What I learned being published by a small imprint
Your girl is actually being published by a small imprint* (not self-publishing) - a small clarification :)
The other day I wrote a Substack about the pros and cons of self-publishing.
My goal was to de-stigmatized this particular form of sharing your work out into the world - all of which I still believe in.
When my editor/husband at the imprint that is publishing my book heard that, he quickly reminded me, however, that in fact, I’m not self-publishing.
LET ME EXPLAIN!
It is a small caveat but I wanted to write here because I have a habit of putting myself down as well as a pattern of making myself appear like I’m a lone wolf artist wilding out in the wild west.
When I shared that I was “self-publishing,” I wanted to say that I’m not being published by the Big Five of Publishing.
But Eponymous Books, founded by JC Hopkins, my husband and also a talented author in his own right (his next novel, I WAS A TEENAGE COMMUNIST, is coming out in July - and a must-read this summer!) kindly reminded me that I’m being published by a small Brooklyn imprint.
By nature of our marriage, in a way I co-own the imprint. (Welcome to marriage-world folks!)
But let’s be clear, I’m not just winging my manuscript and selling it rogue (lol) on Amazon - the way one would assume when one hears “self-publishing.” (Although again there is nothing wrong with that at all).
Somehow in my girl math brain, I wanted to apologize or belittle for the fact that my husband co-owns and founded the imprint by saying “I’m self-publishing.”
So here I am for the record saying: I’m being published by a small imprint.
What this change of vocabulary/ terminology has taught me is this:
Self-publishing is great AND if you co-own an imprint and the imprint publishes you, it is not “self-publishing.”
In my case in particular, I have an amazing editor who purposefully chose to publish my book and sees the vision of the story, a team working behind the scenes to make sure the ducks all line up in a row.
It is a real Brooklyn-minted imprint and I need not hide the fact that I am related to the founder.
Be proud of your work
I would like to thank my publisher/husband as he is the soldier who has provided not only a powerful editorial eye but also moral support these past two years of me working on my manuscript.
And I acknowledge the fact that the words and the story in the Napper is mine and mine alone.
You get to own your work regardless of the medium it’s being published on/ the format why
At the end of the day does it kill me to make a mistake of saying whether I self-published or am published by small imprint? NO.
I salute you who self-publishes as it takes balls (pardon my language) regardless to put yourself out there.
What I was trying to get at is this:
I love the imprint, Eponymous Books, that publishes me.
Yes I co-own it.
Yes there was a deliberate and purposeful choice in publishing my upcoming novel, The Napper, by the founder, editor and team at Eponymous.
By saying I self-published, what I was doing was ignoring this whole piece of the puzzle. A real big achievement, yes for me, but also for the founder and team at EB.
Follow the books of Eponymous Books here: https://eponymousbooks.com/
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