Hello, all! So, about two weeks ago, I hit a significant-ish milestone: five years as an actually published author. I published my debut novel, Blood in the Snow, on October 26, 2018. At the time, I was in my junior year of college, balancing writing and editing with classwork and, somehow, an actual social life. Five years on, I have seven published works, one of which has won a Realm Award, plus a story in an anthology. (And, bewilderingly, I am once again having to balance writing with classwork, thanks to my decision to try for a Master's degree — but I replaced the social life with a job and D&D, so . . . progress?) Anyway, given the occasion, a bit of retrospective seemed appropriate, so here are five thoughts from me on the last five years as a published author!

Five Years Published

1. I'm glad I decided to go the self-publishing route instead of holding out for a traditional publishing contract. Just over five years ago, I posted a Friday 5s post about why I'd decided to self-publish . . . because two years prior to that, I'd written another post about why I planned to still pursue traditional publishing instead of jumping on the self-publishing bandwagon (which, at that point, was getting some real momentum). How well those reasons stood the test of time varies from one to another, but in any case, I'm happy with my choice. After all, had I stuck with my intent to be traditionally published, I'd probably still be querying — and even if I had a contract, I wouldn't be getting nearly as much from the publisher as I'd hoped back in 2016. (Notably, I'd still have to do a lot of marketing.) On the other hand, I've been able to self-publish books that meet my standards for what a good book should be without a publishing house and without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for each new manuscript.
2. The Arista Challenges were probably the best thing that could've happened to me, writing-wise. All but one of my books have been published with one of the Arista Challenges releases, and that's been such a good experience. Obviously, the first Arista Challenge provided the boost I needed to actually publish Blood in the Snow. Beyond that, though, they provided the structure and deadlines that I needed to make sure I released at least one book every year — and they prompted some of my favorite books I've written to date. Without the Arista Challenge, Bastian Dennel, PI, Through a Shattered Glass, and Song of the Selkies simply wouldn't exist! I've also learned a lot from Kendra about promoting and organizing a book release and about the actual craft of publishing. And, of course, the Arista Challenge led to my friendships with many other authors, particularly Wyn Estelle Owens, and those relationships have been such a blessing.
3. I'm definitely still learning and growing as an author. When I posted in 2016 about why I didn't plan to self-publish, one of the reasons I gave was that traditional publishing would force me to constantly work to be better and self-publishing, in my inexperienced opinion, wouldn't. That couldn't have been further from the truth! I don't think it's unreasonable to say that my writing skills improve with every book I write and rewrite because every story requires me to either practice new techniques or hone old ones. (Again, I wouldn't have written Bastian Dennel, PI if I hadn't self-published, and that series is how I've learned, and am still learning, to write mysteries.) In addition, I've learned a lot in writing-adjacent fields. I've designed my own covers for five of my books, and I've received frequent compliments on them. I've also done the interior layouts for all of my books (not counting the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology), and I can honestly say that I've improved a little with each one. In fact, one could argue that I've learned more from self-publishing than I ever would have had I pursued traditional publishing.
4. As is typical, the people have been one of the best parts of the whole experience. I've already mentioned the friendships I've built with other authors. However, y'all — the people who read my books, either before or after they're published — have also been lovely. On the pre-publishing side, I've found a group of absolutely lovely beta readers, without whom I would probably be lost. Their critiques and suggestions do so much to make my books better, whether in small ways like pointing out confusing wording or in big ways like showing me where a particular character arc isn't what it could be. Plus, their commentary keeps me from going insane during the editing process! And once my books are published, I get to hear from people who've loved the characters and the stories, and it's just so awesome. Any time someone tells me that they read my book and liked it, it just makes my day — even moreso when they then tell me particular characters or bits they enjoyed or ask questions about the story. And, yes, part of that is because it's nice to get compliments — but more importantly, those comments mean that other people are finding meaning and connection and joy in what I make, that my stories are doing what I want them to do. A post I saw recently said that art isn't complete until it's experienced, and that's definitely true of writing.
5. I'm excited for whatever comes next. Do I know what that'll be? Yes and no. If you keep up with my Taleweaver's Desk posts, you know I have a fair number of books lined up to write or rewrite and publish in the future, but the exact details of all that remains to be seen. I also haven't entirely given up on shopping around one particular novel to traditional publishing houses, just so I can say I've done it both ways. (Though I have to find time to actually rewrite that novel first . . .) I'm kind of keeping my plans intentionally a little loose, as every time I think I've set a solid course, something happens to throw everything off. Whatever happens, though, and wherever this path takes me, I'm sure I'll keep learning, and I pray that I'll keep getting to share my stories with all of y'all.

Have you hit any milestones worth celebrating lately? Also, which of my books so far is your favorite? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading — and thank you for making the last five years so great!

August 2020 Doings!

 Hello, everyone! First things first: today is the last day of nominations for the Silmaril Awards! If you haven't yet nominated and seconded all your favorite characters, make sure you go do that ASAP! And now, since that's been said: let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• As you probably noticed if you were anywhere near my blog or my social media last week: I published a book! Which is very exciting! The Midnight Show, a Jazz-Age-inspired retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, is now available in Kindle format on Amazon. It's also in Kindle Unlimited, so yeah. You should check it out. We're still working on the paperback, but as I said on Wednesday, I'm doing my best to get it out as soon as possible.
• Unsurprisingly, I spent a very solid chunk of the month doing final proofs and edits on The Midnight Show, formatting files, and prepping blog posts for the tour. In related news: I now know how to format ebooks in InDesign. Whoooo! (This doesn't sound like a big deal, probably. Trust me when I say that it feels like a big deal to me.)
• I've also been working on my D&D campaign, though that's slowed down a bit because I can only do limited planning until I know what my players decide at an upcoming juncture. In the meantime, I've started writing a second campaign. This one is loosely inspired by one of my favorite video games and is a lot more dungeon-crawl-y than Defenders of Serys, but I think it'll be fun. And I mentioned it to some of my players before our last D&D session, and they seemed enthusiastic about the idea.

 Reading!

• This was another pretty solid reading month. About half of what I read this month, was, unsurprisingly, a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling or other fairy tale retelling. I read all the Tattered Slippers books, of course, and enjoyed all of them. (If you want my thoughts on them, just scroll back to last week.) And because I was on a fairy tale kick, I reread the Princess of the Midnight Ball trilogy, which was actually just as good as I remembered it being.
• Also in the realm of retellings, though not fairy-tale ones, were Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (a reread) and, to a certain degree, Bloodlust and Bonnets, a graphic novel by Emily McGovern that kind of sends-up both Austen and Romantic literature. Wyrd Sisters was excellent, and better on the reread than it was the first time around. Bloodlust and Bonnets was . . . not my favorite thing. In hindsight, I don't know why I thought I would enjoy it that much, since the author's webcomics tend to be hit-or-miss for me. But it did sound like it could have been funny. Oh well. Lessons learned.
• (I later soothed my desire for an actually-good graphic novel by rereading Nimona, which was excellent.)
• The last few books of the month were all somewhat mixed bags. Whisper of the Tide was the sequel to Song of the Current, and it alternated between being enjoyably nautical/piratical and frustratingly fraught with communication issues. The ending was good. The middle . . . well, there was a point where I was halfway tempted to just not finish. Caraval was an interesting concept with a lot of potential, but it had too much romantic and relational angst and too little of the actual Caraval. And Crimson Bound is what I'm currently reading; I think it has potential, but I'm not crazy about it thus far.

Watching!

• I'm still primarily watching Critical Role, though I've slowed down a little. This is partially because I'm busy and having a harder time fitting it in and partially because Travis and Laura are gone on baby leave and I knew from spoilers that another one of my favorite characters was . . . also about to not be around anymore. And so I kind of procrastinated a bunch on a particular episode. But I got through it! And now I'm continuing to move along through the show! And soon Travis and Laura will be back, so that'll be great!
• I also started watching both Cowboy Bebop and My Hero Academia, sort of. By that, I mean that I watched the first three episodes of Cowboy Bebop and the first five or six episodes of My Hero Academia while my family was taking my sister back to college and then after that they had to compete with (1) Critical Role and (2) actual responsibilities for my attention and it hasn't exactly been winning. Hopefully, I will change that soon! Hopefully!
• It is really weird watching anime after having not watched it in so long. I forgot how little tends to happen in an episode. And also how characters have a tendency to be so dramatic about so much stuff. I'm not saying that in a bad way, just in a "this is a thing that happens" way.
• I'm also having a really hard time figuring out what people's names are in My Hero Academia (with a few exceptions), but that's mostly because I keep trying to match up names I've seen associated with fanart with names used in the show, and I think a bunch of people use last names with fanart? Though I could be wrong?
• They're both good shows, though. I enjoyed them. And I look forward to watching more when I have time.
• Other than that, I watched a few movies with the family. On the recommendation of Jenelle Schmidt, I went ahead and gave the newer Casino Royale a chance, and I have to say, I liked it much, much better than Goldfinger. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it was my favorite of the actual movies I saw this month. My second favorite was WarGames, an older sci-fi movie. I don't know that I'd watch it again unless someone I was with really wanted to, but it involved hacking and artificial intelligence in a fairly interesting way. Also, it was reasonably accurate hacking in terms of how it was done? So that was kind of fun, even if the premise was rather out there. At the bottom of my list in terms of how much I liked them were Spellbound (cool premise, but the female lead frustrated me) and Hello, Dolly! (which was just generally not my thing, and I didn't buy any but one of the four different romantic couples). I can see why other people would like both of them. They just aren't my thing.

Life!

• So, my sister went back to college. I didn't, for obvious reasons. This is the first semester-start in four years that I haven't made the trek up to Cedarville. It felt . . . kind of weird? But at the same time, I'm so glad that I don't have to deal with things like having chapel outside or the massive crowds in the dining hall or any of that.
• I also had the house to myself for a weekend, which was pretty nice. I didn't have internet for the weekend because the hotspot went with the rest of my family, but I did a bunch of gaming (I played through the entirety of The Silent Age and Portal and started Portal 2) and watched stuff on the actual TV rather than my tablet or laptop and listened to music with no headphones. It was nice. (Also: can you tell I'm an introvert?)
• I would like to add that The Silent Age hits different when you play it during a pandemic. To reveal minimal spoilers, it involves traveling back and forth from the future to prevent a plague from causing the end of the world. Technically, the future year you're traveling to is 2012. Had the developers made it 2021, well, I probably would've been like "Yeah, that seems reasonable."
• And because I'm on a gaming kick at the moment, I also restarted Undertale, which I technically started playing back in March or April and have been continuing on and off since. But I got stuck on the spider fight, so I decided to restart so I could get an item from the beginning of the game that will hopefully either shorten the fight or let me bypass it entirely. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. (I'm playing the True Pacifist mode, for anyone curious. So that makes it more difficult.)
• On a more serious note, I'm still working on finding a job beyond self-published author. The Tor.com internship fell through, sadly — not that I really expected it to work out. I did manage to get a contract/freelance position doing copywriting for Study.com, which is nice — the writing isn't hard, and the pay isn't bad, and obviously, it's pretty flexible. But I am still looking for something else. To that end, I had a job interview with one company yesterday — my first actual in-person interview, believe it or not. As of the writing of this post, I'm waiting to find out what will and won't come of that.
• In the meantime, I've gone back to trying to teach myself to draw. It's going fairly well, even though I'm basically having to relearn everything I figured out when I first attempted this two summers ago. I've gotten back to the point where I can draw a face without thinking it looks bad, and occasionally it actually looks reasonably good.

September Plans

• With The Midnight Show (mostly) published, I have three major things on my plate:
  
  1. Continue job-hunting, assuming that I don't get offered the position I interviewed for. (I'm operating under this assumption until corrected; it's less likely to end in disappointment. For all that I try to be an optimist, I can't deny the advantages of pessimism, and I'm unfortunately good at it.)
  2. Keep working on and hopefully finish the first draft of Blood in the Soil/Earth. I know I've hit either endgame or something close to it, and I hope that I'll get back to the scenes where it's easier to write 500 words than 100 soon — you know what I mean, when the words are flowing freely enough that you don't want to stop for fear of losing your train of thought. The trouble is that I don't know how many of those scenes I have left; I know for sure that I have at least three days and three nights of narrative left. (Also, before anyone gets excited . . . this first draft is very rough and is going to require at least one full rewrite. It may require two.)
  3. Figure out for sure if I'm writing a Frosted Roses story (I think I am, and I posted about my main idea in the group) and, if I am, hopefully get started on it. If I end up on a roll with Blood in the Soil/Earth, though, this will get pushed back.
• Outside of those three things, I'm going to continue writing my D&D campaigns. I think I'll be able to go back to working on Defenders of Serys as my main fairly soon, but we'll see. In the meantime, I'll continue having fun with writing the new campaign. It really is a nice change of pace.
• On the reading front, I think a lot of my reading plans are going to be defined by who ends up moving on to the voting round of the Silmaril Awards. After all, I want to make sure I'm well-prepared to write the finalists well in the awards ceremony post! At the moment, it looks like I'm going to get to reread some of my favorite books and some books I've been meaning to reread or read for a while, so that's very exciting. I'll also be rereading the third and fourth Wingfeather books, because those release in October! Huzzah!
• But, yeah. Unless I get a job, it'll probably just be more of the same old same old, with a little bonus urgency to hurry up and finish the hood of the cloak I'm making.

How was your August? Any exciting plans for September? How do you feel about graphic novels? And have you watched either My Hero Academia or Cowboy Bebop? If so, what did you think of them? And if you've watched MHA, can you maybe help me out with my confusion about names? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

An Update on The Midnight Show Paperback

 

Hello, all! I wanted to take a minute to update y'all on the status of The Midnight Show paperback release and the accompanying bookplate promo. As you may recall, on the original release day, I said that due to some issues with Amazon, the book might be delayed until that afternoon. However, it didn't appear that afternoon, nor the day after, nor any day since. On Monday, I said that I hoped it would be out that day and that I was extending the promo through Wednesday. It's now Wednesday, and still no paperback.

The reason for this delay?

• On Friday, Amazon rejected the manuscript, saying that I needed to increase the page size to allow for the bleed. I did so, figuring that the book would be delayed by a bit, but not a full day (as I said).
• Saturday, rather than getting a "Your book is approved" email, I received a message identical to the one I received on Friday. Very weird, said I, but I increased the bleed sizes again and sent it back.
• After getting no emails at all from Amazon for over three days, I called the KDP helpline yesterday afternoon.
• The KDP representative I talked to didn't know why my book was being rejected or why I wasn't hearing back from them either, but she said she'd have a technical team look into it — a process that could take twenty-four to forty-eight hours.
• I then received another identical email about page sizes about fifteen minutes after I hung up. I did not act on this one; I'm giving the technical team time to act in hopes that they actually will look into it.

What does this mean regarding the release?

1. The paperback will be released eventually. When? At this point — and I say this in the most literal sense — God only knows. I will do my best to make it as soon as possible.
2. The paperback bookplate promo is, for obvious reasons, postponed. It will happen for real when the paperback actually releases.
3. I will let you all know as soon as the paperback is released.

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding. I truly appreciate your support.

P.S. Have you nominated your favorite characters for the Silmaril Awards yet? If not, go do that!

Tattered Slippers Tour: THE MIDNIGHT SHOW RELEASE DAY! Feat. The Pros and Cons of Writing in the Jazz Age!

 

Hello, everyone! It's official: The Midnight Show is out in the world! I'm so excited that I get to share this book with y'all. As a reminder, if you purchase the book in paperback format today through the 31st and send a proof of purchase to sarahpennington.author(at)gmail.com, I'll send you a signed bookplate to go in the book!

(Side note: due to some technical issues — aka KDP not telling me that I needed larger bleeds on my pages until after I'd ordered two separate proof copies, what the pumpernickle — there may be a slight delay on paperback availability. They should be up by the end of today, if they aren't already. Thanks for your patience.)

Now, you know, stories don't come out of nowhere. For everything anyone ever writes, there's at least of a bit of a journey to get there. And today, I thought I'd share some of the story behind The Midnight Show in a somewhat . . . unusual . . . way. But first, a bit about the book, for those who are just getting here!

About . . .

The Midnight Show

This mystery is the case of his dreams — and her nightmares.

By day, Dayo Temitrope is a swinging singer, an up-and-coming star with a shining career ahead of her. By night, she’s . . . well, she’s not sure, but whatever she does leaves her every morning with sore feet and worn-out shoes. And after six months, she’s had enough.

Enter Bastian Dennell, a private investigator just trying to get by. When Dayo hires him to find out where she goes at night, he’s sure it’s his big break: his chance to establish himself and get the funds to pay off his family’s debt. Plus, he gets to work with his favorite singer, even if she isn’t exactly what he expected. What could be better?

But first he has to solve the case — which means navigating a tangled web of strange dreams, fair folk schemes, and show business. It will take all Bastian’s wits, along with the shining talents of Dayo herself, to figure out the truth before the curtains close for good on Dayo’s career.

A jazz-age-inspired twist on the Twelve Dancing Princesses from the author of Blood in the Snow.

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

The Tattered Slippers

The Tattered Slippers are six retellings of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairytale, each one fantastical and magical. You don't want to miss any of them! You can learn more about the books and find the full tour schedule on the tour page.

The Tattered Slippers are the result of the 2019 Arista Challenge. The Arista Challenge is hosted by Kendra E. Ardnek; it invites fairy tale authors to come together in community as they work on unique retellings of a selected fairy tale.

Pros and Cons of Writing in the Jazz Age

So there I was, halfway through May, with Hadestown in my headphones, a few characters niggling at the back of my mind, and an unexpected surplus of time on my hands. The Tattered Slippers group reveal was creeping ever closer, and Kendra was keeping the Love and Memory alpha chat buzzing with cryptic comments about her excitement for the lineup and teasing me with the promise that she’d accept a late entry if I sent one in. I’d planned to sign on for the release, but Blood in the Soil (or possibly Blood in the Earth) was fighting me on every page, and I knew — had known for months — that I had no chance to whip it into shape by the release. I thought that was that.

But there were those characters — ! A private investigator with a heart of gold who tried to hide his feelings under a callously professional demeanor and a jazz singer whose sunny smiles masked an ever-growing desire to just be left alone when she was off the stage. They’d been born as alternate universe versions of major characters from another Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, but they’d become their own people while I wasn’t looking. And they wouldn’t leave me alone! 

There was clearly nothing else for it. I had to write the story. I set a goal for myself: I’d make the most detailed outline I’d made in years, then write like mad to have the book finished by the beginning of June. It was crazy — but it was a novella, nothing more. Perhaps even a novelette. And, anyway, compared to ancient Asia, how hard could it be to write a Jazz Age-inspired story? 

Headphones on. Writing music playing. I was about to find out the answer.

Pro: The soundtrack is an absolute bop.

I’m used to hard-line definition between writing music and for-fun music. Writing music is instrumentals: Lindesey Stirling, Two Steps from Hell, Brunuhville, Brandon Fiechter, soundtracks, the works. If it’s not instrumentals, it’s Kalafina or Korean folk and the lyrics are all in a language I don’t know two words in. It’s inspiring. It’s non-distracting. It also all sounds the same after a while. 

Now? I had jazz. I had swing. I had electro-swing. It was, as I said, an absolute bop and a much-needed change of pace. However, there was also an unexpected downside . . .

Con: You will have “Swinging on a Star” and “I Found My Yellow Basket” stuck in your head for weeks solid, and nothing will dislodge them.

Despite Ella Fitzgerald's refusal to stop singing in the back of my head, though, I made good progress. I had my story well outlined, my characters profiled, my world built. I had written enough of the story that I could secure a last-minute entry into the Tattered Slippers group, and my characters were, astonishingly enough, cooperating. I’d also discovered another advantage of my chosen era.

Pro: Research is so astonishingly easy.

I’d spent the last year writing in an ancient Asia-inspired world, where getting the answer to any historically-based worldbuilding question was almost guaranteed to take significant effort wading through irrelevant search results, dubious information, and articles meant for scholars. Now? Abundant reliable information; original sources written in a language I knew; photos. It was blessedly easy. I wanted to know what kind of shoes women usually wore? When Band-Aids or an equivalent were invented? What types of appetizers or hors d'oeuvres might be served at fancy restaurants? Easy as a search and a few clicks. Of course, with such ease comes a certain danger that you might have guessed by now . . .

Con: There was too much information — so much that it was easy to get distracted.

Also known as:

Con: At one point, trying to figure out what my characters would eat for breakfast turned into a good twenty minutes researching the history of Grape-Nuts cereal . . . and then didn’t use most of what I learned.

(Fun fact: Grape-Nuts are partially responsible for the existence of the Andy Griffith show. I am not making this up and am still pretty amazed and amused by this fact. You can read about it here.)

Despite periodic research distractions, though, the writing continued to go astonishingly well. My characters were mostly cooperating, and while I did have a bit of a change of plans — enough so that I missed my June 1 deadline — it was manageable. By June 7, I had a full draft ready to send to both Kendra and betas. Also by this time, I’d developed a hearty appreciation for another benefit of my chosen era:

Pro: Finally, familiar technology!

For possibly the first time in my writing career, I could assume that many of the modern conveniences available to me would also be available to my characters. They had cars. They had telephones. They had flashlights. They had refrigerators — some of them, anyway. They had out-of-season fruit. It was magnificent. Except, of course, for one problem . . .

Con: I kept forgetting that said technology existed. 

(And that is the other reason why poor Bastian walks almost everywhere and forgets his camera that one time. I forgot he had another option. Sorry, Bastian.)

In between the end of the story were several rounds of edits, but those were actually easy compared to the madness that was editing Mechanical Heart. And now we come to today: story finished and published and available for all of y’all to read and enjoy. And the question arises: are the pros enough? Will I be back to this Jazz Age world?

Absotively. (And hopefully, you’ll come with me when I return.)

Are you excited for The Midnight Show? Do you think you would want to write a Jazz Age-inspired novel? What other time period do you think would be fun? Please tell me in the comments! And don't forget to check out the rest of the tour stops!
Thanks for reading!

August 29 Tour Stops

Dreams and Dragons: Pros and Cons of Writing in the Jazz Age

 

Five Reasons to Read:
Knitted by God's Plan

Light and Shadows

 

Interviews:

Reality Reflected: Dayo

Guest Posts:
Cobonham: A Day in the Life of Dayo

Rachel Rossano's Words: A Day in the Life of Bastian
Abby's Blog: Like, But Not the Same

 

Character Spotlights:

Live. Love. Read.: Bastian

A Backwards Story: Jinyi

 

Reviews:

A Synethete Writer

The World of the Writer

Blooming with Books

Novels, Dragons, and Wardrobe Doors

 

Who Wants to See Mechanical Heart's Cover?

Hey'a, everyone! Last night, over on Facebook, we had the cover reveal for the Golden Braids group release, this year's Arista Challenge group release. It was a great time, but since I know not everyone could make it out there, I'm sharing the shinies here too.

And, yes, if you were wondering, this means that I am officially publishing Mechanical Heart with the Arista Challenge this summer. I mean, I was going to publish it sometime soon no matter what happened; I've put in too much work not to. But I'm excited to be joining Kendra's group again. The group release will run from August 5th to August 9th, and Mechanical Heart specifically releases on August 7th.

Ok, enough of me trying to increase the suspense. Let's see the shiny!

Can you save someone who doesn’t know if she’s alive?

Breen lives locked away, separated from the world by the walls of her clock tower and the machine of gems, gears, and magic that replaces her heart. That is, until an unexpected visitor appears in her tower, offering a dangerous gift: freedom. His promises awaken hope for a life unbound by the tower walls — but she knows that if he learns about her heart, it’s only a matter of time before he turns on her.

Josiah is powerless. Though he’s the crown prince of the mighty Chanian empire, he feels stifled by his inability to protect his people from the schemes of corrupt nobles. When he discovers a girl trapped in a locked clock tower, he thinks he’s finally found a problem he can solve . . . but more than just walls keep her captive.

From the royal palace to the streets of Rivenford to the tops of clock towers, secrets hide around every corner in this steampunk retelling of Rapunzel. Breen and Josiah hold the keys to each other's struggles — if they can break down the barriers that divide them.

Preorder on Amazon || Add on Goodreads

As those of you who've been reading my blog for a while might know, this is a story that's been in the works for a while. I mean, obviously I've been rewriting and editing like mad over the course of the last year, trying to weave all the plot threads and characters and details into their proper form. But I first drafted this back in summer of 2016 — and I came up with the earliest version of the story all the way back in 2014! It's not the earliest story that I eventually want to share, but it's definitely a good bit older than Blood in the Snow. And now I finally get to share it with you. I'm so excited!

Oh, and while I have you here, can I just say how much I love my cover? Savannah Jezowski of Dragonpen Press/Dragonpen Designs created it for me, and I think she did an amazing job. No lie; she emailed me the very first iteration and I did a legit happy dance. I was that excited — and it just got better from there. If you're also looking for a cover, I absolutely recommend her services. She's a storming magician, and I say this as someone who knows how to use Photoshop fairly well herself.

Ok, I'm done. Go preorder Mechanical Heart, if you don't mind. Or at least add it to your Goodreads shelves. Thanks muchly. And while you're at it, go check out the other Golden Braids books: Hair We Go Again, Rebekah's Refuge, Molly Storm, and The Dragon's Flower.
Have a lovely day!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

October 2018 Doings!

So, anyone else think October felt like an abnormally short month? Yeah, me too, especially the last couple weeks. It's just been one thing after another all month. That means I've spent a lot of time feeling stressed . . . but on the upside, it means this should be a fairly interesting Doings! post.

Writing!

• So, just in case you missed it, I published a book! Blood in the Snow officially released on Kindle on October 26 with the rest of the Magic Mirrors tour. If you didn't get a chance to read the tour posts earlier, I definitely recommend doing that now. There's a complete list of posts over here.
• Most of my writing-ish time this month went to formatting Blood in the Snow and writing blog tour posts. I finished the eBook formatting around the beginning of the month, but paperback formatting took considerably longer . . . thus why the paperback release is delayed. But I got proof copies on Wednesday, so y'all shouldn't have to wait too much longer!
• When I wasn't working on Blood in the Snow, I was editing Mechanical Heart. I've decided to expand several elements and change a few others, which means that it's not going as fast as I hoped. But I'm super happy about the changes I've made! (Josiah has a major-character sister now! It's very exciting!) If you want to beta-read it, you can sign up for that here.

Reading!

• Unsurprisingly, about a third of my reading this month was taken up by Magic Mirrors titles. I read and reviewed both of Kendra E. Ardnek's new releases: Red as Snow and The Seven Drawers. Both were good, but The Seven Drawers was far better. Honestly, it's probably one of my favorite Snow White retellings I've ever read.
• The only new book I completely read this month: Hank Green's novel An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. It was good, though not quite what I was expecting. Though it's technically sci-fi, it's mostly a contemporary narrative about how fame and the internet affect a person's life (for good and bad). As you'd expect from one of the vlogbrothers, it's a very thoughtful book . . . which isn't to say that it isn't frequently sarcastic, humorous, or exciting, because it is all those things. It also has a certain amount of content that means I can't really recommend it to young readers, but aside from that, I'd say it's worth a read.
• The rest of my books for the month were all rereads — including the Magic Mirrors books, since I alpha-read both of them a while back. But the two "true" rereads were Scholar's Plot and Weave a Circle Round. Both were read as stress-relief, both did splendidly as stress-relief, and both were just as good the second time around as they were the first. It helps that they're both mysteries of a kind, so this time around, I was able to pick up the clues that I missed on the first read.

Watching!

• Given that this month included Fall Break, it's kind of surprising how little Alana and I actually watched. However, I finally saw the first Indiana Jones movie, so that kind of makes up for it. I enjoyed it, though I'm not wild about it. (I also ended up getting teased by my roommate's dad for not being terribly interested in the awkward romance scenes, so that . . . probably didn't help.) I do approve of Indy as a character (he seems to maintain an excellent balance of Professional and Awesome Adventure, and he's quite sensible about things overall), and the movie was fun.
• I also ended up watching (mostly by accident) a fair bit of CSI. And when I say "mostly by accident," I mean that it was on and I happened to be in the same room, and . . . ok, yeah, I got invested. It was interesting, and I'd watch more of it if I was given the opportunity, even though the episodes we watched were on the weirder side. That said, I'm not going to go seek out opportunities to watch it. I enjoy the mystery and the science, but I have a long enough watchlist already.

• We did manage to watch a little more of Sword Art Online, though not as much as I would've liked. And we ended on a semi-cliffhanger, which I want to resolve at some point . . . but my roommate and I have both been super busy. It's very frustrating. On the upside, I'm enjoying the show more now that I've gotten into the swing of it (and now that the main character is becoming slightly less of an angstball).
• And I watched quite a bit more Miraculous Ladybug. I've made it to episode 14 of season two, which introduces Luka (Lukas?), and . . . ok, look, I do not approve. I mean, as a character, he's fine, but just the two main characters already have a full-on love square going. Do we really need to make it a love . . . what shape would that even be? I don't know.
• Also, the fact that Rena Rogue is, so far, not a full-time superhero is a tragedy and I need someone to assure me that it will be remedied sometime in the near future, please.
• Yeah. I like this show, in case you can't tell.
• I also watched a stupid amount of Studio C as stress relief around the end of the month . . . not the best decision of my life, but also not the worst. At least it's pretty solid humor.

Life!

• So, we're going to skim over the first half of the month because nothing terribly exciting happened. (To be more specific: I spent half the week sitting in the 2D classroom, painting swatches and cutting out 5/8" squares from those swatches. And by "half the week" I do mean half the week.) It wasn't unenjoyable, especially the painting part, but it was still exhausting.
• And then we finally got to Fall Break and I had a chance to relax. I may or may not have relaxed more than I should've, but I also had way more trouble than I expected with what I got done, so . . . I think it's ok? I got enough done, at any rate. And I played, like, five games of Pandemic in a row, which was awesome.
• And then things got exciting because BOOK RELEASE AHHHHHHH.
• Anyway. Yeah. The book release happened to be the same week as a very large project in Marketing, which was one of the things that I should've worked on more over break than I actually did. I got it done on time, but it was a much closer thing than I like. The assignment wasn't bad — we were creating social media playbooks for the Communications department, which is sort of like some of what I did at my internship over the summer. It was just a lot of work.
• But I got it done! And I got through the book release! And it was all very exciting! And then I high-key crashed afterward because I was so tired . . . but not for long, because HALLOWEEN! I absolutely love Halloween, y'all, mostly because it gives me an excuse to create and dress up in cool costumes. For one Halloween event, I pulled out my Mistcloak that I made freshman year. For the other, I was going to go as a ghostwriter (not an actual ghostwriter, but a writing-themed ghost, because it was a PWID party and everyone loves writing-pun-based costumes, right?). But that costume kind of failed at the last minute, mostly because I couldn't really move in it all that well. So, at the prompting of a friend, I threw together a backup . . . and then got complimented on it anyway, arguably more so than I have the past two years. Life is weird, y'all.
• Anyway, yeah. Wednesday was a good day: I was coming off the emotional high of one successful Halloween event and headed towards another; I didn't have a ton that I needed to do; the weather was warm, if not nice; I'd just discovered an opportunity to do something I've wanted to do for years . . . and, as the cherry on top, that's when my proof copy of Blood in the Snow arrived!

• So, yeah. This was a busy, stressful month. But it was a good month all the same.

November Plans!

• It's NaNoWriMo. I am insane, and I also need extra writing motivation. GUESS WHAT I'M DOING THIS MONTH.
• Yeah. That's happening. My plan is to work on Actual Writing Job short stories and Mechanical Heart edits. Like last year, I'm aiming for 25 hours of writing and editing on those two projects instead of 50,000 words. That'll be more effective, less stressful, and will allow me to count the time I spend researching sign language as work time. (If the last seven chapters are any indication, I'm going to spend a lot of time researching sign language. Thankfully, two of my friends know ASL, and they're being super helpful.)
• I also found a D&D group, after literal years of casual searching, and I'm SO excited. I thought I'd found one earlier in the semester, but it met at the same time as another org event . . . and then I found this one, which meets at a time I'm actually available, so I'm joining up! I've spent the last couple days figuring out potential characters . . . and, in the process, realized that, if you translate my novel characters to D&D classes, most of them are Rangers and Rogues. Or, in at least one case, a Ranger who multiclassed to Rogue. So that's fun.
• Classes, of course, will proceed as usual, hopefully. We're getting into final project territory in several of them, which is low-key stressful but also kind of exciting. Thankfully, I have a pretty solid idea of what that project will look like in all my classes but one. I'll also spend a lot of time drawing dice and pencils for 2D projects, but I can live with that.
• Work will also continue. The last two months have been a bit of a lull — and thank goodness, because I definitely didn't need another thing on my plate this last month. I'm looking forward to most of what I have lined up, though! A lot of it is more design-y, which is a nice change of pace from all the writing I'm doing.
• Also, Ayo (the dance org) has their showcase in November. I intend to go, even if I have to come up with a reason to not be somewhere else. For one thing, it's awesome; for another, I have several friends who are in it. (No, seriously, I've been looking forward to this all semester. I'm not even kidding.)

That's it for my month. What about yours? How was your October? Any fun plans for November? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

September 2018 Doings!

Hey'a, everyone! To start off, I'm going to make something official that I've been doing unofficially for a while. Going forward, Doings! will be posted the first Friday of every month instead of the first day of every month. I hope that this will help with blog scheduling (since I won't have to worry about what to do when the first is a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday) and that it'll reduce my stress level a little (because I won't have to worry as much about not getting Doings! up on the first day of the month). Thanks so much for understanding and for sticking with me.

So, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• The main thing I have to say about writing this month: thank God for the Inklings. (Not the Lewis-Tolkien-and-co writing group. I mean, thank God for them too, but not in this case.) When I joined the Inklings Writing Org, I wasn't sure how it would go or what it would look like, but so far it's been seriously awesome. And by that, I mean that I get an hour and a half every Wednesday to sit down and work on whatever writing project is in front of me, with other writers around me who are also writing and therefore providing extra motivation solely by their existence in the same space as me. It's fabulous.
• Also thank God for my creative writing hall-friend who helped me whip one of my Actual Writing Job short stories in shape, even if whipping it into shape meant totally rewriting the story from scratch. The new version is definitely better than the original that I was struggling with in my last Doings! post.
• In other news, it's release month for Blood in the Snow and the other Magic Mirrors stories! I'm super excited! I finally figured out ebook formatting, so huzzah for that! We're still looking for people to join in the blog tour, so if you have a blog and you're interested in helping out me and my five fellow awesome authors, feel free to sign up! You can interview an author, shine a spotlight on a character, feature an author guest post, or review a book. It's going to be super awesome and y'all should join in.
• On the topic of the blog tour: I commissioned character art for three of my characters, and I'm SO EXCITED. Like, I might be almost as excited for the art as I am for the actual book release. That might be because I still have work to do before the book release and I don't have to do work on the art, but y'know.
• Also: I have an official author website and an author Facebook page! Feel free to check both out and like, follow, all that! No worries; the website doesn't mean I'm abandoning or moving my blog. Dreams and Dragons is staying right where it is, at least for the moment. But I want to start off with an official site instead of waiting to create one. I also have an official author photo, which means y'all get to see my actual face instead of the back of my head. I think that's exciting, but I'm not completely sure.

Reading!

• . . . Well. That was spectacularly unimpressive.
• I don't even know why I read so few books. I know I could've fit at least one more in there. Oh well.
• I enjoyed everything I read, at least. Specter was a fun return to Savannah Jezowski's Neverway stories, though I didn't like it as much as Briarstone Abbey. A Thousand Perfect Notes, Cait Grace's new book, was one I'd been looking forward to for a while, and it was really good, though also pretty heavy. And The Electrical Menagerie was just as fun and exciting and steampunky as I hoped it would be, with a splendid mystery as the cherry on top!
• Not pictured is my current read: Hank Green's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I just started it yesterday, and so far, I'm not sure what to think. It's definitely very different from most of what I read, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Watching!

• Whooooo. This has been a busy month in terms of what I've watched, unlike what I've read. It's also been a month full of a lot of new things, which is awesome!
• First and most important: I've finally watched some Doctor Who. And by "some" I mean episodes 1, 2, and 4 of season one. Several of the other girls were getting together to watch it because another girl hasn't seen any of it, and I had nothing else to do those nights, so . . . yeah. I can see why everyone loves it so much, though I don't think it's my favorite show I've ever watched. I'm also not sure why I hear so much about people not liking Nine, because so far? I quite enjoy him.
• On the anime front, my roommate and I made it through the Eclipse Spirits arc of Fairy Tail. I . . . did not entirely enjoy the arc. Like, there were some pretty cool scenes? But it ended up being one of those "If you would've actually TALKED instead of just throwing punches, you could've solved this problem much more easily!" situations. So, yeah.
• That said: Cana's card battle with Scorpio? LOVED it. That was probably my favorite part of the whole arc. And I'm reasonably satisfied with the ending, so there's that.

• Now we're taking a break from Fairy Tail and watching the first season of Sword Art Online, which is basically the roommate's all-time favorite anime. We've made it through the first three episodes, and I think I like it? It's definitely a very different tone, art style, and overall feel from Fairy Tail, which isn't a bad thing but does take some mental adjusting. I have to say that the artwork is gorgeous, and the concept and ideas it explores are fascinating. I'm just not sure about the characters, basically, or the lack of humor. I mean, can I at least get a properly snarky character or two? Is that so much to ask?
• I've also watched some stuff sort-of on my own, for once! My current 2D Design project is basically creating a bunch of paint swatches (which I'll then turn into a color wheel and a bunch of color progression stuff), which means hours and hours of sitting, mixing paint, and painting squares of color. It's a pretty mindless task, which means it's an excellent opportunity to watch stuff. I started by getting caught up on Overly Sarcastic Productions (sarcastic recaps and explorations of various myths, legends, and literature; I highly recommend it), but then I moved on to . . .

• Miraculous Ladybug! I've heard so much about this show from my friends and Pinterest that I was starting to get really curious, and since I had time, I decided to give it a try. The first episode nearly turned me off — I liked the powers, and I always love a good superhero story, but I wasn't so sure about the animation style or the characters themselves. But I decided to give the second episode a chance . . . and then the third . . . and the next thing I knew, I'd watched six episodes and probably would've watched a seventh if I wasn't so close to being done for the day. So, yeah, that's a thing.
• I also finally watched Mulan all the way through while working on the same project. Some of my classmates started playing it on the classroom TV during our actual class time (the professor wasn't there since it was just a workshop day), and, storms, why did I not put in the effort to watch the whole movie before? Great story, great characters, great everything really, and way fewer secondhand embarrassment scenes than I expected. I love it. What even.
• . . . Aaaaaand then my classmates decided to put on Shrek when we finished Mulan. So now I've seen the first twenty or so minutes of that, and let me tell you, I'm not terribly impressed. I'll probably end up seeing the rest of it during the next class, assuming that we just get another workshop day, but I don't anticipate liking it terribly much. I don't think it's my type of movie.
• But, y'know? I think Shrek is still outweighed by all the fun stuff I've watched this month, so I'm not complaining at all.

Life!

I did napkin-holder art and I'm very pleased with it.

• College as usual. Classes are keeping me pretty busy. On the upside, I've gone through two 2D Design projects and enjoyed both of them! Plus, I got to make basically a mini escape game for Marketing Communication and it was one of my favorite projects I've ever done. (Except for the bit where a 3D graphic element took literally seven times as long as it should've to come out right. That was annoying.)
• The main downside of this semester is that I have more group work now than I've had in the last two years put together. By that, I mean that three of my five classes involve some sort of semester-long group project (broken up into smaller projects due over the course of the semester). It's . . . challenging. I mean, none of the groups are horrible, and one of them is actually pretty great. But I haven't worked with the people in the other two groups before, so figuring out how to function well together and how to reconcile our different perspectives on some of the projects will take some time.
• On the upside, orgs are going swimmingly. I already raved about the Inklings, but the Studio org is also pretty awesome. It's basically an hour to work on 2D projects while surrounded by other (much more skilled and experienced) art and design people, and yeah. It definitely helped me through those first two projects I mentioned earlier. And, of course, the Honors org is as awesome as ever. As I mentioned last month, I'm the org's secretary this year, and it's basically the perfect position for me? I have a decent say when we're planning events, but I'm not in a really noticeable role like the president or freshmen integrators, and I get to use some of what I learn in my major classes! Yeah, it's pretty great.
• I also have the opportunity to join a D&D group, and I'm seriously thinking about going for it. D&D is something I've wanted to try for a while now, but I always end up a step or two removed from any groups. The only problem is that this particular group meets right after Honors Quizbowl, which means I'd have to stop eating dinner with the Quizbowl gang and that I'd miss at least an hour of D&D the last Friday of every month (when we have Honors org dinner). I'm not terribly stressed about the time commitment; I don't usually get a lot done on Friday evenings, and I just have to make sure I have Friday 5s up and ready on time. And, I mean, that's doable. This post was ready pretty well ahead of time; the only reason it's going up so late is that I wanted to announce my author website. But I'm not a fan of ditching my Honors friends if I can avoid it.
• In other news: so, freshman year, there was this little bakery in the town of Cedarville. They made quiche and scones and pastries and cookies and desserts and all sorts of delicious things, and my roommate and I loved the place immensely. Unfortunately, last year, one of the owners became seriously ill, and the bakery closed. We thought it was gone for good . . . until this month, when we discovered that the bakery is back under new ownership! We're both super excited, as you can imagine. (Also, this means that going into town on the occasional Saturday for breakfast will probably involve stops at every breakfast-related eatery in town — I love the chai tea and smoothies at one coffeeshop, my roommate prefers the coffee at a different shop, and we want breakfast from the bakery. I'm not complaining, but I do find it amusing.)
• Also: Jazz Band continues to be the best. That is all.

October Plans!

• Most of October will probably be occupied by three things: classes, publishing, and editing Mechanical Heart.
• On that note: Blood in the Snow comes out on the 26th! AHHHHHHHHH. So excited!
• I also want to try to read and review at least some of the Magic Mirrors books before then, but we'll see if that happens or not.
• But I have Fall Break before that! I'm planning to go to my roommate's house again, and there has been talk of much Marvel-movie-watching. Specifically, Black Panther–watching. (And also Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, but we all know which of those I'm most excited for.)
• I also need to really get busy with figuring out a costume for Halloween. I've had ideas for months, but which of those ideas are doable remains to be seen. Part of the problem is that I want to go as someone or something recognizable for my major's Halloween party because I'm tired of putting together awesome costumes that garner only blank, vaguely impressed looks. (I'm thinking about trying to do something based on a writing pun at this point? But I'm blanking on ideas. It's very frustrating.)
• And, of course, there'll be reading and watching-of-awesome-shows. It'll be a good time, hopefully.

That's it for my month. What about yours? How was your September? Any fun plans for October? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

Why I'm Now Self-Publishing

So, I'm wondering: was anyone surprised when I said I was publishing Blood in the Snow a couple weeks ago? Now that you know, would you be surprised if I told you that self-publishing Blood in the Snow wasn't originally in my plans for the novella? What if I told you that I didn't plan to self-publish at all? Would you find that shocking?

Younger me wouldn't.

Two years ago, I was convinced that I wasn't going to self-publish, despite how many of my friends and favorite authors were going that route. I even wrote a blog post about it, listing five reasons why I planned to pursue traditional publishing instead of self-publishing. And yet here I am, preparing for a book release in a little over a month. (Obligatory shameless promotion: if you want to help promote Blood in the Snow or any of the Magic Mirrors books, make sure you sign up for the blog tour, reviewer crew, or both!)

So, what changed between then and now? Several things. And, in usual Sarah fashion, I have a list to explain them.

Why I'm Now Self-Publishing

1. I'm literally majoring in it. Ok, I'm not majoring in self-publishing. But my major and minor do cover almost everything, skill-wise, that I was concerned about. Book formatting? Same principles as any other document. Cover design? Graphic design minor. Marketing? Taking a class on it now, and I actually love it. Editing? It was my least favorite PWID class, but it is part of PWID. Also, paying someone else to edit my work is slightly more feasible now than it was two years ago (both because I have slightly more money and because I know of more editors).
2. Money still isn't my primary goal. When I first started hearing about self-publishing, the main draw seemed to be the fact that a self-publishing author makes more money per book than a traditionally-published author does. I'm of the opinion that the earnings are probably pretty close either way, given book sales and the extra money that self-publishing authors sink into their books. But as I said before, my main goal in publishing is to share my stories with other people and to do so in a way that's more professional than just posting them on my blog. To that end, self-publishing, as long as I do it well, is just as good as traditional publishing, even if my stories don't reach quite as many people.
3. Self-publishing now doesn't mean always self-publishing. I think this is something I forgot in my original assessment: although most authors move from traditional to self-publishing, there's no reason why I can't move the other way if I choose. (And Google backs me up on that.) I can start by self-publishing, but as I continue to write and edit, I can also shop some of my novels around to traditional and small-press publishers. In fact, some of what I've read and considered suggests that self-publishing might help a little if I do it well since it'll allow me to build my audience and get my name out there.
4. Definite control of the multiverse, if I need it. I think I mentioned a while back that I'm connecting all my major novels into a single multiverse. (And I'm very glad I did, as it's solved several story and worldbuilding problems.) I don't know for sure yet how interconnected everything will be or if I'm telling one immense story or just a set of stories that happen to overlap occasionally. But if it turns out that everything is one big story and I need to control how and when I publish things, I want to have that option.
5. I had an opportunity and no reason not to take it. So, yeah. In the end, basically, my decision came down to this: I had a story that people said was publishing-quality. I had a gorgeous cover for that story that I didn't want to waste. I had the opportunity to self-publish it and get a little boost from other authors when I did through the Magic Mirrors blog tour. I had, and have, a lot of friends who seemed eager for me to publish a book. And I had a lot of reasons why my original concerns about self-publishing weren't as serious as I originally thought. And all that added up to the decision: let's do this thing.

So, if anyone was curious . . . there's your answer. If you have any other questions about my decision, Blood in the Snow, or how the publishing process is going so far, let me know! I'd be happy to answer them in comments! Also, a question for you: do you ever plan on publishing, either traditionally or through self-publishing? And have your thoughts on that question changed at all with time? Please tell me in comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)  

A Destiny Decided

Hullo, everyone! Who all was at the Magic Mirrors Facebook party last night? If you were there, you already know what this is about (but you're welcome to read this post anyway). If you weren't there, well, you might already have guessed what's up. I mean, I haven't exactly been subtle.

Either way, I'm just going to say it so I don't keep overthinking things: I'm self-publishing Blood in the Snow!

Her destiny is decided — but betrayal breaks even the best-laid plans.

Baili, the princess of the Kingdom of Seven Rivers, has always known what her future holds. Declared the fairest of all by the fabled Dragonglass, she is destined to fulfill an ancient prophecy and unite her homeland with its long-time enemy, the Kingdom of Three Peaks. And in doing so, she may save her country from death and ruin.

In order to fulfill her destiny, Baili must travel to the Kingdom of Three Peaks and marry its prince, Liu Xiang. But all Baili's plans and expectations are turned upside-down when her servants and soldiers, acting on her stepmother's orders, turn against her on the road. Baili narrowly escapes with her life, but she's left alone and adrift among strangers.

Fortunately, Baili finds refuge in the home of seven animal keepers: servants and slaves to the emperor of Three Peaks. Yet time is running out. Her servants' rebellion was only a small part of a much larger plot. Within weeks, her stepmother plans to unite the two kingdoms, not by contract, but by conquest. Baili must reclaim her rightful place and unite not just two kingdoms but many peoples in order to stop the plan. And if she fails, two kingdoms will be plunged into ruin.

Sure to delight lovers of fantasy and fairy tales, this rich and magical Asian-inspired adventure combines Snow White and The Goose Girl in a way you've never seen before.

Releases October 26, 2018

Preorder now on Amazon Kindle! || Add on Goodreads || Paperback coming soon

Blood in the Snow will release as part of the Magic Mirrors collection. For clarification, Magic Mirrors isn't an anthology or a contest. Rather, it's a group release organized by my friend Kendra E. Ardnek. All the included novels and novellas are retellings of Snow White; most were written for the Five Poisoned Apples contest. All the authors involved will help promote each others books and will support each other through the publishing process.

So, yeah! I really didn't expect this a year ago, but it's happening! If anyone's interested, I probably will be offering ARCs and asking for blog tour sign-ups sometime relatively soon. (I need to check in with Kendra about how that's going to work.) I'm also going to be looking for beta-readers for Mechanical Heart in the near future, so if you're interested in any of that, let me know!

And now, I'm off to argue with formatting. Or go to class. One of those things.
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Why I'm Not Self-Publishing

Over the last few years, getting published has become easier than ever through the growing popularity and ease of self-publication. Many authors have chosen to pursue this path in some fashion, including some of my favorites, like Wayne Thomas Batson, Christopher Hopper, and Anne Elisabeth Stengl. However, despite its popularity, I still hope to go the traditional publishing route once I have something worth putting out there. . . and here's why.

Why I'm Not Self-Publishing

1. Even my best works need polishing. Can I edit my books on my own and through the help of family, friends, and proofies/beta-readers? Of course I can. Others have (and I've been a proofie/beta-reader for more than one of them). But even a lot of self-published authors agree that a professional editor is a must- and having read self-published books that definitely didn't have a professional edit, I tend to agree. And, yes, a self-published author can hire a professional editor to look over her book, but they're expensive. On the other hand, traditional publishing puts my novel in the hands of a team of editors who, unlike friends, family, and beta readers, don't have any reason to go easy on me but do have a good reason to help me make my book the best it can be- and who I don't have to pay out of pocket.
2. On a similar note, people judge books by their covers. Should they? No, of course they shouldn't. But they do anyway. I do it to some degree, you probably do it too. And, like editing, cover design is something that I could probably do myself (I do have a certain amount of skill with Photoshop) or could hire someone else (for example, Laura Hollingsworth, creator of one of the best and most beautiful webcomics I've ever read) to do for me. But the problem with the former is that what I can come up with is primarily dependent on what I can cobble together from my own photography and stock images, and the problem with the latter is that, again, it costs money out of pocket. But, also like editing, if I publish traditionally there's a professional cover designer there to handle it for me. True, I don't get to decide myself what the cover looks like . . . but I think I can live with that.
3. However, the most beautiful possible prose and the most gorgeous cover imaginable won't do me any good if no one knows my book exists. Which brings me to my third point: traditional publishing means my book will reach more people. I am not good at marketing and advertising and promoting products and all that sort of thing (which may prove to be a problem later in my career, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). And while I hope that a lot of you who read my blog will buy my book, not all of you will. (And I will totally understand when you don't, because I have friends who've published books and I haven't bought their books because there's three billion and one books that I want to buy and limited funds to buy them with. So, yeah, I get it.) But if I connect with a publishing house, they have a great deal of interest in making sure that as many people as possible hear about my book, which means more people will buy it (and, I hope, enjoy it).
4. This next reason may come as a surprise, given some of what I've said so far, but: I don't plan on making a lot of money through novels, no matter how I publish them. Don't take that to mean I don't want to make any money on my novels, because if that were the case I'd probably just post the lot of them to my blog, then bind them up nicely and self-publish each one once it had been been posted in full. But I think that one of the two biggest draws of self-publishing is that the authors get to pocket more of the proceeds than they would in traditional publishing, which is pretty important if you're trying to make a living off of being an author. However, I don't plan on my creative writing providing my main income, so the advantages of traditional publishing- namely, the support in editing, design, and promotion- are, in my opinion, worth the trade-off in profits.
5. My final reason for choosing traditional publishing is similar to my first, but not completely: traditional publishing forces me to constantly push to be better. If I have to impress no one but myself and perhaps my beta-readers and editors in order to publish, I will always be tempted to say "Eh, this is good enough" and not ask "Is there a way I can make this better?" However, if simply starting the process is reliant on my impressing someone else- someone who sees a lot of stories go across his desk and whose job it is to pick the very best of them- I will always be asking "Can I change something to make this better?" And if I'm going to put my stories out there as the best they can be, that motivation is something I very desperately need.

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't advantages to self-publishing. There definitely are, and I can understand why another author might choose to go that route. And I'm also not saying that my opinions might not change eventually, that I might not decide that self-publishing is the better option for me personally after all. What I am saying is that for me, personally, in the place that I'm in, traditional publishing has enough advantages, enough areas where they fill in for my weaknesses, that it's worth the disadvantages.

What are your thoughts on traditional versus self-publishing? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)