5 FREE Ways to Help Canadian Authors
A version of this article first appeared on N.P. Thompson’s blog on February 15, 2026. It is adapted for use here with permission.
If you’re cash-strapped (and who isn’t these days!) but still want to help your favourite authors out, here’s a list of simple, easy, and totally FREE things you can do that really make a difference!
5
Share author posts.
Following your favourite authors on social media and re-sharing their posts is a great way to help boost their visibility and help other people find them. You can also post links to author blog articles you find interesting. You never know when something you share might be the tipping point that catapults a book into the spotlight!
4
Subscribe to the author’s newsletter.
In a world where social media platforms are proliferating rapidly and also frequently changing ownership and rules, authors are finding it harder to grow and maintain social media presences, which means it’s a lot harder for them to stay in touch with readers. But if you’re subscribed to an author’s email, then they can always reach you with important book news and updates, no matter what platforms you and they might be on!
If you find books on the Fiction Fest site that you’re interested in, be sure to check out the author’s card in our Author Gallery (to do that, just click on the author’s name in the Showcase book card) and sign up for that author’s newsletter (look for the little envelope icon in the author card)!
3
Leave a review.
If you loved a book, please consider leaving a review on the platform you bought it on, and then sharing your thoughts on your social media accounts or on sites like Goodreads and StoryGraph. Your review may intrigue someone else enough to pick up a book they might not have otherwise considered! Additionally, some marketing opportunities are only available to authors with a minimum number of big-site reviews, so the more reviews a book has, the better.
2
Request the book at your local library.
Did you know authors still get paid when books get borrowed from a library? First, the library buys copies for circulation, so authors get royalties from library purchases; and second, in Canada, we have a Public Lending Rights (PLR) program that tracks representative samples of library purchases and provides additional royalties to authors who have registered their books with the program. For many authors, the PLR royalties are often higher than sales royalties (which, sadly, tend to be very small… many authors receive only pennies for each book sold), so getting libraries to buy copies of Canadian books is really important.
You can help with this! Most libraries have request forms that you can fill out to ask them to pick up copies of books they don’t yet have, but you wish they did. This helps you (since you get to read the book if the library buys it), and it also helps other people discover the book so they can borrow it, too!
1
Tell others about the book.
And, finally, the number one thing you can do to help your favourite authors is simply to tell other people about the books you love! Nobody buys a book that they don’t know exists and nobody borrows a book from the library unless they know it’s there, either! And in our information-saturated world, getting through all the noise and reaching the right people to let them know about a book’s existence is one of the hardest things for authors to do. When you talk about a book you love and tell other people about it, you’re helping people find what could be their next favourite read!