Indie publishing is becoming a huge thing nowadays, but honestly, it was always something I swore against. I have spent years querying my various YA fantasy novels, and although I’ve had some lovely feedback from different industry professionals, it hasn’t worked out that way for me. I attended a YALC event with a writer friend called Ally Aldridge a few years ago, where she pitched her first book to an agent, as I had done a few times before, at the same event. But it was inspiring to watch her do so. She eventually decided to go down the self-publishing route with her wonderful mermaid YA book, Ocean Heart, which you can find here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ocean-Heart-Soul-Book-ebook/dp/B08K9FZPK3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=159AAW3K5ZN7E&keywords=ocean+heart&qid=1653497337&sprefix=ocean+heart%2Caps%2C251&sr=8-1 Anyway, she was the one who inspired me to self-publish myself, so I will start off this post by introducing her, even though I have now seen countless editing clients doing the same, and have been just as inspired by their publishing journeys. She gave me an extensive list of everything she did when she was getting ready to publish her book, including her cover designer, editor, how she got hold of arc copies, etc. Every little step an indie author should take to be successful in this process was advised, and I learned so much from her. I then decided to do my own research over the next few months.
But before I go into that, I will talk a bit through the years that have come before this. Because I have been a freelance editor for over two years now, and have watched many lovely clients taking the indie route and relishing in the process. But I have been writing for around eleven or twelve years now, so even before this, I have gathered a fresh perspective on how to publish, even though I haven’t taken the route I originally planned to.
My debut novel, Steel Princess, isn’t my first novel, but it is one of the first. I wrote it during the second year of my A Levels. I started writing it as a futuristic UK about a teen gynoid called Silver who goes rogue and travels to the US to find the scientist that built her. It was titled To Steal A Silver Heart, and later, Heart of Silver, before becoming Steel Princess over the last few months. I queried other novels – two Greek myth inspired ones – and received some kind and helpful feedback over the years from those, including some full requests and R & R’s, but never went the full way to receiving rep from an agent. However, while I was at university in 2014, studying Creative Writing, we had a module where we could get ourselves out into the world, either to find a job or work experience project in a writing related field, or send out some creative work, and give a presentation on how well this went (or didn’t). Having worked on Heart of Silver a lot, I decided to give querying it a try. I wrote a synopsis, researched how to write a query letter, (I may provide tips on this in a future post because it’s an interesting topic), and sent it off to a few agents who I thought might be a good fit. It was then that I found Penguin Ireland, and that they were accepting unsolicited submissions, and decided to add them to my list of queries, only to receive an R & R from the editor there a few days later! I was over the moon, and of course talked about this in a presentation. Although my lecturers advised me not to put too much thought into it, or I might distract myself from my studies.
A year later, I had finished an enormous rewrite of the book, and sent it off. I received a full request from the editor, and then a personal rejection four months after that. But it really put things into perspective for me. Much of her feedback was that the world-building didn’t click for her, that the futuristic stuff wasn’t thought through quite as much as it could be, so I thought a lot more about how to add this into my new draft.
One day, I had the idea to make Silver a princess. I have always loved fairytale inspired stories, where a heroine returns to her home kingdom, and once I had that idea, it stuck. I couldn’t get away from it. So I spent even more time writing and plotting, and this was all during the pandemic, while I was furloughed in lockdown. Writing this definitely kept me going through this crappy time, and was a great distraction. After it was finished I sent it off to my writing friends from university, still my best friends today, and then decided to add even more magical twists to the book, including new world-building with pirates, elves, mermaids and more.
When I spoke to Ally about self-publishing, around the same time, that was it. I was hooked on the idea of getting this book out into the world in my own way. Instead of using all of the people she did, I did my own research. I looked into a cover designer, and found Josephine Blake at Covers & Cupcakes, through her Facebook group. She’s wonderful, and couldn’t have made my cover any more perfect. You can find her site here: https://coversandcupcakes.com/
I already knew of an editor, a YouTuber I’d been watching for years called Katie Wismer, or Kate’s Book Date. So I sent her an email asking for a sample edit, and was so pleased with her work. I received her edits back in January, and have been working very hard on making the changes she advised in her book report. You can find out more about her work here: https://www.katiewismer.com/
I booked in with a formatter, Julia Scott at Evenstar Books, but a while ago she announced that she was no longer going to be formatting so I thought that was it, and decided to format the book myself. But she later messaged me, and I realised I’d made a mistake and that she was only closing her services to new clients for the time being, so I went with her for a formatting review, and next week she will be formatting the book for me now that it’s complete. I’m very excited! You can find her site here: https://www.evenstarbooks.com/
I also had my beautiful cover art designed by Athena Bliss, an artist I found on TikTok. She drew my narrators Silver & Eden, and I instantly fell in love with her designs. You will find these inside the book when it’s released! You can find her here: https://twitter.com/AthenaBliss4?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Finally, my beautiful map was designed by an author called Abigail M Hair, who I also found on TikTok. She couldn’t have gotten it any more perfect. You can find her here: https://www.instagram.com/authorabigailmhair/
I very recently finished proofreading the book, and once the formatting is complete, I will be putting it up for preorder! So watch this space.
If any new or fellow indies are looking for advice from a freelance editor or just want to talk to someone who has recently gone through this process, you can email me at aprilbooksandshowers@gmail.com. (Try not to judge the email address, I know it’s a bit cringe but it was funny when I made it!)
I’m always happy to help, as I know it’s a scary process!
Thank you for reading my origin story. More updates will be here very soon.
April Grace 