About Brev
Why does Brev exist?
We live in a time when everything screams for your attention. Algorithms are designed to keep you scrolling, and your words drown in noise.
Brev grew out of a feeling you may share: that the internet has lost something important. What used to pass between people as gifts has, for the most part, become raw material for algorithms. You may be tired of the endless loop of noise — and miss a home for substance.
As a writer, I won't use a tool that doesn't work — or that feels wrong the moment I hit send.
Built by a writer who had had enough
You may wonder who is behind Brev. My name is Thomas J.R. Marthinsen. I am a Norwegian writer and journalist, living in Denmark. I am not a tech company — but I am still the one behind Brev. Me, and a swarm of AI agents I have worked with so closely that I have almost, but only almost, given them proper names.
The walk through algorithm country
For years I published my own simple newsletter — Hundre prosent — on Tinyletter, now gone. It was an undisturbed refuge: the emails themselves, and Tinyletter's lovely little corner of the web.
Then Tinyletter was swallowed. Too good to last.
When it disappeared, I set out on a frustrating walk through today's internet to find a new home for my writing. I tried everything: Substack, Buttondown, MailerLite and Fika. Everywhere the same thing happened. The joy of writing sagged under dashboards, growth strategies, statistics and flashing buttons. The tools kept trying to turn me into a “brand” or a “platform”.
Brev exists because I realised that if I wanted a genuinely quiet room for my words — a place where writing and reading are allowed to take the time they actually need — I would have to build it myself.
So yes: I rather asked for this. Because I will not use something that does not work, or that does not feel right.
When the coffee is cold and the thought is warm
The silence in the garden was almost deafening, and for a moment it felt as if the world had come to a complete standstill…
Finding our way back to the postcard
Brev is designed as a completely white, undisturbed typewriter. With a send button. No ads, no unnecessary buttons, no AI to “improve” your text. As a writer you get simple statistics on how many people open what you send, and a cheerful world map showing roughly where they are.
The aim is simple: more of those emails you actually save. The ones you look forward to with a cup of coffee before bed, or on the terrace on a slow afternoon. Real messages from people with something genuine to say.
You are not alone — online or otherwise. There are many of us in the same boat. Time to pick up the oars.
Snacks for the nerds (about the machinery behind Brev)Click to read more
Brev is not a data centre, and not a tech giant. I am one writer and founder who has had to choose which companies I trust to run the digital room Brev is meant to be — safely and responsibly. I have tried to choose wisely.
The database and login sit with Supabase in Frankfurt. The site and API run on Vercel with a data centre in the EU (Frankfurt). Email is sent with Resend from the EU region where possible. Most of what you write, and the lists you build, actually live in Europe — not because it looks good on a slide, but because those were the best tools I could choose without building and running servers in my own basement.
Supabase, Vercel and Resend are American companies. Even though Brev is subject to Norwegian and European privacy rules, US jurisdiction could in theory apply to these providers. That is why we use standard data-processing agreements (SCCs) where the rules require it. I will not promise complete, impenetrable data sovereignty — that would be dishonest. But I do promise European data centres wherever possible, and openness about where your data flows.
We do not store your full IP address when someone opens a letter or clicks a link — only the country code. Why? To make a good, old-fashioned world map showing where your readers actually are.
And let this be clear: I will never sell the data of Brev's users or their readers to anyone. We will never put advertising tracking on anything either.
If Brev one day changes providers, it will be because it makes the service better for you as a writer and a reader. For no other reason.
Readfest? Brev’s inspiration magazine!
Readfest is where Brev writers publish their letters for anyone who wants to read — like a small magazine, not a feed. Browse excerpts from what is already out there, and click through to the full letters when you want to go deeper.
Hundre prosent
Kongstegninger (№36)
Det er sagt så mange fine ord, så jeg tenker at jeg kan spare de fleste av mine. La meg nøye meg med å konstatere - på avstand, både fysisk…
Hundre prosent
Skal du ha noe gjort, må du heller gjøre det selv (№35)
« I think I became a writer because I used to write letters to my friends, and I used to love writing them. I loved the idea that you can pu…
Hundre prosent
Siste reis, sjømann
«Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.»
All right — enough talk. Where do you start?
If you are still wondering whether this digital room has space for exactly what you want to write, read more about who I am building it for on Is Brev for you?. If you want the dry facts in black and white, you will find the comparison with the big platforms on Brev vs. the rest.
But if you already feel a twitch in your writing fingers, there is really only one thing to do: