23 Ways To Say Thank You and Merry Christmas to an Author Without Spending a Dime.

We are blessed to have access to Christian books in numerous formats without having to spend a dime. Many author’s books are in church and public libraries or a part of Hoopla, Libby, or other library system electronic lending libraries. Even more offer their books through Kindle Unlimited, or for free when you sign up for their newsletter or as a teaser for first in series.

When you read or listen to these free options, you are supporting an author, especially if you leave a review. But here are 23 other ways you can say Thank You to your favorite authors.

🎁 1. Share a post on Facebook with one click – if the author has made a post sharable, share it! This helps keep the post at the top of reader feeds and validates the author and what they are promoting.

🎁 2. Comment on an author’s post using a .gif to move the post up in the newsfeed. Instead of writing “Congratulations,” consider typing the word into .gif and choosing something bright and cheery.

🎁 3. Offer to be an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for the author – loyal readers and followers make our job easier. If you commit…follow through.

🎁 4. In reader groups (Like Avid Readers of Christian Fiction), support your favorite authors by naming their books as suggestions when the book meets the post criteria. For example, if a reader is looking for a book with a disabled heroine for their reading challenge, you can recommend Dial E for Endearment. Be sure to know the group rules. Many do not allow links. Only author names, book titles, and your opinion or review are necessary.

🎁 5. Sign up for an author’s newsletter and OPEN IT every time. Even if you don’t read it, your click makes a difference to the email provider. A solid open rate tells the provider the author is not spamming. This helps those little bots in the cyber world know to send the email straight to an inbox and not send it to spam or promotions.

🎁 6. Ask your church and local library to purchase a copy of your favorite author’s books – be sure to remind your librarian to encourage all patrons to leave reviews. My church library has this posted at the checkout desk.

🎁 7. Recommend books to others, especially on social media. Here is an example of why this is so important.

🎁 8. If you are TikTok or Twitter savvy, you can be a massive blessing to an author by showing and sharing their work along with a link. Most of us are too busy writing to be on all the sites, so your help in spreading the word about our books on other platforms is appreciated.

🎁 9. Leave a review on Amazon – Even if you didn’t purchase the book, please leave a review. In your review, state how you came by the book (i.e., I borrowed it from my church library).

🎁 10. Leave a series review on Amazon – If you’ve read the entire series, find the series page and leave a review. This is often overlooked and helps Amazon know how to promote all the books. I love the series reviews I’ve received for my Discerning God’s Best series.

🎁 11. Follow the author on Amazon – There are times Amazon reduces the price of a book without the author knowing. It is considered price matching. The author still gets the percent they would have received at full price. If you want to know about deals like this, follow the author.

🎁 12. Follow authors on Goodreads – this may be the most important place to focus your attention if you only choose one. Goodreads carries a tremendous amount of weight in the book world.

🎁 13. Mark each book the author has written as “Want to Read” in Goodreads or “Wishlist” on BookBub – you’ll hear about deals you won’t want to miss.

🎁 14. Update your reading status of the book and leave a review on BookBub and Goodreads. Did you know Goodreads review stats are now listed under Amazon reviews? Again, Goodreads is super important to authors. Goodreads also keeps track of the books you’ve read for your reading challenges! Add the date finished for each book to get it on your list of finished books.

🎁 15. Send a Facebook or Instagram message to your author letting them know you are praying for them. Prayer is something we all need—daily!

🎁 16. If the author has a YouTube channel, Podcast, or Blog, please consider subscribing. Seeing the number of subscribers increase makes our hearts do a happy dance.

Giving gifts of love to your author friends doesn’t have to be expensive or take a lot of time. What can you add to this list? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.