of someone writing to you and you writing back. Nothing else like it in the world.
Who you can write with
Characters of our own invention, written for this house. And characters you already know from the great books — Elizabeth Bennet, Sherlock Holmes, Alice, Mina Harker. The catalog grows as we bring in new pen pals from the public domain and from partner authors.
What it costs
$19 a month. One pen pal, one letter a month. Add a second pen pal for $12 a month. Weekly cadence available for the truly devoted. Gifts start at $59 for three months.
An uncommon gift
Inkling is one of the stranger, more affecting gifts you can send. For grandparents. For children. For someone far away. For the lonely. For the person who already has everything that ships in a box.