The Book Nerd Diaries

Apply this to time between installments.

A good book published on a delay is late once, and then good forever.

Ultimately, you're getting a book either way. The question is, would you like something satisfactory that you can look back on fondly for the rest of your life, or do you want something that the author rushed out over the course of a bunch of sleepless nights that reflects the quality of those working conditions?

on schedule is on time once,

but bad forever.

And then book two usually starts drafting somewhere after book one is sent to print, and it comes straight to the editor to do structural edits. No room for years of moulding, and no additional stage with agent (usually, although some authors can do this!). And it can feel wild and rushed and a very abrupt gear-change. PARTICULARLY because the lead times on publication are so long (the ideal final manuscript delivery is 14 months before publication) that if we want book 2 out within a year of book 1, you need to have book 2 finished before book 1 is even printed.

SOME writers can do this!! Miles Cameron, for example, is a writing machine who reliably delivers 2 books a year. BUT he has also written over 50 novels and it is his full time job. Very few authors are full time authors.

In 2022, The Society of Authors published findings that suggested the median annual income for authors in the UK is £7000. The majority of authors on our list have other jobs, and this is true for most authors publishing today.

So writing around a job, and then taking into account any Life Happenings that happen, PLUS the long lead times for books, means that publishing annually can be VERY tricky.

If you want to help authors earn more so they can write more?

Buy their books! I can confirm that hard sales data is pored over when renewing contracts and acquiring books and deciding print runs. All sales through digital retailers, bookstores and supermarkets are tracked by Bookscan, and that data informs EVERY DECISION we make. Editors desperately want to throw money at every book we acquire, but if the data doesn't support it we're limited in what we can do - if we offer far too high and a book doesn't sell enough to clear the advance rate, it becomes a big black hole in finances that can hurt author retention. Keep an eye on deals on eBooks and audio as well - buying cheap on a deal still helps!! Remember, an author won't start seeing royalty income until their advance fully earns out. Pre-ordering books is also a great way to support authors: it helps them chart better on release-week, which can support future contracts, AND it gives future you a lovely present of a book.

Borrow their books! In the UK at least, authors receive income via ALCS and PLR, which gives them money for use of their work and every time a book is taken out from a library. If you're an author who is published in the UK and not registered with ALCS and PLR yet - get on it!

Review! Review Review Review! If you have read a book and loved it, Amazon reviews, Goodreads reviews, and reviews on bookseller websites are incredible resources. The better a book rates on Amazon, the more it gets boosted. (algorithms, grrrr) Equally, if you sign up to Netgalley, we often put titles up there TOTALLY FREE in exchange for honest reviews. All Gollancz's books are listed under our parent company, Orion.

Engage with authors and their publishers on social media! Social media is THE WORST, we all know it. That's why we're here, in this bastion of what can only be termed anti-social media. However, social media is the main resource publishers have for promoting their books because it is FREE and can get to a lot of people. It's also another way of helping us track how excited people are for a book - particularly ahead of publication, when we only have pre-order numbers to work from. Not just watching/viewing but also actively liking and commenting on content about your favourite authors is hard data we can use to help, and - again, algorithms, ugh - the more content about your favourite authors is engaged with, the more it gets recommended to new people, to help them find new readers. It's a vicious cycle, but by god it's one you can weaponise to help your authors. Gollancz's main channel at the moment is our instagram, but we also have a growing tiktok that is being run for the girls, gays and theys by the phenomenal Millie and Corinne. And of course, there's muggins here running the tumblr, but given the nature of tumblr it's mostly feral boosting rather than actual announcements and it tracks very differently. If you are on any of those other platforms, AND we publish anyone you like, this sort of support is a great free way to help boost boost boost.

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Do not use the website called Sci-Hub!

It lets people access scientific articles for free. This is dangerous. It helps the free flow of knowledge and reduces the competitive edge of all the people who worked really hard to have been born into a wealth.

Like, it’s literally a website where you can type in the DOI of an article and read it, without ever having to pay the publisher who exploited the author.

BookBrowse is a great resource that includes readalikes, new releases, and the option to filter fiction and nonfiction by genre, subgenres, time period, setting, page count, debut books, and small presses.

BookPage publishes small monthly magazines that can be found in many libraries and bookstores, but all of their lists, author interviews, and reviews can also be found on their website. each month spotlights new releases across a variety of genres and age groups.

Electric Literature publishes short stories, poems, novel excerpts, interviews with authors, and even the occasional book list

the Indie Next List compiles a monthly list of titles recommended by independent booksellers across the US, with an archive of lists

Lit Hub publishes lots of great pieces and literary news, in addition to book lists

over at Paste we've got, you guessed it, reviews, recommendations, and author interviews

like sci-fi, fantasy, and horror? check out Reactor Mag! among other things, they have monthly compilations of all the genre fiction coming out

and for my podcast heads check out The Stacks, where host Traci Thomas is dropping weekly interviews with authors about their new books and the podcasts' monthly book club reads

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