Whenever You’re Ready in the UK… And Your Headphones

You heard it here second… and also first!

Hello, friend! Thank you for joining me on this virtual coffee date.

First, I want to give my utmost appreciation to everyone who joined me on tour to celebrate the release of WYR in the US and to everyone who has bought or checked out a copy so far. Your support means the world, and I, as always, am verklempt.

Today’s Cuppa 🇬🇧💂🏽‍♀️🫖☕️: Nia & Jade are hopping the pond!

The inimitable Keshini Naidoo of Hera Books has once again acquired some extremely American romance for all you lovely binationally-curious folks in the UK and Commonwealth. And Leah Jacobs-Gordon has graced us with this gorgeous cover:

It will hit shelves (with sprayed edges on the first edition!) on 9th January, 2025 (see what I did there???) and you can preorder it here.

My apologies that I posted about this on Instagram first - I was having a hectic release month here in the US and didn’t get my shit together to send a newsletter beforehand.

Today’s Drink Special: WYR on audio!

And now for something that social media doesn’t know… there’s an audiobook in production! You’ve DMed, you’ve commented, you’ve emailed me, and now I can definitively say that one is coming. I don’t have preorder links just yet or much more information I can give you, but it should be out early 2025.

This might be a little uncomfortable to say, but I suppose my newsletter where people are interested in my work enough to have directly signed up to find out my updates is the right place to do so: the audiobook for TYFS did not sell well. Or, at least, not as well as my publisher in the US had hoped, and so they elected not to produce it in-house this time around. I’m very lucky that I already had an audio deal in the UK with the same publisher that did TYFS there, so I’ll still have one made. But that’s the beginning and end of why we didn’t have simultaneous publication in North America. I was inspired to say this by the honesty of a different author on social media recently (who I won’t name bc I’m not sure they’d want more people sent their way). This is the reality of this industry. You might get certain things for one book and then not another depending on how that first book does. I can’t control it, and you as a reader can’t control it. The only thing you can do to make it more likely to be done in the future is pre-order or purchase the format you want the most. But of course that’s not a guarantee! I want to be transparent here, because this may be why authors are being cagey/not responding to questions like this on social media. I promise, if I could wave a magic wand, all my books would have simultaneous publication of every format as well as a Netflix miniseries co-written and directed by Emma Seligman and Issa Rae. Publishing is a business, so when we don’t have something, the most likely answer is not that we’re neglecting a portion of our readership, but rather that the business calculus done by those in charge showed it wasn’t worth the cost.

Anyway!

A Biscotti with Your Coffee

Books: I have just started Never Been Better by Leanne Toshiko Simpson and I am obsessed. Truly. I’m hoping to make a round up of favorites I read while on hiatus when I’m back on IG and I already know this will be on it.

TV: I quite enjoyed KAOS on Netflix. I think it was not renewed, but I found the ending satisfying enough as a standalone miniseries so I’d still recommend it.

Music: I mean y’all know I love Bad Bunny but “Una Velita” is imo the most interesting song he’s made since “El Apagon.” Give it a listen and look up the lyrics if you don’t speak Spanish.

Mwah,

Rachel Runya Katz