Founding Author Program

Your readers shouldn't have to find out about your next book
six months late.

That's why we're building About a Book — and why we want you in the first 500.

500 spots total. No recurring fee. Ever.

About a Book is an iOS app for readers who love specific authors and are tired of finding out months after release that their favorite writer published something new. Open the app, see exactly which of your authors have something new — and exactly when their next book is coming. We're inviting 500 published authors to join as Founding Authors before public launch.

What You Get

Everything you need. Once.

Combined value if billed normally: ~$480/year, every year. You pay $99 once.

Founder Lifetime membership

$99 once. Never pay again — not for the reader app, not for anything. Locked in at the founding price.

Author Tier benefits, free for life

Normally $19.99/month. Founding Authors get it permanently included: your author dashboard, reader analytics, and feature-request channel.

Verified by Author badge

The badge appears on your public author page once you've verified your booklist. Readers see it. It means your page is accurate — because you said so.

Direct control of your author page

Edit your bio, upload your photo, verify your booklist. Your page, your words — not an algorithm's best guess.

A seat at the table

Use your author dashboard to request features, flag data issues, and shape what About a Book becomes. Founding Authors helped build this; they'll help shape what comes next.

The Ask

We'll do the heavy lifting.

We're asking you to share About a Book with your readers when we launch. We provide everything you need to do it — pre-written social posts, newsletter copy, link-in-bio graphics, and a personalized /follow/your-name URL that lands readers directly on your author page. Your job is copy, paste, customize. Our job is everything else.

Your Marketing Kit

The words are already written.

Every Founding Author receives a personalized kit ready to use on launch day.

Instagram caption

4 genre-flavored variants, written to sound like you — not like a press release.

TikTok script

30-second voiceover, two variants. Read it word for word or riff off it.

Newsletter blurb

Short, medium, and long versions so it fits whatever newsletter format you already use.

Link-in-bio graphic

1080×1920 PNG in your genre's palette. Drop it into your Linktree, bio page, wherever.

Author web badge

Embeddable HTML/SVG for your author website. "Verified on About a Book."

Your personal URL

aboutabook.app/follow/your-name — one tap and your readers are following you in the app.

How It Works

Verification is simple.

Pick whichever path fits how you already have your booklist organized.

Point us at your website's books page

We read it, propose what to add or fix, you approve. No spreadsheets, no forms — just a URL.

Or upload a CSV

Most authors already have one in Excel or Google Sheets. Export, upload, done.

Or confirm an extract

We show you what we already have from Wikidata, ISBNdb, and other sources. You correct it inline. Fastest path for most authors.

From the Founder

I just wanted to find a book to read. I was home on maternity leave with my oldest daughter, and with the bookstore out of reach, I figured I'd be clever about it. I made a list of the authors I love, planning to look up their newest titles and pick one. It turned out to be complicated, slow, and genuinely frustrating. Searching any bookseller and sorting by date gave me a tangle of reprints, translations, audio editions, and preorders. It took me more than five minutes to find one author's most recent book, and I'd already read it. That afternoon I thought, Why can't I just see the recent releases from the authors I already love? This weekend, that same daughter graduates from high school. That question has been with me the whole way.

I have tried to build About a Book three times before this one. Each time, the same wall stopped me. It was never the app. It was the data. Knowing every author, every title, every series in its right order, and every new release the week it lands is a genuinely hard problem, and for most of those years it was simply too expensive for one person to solve. That has finally changed. The technology exists now to build the catalog the right way, and that is what I've been doing since November of 2024. Not “some books” for “some authors,” but complete, accurate, verified booklists. The product was never the hard part. The data always was. For the first time, the data is real.

Here is what I want you to know as an author. Your readers don't forget you on purpose, they lose you. The average author releases a book every 12 to 18 months, and in that quiet stretch a reader who genuinely loves your work may never hear that your next book has arrived. Not because they stopped caring, but because nothing was helping them keep track. That is the whole reason About a Book exists. It makes sure the readers who already chose you never miss your next book, and it reaches them the week your book releases, not 18 months later. I'm inviting a small group of authors to join me as Founding Authors. You'd be among the first authors verified on About a Book, and you'd help me make sure your own catalog is represented completely and accurately, every title, every series, in the right order. It's been a long road to this point, and I'd be honored to have you walk the next part of it with me.

Katherine

Questions

A few things authors always ask.

Why not just Goodreads?

Goodreads is owned by Amazon, runs ads, and treats author pages as something between a marketing unit and a marketplace listing. We're the opposite — no ads, no algorithms pushing readers toward purchases, no algorithm deciding whose pages get seen. We exist specifically to make sure your readers don't miss your next book. That's the whole thing.

What if I want to leave?

Your author page stays on About a Book regardless — we've built a catalog of 30,000+ authors from public data. If you leave the Founding Author program, you just lose the Verified badge and author-tier features. Your readers can still add you as a favorite; you just wouldn't manage the page directly. No hard feelings.

Is the app on Android?

iOS only at launch. Android is on the roadmap — probably 2027, depending on how the iOS launch goes. We'd rather do one platform right than two platforms halfway.

What do you do with my contact info?

We use it to verify your identity, coordinate the launch kit, and send you updates about your author page. We never sell it, never share it with third parties, and we'll never use it to market anything to you beyond About a Book itself. That's not who we are.

I'm represented by an agent — should they sign me up?

No — this is a personal benefit, not a publishing deal. Your literary agent doesn't need to be involved. Sign up yourself.

I write under multiple names / co-author — does each get a slot?

One Founding Author slot per legal author identity. If you write under a pen name, you can verify that pen-name page as part of your single slot. Co-authored books appear on both authors' pages — no special arrangement needed.

When does it launch?

We launch when the product is ready — not on a calendar date. We're in the final stretch of TestFlight beta testing. Founding Authors will get advance notice at least two weeks before the coordinated launch day.

Your readers shouldn't have to find out about your next book six months late.