Frequently Asked Questions

Subscribe using our secure online order form, or call our reader-services department.

To order gift subscriptions use this form. If you provide an email for your recipient, we’ll send a notification to them, announcing your gift. The first issue of a gift subscription will also arrive with a gift annoucement.

Print issues will arrive 4–6 weeks after the order is processed. Please note that orders placed by mail may take longer to be received and processed than orders placed online. Overseas orders may take up to 8 weeks to arrive.

Subscribers can read the current issue—as well as our entire archive—online at any time.

Please sign in to our customer-care portal to update your mailing address and/or email on file. If you’re moving, we need six weeks’ notice to ensure uninterrupted delivery of your print subscription. (The post office does not automatically forward magazines.) If you’re moving internationally, shipping will be prorated.    

If you change residence seasonally, please email us or call our reader-services department with the details (i.e., addresses and dates) to ensure uninterrupted delivery.

You can also call our reader-services department to let us know about address changes.

Please update your address with us online or call our reader-services department.      

Magazines are sent second-class mail, which means the post office often won’t forward them to a new address, even if you have a forwarding order on file. If you’re moving, we need six weeks’ notice to ensure uninterrupted delivery of your print subscription.

Because delivery times may vary, we ask that US subscribers wait until the 15th of the month for their print magazines to arrive. (If we are delivering to a Canadian or overseas address, we ask that subscribers wait until the 30th of the month.) If you don’t receive your magazine by this time, sign in to our customer-care portal and report your missing issue via the Subscriptions tab. You can also call our reader-services department to claim a missing issue.      

If you’re experiencing ongoing delivery problems, please contact your local post office for next steps.

You can also sign in here to access your missing issue online at any time.

If you receive a damaged issue, please sign in to our customer-care portal and request a replacement copy from the Subscriptions tab. You can also call our reader-services department.

You can also sign in here to access an online version of your damaged issue at any time.

Our notice might have been sent before your payment was processed. If so, we apologize for the inconvenience. If you continue to receive invoices or renewal notices, please email us or call our reader-services department. You can also check the status of your subscription at any time using our customer-care portal.

Yes, The Sun often gives free or reduced-rate subscriptions to prisoners and readers who have fallen on hard times. If you’d like to request a complimentary subscription for yourself or someone else, please send us an email.

The Sun makes its mailing list available to organizations whose work may be of interest to our readers. If you’d like your name left off mailing-list rentals, email your request (make sure to include your full name and postal address) or call our reader-services department.

You can also send your request, along with a recent mailing label, to:

The Sun
109 N Roberson St.
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

The Direct Marketing Association can place your name on a no-mail list, reducing the amount of unwanted mail you receive by up to 80 percent. Visit dmachoice.org for details.

Please see our complete submission guidelines for more information about how to send us your work.

If you are a subscriber to The Sun, sign in to your account to read online. Our website design provides distraction-free reading for phones, tablets, and computers alike. PDFs are available for offline reading as well.

We also email you a link each month when a new issue is available. Contact us if you’re not receiving these email notifications.

Many e-reading devices such as the Kindle can display PDFs downloaded from our website. Consult your device’s user manual for instructions on sending downloaded files to your device.

Please install Adobe Acrobat Reader or update to the latest version. Once you’ve installed or updated Acrobat Reader, restart your computer, and then try viewing the PDFs. If you still experience problems, send us an email.

US subscriptions to The Sun include both in print and digital access. Change your delivery preferences in our customer-care portal. (This will not affect your subscription rate.)

Digital-only access is available outside the US for the same price as domestic subscriptions, with additional fees for postal delivery. International subscribers can update their delivery preferences here, but this may affect subscription rates.

If you supply us with your email address, we will use it only to communicate with you regarding orders you have placed, questions you have asked, and/or services you have requested online. If you are a subscriber to The Sun, you may also receive periodic emails from us with information about your subscription, new products and services, upcoming events, fundraising efforts, and special announcements.

If you do not want to receive promotional emails from us in the future, please let us know by unsubscribing from our e-newsletter or by contacting us. We will honor your request as quickly as possible.

We do not share your email address with any third-party organizations.

You can change your donation amount, or cancel your recurring donation on our customer-care portal on the Recurring Donations tab.

If you don’t see your recurring donation listed there, please email us or call the reader-services department for assistance.

Email us or call our reader-services department to place a book order, report a problem, or check the status of a book order.

Bookstores and libraries receive a 40% discount. To place an order, please call our reader-services department and identify yourself as a bookseller or librarian.

For inquiries about subscriptions, product orders, or donations, email us or call our reader-services department at 888-732-6736 (toll-free) or 919-942-5282.

For editorial correspondence, including questions about reprint requests, or to contact a staff member, please send us an email.

We love getting mail. (Of course, we reserve the right to edit.) Send us your letter online.

We will be glad to forward a letter or email to a contributor for you. To protect the privacy of our contributors, we do not give out their private phone numbers, email addresses, or postal addresses.

See our Events page for details about upcoming events and contact information. We prefer that you contact venues directly for information about a particular program. If you have further questions, please send us an email.

We recommend that you donate back issues of The Sun to your local prison’s library. If they are unable to accept them, you can donate through Prisoner Express.

Please send us an email.