The first U.S. streaming show to episodically profile the world’s newest and best-selling authors expands into overseas markets
Readers love getting lost in a story, but rarely get the chance to hear the stories behind how they were born. How did an author first discover they had a way with words? What was the exact moment a beloved character came to life? And how did they make the leap from childhood dream of becoming an author, over, say, an astronaut or a president, to actually doing it? That door cracked open in a new way during the early 2020s, when the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread adoption of Zoom gave authors a new platform: inviting fans directly into their writing rooms to promote books virtually when in-person tours were no longer possible.
Out of that creative necessity, an innovation to the writer-interview platform was born.
A New Kind Of Author Interview Show
Photo Courtesy of ATA TV
When About the Authors TV made its debut on Tubi TV in 2021, it became the first streaming television show to episodically profile the world’s newest and best-selling writers. The brainchild of award-winning author and host Jake Brown, himself the author of more than 60 books, the show carved out a distinct space in the emerging author-hosted interview landscape from its very first season.
Its range has been one of its defining strengths. Literary lions like James Patterson, Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell, Percival Everett, Gillian Flynn, John Irving, Harlan Coben, Dennis Lehane, Amy Tan, and Joyce Carol Oates have shared the virtual stage with the decade’s hottest breakout voices, including Freida McFadden, TJ Klune, Roxane Gay, Callie Hart, and Erika L. Sánchez. By blending entertaining memories of how authors first met their most iconic characters with candid advice spanning every corner of the writing process, the show found a viewership that speaks to both devoted readers and aspiring authors alike. Five years in, that audience has grown to five million strong and counting, with upward of more than 1,000 authors across every genre and subgenre in the literary landscape interviewed to date.
Going European: 100+ New Episodes Abroad
Marking its fifth year on air, About the Authors TV is expanding overseas with a dedicated European Edition, bringing the show’s signature long-form, episodic interview format to feature a lineup reads like a who’s who of the writers behind the most celebrated series of recent years: Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax), Jed Mercurio (Line of Duty), Andrea Mara (Netflix’s It’s All Her Fault), Ann Cleeves (Shetland, Vera), Anthony Horowitz (Magpie Murders), Sophie Hannah (Case Sensitive), Tana French (Dublin Murder Squad), and Ian Rankin (Rebus), among many others.
Fans of Nordic crime fiction are in for a particularly compelling season. Viveca Sten offers first-time revelations about the creation of The Sandhamn Murders and The Åre Murders, while Jo Nesbø and Ragnar Jónasson pull back the curtain on their globally celebrated work. France’s best-selling author Marc Levy, whose catalog has sold over 50 million copies worldwide including the beloved Just Like Heaven, takes viewers through a career that has captivated readers across continents. The United Kingdom and Ireland are equally well represented, with Lisa Jewell, Peter James, John Banville, Marian Keyes, Anne Enright, Bernard Cornwell, Joanne Harris, Ruth Ware, Chris Whitaker, Jeffery Archer, and many others sharing moments of doubt, triumph, and perseverance that illuminate the solitary-by-nature life of the working author. These are people who, as Brown often notes, spend more time with their characters than with their own families.
A Platform For The Next Generation Of Storytellers
Photo Courtesy of ATA TV
The European expansion is only one part of a broader ambition. Driven by Brown’s lifelong curiosity about the creative process and his recognition of what many within publishing are calling one of the most exciting literary renaissances in years, About the Authors TV has committed to providing a platform for the most diverse and multicultural storytelling voices the industry has seen in decades.
Future seasons are being developed with a genre-specific focus, targeting Crime Fiction (Suspense, Mystery, Thriller, and Noir), Fantasy (including Paranormal and Romantasy), Science Fiction, and Historical Fiction, among others. Alongside the established names, the show continues to spotlight the breakout voices of the 2020s: Julian Brave Noisecat, 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner Tessa Hulls, Dennard Dayle, Brandon Taylor, Allison Raskin, Rachel Khong, Rachel Van Dyken, Fallon Ballard, Chigozie Obioma, Ana Reyes, Alison Espach, Rizwan Virk, Alejandro Valera, Megan Quinn, Katie Yee, Ken Liu, Virginia Evans, and instant New York Times best-seller Katie Bernet, to name just a few. The goal, as Brown has put it, is to give readers around the world a fuller appreciation for the sacrifice their favorite storytellers pour into every page and, ultimately, to inspire the next generation of authors to keep picking up the pen.