My second novel, Felix and Squeak and the Ghost Who Forgot Everything, came out May 19th. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s a sweet & quirky supernatural caper for young readers—and the young at heart. It’s funny. It’s sweet. It’s even a little weird. If that sounds like your jam, I think you might enjoy it.
While my first novel was released by Deep Hearts YA, a small press specializing in LGBTQ+ YA, for Felix and Squeak, my publishing collaborator, Jacob, who also happens to be my brother, and I decided to release the book ourselves. Sort of. Rather than true self-publishing, we opted to partner with Onion River Press, a hybrid press owned and operated through Phoenix Books, my local bookseller here in Burlington, VT.
A hybrid press is slightly different from traditional self-publishing in that they will partner with you in helping bring the book to life, and into print. Typically, they help with some of the behind the scenes infrastructure. Getting the book an ISBN #. Getting it into publishing databases so that it will appear in online retailers from Amazon to Indiebound. They will also, hopefully, have a stake in ensuring your book meets professional standards and can find an audience. Many of them also feature a la carte services for editing support and cover design. After meeting with Onion River and talking with their lead publisher, Rachel Fisher, Jacob and I felt confident in choosing this model for Felix and Squeak.
Let me back up and anticipate a question. Why, you might be wondering, if my first book was traditionally published, did I decide to self-publish my second book? Isn’t that a step backward?
In a word: no. But I’m only speaking for myself here. I think the answer varies quite a bit depending on the writer and his/her situation. And it was only when I could answer that question with a (fairly) confident, (nearly) emphatic NO that I decided to take the plunge.
Let me back up a bit further.
When I finished the manuscript for Felix and Squeak, I initially planned to try and get it traditionally published. That is, writing a query and synopsis to either attract an agent who could submit it to medium and large presses on my behalf, or find an interested small press on my own.
At the same time, though, I had shared the working draft of the book with my older brother, Jacob, an incredible artist, illustrator, designer, and teacher. Collaborating with Jacob on a book has been a lifelong dream, and I hoped he might want to do some illustrations for Felix and Squeak. He did, and they were completely amazing. So amazing that after he’d completed the first few, I already couldn’t imagine the book being illustrated by anyone else. In fact, I made the decision that I would only publish Felix and Squeak with Jacob’s art inside.
But finding either a large or small press that would accept not only my book, but my book with the caveat that the illustrations had to be by an artist of my choice, felt like a long shot. What if they liked the book, but not the art? What if they wanted to micro-manage the illustrations beyond our comfort level? What if the whole thing got weird? It was right around then that I first started to consider an alternate path to publication for Felix and Squeak.
In working with Deep Hearts YA on my debut novel, I’d seen that a small press is just that: a small group of people handling all the many details of publishing. Cover design. Book layout. Developmental editing and proofreading. Promoting and launching. I knew that the lead publisher at Deep Hearts, Craig, had personally laid out my book, and helped facilitate both the development editing and proofreading. I had handled the cover design independently, partnering with an artist friend who knocked it out of the park. I had also leaned on talented friends to create a book trailer, as well as digital assets we could use to promote the book on social media.
With Jacob, I had a uniquely skilled, ideal collaborator. He not only could do the illustrations and book cover. As a designer, I knew he could learn how to lay out the book in a professional way, as well as create promotional assets once we got closer to publication. I knew I could handle the writing side of things, polishing the manuscript with my abilities as an editor, and then leaning on critique partners to tighten the story, and hiring out a professional proofreader for the final polish.
At that point, there were SO many unanswered questions and potential landmines, namely: what if Jacob and I didn’t work well together? What if the layout and book cover didn’t come out right? What if I panicked half-way through and didn’t know how to stop a moving train? What if I woke up one day filled with regret? What if I got hit by a bus?
But those were problems for later. By combining mine and Jacob’s skill sets and going full Voltron, I began to see that we could not only emulate what my small press had done, we could, with humility, hard work, and a bit of help, do it just as well.
With all this in mind, I called Jacob up one day and said, “Hey, maybe we should just do this ourselves.” I presented my battle plan and why I thought we were uniquely suited to make the most of the hybrid publishing model.
He agreed. And we were off and running.
Stay tuned for part 2 where I’ll further pull back the curtain on hybrid publishing and our journey to bring Felix and Squeak into the world.
Love your honesty and your determination!
And thank you… your words truly make me rethink the movable borders of the publishing world.