Episode 17: How To Support Authors

Preorders and birthday parties! 🎂

Welcome to the Pub Dates newsletter! We’re so glad you’re here.

This newsletter is released as a companion to each podcast episode, and we use it to share the visual elements of our discussion — from mood boards to design sketches, from photos to secret giveaways just for subscribers.

In episode seventeen, we talked about the different ways you can support authors you love — not just us, but anyone who’s writing books that mean something to you. (Though hey, it’s our birthday month, so if you want to preorder The Isles of the Gods or Nightbirds, we won’t say no…)

First up, we want to remind you that you can send us a challenge for our December holiday episode — name a page you’d like a quote from, ask us to choose which of our characters we’d like to kiss, marry or throw off a cliff… take your pick.

You can do that by leaving a comment here, emailing us at pubdates at gmail dot com, or you can leave us a voice message by clicking here.

Don’t forget — there are advance copies of both The Isles of the Gods and Nightbirds up for grabs. Everyone who asks a question will go into the draw!

Now, onward! First, we want to remind you of what we covered during the episode.

How to support authors:

1. Preorder!

You can find a variety of options at these links to preorder The Isles of the Gods or Nightbirds.

If you’d like to preorder from Nicole, the wonderful indie bookseller you heard on this episode of the podcast, then you can find the books at Oblong Books right here:

The Isles of the Gods at Oblong Books

Nightbirds at Oblong Books

2. Request a book at the library!

If your library doesn’t have the book you want, or it’s not out yet, you can speak to a librarian or use your library’s online form to request they grab a copy. Librarians want to be sure their collection is full of the books you want to read — they love requests!

3. Review the book on retail sites!

Whether we’re after a place to eat, a cushion shaped like a llama, or a book, we all look at online reviews. Adding yours to the major retail sites like Amazon and B&N make a huge difference — both in terms of encouraging others to read, and in terms of the way the sites’ algorithms might recommend the book to new readers.

4. Tell a friend!

Word of mouth, baby! If you’re a reader, you know how much it means to have someone who knows your taste recommend a book to you. You can be that friend to others! Both they and the author in question will thank you.

5. Keep in touch with authors!

Follow your favourite authors on social media, subscribe to their newsletters in particular — those aren’t at the mercy of an algorithm, so you’ll always see them — and hey, listen to their podcasts!

Mushy time for a moment: If you’re here, you’re one of those readers we love to have in our lives. We are SO grateful for readers who stick around, support our work, and tell their friends. So truly, thank you.

Now, did you make it through all that? Time for some birthday celebrations, we think!

Here’s Kate’s birthday! She’s at a fancy winery for a fancy lunch, wearing a fancy outfit that — long time listeners, you guessed it! — she made herself.

Aaaaaaand, then came Amie’s birthday. She doesn’t have a picture from her birthday, because to be honest, she spent the whole day dealing with a seriously ill child and a seriously ill dog. Never say we pretend everything is perfect! Everyone is on the mend now, thankfully. She and her family have decided they’re rescheduling her birthday for the end of the month, and will have a nice day with cake then.

Here, however, is a picture of the consolation donuts that her writer friends sent her. So it wasn’t all bad.

And that’s it for this episode! Thank you for listening, friends — and don’t forget to leave us a question to go into the draw for the advance copies!