Hello friends - I wanted to pop on here to give you guys an update on where I've been, which is not something I usually do. But this time around, I have had so many external life events hit me like a ton of bricks that I am truly incapable of posting and I wanted to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for sticking around while I'm going through this period of transition.

Starting at the end of July, I have had back to back intense things happening in my life. First, the garage of my building burned down. No one was hurt and thankfully none of my stuff was in there as it wasn't my garage, but it took out both the electricity and WiFi for over a week, which left me calling the company every day to harass them about repairs, trying to find other confidential places to work (since as a therapist I can't just go to a cafe), and largely not being at my house. Then that same week, my mom was unexpectedly diagnosed with breast cancer. It is stage 1, but her treatment plan has been more complicated by a number of factors and I am her primary caregiver. We don't live in the same city, I don't have a job where it is easy for me to take off of work, and - those of you that have been with me a while know this - I had cancer myself 10 years ago so this is bringing up a lot of trauma from that time. I ultimately believe she will get through this, but it is a lot. Then I had my car break down and need a new alternator, which one of my partners was able to fix thankfully but still had my car out of commission for multiple days. Then I had to make the painful decision to end one of my 3 year+ relationships for a number of reasons, but there was a final straw regarding my birthday which was especially hurtful. And finally, right after that breakup, I came down with an awful cold that I am still currently battling, probably because of all the stress from the last handful of weeks taking a toll on my immune system.

I'm telling you all of this not for pity, but because I know I'm not the only one going through it right now. And also to thank you for hanging in there and having faith that I'll be back to creating soon. I have so many things I want to be doing, and it's been very hard to not be able to lean into my creative outlets. My mom is about to have surgery at the beginning of September and then I am traveling to the UK for SJ's wedding (many of you probably know her but she's one of my best friends through Youtube that I've known for over a decade now), but I am hopeful that after I return, I will be able to get back to my creative outlets, reading more again, etc.

If you are also going through a lot right now, please know that I am sending my love. We'll get through this.

See you soon.

xo Sam

There is a dark secret about which books get attention—and which stories get told.

We've done deep dives on serial killers, cults, alien encounters, and government conspiracies that go all the way to the top. But the scariest stories are the ones that nobody wants to talk about out loud.

Here's what the corporations don't want you to know:

90% of books published will sell fewer than 2,000 copies over their lifetime.

All of the weirdest books, the most brilliant ones, the most ambitious ones, the ones that will scare you to death and blow your mind open might never be read by more than a handful of people. They might never be published at all.

So we started a publishing imprint with Bindery. It's called Last Press on the Left. And we’ve found our first book.

Traditional publishing has no audience. They have gatekeepers. They have a strong bias toward whatever kind of book sold well for them last year, which means they spotlight the same kinds of stories, and the same kinds of voices, over and over again. Covers, titles, and pitches all start to blur together. You’ve probably noticed it: books with titles like The Midwife's Secret, The Missing Girl in the Plane Window, Letters from Grandpa. Copy, paste, repeat. Debut authors get a contract and a prayer. Marginalized voices often get passed over for safer bets. And the books that need a champion the most might never find their readers.

You know we love books. We read everything. And we believe reading is one of the most powerful weapons we have against evil, against fascism, against the slow death of critical thinking. Because knowledge is power, and reading fiction builds empathy. And a society that doesn't read is easier to control.

We've spent years building something that most publishers could never dream of, and it’s our secret weapon: YOU.

Our community. The people who deep dive with us. Who listen to our crazy stories and indulge our theories. Who care about research and storytelling and have genuinely great taste. We started asking ourselves: why don't we use these powers for good?

And before you ask: no, this is not us slapping our name on someone else's work and calling it a day. This is us sifting through the submissions pile, reading unpublished manuscripts, finding the writers who deserve to be heard—and making sure they actually get heard, with the full weight of this whole community behind them.

Every book we publish is a lead title. No author gets lost at the bottom of a list. No voice gets passed over because it doesn't fit a mold. And the people who help us do it (that’s you, reading this, right now) get to be part of it from day one.

When we started looking for our first book, we didn't expect to immediately. strike gold.

Saint's Hotel by M.I. Minaeva is The Shining meets House of Leaves meets Silent Hill and we know you're going to be obsessed with it, because we could not stop thinking about it. It's about a depressed, burnt-out architect named Ernest who has been having recurring dreams about a Gothic French town since he was a child. He doesn't know whether it's real or not. His parents deny it ever existed. And then one day, he just stumbles upon it. But once he's there, the town of Sainte Verlise won't let him go.

Like House of Leaves or Marcus Kliewer's We Used to Live Here, it's told in a collage style: traditional narration is mixed in with found footage, newspaper articles, footnotes, internet archives, artifacts, and static. It is atmospheric and creepy and totally undeniable. Days after M.I. signed with us, we received a massive offer for the audio rights. Hollywood is already circling. This is life-changing stuff for a debut author, and it’s one of the coolest projects we’ve been a part of. It’s basically a dream come true for everyone involved.

We didn't go looking for a safe book. We looked for the best one.

This is where you come in.

Reader (that's everyone following us here, for free) will watch this whole journey unfold in real time—cover reveals, editorial decisions, the entire process of taking a remarkable story from raw manuscript to a real book on bookstore shelves that you can hold in your hands.

Last Reader ($5/month) get early digital copies of every book we publish, plus first access to cover reveals, author Q&As, and other behind-the-scenes publishing content.

Cult Reader ($12/month) get everything above, plus early exclusive physical copies of every book we publish. You'll get to vote on publishing and design decisions, and your name will be printed in the acknowledgments of every book. You're not just reading these books. You helped make them exist. We want the world to know it.

All of our membership earnings go to Reading Is Fundamental, fighting the literacy crisis. And every dollar that flows through Bindery goes right back into the imprint, helping to make phenomenal books that will last forever, creating a legacy of great fiction, and changing authors' lives.

We are building a community that fights brain rot, supports authors, and reads good books. And you helped build it. It doesn't exist without you.

The literacy crisis is real. The death of critical thinking is real. And the best weapon we have against both of them is a weird, fantastic, impossible-to-put-down story.

Saint's Hotel comes out Fall 2027.

Read a book. Prevent the apocalypse.

—LPOTL