Happy Relaunch Day Soul Sucker!
The Top Three Lessons I've Learned in Indie Publishing so Far . . .
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My name is Kayla Maurais. I was born and raised in New England, and I write quirky science-fiction and fantasy books with the occasional horror twist for young and new adults. My debut, Soul Sucker, came out last year. If you’re into rival siblings fighting for their lives on a planet ridden with carnivorous flora and other ghastly beasts, it might just be for you.
If you’re reading this, you’ve probably come from one of my socials. And if you have, then you know today is a very special day. It’s rebrand day! AKA, I opened a small publishing imprint called Wraith’s Fate Press and rebranded my entire image.
But as the subtitle of this newsletter states, today is actually about celebrating the top three lessons I’ve learned in my first year of publishing. I’m going to share them with you in this post. I’m also going to own up to the decisions and circumstances that led me to these lessons.
Admitting one’s faults isn’t easy, it never is, but I’m human, and I also hope this post reminds anyone that might be carrying shame for past decisions that it’s okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are the pillar of growth, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t become a better writer, business woman, and human being because of the experiences I had with Soul Sucker.
So, with that said, let’s talk about lesson number 1: Save up for the experienced editor.
If you know me, you probably know that I struggle with patience in certain areas of my life. Before publishing Soul Sucker, I’d spent a lot of years waiting for my ‘big break.’ While I didn’t make the decision to self-publish with haste, I did decide on an incredibly unrealistic timeline for my first book to come out.
I felt a lot of pressure to be ‘legit’ in my field. Basically, I thought that unless I had a book out, I wasn’t a real author. This, of course, wasn’t true. It was the imposter syndrome talking. You’re an author the moment you type words on a page, but that mindset I was living from, fast tracked my decisions. I began setting rigid release dates for myself. I knew I wanted to put out a product that was worth purchasing, but none of what I was doing lived up to my own standards. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely proud of the first edition of Soul Sucker and everything that followed, but I cut corners on some major aspects that I shouldn’t have.
Self-publishing can be expensive. As the publisher, you’re funding every aspect of your project. I remember inquiring with some experienced professional editors, hearing their prices, and realizing it would take me months to save up the cost. I didn’t want to wait months. I wanted to publish sooner than later. So, I found a cheaper editor that I wasn’t fully sure of and trusted they would edit my manuscript. When they sent back their edits, I accepted all of them without double checking, and because of the time crunch, I sent the book to the press.
It wasn’t until I received my own copy of Soul Sucker, that I realized not only how many mistakes the editor had missed, but how many edits I’d accepted in the document that I didn’t actually agree with. I was mortified. People had already pre-ordered the book. Friends and family had copies on the way. I had former English teachers that were reading it, and I remember cringing at the thought of them picking up on all the grammatical and punctuation errors. Not only that, but I myself worked in education. It was a huge insecurity for me because teachers and writers are supposed to be perfect right? Spoiler alert—even teachers and writers make mistakes.
And guess what else? It was okay. It wasn’t the end of the world.
Editors are so important in indie publishing because you want your book to stand up to the production quality of traditionally published books. I ended up spending double what I would have originally paid for that experienced editor merely because I tried cutting corners. Luckily, I did find a qualified editor that helped me whip Soul Sucker’s manuscript into shape before this rebrand, but budgeting took time and patience, and you know what? My new editor, the one I didn’t want to pay up front, ended up being my dream editor and the perfect match for my story.
Lesson two: Hire an artist that draws everything themselves.
This lesson falls in line with the first one. I’d had this very clear vision of what I wanted Soul Sucker’s cover to look like from the moment I decided to publish. I even drew up a sketch. After that, I went on an artist search. I knew I couldn’t afford the kinds of artists I really wanted (or so I thought) and ended up choosing an artist that told me they could make my vision come true.
At the time, AI art had barely surfaced. I didn’t know enough about it, and I was transparently told the artist making my cover would be using AI as a base for ‘inspiration.’ I was assured this was ethical and legally allowed. Because of this and the newness of AI in the world, I didn’t question it. When my dream cover landed in my inbox, I fell in love with it. To be clear, this cover was still not cheap. I paid an actual artist that had a degree in art to create Soul Sucker’s first edition cover. And even when the questions about AI and its integrity came up, I was still assured everything was ethical and nothing was wrong with using AI as a tool in the process.
Months passed, more about AI art came out in the media, and that pit in my stomach that had spurred the moment I heard of AI art ethics, began to grow. I reached out to the artist again, and they assured me, again, it was alright, but something still didn’t feel right to me. Now, AI art is a tricky subject because I don’t think to this day, there’s an actual answer or stance on the ethics and legalities of AI art. AI is unfortunately our future, and it will be used in more ways than one as we advance, but I knew that I wanted nothing to do with it when it came to my book.
I made the decision to rebrand my cover after doing more research myself. I’m not proud of the fact that Soul Sucker’s original cover used AI art in some way during its creation process, but I’m also someone that wants to live a life of integrity, and supporting artists is extremely important to me. Most Indie books don’t sell excessively high numbers in their first year. It’s a statistic, and the business grows as the author grows. I did, however, make sure that the majority of my profits went to an artist that was dedicated to create a new cover for me from scratch.
I laugh to myself, still to this day, because the artist that ended up creating Soul Sucker’s second edition was not only cheaper in the long run, but they were an artist that I’d originally looked at for Soul Sucker’s first cover but turned down because I didn’t want to wait or thought I couldn’t afford it.
The Universe literally matched me with my dream editor and artist the first time around, but I rejected them, and it took twice as long due to my own impatience, and these professionals ended up being the editor and artist for me anyway.
Lesson number three: It’s okay to make mistakes and learn from them.
I carried a lot of shame both for my editing mistakes and for using a cover that I didn’t feel morally good about. But I’m learning that mistakes are the foundation of my growth in this lifetime. As is transparency, integrity, and authenticity. I don’t want to rush anything in my life moving forward, from my book business to my own personal day-to-day, just because I feel pressure to appease a certain timeline or status. I want to take my time with my goals. I want to step back from forcing unrealistic expectations on myself, and I want to lean into small steps.
If I’d just waited, I would've had the edition of Soul Sucker that my soul really wanted. I have it now, and it’s freaking awesome. My first edition is a part of me too, and if you’re someone who owns that version, you are also a piece of my story and journey. I can look at that piece and feel gratitude for what I now know. This first publishing experience has taught me that sometimes things take time, longer than you want them to, but that doesn’t mean things aren’t happening.
Everything happens in divine timing. So, happy relaunch day Soul Sucker. And happy launch to Wraith’s Fate Press, another writerly dream of mine. But that’s for my next newsletter. I hope you stick around. I’ve got lots planned, and it’s all going to happen when it’s meant to.
Until next time,
Kayla