Welcome to Self-Published Author’s Appreciation Week 2026!

Once again, it’s Self-Published Author Appreciation Week. The busiest week at The Irresponsible Reader each year–and this one is no exception (even if I don’t finish every post I’m trying to!)

It’s not just me–there are a handful of other bloggers doing something this week (you can see a running list over at the SPAAW Hub), led by the inimitable Jodie at Witty and Sarcastic Book Club who organizes this thing year in and year out. This is our annual tribute to those authors who take it all on themselves–all the work, all the risks, all the costs, and all the (too small) rewards. They’re the independents, the mavericks, the risk-takers, those who won’t let their creative vision be reined in by others, they’re out there doing things on their own (with a small group of others they’ve teamed up with on their own). These are the Mal Reynoldses of the Literary World.

Every week on this blog, in a sense, is Author Appreciation Week, but you can see why we’re eager to take one week to focus on the Self-Pub warriors among them, right?

So, how am I showing the appreciation this year? Well, I’ve got one Cover Reveal, a handful of review-ish posts, and my annually updated lists of Self-Published works by Genre that I’ve talked about on this site. I will also have four videos of me chatting with Self-Published Authors about Self-Publishing, and a series of posts that I’m calling Shameless OTHER-Promtion posts.

One of the things that’s impressed me over the years is seeing the way that Self-Published Authors all tend to support each other. They don’t come across as competitors, they’re colleagues—teammates, almost. Once again this year for SPAAW, I’m taking advantage of that.

Now, one of the worst parts (I assume) about being a self-published author is that the authoring is only half of the job (or so, it probably varies by individual, I’m speaking in generalities). The other half includes a hefty-dose of self-promotion. You are generally your own publicity team. You have to be, unless you’re spending money you probably aren’t earning with your books on hiring someone.

Despite this, I’ve consistently seen them take a moment or two of pushing their own books to promote each other–most of the social media links I find for Self-Published Book X will be from other authors. It might just be a repost, but frequently, it’ll be a quick review or just a call to “Look at This!”. And those will get reposted and commented on by others. The mutual aid systems that develop around self-published authors are something to behold–and the other-promotion of it all is just a small portion.

But it’s that part that I’m exploiting for the week. I’ve asked some authors to promote 1-3 self-published works by someone else—to just give me a quick elevator pitch for them to help get the word out. (some have resisted the call for particular titles and have just talked about some other authors–which is close enough for me).

Naturally, I’ve asked them all for a quick bit about one of their books/series, too–they should get some attention as well, don’t you think?

The featured posts this week will come from some names familiar to readers of this blog, and a good number of new names (hopefully they’ll pop up enough to be familiar to you soon):

Stick around and see what they recommend, and have to offer themselves!

Visit the SPAAW 2026 Hub to see what other Self-Published Appreciation Posts are out there.

Image by OpenIcons from Pixabay
The 2026 Self-Published Authors Appreciation Week Logo was made by Witty and Sarcastic Book Club