The Secret That Will Change Everything About How I Publish Books

If you're reading this blog, you're likely already a current reader of mine (or at least a member of my reader community newsletter) who wants to know more about the secret that will change everything about how I publish books going forward.

After much time and thought, I've decided to release this news  exclusively to you and your fellow readers in a secret blog that, as of the time of writing this post, I do not plan to make public until after the end of my foray into traditional publishing. 

If you're here for the short version of the news, here it is:

1.) I am a pitch coach as part of my day job. This means that for the past several years (starting in 2019), researching and predicting trends for what agents/publishers are signing has literally been a part of my living.

2.) When I started this journey into publishing in 2020, many factors stood against me when it came to the odds of successfully landing a traditional contract for The Vow That Twisted Fate or my Splitting Worlds series. As such, I opened my heart to indie publishing (where readers thrive on reading without boundaries). TVTTF released in July of 2021, and proceeded to receive multiple accolades and a warm response from readers, confirming I'd chosen the best path for my work at that time (for which I am eternally grateful).

3.) The traditional publishing scene and trends are changing in 2023. With these changes in mind, there is a slim window of opportunity for my work to potentially read more traditional audiences who rely on the big-market publishing umbrella.

4.) And so, the secret that will change everything about how I publish books starting in 2023 is that, ultimately, I will be pitching two different series that fall into the wish-lists of many agents I've researched so far this spring. If all goes well, in the next 1-3 years I may be able to connect with an agent and (ultimately) a press.

I am taking the plunge into the journey to go Hybrid, so that my readers can not only read my indie works without boundaries, but also reach beyond borders with traditionally-published works.

Your support in this new endeavor means everything to me!

Indie publishing still has (and always will have) my heart. I am leaving The Lords' Gambit Series, Splitting Worlds, and Duets of Dusk and Dawn all as indie (and still plan to release them in 2023) at this time.

For those wanting a little more information (since you know that transparency is vital to me), here it is:  

I began my publishing journey as a self-published indie author because I knew that my books/series at the time (back in 2020) deserved more than the dismissal they would likely receive from agents/publishers at that time.

Female epic fantasy writers were not as up-and-coming as they are now, only three short years later. Female dark epic fantasy writers were even less prevalent, and the genre as a whole was trending downward.

Thanks to authors like Brandon Sanderson and George R.R. Martin (among far too many others to list), there has been a renewed interest in the darker fantasy epics. Female writers like Leigh Bardugo and Holly Black, too, have brought dark fantasy tales by women into broader acceptance.

This does not in any way diminish the value of indie publishing/indie books, and I will champion indie authors and their works with every ounce of zeal I can muster. I want to be very clear here that I am NOT saying that indie books are ones that failed in any way (ie: this is NOT a 'authors only indie publishing if they're not good enough to traditionally publish').

There are numerous big name indie authors (Elise Kova, for one), and in fact it could arguably take even stronger writing to survive in the indie scene long-term in some aspects.

Every book is destined for its own journey.
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This shift for two as-of-yet unpublished series of mine, at this time, will hopefully help them shine just as much as Splitting Dawn did in its indie USA Today Bestseller release last October (in the Realm of Darkness box set).

Feel free to bookmark this blog and stay tuned, because I will be updating it frequently with updates including the good, bad, and ugly of my querying journey, and (in the end) whether I do go all the way with one or both series, traditionally.

​Thank you for being here along the way!