Newsletters should be the director’s commentary of every creator<br>Buttondown<br>Pricing<br>Log in<br>Build your newsletterSign up

Newsletters should be the director’s commentary of every creator<br>Convert the cruft of your creations into the content your biggest fans treasure most.

Ryan Farley

August 21, 2026

blockquote>p]:py-2 [&>blockquote>p:only-child]:py-10 prose-blockquote:!px-8 prose-blockquote:not-italic [&>blockquote>p:only-child]:text-center [&>blockquote>p:only-child]:font-bold [&_blockquote_a]:text-current [&_blockquote_a]:underline my-8 mx-auto prose-img:border prose-img:border-border prose-img:rounded-lg prose-img:mx-auto prose-img:transition-colors [&_img.cursor-zoom-in:hover]:border-muted-foreground lg:!max-w-[calc(65ch)] [&_li>code]:inline-block [&_li>code]:px-1.5 [&_li>code]:mx-1.5 [&_li>code]:bg-gray-200 [&_li>code]:before:hidden [&_li>code]:after:hidden [&_li>code]:rounded-md [&_p>code]:px-1.5 [&_p>code]:mx-1.5 [&_p>code]:bg-gray-200 dark:[&_p>code]:bg-zinc-800 dark:[&_p>code]:text-white dark:[&_p>code]:border dark:[&_p>code]:border-zinc-700 dark:[&_p>code]:leading-[32px] [&_p>code]:before:hidden [&_p>code]:after:hidden [&_p>code]:rounded-md [&_p>code]:break-all [&_table]:bg-sidebar [&_table]:-mx-4 [&_table]:border [&_table]:outline-muted [&_table]:outline [&_table]:border-collapse [&_table]:border-solid [&_table]:mx-auto [&_table]:my-8 [&_table]:overflow-hidden [&_table]:rounded-lg [&_table]:shadow-md [&_table]:text-md [&_table]:w-full [&_td>p]:my-1.5 [&_td]:!px-4 [&_td]:font-system [&_th>p]:my-1.5 [&_th]:!p-2 [&_th]:text-sm [&_th]:!px-4 [&_th]:bg-card [&_th]:text-left [&_thead]:border-border [&_tr]:border-border break-words prose-a:text-blue-600 [&_a:hover]:bg-blue-500/20 prose-hr:mb-14 prose-hr:border-border prose-hr:mx-20 dark:prose-strong:text-white dark:prose-headings:text-foreground dark:text-foreground [&_small>p]:text-sm [&_small_thead]:hidden [&_small_td:last-child]:text-right [&_.caption]:text-sm [&_.caption]:text-muted-foreground [&_.caption]:text-center [&_.caption]:mt-8 [&_.caption]:-mb-4">Kill your darlings? Taylor Swift’s “From the Vault” version of All Too Well is 5 minutes longer and has nearly 5x the number of Spotify plays as the original. The “Snydercut” of Justice League, double the runtime of the theatrical release, was HBO’s fourth-most-streamed film in 2021. The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition is 400 pages longer than Stephen King’s original manuscript, which isn’t even in print any more. There will always be fans who want it all, even the stuff that didn’t make the final cut. And there’s currently no better delivery mechanism than an email newsletter.<br>Every artist creates and culls, adds then subtracts, to distill their work into its most potent, sharable form. With a direct line to your most ardent admirers, however, you can sweep the detritus of those efforts into a sort of content compost, a pile of throwaway lines and trimmed fat to fertilize relationships with grassroots fans and those for whom more is always better. Email is the best way to make sure you send the right content to the right people and benefit from some of the easiest, most rewarding self-promotion available to you.<br>Zero-waste creativity<br>Anyone who has tried to write a book, publish a comic, compose a song, or attempt some other artistic endeavor knows that less than half of their total output will likely make it into a finished work. Even the most practiced and accomplished creators end up deleting hours worth of digressions and distractions, assuming that it’s just part of the process and if they can’t publish the not-quite-good-enough bits, there’s nowhere for them to go.<br>“A lot of what I write ends up on the cutting room floor—oftentimes as much as, if not more than, ends up in the final story...I’ve got some genuinely good lines languishing in dump docs and graveyards of struck out sentences,” the author of Captain’s Log told their subscribers. They did include a screenshot of one such page, but like I’ve seen in so many other indie artist newsletters, sharing dead darlings seems to be a stopgap, something to fill a slow news day rather than a regular habit. I’d argue changing that is one of the most impactful things you can do to grow your list.<br>Coming up with ideas for your newsletter month in and month out is hard. But by wrapping up every creative session with a snippet of what you sketched, or recorded, or wrote, you have a never-ending stash of behind-the-scenes extras to dole out to subscribers. And, as an added bonus, having an outlet for scrapped work makes the act of scrapping itself a lot less depressing!<br>Mike Schur, the creator of The Good Place team, has his writers put jokes in “The Candy Bag” if they don’t end up in the final cut of an episode. “It's a far less stark term than The Cutting Floor,” Matthew Guay pointed out in his own newsletter, “and perhaps makes writers feel safe cutting ideas knowing they can be pulled back.” Every one of those candies informed the character...