The Best of This is True

“What’s your favorite story?” It’s a common question from readers. Well, I don’t have a single favorite story. I really like a lot of stories — great stories relating to the stupidest of stupid criminals, or particularly funny stories, or amusing stories that just come alive thanks to a great tagline.

I’ve never wanted to publish a “Best of” book, since after all, new stories still come out every week — a book would always miss out on the next great story. Not to mention that it would take a long time to go through 25 years of stories to pick out “the best” of them all, especially since I’m already pretty busy. It takes a long time because I need to do that job myself: go through every single story and decide.

And that’s what I’ve been doing lately: going through the archive, one story at a time, and asking myself the question, “Does this story make the cut?”

I’ve found a few things about that process, besides that it takes a long time: I’m finding that there are some really good stories in there! Yeah, there are a few duds here and there too, which of course get skipped, but I’m just loving the process. I even laugh out loud at some of them (and those certainly make the cut!)

So if it’s going to take a long time to go through an ever-growing archive, and a book isn’t ideal, then what? What I’m famous for: email delivery — a story every day to start your day. It’s all in the email: no need to click to go somewhere else to read it:

Note for visually impaired readers: yes, it’s machine readable. If you can read the True newsletter, you’ll be able to read the Best Of emails.

The stories are emailed at around 2:30 a.m., New York (Eastern) Time, with the idea that it will be waiting for you when you get up in the morning. It launched March 1, 2017, and I already have years of stories set up to be included, with more added all the time.

Sooner is Better than Later!

The daily started with the oldest story I’ve marked part of the “best” and are progressing from there. The longer you wait to start, the more of the stories you’re missing: everyone gets the same story on any particular day, and there’s no way to go back to the beginning.

How to Get It

Part of my idea is to have a special reward for those who have gone above and beyond to support This is True. So to that end, the following readers already get their Best of subscription included with their support on request:

Not Interested in Either One of Those? You can subscribe separately, too — whether you already have a regular Premium subscription or not. You can start or renew your subscription here, with significant discounts for longer terms:

How Long?


…or order via the Shopping Cart using plastic: Best Of True Subscription

Want a shorter term option? That’s only available via the monthly pledge options noted above.

The “Rules”

You’re sent a story every day, early each morning (USA time). Your job is to ensure your mail is not filtering the stories out. To that end, it’s highly recommended you use Gmail or another high-quality mail solution that lets you see what’s filtered out, and mark it “Not Spam” to “train” its filter as necessary. Why? Because there are no re-sends available. If you miss a day (or 10) because of overzealous filtering, or a full mailbox, or whatever, sorry: I cannot send you “back issues” or extend your subscription. It’s up to you to let me know if you have a delivery problem: your subscription will be auto-canceled if it “bounces” several times in a row (full mailbox or whatever), and you can unsubscribe using the link at the bottom. Notify me when the problem clears up so I can re-start your subscription.

As with all of the paid subscriptions, since you can get “unlimited free samples” with the free edition, there are no refunds should you (or multiple bounces) cancel your subscription. There is an Unsubscribe link in every mailing.

Those of you using patronage or Super Premium must let me know you want to be added to the Best Of distribution: I don’t just add people to distribution lists without a specific request. Use the form on the Contact Page to send in your request, or just email me.

Advertising? There won’t be ads in the mailings. There is a place (under the story) where I can include a message to subscribers, but generally there won’t be anything there, and never outside ads. As always, True’s Privacy Policy applies.