We’re proud to announce the launch of Booktalk Nation, a service that organizes nationwide phone-in author talks hosted by independent bookstores. Our starting lineup of events includes Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry discussing her final book in The Giver quartet, Roy Blount Jr. interviewing Ian Frazier about his first novel, The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days, and D.T. Max discussing his acclaimed biography of David Foster Wallace.

Booktalk Nation, which we briefly previewed last year, is intended to supplement book tours and other efforts promoting new books. Booktalknation.com provides an e-commerce platform in conjunction with its events, allowing readers to order books that authors will personally sign at host bookstores. Proceeds from these sales are divided between the host store and any affiliate brick-and-mortar bookstores that brought the reader to the site.

For the next few months, Booktalk Nation will be hosting up to three events per week, though no events will be scheduled near the holidays. We expect to increase the number of events as more bookstores sign on as hosts.

Authors don’t need to be members of the Authors Guild to promote a book through Booktalk Nation, but they will need to have a traditional brick-and-mortar bookstore host their talk. (Bookstores set up talks through their Booktalk Nation accounts.) If you have a new book — or will have one soon — and would like to be on the list for prospective Booktalk Nation events, please use the form on this page.

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Here’s the announcement of the launch from the Booktalk Nation blog:

Booktalk Nation launches! Phone in to join Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry discussing her final book in The Giver quartet with Tanya Lee Stone, Roy Blount Jr. interviewing New Yorker writer Ian Frazier about The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days, and D.T. Max discussing his acclaimed biography of David Foster Wallace with Gideon Lewis-Kraus.

Booktalk Nation brings the book tour to your living room. Dial in to join nationwide phone calls with your favorite authors, order signed, personalized books (great gifts!), and support independent bookstores.

Even if you can’t join the conversation, use Booktalk Nation to order signed books from independent bookstores across the country, such as The Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, Montana, host of David Abrams’s phone-in talk about his satiric war novel, Fobbit; Third Place Books of Lake Forest Park, Washington, host of Susan Mallery’s discussion of A Fool’s Gold Christmas, the latest novel in her bestselling romance series; and Bank Square Books of Mystic, Connecticut, author Ann Haywood Leal’s favorite bookstore and host for her talk about My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop.

More talks are in the works. Confirmed upcoming events, including discussions with Emma Straub and Lauren Groff, follow:

•November 29 – Susan Mallery discusses returning to the “land of happy endings” in A Fool’s Gold Christmas, the latest novel in her bestselling romance series. Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, WA hosts. Sign up here

•December 4 – Ann Haywood Leal, author of A Finders-Keepers Place, talks with Annie Philbrick, owner of Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT. In My Bookstore: Writers Celebrate Their Favorite Places to Browse, Read, and Shop, Leal wrote that entering Bank Square feels like “climbing into the pages of a favorite story.” Sign up here

•December 5 – David Abrams discusses his darkly satirical war novel, Fobbit, with author Sarah Bird in an event hosted by The Country Bookshelf in Bozeman, MT. Sign up here

•December 6 – Two hilarious minds meet as author (and panelist on NPR’s Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me) Roy Blount Jr. interviews New Yorker columnist Ian Frazier about his first novel, The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days. Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ hosts. Sign up here

•December 11 – D.T. Max, author of Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace, talks about his biography of the iconic writer with memoirist Gideon Lewis-Kraus. Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ hosts. Sign up here

•January 14 – Emma Straub discusses her debut novel Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures with author Lauren Groff. WORD in Brooklyn, NY hosts. Sign up here

•January 15 – Newbery Medal winner Lois Lowry discusses her finale to The Giver quartet with author Tanya Lee Stone. Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA hosts. Sign up here

•February 6 – Lauren Groff talks about her latest novel, Arcadia, with Emma Straub. Wild Iris in Gainesville, FL hosts. Sign up here

Visit booktalknation.com for updates to the schedule or click here for more information.

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