Sara Zarr's Blog

I just sat here and tried to remember everything I've read so far in 2023 so I could log it!

I've made real efforts this year to be minimally online to help with some of my burnout issues - it's helping a lot, even if I feel a little out of it.

A fair amount of my reading lately has been genre fiction, but there's one literary standout: First Love by Gwendolyn Riley. It's just so spare and defies ideas about what "likability" means for a character. I'm looking forward to reading more of her books.

This week the final proofreader touches are going on my next book, Kyra, Just for Today. I always find it very harrowing to know that e-arcs and even paper arcs are printed from the manuscript BEFORE it's proofread. Like, people are out there reading Kyra and I've got it on my desk with 100 post-it flags marking little changes, ugh! So if you're reading an arc, yes I know about they errors :)

I hope you're having a good summer of reading, writing, or whatever else you most want to do.

- SZ

P.S. I love the cover for Kyra! Do you?

One project I threw myself into in p*ndemic years 1&2 was learning everything I could about the new landscape of self-publishing. It's been fun, interesting, and empowering to learn about all the tools and platforms there are out there for authors to do independent projects.

It all culminated in a book I wrote to go with my podcast, This Creative Life, and...it's done! It's not a how-to-write book, but a why-do-we and what-stops-us and navigating-the-business-side book. It doesn't officially roll out to all the platforms until 4/28, but between now and then I'm experimenting with direct sales.

As part of that, I set up a 30% coupon that anyone can use if they buy the ebook direct.

This is the link to read more about the book, preview the intro and table of contents, and buy: https://payhip.com/b/BxdKL

This is the coupon code: 186JHZZOQY

It expires on 4/28. Then it will be on *all the platforms*! But I'm going to keep offering periodic coupon codes for those who subscribe to the free This Creative Life newsletter.

After the first delay and then the second delay, my tenth book, A Song Called Home, is really out and truly available. Find it in hardcover, ebook, or audio. If you're here on Goodreads, you already know all the places you like to buy books! And remember you can also request it at your public library in any of those formats.

Happy reading,
Sara

I woke up to the lovely news this morning that A Song Called Home was featured in Jasmine Guillory's March segment of book recommendations!

https://www.today.com/shop/jasmine-gu...

Also, earlier this week I had a great conversation with Corey Ann Haydu at an event that was meant to be my book launch but turned into more of a "pre-order" event as the shipping has been delayed one more time to 3/15, but this date is final! You can watch the replay of our conversation here if you like:

https://www.crowdcast.io/e/sara-zarr-...

Lastly for now, if you don't already get my newsletter, that's the best way to keep up with me and my books!

http://sarazarr.substack.com

Happy reading,
Sara

If you missed your chance last time around, try your luck again in this giveaway - enter til February 21.

A Song Called Home



Also, mark your calendar for an online launch event: March 1, 6 p.m. Mountain Time (5 Pacific/8 Eastern). I'll be joined by Corey Ann Haydu and hosted by The King's English. It's free, but registration is required. Find all the details at www.sarazarr.com/events

Well it's really 2022, and if you're reading this, you made it.

My next book, A Song Called Home, comes out in about six weeks. In normal times, this would mean posting tour event dates and getting excited about being on the road to meet readers!

But it's not normal times, not yet, so I'm home and working with my team to come up with other plans.

Meanwhile, the book has gotten some nice trade reviews, including *starred* reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly.

Interested in getting signed and personalized copies for your personal or classroom library? Use that same link above for information about how to do that. Also, you can always use my contact page to request signed bookplates for any of my books through the mail.

In other news, I'm making my 2022 reading list and trying to get through all the books I've bought in the last 2 years and haven't read yet. (Many!)

I hope your new year is okay so far, and that books are giving you some joy and comfort!

Sara Zarr

My publisher is running a Goodreads giveaway of A Song Called Home, my middle-grade debut.
Enter here!

By the way, are you subscribed to my newsletter? I send it out monthly, and it's the best way to keep up with everything I'm up to! Subscribe here.

Hello and happy fall!

I love fall. The weather turning chilly and the slow march to winter always makes me want to curl up with a book.

I'm excited to see that my middle grade debut, A Song Called Home, is up here on Goodreads and available to add to your lists and shelves.

You can also pre-order it, which is always so helpful for writers and their books! It comes out in February.

This is a story very very loosely based on my some stuff that happened to me when I was around 10/11 -- my parents' divorce, my mom remarrying, moving, and trying to figure out how to stay in touch with my alcoholic father through it all. It's also about friendship and sisters and dealing with change!

Hopefully there will be some kind of giveaway soon, be sure you're following me to get all the info!

x
Sara

My book finishing stats this year are terrible! This is sort of typical for me, but things aren't usually quite this bad. The thing is: I get most of my reading from the library (and most of that via the Libby app for ebooks and audiobooks), and books keep getting snatched away from me when I don't finish by the due date.

So I put those back on hold to finish later when my turn comes up again, then start the cycle over with different books. Which is why it can take me awhile to get those over to my Read list!

I was showing my mom how to use Libby the other day, and she said, "Why are there limited copies available? They're EBOOKS! Everyone can read them at once!"

Great question, Mom!

The reason you might end up on hold lists and such for ebooks, or have to return them before they're done, is that library systems buy a certain number of licenses from the publishers, and they are basically loaning those licenses to library patrons for a set amount of time (often around 21 days). Then they have to be returned for the next person, or renewed if there isn't a hold list.

This way, authors still get some compensation for all those books that readers get to enjoy for free! It's actually a pretty good system, and I never want readers to apologize to me for "only" getting my books from the library. I love libraries and read tons of library books. I certainly can't afford to buy all the books I'd like to read, and don't expect anyone else to, either.

So never feel bad for defaulting to library books. Authors still get compensated, and having our books in active library circulation means they'll be around longer. Yay!

Well, I'm reading yet another book about the Trump admin. This time, Bob Woodward's Fear: Trump in the White House, the precursor to Rage. I also took a brief dip into The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir, but Bolton was just way too much of a d**k to tolerate for long.

I don't know why I'm reading these books, exactly. I know what happened and I definitely don't want to go through it again. I think it's because while we were IN IT, I just couldn't do that deep of a dive because I knew how bad it was and it would only make my anxiety worse.

I miss novels and am looking forward to getting back into one, but Youngblood Hawke was so epic that I fear it ruined all novels for me for life? We'll see.

It's almost a year now since Goodbye from Nowhere came out, and I'm trying to think of ways to celebrate since it dropped in Early Pandemic and didn't at all feel like it actually launched! I know a lot of authors are in the same boat with their 2020 releases. Maybe I should celebrate with a giveaway, hmm...