Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add an author to my watch list?

• To add an author, navigate to the Authors tab or the Home page and tap the '+' button in the bottom left corner. Then search for the author's name and select them from the results. You can also add authors that are not stored in AuthorWatch's database. Once added, AuthorWatch will automatically track their upcoming releases.

How often does the app check for new releases?

• You can configure the auto-refresh frequency in Settings. Options include daily, weekly, or manual refresh.

Why are some authors missing from the database?

• There is no single source of all authors which makes it difficult to identify every single author that has ever published a book. You are certainly able to add authors to watch that are not in our database; the app will still work as intended. We are always looking to make our database more complete so please let us know via the Contact page which authors we are missing!

Why are some previous releases missing from an author's page?

• Because AuthorWatch is meant to primarily identify upcoming releases, we aim to provide users with an informative list of an author's past publications, not an exhaustive one. If you believe an important publication is missing from an author's releases, please let us know!

Why can I not track which books I've read by an author?

• At the moment we are focused on making AuthorWatch a great tool for tracking upcoming releases and keeping the functionality straightforward and accessible. There are already a number of excellent options for tracking your reading progress available on iOS and we envision AuthorWatch being used to supplement these trackers, not replace them.

Why are some books incorrectly attributed to an author?

• Some authors share identical names with other, perhaps less well-known authors and at the moment we do not have a reliable way to disentangle them. However, we are always updating our database so please let us know if a book is wrongly attributed and we can make the correction manually.

I entered an author name that I know is real but the app said it couldn't find any books by that author. Why not?

• The most likely reason is that the author name was not entered exactly as it appears on that author's publications. This includes spaces, puncuation, and initials (James S. A. Corey vs James Corey, for example). If the app still cannot find anything by that author, please let us know and we will investigate!

Why is there a subscription fee for AuthorWatch?

• While we do offer a free trial period, AuthorWatch requires consistent attention and computing costs in order to keep the database up to date and the author information as accurate as possible. We are a very small development team and we believe in supporting worthwhile work. We hope you do too!

Why does AuthorWatch use a subscription model instead of hosting ads?

• We believe the user experience is cleaner without ads and we would rather be supported by users that find our app valuable instead of advertisers. However, we are not idealogically opposed to advertisements so we will continue to consider feedback from our users. Let us know your thoughts!

Does AuthorWatch receive a cut of a book sale if I click on a purchase link in the app?

• Nope! The links are purely for your convenience and we do not receive any commission from the sales.