The Cattle-Log is changing for 2027!

If you knew the Cattle-Log in 2026, there’s something important to know: we’re leaving the PDF behind.

After listening to authors, bookstores, and libraries, we learned that even an interactive PDF is still something people have to find, download, save, and remember. A webpage is simply easier — easier to find, easier to share, easier to update, and easier to return to.

So beginning in 2027, the Cattle-Log becomes a year-round online author directory, with a dedicated Bell Cow webpage for every participating author.

New to the Cattle-Log? You can skip the history lesson. Here’s what you get:

• Your own Bell Cow author page

• Your bio, headshot, genres, books, covers, and purchase links

• Links to your website and social media

• Bell Cow podcast, television, radio, and video appearances

• Speaking Bureau information and other opportunities

• Inclusion in our searchable author directory

• Ongoing outreach to bookstores, libraries, readers, and the literary community

• Updates throughout the year as your career and catalog grow

And you choose where readers go to buy your books — your favorite independent bookstore, Bookshop.org, Amazon, or another destination that works for you.

Already have a website? Great. Your Bell Cow page gives you another online presence linking back to it and can help with search and AI discoverability. Don’t have a website? Your Cattle-Log page can give you a permanent, professional place online without having to build or maintain one yourself.

Membership is $60 per year and renews annually. We’re deeply suspicious of sneaky subscription models too, so we’ll contact you approximately 90 days before renewal and make cancelling easy if you decide it’s time to leave the herd.

The goal hasn’t changed: help authors get discovered and connect writers with readers. We just think we’ve found a much better way to do it.

Step 1: Before You Submit—A Few Important Notes!

📌 This is NOT a bookstore or distributor – The Cattle-Log is an author-discovery platform designed to help readers, libraries, bookstores, book clubs, and others find regional authors and their books. We don’t sell your books ourselves—and we can’t guarantee that a bookstore or library will stock them—but we work to create more ways for people to discover you. 

📌 We Reserve the Right to Decline Listings – While we want to feature a wide variety of books, we do have some basic standards. If your submission is incomplete, misleading, or doesn’t align with our mission, we may decline to include it. (No worries—we’ll reach out if there’s an issue.)

📌 Libraries & Bookstores Make Their Own Choices – We’re here to spread the word, but we can’t guarantee that a store or library will stock your book. Our job is to make sure they know about it—you bring the magic that makes them want it!

📌 Accuracy Matters – Typos, incorrect links, or missing info are on you—so proofread like your book deal depends on it. I mean, we'll obviously double-check and proofread, but you're the expert on you and your books.

📌 Deadline - good news, now that we've changed to this format, there is no hard deadline. You can subscribe anytime.

Here's a sample page from the new Cattle-Log

Here's the what the indexes look like now

And if you want to look at the 2026 Cattle-Log, here's a link for that, too.