How to Support Your Favorite Authors Without Spending a Dime
It’s an extraordinary feeling to find an author you love—the ones whose books you devour on release day and whose fictional characters become your IRL couple goals. And while one of the best things you can do to support an author, especially an indie author, is to buy their book, when you’re a book girlie on a budget, that can tricky.
The good news? There are tons of ways to show your favorite author some love without spending a cent. Whether you’re a devoted reader or new to an author’s fandom, here are ways readers can support authors, no wallet required.
1. Leave a Review
Platforms like Goodreads, StoryGraph, and Fable aren’t just for tracking your TBR—they’re thriving social hubs for bookworms. And when you leave a review, you're helping other readers and helping the algorithm gods notice our books.
Reviews are so much more to us than “book good 😊” or “book bad ☹️”. They are a vital way that readers connect with other readers, and it’s how someone can find our book and determine if this is a book they want to pick up. Reviews on release day (if you received an ARC) or in those first couple weeks also boost visibility for us and please the algorithm gods, but if you’re reading a backlist book or one that’s been out for a while, reviews still mean the world.
Bonus points if you cross-post the review across multiple platforms. While I don’t love the Zon, having reviews on there is incredibly helpful to us. But you don’t need to reinvent the wheel here, so feel free to copy and paste from Goodreads or StoryGraph to other places.
2. Yap About the Book You Read Online
How to support authors? Sometimes it's as simple as a cute photo of the book next to your matcha.
If you loved our book and want to gush about it, by all means, do! Bookstagram, TikTok, and Booktube are their own little ecosystems of book lovers, but even if you don’t consider yourself a book-fluencer, you never know who may be inspired to pick up a book because of you raving about it.
In general, it’s not kind to tag authors in negative reviews, but if you’re just gushing about a book you loved, I think tagging is okay. We may not always engage (protecting our peace is important), but seeing those kind words can make our day.
Don’t know what to talk about? Go beyond the blurb and share your own thoughts and feelings. What did you love? What quotes were your favorite? How did the tropes play out? Have any favorite scenes or characters? It’s always nice to hear what people connect with in a book I’ve written.
3. Recommend a Book to a Friend
It’s so sweet to me when people suggest my book to friends and family or even buy a copy for someone they know. You might think that just one person more reading the book won’t matter, but to an author, we truly value every reader who takes the time to read what we’ve written.
Oh, and recommending it to your book club? STOP IT, I’M GONNA CRY!
4. Request a Book at Your Library
This might be the coolest way to support indie authors for free. Search for the book in your library’s catalog or apps like Libby or Hoopla. If it’s there, then yay! If not, most libraries let you request they purchase it. Bonus points when you do this—you’ll be one of the first, if not the first, in line when the book is made available.
Having my book available at the library is an absolute dream. What could be better than someone browsing the shelves or scrolling through Libby, seeing my book, and thinking, “That’s the one I want!”
And if you’ve already read the book, that’s okay—you can still request it at the library, which helps authors with sales and discoverability.
5. Follow, Subscribe & Engage With the Author’s Content
Want to know who handles my social media, my newsletters, and this blog here? *waves* Hello, it’s me!
When you follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletters, of course we get that initial boost of a new follower—which, thank you! But when you like and comment on posts, reply to our newsletters, or share our content in your own feed, it boosts our visibility, not to mention, lets us know we’re reaching our ideal reader vs. shouting into the void. We put a lot of work into non-book things, so when you interact, those are small things that feel like big wins.
6. Sign up for ARC or Beta Reader Opportunities
If you love getting sneak peeks and want to support indie authors, this is your moment. ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) readers get to read the book early in exchange for an honest review on release day.
ps not sure what an ARC is? I wrote a whole blog post about it (with tips on how to do it well!) here.
Early readers who read and review Advanced Reader Copies help authors so much. It means we start off with reviews right out of the gate, which then gets other readers interested in picking up the book. ARCs are usually considered the best marketing investment an author can make, so chances are, your fave author will need some volunteers to access the book pre-release. That could be you! (side note: ARCs can also go out after a book has come out, just FYI)
Beta reading is a bit more intensive in my opinion, but if you really like reading and are wanting to work directly with the author to talk about what did and didn’t work in an earlier version of their book, then this is the opportunity for you. You don’t need to be an editor to do this—so you don’t have to make suggestions on how to fix the problems, just point out what seem like problems to you. My beta readers for The Half of It were crucial in making the book what it is today!
7. Be Someone to Help Build the Hype
If you are bookish to the max and you want to use your creativity, the possibilities are endless with supporting an author. Create your own unique Goodreads or Fable bookshelves and include the book, create fan art, fun reels, book-inspired playlists, or celebrate milestones like cover reveals or release dates from your faves. If it’s something fun for you to create, trust me, it’ll be fun for us authors to see!
Your Support Matters to Authors (even if you don’t buy the book)
It takes time, energy, and money to produce a good book, and that’s just to bring it into existence—then there’s the whole marketing and promotion side of things! And whether an author is self-published like me or traditionally published, readers help our stories find the right people.
Even the smallest gesture, like a shared post or a kicking-screaming-throwing-up-this-is-so-good kind of post, can help an author more than you know. When you support authors, you’re helping real people to keep doing what they love.
So, dear reader: thank you for supporting the authors you love in whatever way you can! We love you for it. ❣️