Tag: Hot Wax

Countdown to Launch

~ M. L. Rio

Dear readers,

Today, we are two weeks away from Hot Wax pub day. It’s an exciting but incredibly busy time; if you’ve following me on social media, you’ve probably seen a lot of event announcements, some early reviews, and even some early swag. But I wanted to go ahead and send this reminder for those of you who are less chronically online.

The Hot Wax book tour starts one night early at the Strand in New York City; we’ll be in the rare books room on the second floor, and it’s worth the price of a ticket just to come and eyeball all the beautiful books. If you can’t make the launch, though, you New Yorkers have a second chance: we’re doing a special, one-off event at Rough Trade Below in Rockefeller Center, where I’ll be in conversation with Adam Weiner of the Tristate Area’s scrappiest rock band, Low Cut Connie. We’re going to spin some records and talk about all the music that went into the making of the book. I hope you’ll come out and jam with us.

If you’re outside of New York, never fear: we have so many events in September and October, there are pretty good odds I’ll be somewhere near your neck of the woods, signing books and taking questions and handing out bookmarks, stickers, buttons, crayons, candy, Matchbox cars, record store gift cards, and even (drumroll, please) these incredible tour posters designed by Hannah Taylor. It’s a real dream come true to have merch worthy of Gil & the Kills, the movers and shakers at the heart of Hot Wax. We have a hundred of these posters, and we’ll be giving one away–signed and numbered–at each of my events this fall.

If that’s not enough incentive, I don’t know what it is! We had such a blast on Graveyard tour last year and this time around we’ve pulled out all the stops, because everyone needs a little something to look forward to and with book bans cropping up all over the place and freedom of speech under threat, now is a real good time to come together and celebrate books. You can find working links to all of my upcoming appearances on the Events page. If you have questions, it’s best to reach out to the bookstore directly, as each event is a little different! If you think you want to come, jump on those tickets fast. Many of our events last year sold out, and the ones this fall are already filling up.

Finally, with just a few weeks left between me and pub day, I just want to say a little about pre-orders and how much they help support a book and the people who worked on it. Pre-ordering a book does a lot of good things: it helps the publisher decide how big the print run should be, which means we have enough copies for everyone at launch; it signals to bookstores and booksellers that this is a title worth stocking and talking about; and it helps our first-week sales numbers, which can make a big difference in the book’s future performance. Why do sales matter so much? Writing is an art, but at the end of the day, publishing is a business. Fabulous books like this cost money to edit and design and print and advertise. But sales numbers can also make or break an author: if the sales numbers aren’t good, good luck getting published again. I’ve lived it, and it’s heartbreaking. So if you want to support me and my work, this is one of the best and most impactful ways to do that. Thank to everyone who’s pre-ordered already, and thank you in advance to those of you haven’t yet. You can pre-order anywhere you get books: US pre-orders are here, and the UK is here.

I think it’ll be worth it, and worth the wait. I’ve been living in this book for a long time, and it’s turned into something really special. We can’t wait to share it with you.

M

HOT WAX Ireland Event

~ M. L. Rio

Great news for my pals in Ireland who have been patiently waiting (for years!) for an event in their neck of the woods: we’re bringing the Hot Wax world tour to Dublin on October 22nd.

You can find tickets and more information here. Hope to see you there!

HOT WAX US Tour Dates

~ M. L. Rio

Calling all road dogs!

The US Hot Wax tour is live. I’m so excited we’ll be able to bring this book to so many cities this fall, and it’s going to be an absolute blast. We’re working hard behind the scenes to bring you treats, tunes, tour merch, and so much more. It’s a really weird time to be promoting a book but now more than ever is a moment to fight for the arts and celebrate–loudly–everything that makes life colorful, vibrant, and worth living. I can’t wait to meet you all.

For tickets and more information, please contact hosting bookstores directly; you can find links on my Events page.

HOT WAX Pre-orders and UK Tour Dates

Featured ~ M. L. Rio

It’s been too quiet here for a little too long. But the good news is we’ve got good news worth sharing, so I’ll get right to the point. Hot Wax launch is just about three months away. It’s wild how fast this time has flown, but now that we’re really in the home stretch we can finally share some things with you.

The first is NetGalley requests and pre-order links. If you’re a NetGalley member, you can request the US edition of the book here and the UK edition here. Our galleys–both print and digital–are pretty limited, so if you don’t get lucky this time, don’t fret! We still have some giveaways coming up, and you can always pre-order the book: you can find the US edition here and the UK edition here (or anywhere you buy books. Foreign editions will be coming in 2026; translators need time to translate).

If you’re not sure what all the fuss is about pre-orders and why authors always seem to be crowing about them, here are the basics: healthy pre-orders really help a book succeed, for two reasons. The first is enthusiasm, which should never be underestimated. A good volume of pre-orders lets booksellers/bookstores know that people are excited about the title, which makes them more likely to read it, stock it, and promote it to their local audience. That kind of word of mouth can do wonders for the life of a book in an era where nobody knows what else can actually move the needle. The second thing that pre-orders do is streamline production. An author’s worst nightmare–and their publisher’s, too–is having huge demand for a book and not enough copies in the first print run to meet it. This is trickier guesswork than ever with the tariff-induced destabilization of global trade (most of our paper and printing materials come from Canada and China, for instance). Pre-orders also go a long way towards making sure that there are simply enough copies of a book to go around. And, finally, pre-orders count toward first week sales, which can be a huge help in bumping a book onto the bestseller list. If you’re looking to support your favorite authors fighting to make art as the market is glutted with AI slop, consider pre-ordering titles you’re really excited about. It matters more than you know!

Because we appreciate it so much, we’ve arranged two options to pre-order signed copies of Hot Wax. You can snag a signed copy from Head House Books here in the States and from Waterstones in the UK. And if you pre-order a signed copy, you can still get it personalized if you come see me on tour! Which brings me to our next little announcement: UK tour dates are live and you can book your tickets now. We’re really excited about this route. Because the turnout for Graveyard Shift was so spectacular and we had such a fantastic time, we’ve got even more events this year and we’re hoping nobody’s too far away to make it. But because most of these events did sell out in 2024, if you’re pretty sure you want to come, don’t sleep on grabbing tickets. (If you’re curious what these events are like, you can find some recordings of the Graveyard tour on the Links page.) With any other questions, please contact bookstores directly! You can find all those hyperlinks in this post here.

US tour dates are still in the works, but should be announced very soon! We’re just waiting to nail down a couple of holdouts and plot a good route because yep, you guessed it–I’ll be driving myself again this year. With a road trip book like this, it just wouldn’t be right to do it any other way.

Hope to see you out there!

HOT WAX cover art

~ M. L. Rio

I won’t waste your time. It’s here. It’s hot. It’s big. It’s loud. I’m in love with it.

There are so many things I could say about this cover. A lot of care went into the design, and it looks absolutely delicious.

My editor, T., wanted this to feel like “ a big book.” We needed something high-contrast and eye-catching that would demand a reader’s attention as soon as they walked into the bookstore. Because the title is still one of everybody’s favorite things about this book, and because the words are so short and so perfectly matched in size, I suggested we go big with the title itself.

If you want to hear more about this process and what went into the design, I go in depth over on Substack, which is still the best place to keep up with all the goings-on going on behind the scenes. If you’re rather just pre-order the book, you can do that here (and I might just add that all pre-orders are 25% of at Barnes & Noble with the code PREORDER25). It’s hitting shelves on September 9. Hope you love it as much as we do.

New Work: HOT WAX

~ M. L. Rio

It’s been a busy few months for Team Rio. As is always the case with publishing, there’s a strange lag between when big things happen and when they can actually be big news. I’m thrilled to finally share this with you.

I wrote the first version of this book seven years ago. It’s been on a long, strange journey since then, and I’m so glad it’s found such a good home with Tim at Simon & Schuster. The next few years promise to be very busy, in a very good way. Without a great agent this never would have happened–I’m grateful for mine every day. But it also wouldn’t have happened without my readers, who have loved my first book so fiercely and made it possible for me to write more.

I can’t wait to bring you along on this fresh adventure. Because most of my online writing has migrated to my Substack newsletter, this is a great time to subscribe. You’ll still see all the big news here, but if you’re interested in the publishing process and want a peek behind the scenes as Hot Wax and Graveyard Shift go to press, Substack is the place to be. I hope you’ll join me. You can subscribe right here.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

M