Setting expectations: What I can (and can’t) do to support sapphic fiction authors

Lately, a lot of new authors have joined the sapphic fiction community. Let me first say: welcome!

I’ve also received a lot of messages and emails from new (and not-so-new) authors who are looking for help getting the word about their book(s) out.

Believe me, we all understand. Marketing might be the hardest part of being a writer. I totally get it.

And I’m trying my best to uplift fellow authors and lend a helping hand where I can.

But I’d like to gently adjust some expectations and explain what I can and can’t do to support sapphic fiction authors.

Some authors have approached me as if I were a marketing agency or a paid reviewer, and I’m neither. Please let me assure you I’m not blaming anyone for not understanding my role or how the events and cross-promos I organize work.

But I thought maybe it would help if I explained a little.

What I can’t do—and why

• I’m not reviewing books. I’m an author, not a reviewer, and I have limited time to read. If I read a book and enjoy it, I will happily give it a shout-out. In fact, I post my favorite sapphic read of the month every month, but those are not books submitted to me by authors. I’m picking the books I read and I’m paying for them, like any reader would.
• I’m not doing newsletter swaps or recommending books I haven’t read. Yes, I recommend books in my newsletter all the time, but those are books I have read and enjoyed. If I tell readers I’m recommending a book, I want them to be able to trust my word and know I’ve genuinely enjoyed it.
• I can’t add new books to an ongoing reading challenge. The Sapphic Book Bingo is a huge project. I had 600+ submissions, so finding a spot for each book (or at least one book from each author) means a lot of juggling. I finalize the recommended reading lists with 15 books for each of the 37 categories before the reading challenge starts on January 1. Adding new books after the deadline isn’t possible.
• I can’t give every author a *featured* spot in my events. It’s mathematically impossible. To give you an idea: My most popular event, the Sapphic Book Advent Calendar, had submissions from 130 authors, and I’m expecting even more this year, but an Advent calendar has only 25 doors, so I couldn’t give every author a door of their own. I get around that by having two “group doors” during the finale of the event, but it still means that most participating authors won’t get an individual door for their book.
• I can’t teach you how to write, publish, and market your books in a single message. I’d be happy to give advice and share my experience if someone asks a specific question about writing, publishing, or marketing, but for broad, generic questions like “how can I publish my book,” Google is your friend. There are plenty of books on the writing craft out there (in fact, I have written a few under my legal name), and you can find great tutorials on publishing and marketing on YouTube. Once you’ve done your own research, you can come back and ask more specific questions that I and many other sapphic authors would be happy to help with.
• I can’t edit your book. While I am an editor in addition to being a writer, I’m not taking on any additional editing work right now. I’m happy to answer any questions about working with editors, though.
• I can’t read manuscripts or unpublished books for feedback or blurbs. Between writing and running events, I simply don’t have the time.
• I can’t reach out to thousands of authors individually to invite them to submit their books to the Sapphic Book Bingo or other events and make sure they don’t miss the deadline. I’ve had complaints from authors about their books not being included in the Sapphic Book Bingo. That’s because those authors haven’t submitted their books. The best way to make sure you never miss a promo opportunity is to sign up for the Sapphic Quill newsletter. Every month, I share all signup forms, deadlines, and upcoming opportunities there.
• I can’t track down missing information or incorrect submissions for every author. When there are hundreds of entries, I have to rely on the information authors submit in the form. For example, if an author submits their book to the wrong Sapphic Book Bingo, I might not notice unless I have read the book.
• I can’t allow unlimited self-promotion in my Facebook group for readers. If I did that, the group’s feed would be swamped with nothing but promos. Those hit-and-run groups get very little engagement, and that’s neither fun for readers nor does it help authors. That’s why I focus on genuine interactions between readers and writers in my group, but I do create structured opportunities like the monthly New & Upcoming Releases posts or the Trope Tuesday posts, and authors can self-rec their books in the comments section of these posts.
• I’m not including books with AI-generated covers, content, or audiobook versions in any of my events, including the Sapphic Book Bingo. The Sapphic Quill Facebook group and my Facebook group for readers also don’t allow posts featuring books, covers, audiobooks, translations, or reviews that were created using generative AI. AI has been trained on millions of pirated books, without compensation or permission from the authors, and the flood of AI-generated slop is making it much harder for writers to make a living. I want to support human creatives, including writers, illustrators, cover artists, editors, audiobook narrators, and translators, which means I won’t feature AI content.   

What I can do to support sapphic fiction authors

• I’m featuring a New Author of the Month in my Facebook reader group every month. We’re booked out for 2026, though, so submissions are paused right now. They’ll reopen in 2027.
• I’m hosting a Giveaway of the Week for fellow authors in my Facebook group every week. It used to be a Giveaway of the Month, but I received so many submissions that I changed it to a weekly feature. Right now, we are booked out with the next available spot being in January 2027, though! You can still submit your book for a spot, but you have to be patient.
• I’m happy to add new authors (new = up to 2 sapphic novels published) to the New Author post of the Sapphic Book Bingo, since this list isn’t limited to 15 books. If you’re new and you’re not on the list yet, send me an email with a link to your books and I’ll add you. Important: This is for new authors, not for established authors who are adding a new pen name.
• If you haven’t done so already, you can add your book cards to the Sapphic Book Bingo folder in my reader group. The folder is pinned to the top of the group where readers can easily find it all year. Even if you didn’t submit your book for the 2026 Sapphic Book Bingo, you can still use the reading challenge to promote your book.
• You can also drop by my Facebook group every week once the new Sapphic Book Bingo post goes up and add your book to the comments if it fits the category.
• I have a monthly New & Upcoming Releases post in my Facebook reader group where you can add your book.
• I’ll be hosting another Sapphic Book Advent Calendar in December, and I won’t put a limit on how many authors can participate. I won’t turn anyone away (provided your book meets the criteria, e.g., no use of generative AI for the cover, content, or narration).
• I’ll probably organize a big multi-author giveaway for Give Something Away Day in July, which has become an annual tradition. If you want to participate as an author, make sure you subscribe to the Sapphic Quill newsletter. I’ll share the signup form there.
• There’s also the “free books” category of the Sapphic Book Bingo coming up in June. I’m still accepting books for that list, and it’s not limited to 15 books. Here’s the link to the signup form, if you’re interested in having a book included.
• I host various themed lists on my website that I’m still adding books and authors to, for example The Ultimate List of Sapphic Holiday Romances, The Ultimate List of Sapphic Fake Relationship Romances, a list of sapphic authors on Kobo Plus, and a list of sapphic authors selling direct. If you want to be added to any of these lists, send me an email.
• I share information and opportunities for sapphic fiction authors in the Sapphic Quill newsletter, so if you are running a cross-promo or you have some information you feel might be helpful to other sapphic fiction authors, please let me know.
• I blog about topics of interest to sapphic fiction authors. On the Sapphic Quill blog, you can find posts about writing, publishing, and marketing sapphic fiction. If there’s a specific topic you want me to blog about, let me know. I’m also working on putting together a link list of helpful resources.
• I keep an eye on ebook and audiobook piracy. Whenever I come across pirated copies of fellow authors’ work, I alert them so they have a chance to have those books taken down. Sadly, I’ve had to email hundreds of authors with piracy alerts over the years. But I need to be clear that I’m not a paid anti-piracy service; I just keep an eye out for my fellow authors.

I hope this helps clarify things a little. Please don’t take any of this to mean you shouldn’t reach out to me. I genuinely love seeing new authors join the sapphic fiction community, and I’m always happy to uplift my fellow authors. My goal with all of these events and projects is to create spaces where readers can discover sapphic books and where authors can support each other.

At the same time, I’m just one person trying to balance writing, making a living, and organizing things for the community. There are only so many hours in a day, and since all of my events and cross-promos are free for authors to join, they don’t generate any income for me. So please keep your expectations realistic.

If you keep that in mind, I’m always glad to hear from fellow authors, and I look forward to continuing to build this wonderful community together.

Happy writing!

Jae