Hey, everyone!

Things are, well, not great here in America at the moment. Obviously. Things are about to get very tough, or tougher, for a lot of us. It sucks. It sucks a lot. But that doesn't mean there is nothing to be done.

Major corporations-as in perhaps one named after a large river or ancient women warriors-are getting even less welcoming to creators like me. Meta (which owns FB, Threads, and Insta among other places) is also getting increasingly hostile.

So if you want to find and continue to follow marginalized authors right now, you might need to track them down on Bluesky or Reddit or Tumblr or someplace. You might need to go to their websites and/or subscribe to their newsletters. You might need to do it soon.

I know that sounds a little paranoid if you aren't aware of the situation in the US, but it's actually worse than that.

So I have some more advice for you as readers (and as writers if you follow me): do not rely on that river-named corporation as your sole source of income. You cannot trust them. Try not to use or support them if you can anyway, as much as you can.

At this point, I should tell you that GR is owned by that corporation. Frankly, they don't let me do anything here anymore except these blog posts. So I am leaving it (as much as I can) so they do not get any revenue or stat hits from me.

As a corporation, river-named business still dominates the market, much as Meta does, and small businesses and creators still do need to use it in a lot of ways. But we need to work to change that.

That is the current situation and god I wish I were a happier one. I have books to write and promote! Instead, me and many authors are struggling to find places for our work and fighting against right wing assholes.


So, this is me suggesting that you all go find and follow the authors you love directly, be it on Bluesky or through their newsletters.

Visit bookshop.org or itchi.io to buy your ebooks, or get them directly through the author's website.

Get an ereader that is not a Kindle. Other ereaders let you put on books from anywhere--even fanfiction!

Get paperbacks from local bookstores. Use your local libraries.

And if you want to track your reading but don't want to support GR anymore, try Storygraph! (You can even import your GR reading history)

Also, in America, the Queer Liberation Library exists and is free to join for access to queer books. :)


My links:

Website: www.riscooper.com (link to my newsletter can be found there, or in my GR profile)

Tumblr: @sweetfirebird or @queerromancerecs (for queer romance recs, obviously)

Bluesky: @r.cooper.bsky.social

Insta (for as long as I have it): @riscoops

Patreon: patreon.com/rcoops

My threads is still active (and can be found through my Insta) but unless Meta does a DRAMATIC course correction, which I doubt, I will not use it much, if at all.

Same for my Facebook (link in my GR profile)

my Storygraph though I haven't added much yet.

And I am also on BookBub




I would also recommend that you download or buy paperbacks of any queer fiction (or straight fiction that is "smutty" so that you don't lose it. As a precaution.


Ugh, this sucks. Hopefully, with all of us pushing back, it changes and I can just post book release info again. But it's best to be prepared.