There’s been a lot of focus lately on the new readers joining us, and I wanted to take a moment to talk to the people who have been here all along.
Thank you.
Many of you have cared for these books for years, even longer than I have. My inbox is always full of questions, recommendations, fun stuff that reminded you of IA, and only the occasional emotional spiral about a detail I’ve never even considered from the stories we love. As House Andrews have said many times before, that makes it all worth it. You are seen and you are beloved.
At release time, one particular question shows up enough that I know the Horde speaks with one voice: “What’s the best way to support the book?”
It’s true that readers who understand the publishing ecosystem tend to behave in certain ways. And people call the BDH many things on the mean streets, but never uninformed – so let’s get into it.
The cold reality is that what happens in the first few weeks after a release matters far more than it probably should. Visibility drives everything. Willingly or not, we all live somewhere in the algorithm.
Reviews
They don’t need to be long, and they don’t need to be polished critique. Most of us have been on the other end, quickly checking for best fit before our decision battery runs out. Clear, in spaces where new readers will see them, and soon after release is what usually counts.
Reviews also don’t have to be positive. Whatever yucks your yum could easily be the next person’s favorite thing! If you go straight to the one-star reviews to see what the haters say, I see you. I’ve bought books so fast my credit card was left spinning because of DNF reasons that sounded amazing to me. Female protagonist is too bossy, my left foot!
I know purists will pipe up and say they never look at a book that has less than 4.5 stars etc, but bestseller data don’t lie. This is what a good audience reach looks like for a book – all sorts of people read this and felt things about it:
Word of mouth
Recommending the book, talking about it, posting about it.
There’s another thriving misconception here that it needs to go viral, or it only counts if it’s done by “big account” influencers. Most of us trust recommendations from people we know far more than the new BookTok engagement driver who mentions the same book as everyone else for the 127th time in a row.
From bestie to bestie and book club to book club, that’s how good books travel.
Library requests and bookstore interaction
We all know that librarians are the superheroes of Book World. There’s no way to overstate how influential they can be in making good books available to the right audience. So request the book you want, check it out, bring it on the librarian’s radar. They’ll take it from there.
Equally, bookstores don’t take wild guesses when it comes to stocking. Demand drives decision. If you’ve ever found a favorite book by browsing the shelves of the local retailer, there’s a good chance it got there because enough people asked for it, preordered, bought, and showed interest in it and others of the same genre/type.
Why is any of this important to us? We already know what we like, what we’re buying and in how many formats.
Because this is how we get ants
Visibility doesn’t stay contained to one book.
New readers discover one series, and then go looking for everything else. That’s how older series find new life, stay relevant and *ahem* continue.
The questions about sequels come up a lot and I don’t mind answering them every day, that’s part of why I’m here. Woot, Mod R gets the big bucks! But those answers don’t change from post to post and derailing the attention from the new releases isn’t getting us the wins we think. If a series isn’t marked as Finished or Finished for Now on the Release Schedule page, it will continue when the time and creativity allow for it. They’re not forgotten, and we’ll be the first to know as soon as a release date is official.
Speaking of behaviours that work against the very thing we’re hoping for: there’s the instinct to hold off until a series is complete before buying it or starting on it. It’s understandable, but it is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. A series that doesn’t sell and doesn’t get early momentum is a series that isn’t viable and won’t continue. I could sugarcoat it, but you know I’m your girl that keeps it real.
This all applies to book releases in general and none of it is prescriptive. Read only what you want, because life is short and the news cycle even shorter. Support however is convenient. Ignore all of this entirely if you prefer, or as always, take what is useful and leave the rest.
As for This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me in particular – it’s an idea House Andrews has wanted to explore for a long time, and worked hard to bring into the world.
We know better than anyone else what kind of ride we’re in for when that happens. For the Horde!
First?
That was QUICK! Certified and impressed 🙂
I am very excited for Maggie to come out. I have already talked to the hubby about giving me a weekend to devour….. I miss those days of being a teenager and reading a book for hours on end with not interruptions.
SAME
Me too – I miss having my mom be the adult and me be the kid reading away as soon as homework got done.
Love this
Your books are all my comfort re-reads!
House Andrews books are like warm blankets that I reach for so I will continue drum my support for them. Now Im imagining Mod R giving this post in the manner of Aragorn speech at the Black Gate and ending it for the Horde!
How did you know! 😀
Because I recently drove through a snow storm to see Return of the King in theatres so its fresh in my mind. Im imagining Roman as Gandalf
We will fluffily spread the word
For the Horde!
I went to finally purchase the e-book version….only to find out I had bought it back in April 2025! LOL! Must have been at the first book-drop announcement!
SAME 😅🥰
Me too!
Well, I just got a status update on my UK order for the Waterstone’s special edition.🙏 And I have a reminder in my calendar for the morning of the drop to buy the e-book from my regular bookseller.📕
Now I just have to then actually find the time to READ the book. Guess we don’t really need sleep as long as it is FOR THE HORDE?!😉💤
W*iting fluffily…
I just got my notification too. Very excited that the dreaded w*iting is almost over! For the Horde!
For the Horde! I don’t usually post what I am reading on Facebook, I will make an exception for the pretty. Besides, those spredges, they deserve to be admired…
I’ve been with House Andrews from the beginning and am looking forward to this new adventure with them! Never have I been able to stick with an author this long and not be disappointed in a single work. There are so many other series I’ve eventually left after multiple same old same book after book.
Now sounds like House Andrews has never failed me so time for me to put up or shut up and start hyping them like I should have been all along! Nonchalant reviews incoming.
And good choice with the Archer clip Mod R! One of my fav adult cartoons 😆
The rally cry of Mod R! I realize in the digital era we all live in word of mouth is still very much an important way to get information about something.
I also look at the 1 star reviews. I want to know why someone didn’t like it.
I definitely hear the Return of the King Aragorn speech at the Black Gate. For the Horde! 😂
The Horde gets acknowledged in this book. Whoo-hoo! 🎇🥳
HA fits for me as incomplete serial stories because, in spite of the larger story not being done, the story in each book is. HA books have teasers, not cliffhangers. If a first book has a cliffhanger, I won’t read the rest until the series is done. It is mentally itchy.
My sister hits the middle ground with those. For a few authors, she will buy the series as each book comes out but not read them until she has the whole series. Such discipline! I can’t even imagine owning a book and not reading it.
I find cliffhangers used as a way to sell the next book in the series really irritating. I don’t mind teasers and little hanging there, but when every book concludes with “oh but now there comes this plot twist out of the blue skies and everything we thought is resolved is turned on its head again – so watch what happens next book!” I abandon ship. It doesn’t make me want to read the following book, it ruins the book I just read. Thank good HA doesn’t do that, just teases sometimes.
❤️
We love you @ModR! Also, how do we contact you with questions? For science.
Modr@ilona-andrews.com and the comments – I read them all 🙂
Good reminders and information! Thanks Mod R!
Thanks for the reminder: I pre-ordered the Kindle version online and a hardcover at my local independent bookstore. Now I have to go request my library bring it in in hardcover and on Libby…
I initially found Kate as an extra story in a book with many authors. My enthusiasm was hooked. After that, I devoured it all long before the book devouring hoard became a group name. I just want to say. Your books are the one true re-readable, my go to’s when I just want to world travel and do something like the old commercial used to say, Calgon Take me Away. Now, it is Kate and Curran take me away. Love their kids so much. Love that whole world. Some of their world views I have adopted. You can’t read something and it doesn’t touch you. I love the relationship dynamic, the care for the friends, the underdog, and and the world worn. I love the whole story line. I also like going down the rabbit holes of the religion lines too. I know it is a fictional world but I heard about Shinar in the Old Testament while doing a reposted on audio just the other day. Made my day.
+1 on the one star reviews. Different people have different views of what’s great in a book, but a griping review is usually specific. I don’t care 20 people wrote they loved it, that doesn’t necessarily mean I will, I wanna know why those four guys think it’s awful 😀
I like reading 3 star reviews for research purposes myself – although we’re usually talking product reviews other than books (clothes etc). Food for thought in both directions.
That said, I often do read the one stars. There are usually only a few, so why not? It’s all data.
I was baffled by the Archer reference, because what I saw in that space was a Captcha box stating unusual levels of activity had been detected coming from this site. I filled out the box like five times, and it kept resetting (favorite specimen: “swagnest”). So I gave up and moved on, and when I scrolled up later, the clip was there. 😀
I’m so freaking excited for Maggie.
For the Horde! Thank you Mod R
Speaking as a (retired) librarian, don’t forget many libraries get their fiction from a 3rd-party distributor like Ingram Content Group or Baker & Taylor Publishers. Sometimes this means just specifying a desired genre in lieu of specific authors. These companies lean heavily on reviews and authors’ previous sales. I worked with and in community colleges nearly my whole career, and students love fiction but administrations want dollars spent to support curricula. These distributors help academic libraries get bang for their bucks.
I zoom weekly with a bunch of female friends. We always spend part of the zoom talking about what we’re reading. We also have a Facebook list and a pinned “reading recommendations” list. Old books,
new books, series everything. one of our friends loves early 20th century women’s fiction and she always has a recommendation. The last 10 books Ive bought were from recommendations from these friends.
Maggie is going on the list probably the day after I get it.
Release dates should fall on Fridays 🤩 I was going to hold off reading Maggie until my work trip in two weeks but I just realized that could be my plane re-read! Duh!
I just checked my library and there are already 82 people on the waitlist for the ebook!! I live in a small area of eastern Washington and it excites me that there are other horde members around. I bought the book so I can, hopefully, start reading it late Monday after the clock hits midnight in NY. LOL
The BDH remains unmatched 💛
I’m so excited about Maggie! I’ve been yapping to anyone who will listen since before the preview and I’m determined to recruit new readers so people can fall in love with IAs books as much as I have. I’m so glad to be a part of this community 💜
For the Horde!