diff --git a/.bumpversion.cfg b/.bumpversion.cfg
index c4459027..23851e7c 100644
--- a/.bumpversion.cfg
+++ b/.bumpversion.cfg
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [bumpversion]
-current_version = 1.0.0
+current_version = 1.1.0
 commit = False
 tag = False
 
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 6f00eb30..7f94c34a 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Package: epidatr
 Type: Package
 Title: Client for Delphi's 'Epidata' API
-Version: 1.0.0
+Version: 1.1.0
 Date: 2023-09-11
 Authors@R: 
   c(
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 9dd1990e..661b3340 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+# epidatr 1.1.0
+- renamed the mostly internal `get_auth_key` to `get_api_key`
+- added `set_api_key` to more easily set the option
+- various CRAN submission related doc-fixes
+- fixed some errors from passing "" as a key
+
 # epidatr 1.0.0
 
 - Add `set_cache` and other caching functions.
diff --git a/R/constants.R b/R/constants.R
index b00768ca..1fbc4add 100644
--- a/R/constants.R
+++ b/R/constants.R
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-version <- "1.0.0"
+version <- "1.1.0"
 http_headers <- httr::add_headers("User-Agent" = paste0("epidatr/", version), "Accept-Encoding" = "gzip")
 global_base_url <- "https://api.delphi.cmu.edu/epidata/"
diff --git a/R/request.R b/R/request.R
index d6fd5ea3..1e3be1b4 100644
--- a/R/request.R
+++ b/R/request.R
@@ -24,23 +24,44 @@ join_url <- function(url, endpoint) {
 #' @keywords internal
 do_request <- function(url, params, timeout_seconds = 30) {
   # don't retry in case of certain status codes
-  res <- httr::RETRY("GET",
-    url = url,
-    query = params,
-    terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 405, 414, 500),
-    http_headers,
-    httr::authenticate("epidata", get_api_key()),
-    httr::timeout(timeout_seconds)
-  )
-  if (res$status_code == 414) {
-    res <- httr::RETRY("POST",
+  key <- get_api_key()
+  if (key != "") {
+    res <- httr::RETRY("GET",
       url = url,
-      body = params,
-      encode = "form",
+      query = params,
       terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 405, 414, 500),
       http_headers,
-      httr::authenticate("epidata", get_api_key())
+      httr::authenticate("epidata", get_api_key()),
+      httr::timeout(timeout_seconds)
     )
+  } else {
+    res <- httr::RETRY("GET",
+      url = url,
+      query = params,
+      terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 405, 414, 500),
+      http_headers,
+      httr::timeout(timeout_seconds)
+    )
+  }
+  if (res$status_code == 414) {
+    if (key != "") {
+      res <- httr::RETRY("POST",
+        url = url,
+        body = params,
+        encode = "form",
+        terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 405, 414, 500),
+        http_headers,
+        httr::authenticate("epidata", get_api_key())
+      )
+    } else {
+      res <- httr::RETRY("POST",
+        url = url,
+        body = params,
+        encode = "form",
+        terminate_on = c(400, 401, 403, 405, 414, 500),
+        http_headers
+      )
+    }
   }
   res
 }