Summer Is a Scam, but the Books Are Good
A newsletter for readers too sunburned, unhinged, or emotionally scorched to pretend everything’s fine.
Greetings from the Inferno
It’s July, which means the air is soup, your iced coffee is sweating harder than you are, and capitalism wants you to pretend summer is a carefree picnic and not a psychological endurance test.
But here at Unsolicited Press, we say: lean into the chaos. Let the heat fry your brain just enough to make impulsive book purchases feel like self-care.
This month’s newsletter is packed with exactly what you need to survive the seasonal meltdown: sales, surprises, literary weirdness, free books, and one too many existential memoirs.
Because if we’re going down in a ball of sunscreen-scented fire, we’re bringing poetry.
Now scroll on, hydrate, and get ready to fill your tote with books that slap harder than heatstroke.
🌞 Hot Lit Summer: 20% Off Everything (Yes, Everything)
We’ve fully melted. The sun is too close. Capitalism is exhausting. So to cope, we’re doing what any emotionally unstable small press would do:
Throwing a massive month-long sale.
🗓 July 1–31
📚 20% off every book in our catalog
🧨 Use code: SUMMER20
That’s right—every genre, every heartbreak, every unhinged narrator is yours for less.
📦 The Unsolicited Surprise Book Deal
Because what’s life without a little literary chaos?
For $15, you get:
📖 1 surprise book from our weird, wonderful backlist
✋ Hand-packed by our publisher herself (a real human!)
🎁 A bonus item: sticker, bookmark, or some strange relic from the Unsolicited vault
👉 No special requests. No refunds. Just good vibes and bookish trust falls.
Snag Your Surprise Book ➡️
🎁 Other July Sales (Because We Can’t Be Stopped)
🐕 Dog Days, Book Days (7/15)
Buy 1, Get 1 Half Off
Because heatstroke is real and books are better than fans. No code needed.
🎄 Christmas in July: Mystery Bundle
3 backlist books for $25
We pick. You unwrap. No peeking.
💌 Buy a Book, Get a Year of Us—FREE
For real. Every book you buy in July = 1-year upgrade to our paid Substack ($50 value).
That means:
🎉 Early access to new releases
🧠 Exclusive essays, spicy takes, and behind-the-scenes chaos
🎁 Bonus downloads and free stuff
No code. No catch. Just buy a book. We do the rest.
Already a paid subscriber? We’ll tack on an extra year.
🎧 Audiobook & Chill Giveaway
Show off your current Unsolicited read and win big.
📸 Post a pic
🔖 Tag @unsolicitedp + use #unsolicitedpress
🎁 Win 3 audiobooks + 1 bonus ebook
🕑 Deadline: July 31
🎉 Winner: August 1
👀 Substack subscribers = automatic bonus entry
💻 Smashwords = Ebook Mayhem
Our entire catalog is on sale during the Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale
July = perfect time to stock your digital shelves.
Shop the Sale ➡️
💀 Exquisite Corpse by Malú Urriola (7/15)
Translated by Elena Barcia
Poetry meets Dadaism, sex, death, jazz, and philosophical chaos.
A fever dream in verse.
🐐 A Long Way from Anywhere by Norah Esty (7/8)
Academic burnout meets rural survival in this off-grid memoir of sheep, solitude, and existential crises.
💔 Dad Stories by Emily Fontenot (7/22)
Flash memoir that cuts deep—on fatherhood, girlhood, and the ache of almosts.
Small, sharp, unforgettable.
🎁 FREE BOOKS ON LIBRARYTHING
🔥 FIREFALL, A BROKEN WINDOW, and NO PLACE LIKE are up for grabs on LibraryThing Early Reviewers
If you love free books and know how to write a review without crying (or while crying, we don’t judge), now’s your moment.
Request Copies ➡️
That’s July.
A heatwave of discounts, mystery boxes, free subscriptions, and emotionally destabilizing literature.
Buy books.
Write reviews.
Fight the sun with fiction.
Until next time,
Your favorite barely-holding-it-together lit team
💀 Unsolicited Press