In 2025, Publishers Weekly estimated that about 4 million books were published in the United States, about half of them self-published. The rest came from small independent publishers or from the megapublishers known as the “Big Five” in the world of books. Twenty years ago the number of new releases annually was somewhere below 300,000.
The number of people reading has barely budged in that time frame, so new books land in a crowded universe.
Here’s an easy thing that family, friends, and fans of an author can do to help: Preorder the book, either online or through your local independent bookstore.
Those preorders are often recorded as sold on the release date of the book. That looks like a surge to the online algorithms. Booksellers in brick-and-mortar stores see that surge and decide the book is worth ordering and having on hand for in-store shoppers. Or putting it on a display table or in a store window. In a sea of millions of titles, they need help sorting the signal from the noise.
The early reviews of my YA thriller The Booker Rebellion offer some promise that it’s worth the price. Last month, Publishers Weekly BookLife singled it out as an editor’s pick. About this time last year, I didn’t have a publishing contract but I had racked up 70 rejections and wondered whether I was just wrong about the quality of the story I’d crafted. It’s a lovely confirmation that I was right to keep sending it out.
Here are a few of my favorite lines from critics:
“Palmer’s willingness to take children seriously is reflected in her capable, appealing heroes.” —Kirkus Reviews, Oct. 1, 2026
“The mystery itself is satisfyingly complex, traversing a mesh of hidden FBI agents, incompetent militias, and drug dealers, and Palmer’s emphasis on respect for the great outdoors makes this a compelling story that nature-lovers won’t want to miss.” —Publishers Weekly BookLife, editor’s pick, Oct. 19 2026.
“Any book that opens with a fourteen-year-old sneaking into the woods at midnight and finding a cougar mid-meal has my attention. Susan Palmer’s The Booker Rebellion earns that opening scene and then keeps earning the ones after it, which is not something I say about every thriller that lands on my desk.” — Leah Tran, San Francisco Book Review
“Palmer knows this terrain literally. She’s an Oregon journalist, and it shows in the blackberry tunnels, the basalt alcoves, the specific ache of thirty miles to the nearest town. The forest isn’t backdrop. It’s the thing that keeps the Booker kids alive and the thing that nearly kills them.” —Chicago Book Review
So, thanks in advance for preordering The Booker Rebellion. And for every author you know or whose work you like, subscribe to their newsletter. We all have one. That’s where you’ll find the earliest information about upcoming books, early excerpts, and even the occasional giveaway.
Here’s a link to my newsletter, The Way In. It’s on my official author website. I hope to see you there.
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