Zachary Kai

Indie-publishing, like most book industry facets, is romanticized, often to its detriment. Authors get burned out, readers get confused, and the culture suffers when books don’t reach the public.

So what better than a book to clear up these bookish myths? The authors refuse to coddle, apologize, over-explain, or accommodate. Hence the very apt title!

It delivers a strategic assessment of publishing, teaching you how to build a platform, market well, understand distribution, treating your writing like a career worth investing in. Because it is!

As someone who’s still (and never will stop) learning about how to navigate publishing, I appreciate how practical this gets! It’s apparent the authors have seen what works and what tanks.

This won’t make you feel warm and fuzzy, but it’ll help you put in the work and achieve your goals.

I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.

Too far gone or too late to start a new skill? This book shows, in a beautifully vulnerable, earnest, and heartfelt fashion, that’s never the case.

For thirty-two years of his life, the author was functionally illiterate. Until he changed that, taking him from being unable to read a restaurant menu to reading a hundred books in a year. And he found a wonderful community of folks on TikTok who journeyed with him.

I’ll admit ignorance here: I thought, foolishly, illiteracy only affected people in countries with fewer resources. Everyone born in a place like the United States ‘should’ know how to read! It’s such a necessary skill, like basic maths, or telling the time. And yes, there are systems in place to teach folks, but what happens when you slip through the cracks?

He structures his work around ones that’ve stayed with him: sharing how each book taught him something new about himself and being human. He doesn’t shy away from his difficult feelings or struggles. Because even though second chances are possible, it doesn’t mean they’re easy.

Reading this book taught me three powerful lessons: modern life is near impossible without literacy, there’s always hope, and I’ll never take reading for granted again.

I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.

Never did I think organized religion would have such a profound impact on the history of books, nor did I ever believe I’d read a work by a church historian, but such is the beauty of NetGalley!

This brilliant book traces how we’ve read across centuries: scrolls to codexes, manuscripts to print, screens to...what comes next? The question isn’t whether reading is dying (it’s not!) but how our relationship with text keeps shifting. And how the inconsequential becomes earth-shattering.

Would you have considered the popularity of the printing press being strengthened by Martin Luther’s pamphlets? Or words weren’t always written with spaces between them?

Every page, I swear you learn something new or consider a different perspective. Such fascinating reading! Because reading technologies shape not just what we read but how we think.

Academic without being dry, historical without being distant. If books are bridges, this one connects past reading revolutions to our current moment with precision and heart.

I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.

I’ll admit this is a first for me. I’ve read a few essay collections, sure, and a few pieces of queer nonfiction. But a book combining both, and academic theory? Never! And while some things felt a little high above my usual capacities, I’m so glad I stuck with it.

Her writing, with its thoughtful, measured rhythm and references to anything and everything, is what carries this so well. So at last, someone put into words what I’ve been circling around for years.

You’ve got femininity, but have you considered femmephilia? An all-encompassing, non-judgmental, extravagant love of the femme? Appreciating, instead of demonizing it for once?

Discussing subjects from Marilyn Monroe’s genius (which was incredible! I had no idea how much I failed to appreciate about this extraordinary woman,) to mermaids and octopuses, this is theory does what my favorite manifesto-like writing does best: it burns yet builds hope.

Who says tenderness can’t be fierce? This is for anyone ready to imagine what feminism could be if we stopped being polite about it. A little rewiring for the soul.

I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.

A Secret Service polygraph examiner teaching communication skills sounds like the setup for a thriller…but this book’s potential impact is so understated it’s almost profound: twenty-five years of high-stakes interrogations, protection details, and assessments distilled.

No gimmicks, manipulation, or strange tactics. For a man surrounded by often the most harrowing situations, his stance is one of gentle empathy, ethics, and creating space. The bridge-building here is literal: how do you get someone to trust, feel comfortable, and at peace with you?

To be human is to express oneself, and while there are infinite ways of doing so, only a few suffice.

I’ve struggled with this for a lifetime, so believe me when I say it’s perfect for anyone who communicates for a living, which is...everyone.

I received an early copy courtesy of the publishers via Netgalley. All opinions are mine alone.