Judith Rossner’s 70s novel, August, is about a psychoanalyst and the young adult client she sees during the month when all therapists take vacation. Someone needs to write the novel about an agent and the young adult novelist who pitches in August and hears crickets. Is everyone on vacation in August? Yup. August is about beach books and cabin reads. Swinging in a hammock with a great novel or lounging by the pool reading new nonfiction, reading al fresco is a summer pleasure. Enjoy. So what’s on my summer reading list? Fiction Trust Exercise by Susan Choi The Evening Hero by Marie Myung-Ok Lee Perish by LaToya Watkins Nonfiction Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle How to Read Now: Essays by Elaine Castillo Memoir Inheritance: An Autobiography of Whiteness by Baynard Woods The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama Happy Go Lucky by David Sedaris If you’re getting ready to seek an agent or publisher, you have even more reason to relax with a good book. Like therapists, agents and acquisition editors are often on a summer hiatus the next four to six weeks. It’s the off-season for new book deals. Sit back and enjoy this month to read. It’s an especially good time to read your comps. What are your comps? Your market competition, the books your readers are buying right now, your comparables. How…

Pre-order. You might be surprised to learn that pre-ordering a book is critical to the launch of a book. Publishers may make decisions about how much marketing support to provide a new release based on the volume of pre-orders. Some even determine the size of a first print run using those numbers. If a book has strong pre-order sales, reviewers are more likely to review it, the media is more likely to hype it up, and retailers are more likely to carry it in stock and give it premium placement. If you know an author has a book coming out, please pre-order it. Write a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. It doesn’t need to be very long or a deep literary analysis. The number of reviews a book receives affects the algorithms for getting found online. If you don’t like the book, don’t leave a review. As my mother used to say, “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Spread the word. Let your friends and family know how much you enjoyed a book. Share this on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or wherever you do social media. Take a book-selfie. Post a picture of the book, your cat lying across the couch with a paw on the cover, you falling asleep on the couch with the book. Follow. Many authors have Facebook Pages you can like and follow. On Twitter, many authors have accounts and you can follow them and retweet to amplify their voices. Follow authors on…

After an absence that followed the cancelation of their 2020 festival due to the pandemic, UntitledTown has partnered with the Friends of the Brown County Library and Lion’s Mouth Bookstore and is making a comeback with a one-day event of readings from your favorite Wisconsin and Midwestern authors. UntitledTown: the Comeback Event will take place on Saturday, August 21 from 10am to 4pm at the Central Branch of the Brown County Library in downtown Green Bay. Almost twenty authors including Nickolas Butler, Rebecca Makkai, Andrew Graff, Miranda and Baptiste Paul, Amanda Skenandore, Pao Lor, and many more will be reading their works. The one-day UntitledTown event includes readings for all ages and interests, featuring fiction and mystery writers, poetry and nonfiction writers, and children’s writers and storytellers. “Readers, writers, and lovers of stories will rejoice to learn that they can expect the same great literary experiences they have come to know and love from UntitledTown events,” reads a news release from Brown County Library. Detailed event information including times and author bios can be found on the Lion’s Mouth Bookstore website, and participating authors’ books are available for purchase on the website as well. “We are so excited to welcome back authors and the community for this special event,” a post on the Lion’s Mouth Bookstore website reads, “We can’t wait to see you there!” The revived UntitledTown is planning a variety of literary events throughout 2022, with the Book & Author Festival returning in 2023, so stay tuned!