Case and point to why you should pre-order locally rather than from Am*zon: Not a single bookstore within 50 miles of me has AMONG THE BEASTS & BRIARS in stock or even on-order.

This includes local, B&N, and Books-A-Million.

My book release week is going well, friends.

Gosh, it’s like poorly managed bookstores just look at the title “NYT BESTSELLER” and order those and refuse to squint at the actual numbers.

I bet you didn’t know I’ve sold over 100k books, did you?

Or that I’m published in over 10 countries.

Or that last year Yallfest ran out of stock before noon because they didn’t order enough copies of GEEKERELLA.

Or that I’ve sold out of my advances on three of my six books published since 2017.

Or that I’ve been on the Indies Next List 3 times.

I don’t really ever talk about any of that stuff, because as it turns out—what’s the point?

This B&N manager actually looked at me and said “Oh, we can order some of your books—we get a lot of famous local authors in here! And your books are with Harper, so that’s good. A lot of people started writing books during the pandemic!”

Like I was some bright-eyed debut author who no one knew about, who wrote a book on a whim and decided oh, it’d be a nice time.

That just broke me. I don’t know why. It just did.

I have been in this industry for eight years. But what do I have to show for it?

Thank you everyone--your comments mean everything. IT'S REALLY HARD TO SHOUT IN A PANDEMIC WHEN THERE'S SO MUCH NOISE. And I'm a queer white woman, so I know I have privilege here. Please, whenever you can, uplift marginalized authors as well and shout them from the rooftops.