Every Kindle has its own email address, and documents (EPUB, PDF, DOCX and a few others) sent to it from an approved address show up in your Kindle library.
So reading a email-based newsletter on a Kindle means turning each email into a file and getting that file to your Kindle address. You can do that by hand for free, or have a service do it for every issue automatically. I run one of those services, Serifize. Both ways are below.
Step 1: Find your Kindle's email address
In your Amazon account, open Manage Your Content and Devices → Preferences → Personal Document Settings. Each Kindle and Kindle app is listed with its own address ending in @kindle.com.
In the same section is the Approved Personal Document E-mail List. Amazon ignores email from any address that isn't on it, and it doesn't tell you. If documents ever stop arriving, check this list first.
If your Kindle is registered to a store outside the US, do this on that store (amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.es and so on). The settings only show devices registered to that store.
Step 2a: Convert and send by hand (free)
- Add your own email address to the approved list.
- Open the newsletter and save it as a file. The quickest way is your browser or mail app's Print → Save as PDF. For a Substack post, open it on the web first and print that page.
- Email the file as an attachment to your
@kindle.comaddress. The subject and body don't matter. - Sync your Kindle after a few minutes.
This costs nothing and works with any newsletter. The downsides: you do it for every issue, and a PDF doesn't reflow, so text can be small and you'll zoom and pan. An EPUB reads like a real book, but making one by hand means a tool like Calibre, which is more work than most people want per issue.
Step 2b: Convert and send automatically
Automatic delivery needs something between your inbox and Amazon that can do the conversion. That's what services like Serifize, Readbetter, KTool and Newsletter to Kindle are: you get an email address from the service, newsletters sent to it get converted (to EPUB in Serifize's case), and the EPUB is emailed to your Kindle a few minutes later.
The easiest setup is to subscribe to newsletters with the service's address instead of your own. Issues go straight to your Kindle with nothing else to configure. Keep paid subscriptions on your personal email, since the subscription is tied to the address you paid with, and forward those with a filter instead.
Step 2c: Forward from Gmail with a filter
For newsletters you already get, a Gmail filter forwards a copy of each issue to the service and leaves the original in your inbox:
- In Gmail settings, open Forwarding and POP/IMAP and add the service's address as a forwarding address. Gmail emails that address a confirmation link; Serifize clicks it for you.
- Search Gmail for the newsletter, open the search options, and click Create filter.
- Tick Forward it to, pick the address, and save.
Some searches that work, taken from real issues:
| Newsletter | Gmail search |
|---|---|
| Any Substack | from:substack.com |
| A specific Substack (e.g. Noahpinion) | list:noahpinion.substack.com |
| Money Stuff (Bloomberg) | from:noreply@news.bloomberg.com subject:"Money Stuff" |
| The Morning (NYT) | from:nytdirect@nytimes.com subject:"The Morning" |
| Stratechery | from:email@stratechery.com |
The list: operator is handy for Substack: it matches the newsletter's mailing list, so it catches every section even when they come from slightly different addresses.
Don't turn on "Forward a copy of incoming mail" on the Forwarding page. That forwards all of your email to the service.
What it costs
Converting by hand is free. Automatic services charge between $36 and $100 a year for unlimited newsletters; I keep a comparison with each one's current prices. Most have a free tier of 3 to 25 newsletters a month, enough to find out whether you like reading newsletters on a Kindle before paying anything.
If nothing shows up
Check these, in this order:
- You sent the email itself, with no attachment. Amazon only accepts attached files. Convert the issue first.
- The sending address isn't on the approved list, or it's on the list for a different Amazon store than the one your Kindle is registered to.
-
The
@kindle.comaddress belongs to a different device. A new or replaced Kindle gets a new address, and Amazon keeps accepting mail at the old one without delivering it anywhere you'll see. - The file failed to convert. Amazon emails the sender when this happens, so check the inbox of whatever address sent it.
The Docs tab in Manage Your Content and Devices lists everything Amazon received, even if it never reached your device, which helps tell the last three apart.
