In celebration of publishing the fiftieth issue of the Write Way Newsletter…

(In this iteration, there were fifty-nine in the earlier round, a lot of those went into the welcome course.)

…not to mention several courses, cohorts, plenty of content, poems, hymns and more…

…I thought it was time to revisit some of our greatest hits, taking the title and inspiration from the British compilation album classics “NOW that’s what I call music!”.

Because there are a whole bunch of brand new subscribers who have missed previous issues and even if you’ve been here since day one, let’s be honest, you’ve forgotten.

I pulled up my analytics, poked around and pulled together all the data because we’ve delivered over 400,000 posts to various inboxes across the land, in beehiiv alone.

So pull up a chair, light up a pipe, and settle in to revisit the forgotten classics in:

NOW That's What I Call Carran!

We open our greatest hits compilation with not one, but two, newsletters that got far more opens than any before or since. Why?

Nobody knows.

Because they certainly ain’t clickbait, this is straight up delivered-on-value.

Track one: Walk Don’t Run

feat. Lanky German Nerd

A classic of the Carran content genre, this newsletter issue takes a tweet that got some… odd responses and responds in turn. It offers a gentle reframe to the constant refrain that life is all about doing something.

Walk, don’t run, to read it here.

Track two: Copy Nothing?

feat. Jaguar

Ah, Jaguar. The behemoth of British car manufacture which took some rather odd and out of time decisions. Perhaps you’d call it a diss track, but that would be to ‘distract’ from the point of the piece, which is that originality is overrated.

Copy this link into your browser by clicking here.

Meanwhile, the next newsletter in our NOW That’s What I Call Carran collection is here for very different reasons…

Track three: Greasy Grooves and Writing Moves

feat. Pavel Tsatsouline.

This one is famous among Carranites for being the all time unsubscribe champion of the Write Way Newsletter. I never even noticed at the time because those are still tiny numbers. Near nobody unsubscribes from this newsletter. But apparently around 0.54% of folks did that time. Why?

Find out for yourself by clicking here and getting greasy.

On the other side of the coin, our next track:

Track four: Why Storytelling?

Which is the Web view champion of the Write Way world. Admittedly, it’s advantaged by being first in a series on storytelling that kept linking back to it. But why not celebrate regardless?

Let’s add to its advantage by linking it all over again.

Track five: Write not like you talk

The all-time most clickable issue of the Write Way to round out our roundup, only narrowly ahead of my birthday launch email for Sacred Statements. And it was, of course, because I was offering a limited time bonus on my popular course Speed Daemon Secrets and everyone wanted in on the game. But there was also some fine writing advice in there if you missed it.

Click not like you talk (unless you’re a dolphin) to get at it.

But it’s not all about newsletters here. Papa gotta pipe, kids gotta eat, customers gotta buy. The final two tracks are long-time Carran staples.

Will they be upstaged by upcoming new releases? It’s impossible to tell. But the golden oldies are popular for a reason. Including the all time bestselling product by numbers and revenue:

Track six: How to Write Bad

A course that Carran created in just three days of feverish inspiration, and then launched while traveling is still the greatest hit of his growing library and one that people come back to again and again and again. Yes, it’s a radically cheap course, but it punches well above its weight. All those people can’t be wrong.

Click here to write bad with them.

Meanwhile, the bestselling course of 2025?

Track seven: Speed Daemon Secrets

The 2025 YTD sales champion would be the limited time exclusive single “Sacred Statements for Serious Scribes” but that’s been and gone and can’t be gotten again. Meanwhile, the Speed Daemon Secrets are “fast” catching up and it’s got a whole year to run plus more bonus tracks coming soon.

Click to catch up before you too are left behind.

And one more BIG bonus CD included in our album…

Track eight: Create, Publish, Profit May Edition!

That’s right! The compilation of the century quarter is here again. Featuring world-renowned X-Twitter artists like The Art of Purpose, Joshua Lisec, Sahil Bloom, Travises Cody and Hubbard, Alin Dragu, The Art of Sales, The Culturist…

…and James Carran himself.

All teaching the secrets to getting more out of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, while wasting less time and effort figuring it out.

It’s big, it’s loud, it’s brilliant. It starts tomorrow.

NOW That’s What I Call X-Twitter! (aff)

Which is all we have time for in this NOW That’s What I Call Carran! Tune in next week for the sweet sounds of brand new writing advice. But there’s still space for one more track: the people’s favourite! What’s your choice for the best issue of the Write Way Newsletter so far? Hit reply and let me know.

Meanwhile, may your pipe ever be filled with your greatest tobacco and your prose ever filled with your best words,

James Carran, Craftsman Writer

fin

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