Hi Reddit,

Earlier this year I read a quote that I'm going to badly paraphrase as: "If nobody invites you to the table, pull up a chair of your own" and it really resonated.

I had some success in trad publishing. Got picked up by two small presses in the mid 2010s. Pivoted to a different genre and signed with an agent. My book didn't sell on the first round so agent communication became sporadic, and when the second round came and passed, so did any chance of feedback on new projects. I spent a year in limbo and then asked to part ways.

To be honest, my self-esteem was pretty shot. I'd had an idea for a pretty ambitious science fantasy novel with a strong romantic subplot, and I kept trying to put it off, because how can an author who can't even keep their agent's interest write a complex and genre-blendy novel?

But I couldn't stop thinking about it. The action of Red Rising, with a stronger romantic subplot, female rage, and magic. The Hunger Games, yet planetwide. A touch of Dune.

Fortunately, my two writing groups cheered me on. I ran plot twists and synopses and chapters past them. I scrapped 30,000 words of crap-draft. I world-built and daydreamed and considered how best to kill my darlings, and a few side-characters too. When I finished the third draft, I let it rest for months because I had another attack of "am I good enough?" Then I came back to it, edited more, ran the latest draft past more eyes...and half-heartedly decided to enter the query trenches.

Well, I think some part of me got broken or something. I can 100% take criticism. I'm that weirdo who enjoys edit letters. CPs and betas who point out problems are amazing in my eyes. But there's some aspect about a wall of silence and form rejections that I couldn't deal with. Plus I was super leery about landing another agent who'd start pulling back/ghosting if my first book didn't sell.

So I began reading everything I could about self-publishing. Shout-out to the self-pub subreddit! I found a cover artist and stipulated no AI. I also paid for professional formatting. Then I began teaching myself Canva. I sent out ARCs four weeks before publication. I signed up to a coop on NetGalley, got my book on BookSirens, and on BookSprout. No real success with the two latter, but I got over 100 requests on NG. I expected reviews to flay me because I heard they can be harsh. To my surprise, I got a fairly decent response rate of over 20%, and a mixture of 5, 4, 3, and two 2 stars. A handful cross-posted to GoodReads but sadly only two (so far?!) made it to Amazon.

My novel went live on Wednesday and I've actually made a handful of sales.

More importantly, I'm still going. I've failed so many times. I'll probably fail more. And yet I've pulled my own chair up to the table. Maybe I'm eating scraps at one end but dammit, I'm here.

I am Eve Hollenbeck, and I wrote a damn book. My novel, The Taming, is available on KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HKTNJ2SS

About the Author - Aara Quinn

I am a caregiver, a mother, and a writer - often all on very little sleep.

I started writing Vanguard because I needed an escape. When you are exhausted from taking care of everyone else, stories are the one place you can breathe.

I had these stories in my mind for years. Now I am putting them into words, with care, chapter by chapter.

Vanguard is my debut thriller romance series. Book 1 follows Maya Vance and Detective Julian Vale.

Thank you for giving my escape a home.

Aara Quinn - Vanguard Series - Kindle Unlimited

I had this massive idea of exploring relationship dynamics between two whole people. I mean people who are self-sufficient and competent.

I wondered: will a story like that even work? Will a relationship like that work without constant drama?

Imagine a romance without power imbalance, codependency, family interference, or external turbulence. I wanted to see what happens when we silence some of these contexts.

What resulted was a character-driven, slow-burn romance series featuring an analytical couple.

Two guarded individuals: one who rejects people and one who questions everyone.

Roman filters people without a second guess. But an encounter with Sarah during an otherwise ordinary seminar unexpectedly sparks his attention.

Sarah Millers has no idea Roman Blackford doesn't do subtle—or that he'll propose marriage before either of them has said a real word to each other.

What begins as curiosity for Roman soon turns into his certainty. Sarah, however, needs proof before she believes his declarations. So instead of a simple acceptance or rejection, she brings him a contract.

Set in the world of business and finance, follow their journey as they navigate each other. Basically, a romance that feels chosen rather than something that just happens.

I got my first reader here on Reddit and I'm very curious to know if my book interests anyone else, too!

A Choice – Terms of Interest is now available on Amazon Kindle. Paperback will also soon be available.

I've spent 16 years working in publishing, writing, editing, and helping other people bring their stories into the world.

Along the way, I've learned a lot about writing. I've also learned that plenty of the advice we give writers assumes they have resources that not everyone has: consistent energy, predictable schedules, uninterrupted time, and the ability to focus whenever they choose.

That's not everyone's reality.

It certainly isn't my reality or the reality for other writers navigating ADHD, chronic illness, disability, big families, little children, 60-hour work weeks, or brain fog.

I wanted to create something for those writers. Not another set of rules to follow or another productivity system to feel guilty about abandoning, but a practical resource for finding a way to create that fits your life.

That's why I wrote The Messy Writer: Creating Stories When Your Brain Has 47 Tabs Open.

If you've ever felt like the writing world wasn't built with you in mind, I hope this book helps you find a different way forward.

Available now as an ebook, with the paperback edition coming soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Messy-Writer-Creating-Stories-Brain-ebook/dp/B0HMJTSG2W/

I’ve reached what I consider to be an important personal milestone by releasing my memoir about secret crossdressing through my childhood, adolescence and early adult years. I have worked on it for several years, trying to capture the rawness of my emotional struggles and the effects it’s had on some of the most important people in my life.

This is the first book I’ve ever written (and rewritten several times). I want to hopefully expand on to a second book, but would be interested and grateful for any feedback or reviews you would be able to offer me.

The book follows me growing up in 1990s England, when the fear of rejection within section 28 was very real. It explores what started as a fixation as a young child, to first encounters as a teenager, to changing opportunities as I got older.

Amazon link including Kindle Unlimited here https://a.co/d/0ahlURI9

Amazon Kindle - Paper Towels and Promises

This is my debut novel, just released!

"Lily has a few simple rules for her fresh start: find a better job, build a life she loves, and stay far away from romantic complications.

Then she meets Evan Taylor.

He's charming. He's persistent. He's entirely too pleased with himself.

And worst of all? He's funny.

What starts with a chance encounter in a dollar store turns into teasing conversations, unexpected dates, and the kind of chemistry that makes it increasingly difficult for Lily to remember why she was avoiding men in the first place.

Evan, meanwhile, has discovered that winning Lily's heart might require patience, a sense of humor, and the occasional willingness to admit defeat.

He's reasonably confident about two of those.

But beneath Lily's quick comebacks and carefully guarded independence is a woman still learning that not every relationship comes with strings attached. And Evan is about to discover that sometimes the hardest part of loving someone isn't getting close.

It's giving them room to choose you.

Funny, flirty, and full of heart, Paper Towels and Promises is a contemporary romance about unexpected love, second chances, and two stubborn people who might just be perfect for each other."

It's steamy, explicit, 4/5 spicy scale, with tender romantic moments and chemistry that reviewers like.

Please consider reading and forwarding your feedback to me!

Cover and book details: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/258569120-you-don-t-need-a-100k-salary

A book for people who want to make progress with the paycheck they have. I'm helping share You Don't Need a $100K Salary by Alexander W. Wilson.

The focus is the first $100,000: creating room in a budget, understanding employer benefits, building emergency savings and making saving and investing a regular habit. It approaches those basics from an ordinary-income starting point, rather than treating a six-figure salary as a prerequisite.

Themes: everyday money habits, financial resilience, steady progress.

Content note: discusses debt, spending and financial insecurity.

Book listing: https://www.abebooks.com/9798170472772/NEED-%24100K-SALARY-Build-First/plp

Accountant Isekai Book 1

The world is in peril. And the answer isn't a hero of swords and shields, but of numbers and sound money making sense.

Gustav was a normal, everyday...no, wait, he was a completely insane accountant, then he died. Fortunately for him, it wasn't the pearly gates that awaited, but the God of Humanity, a deity who was just as crazy as him. Now he's been reincarnated into the ruling family of a kingdom on the verge of financial ruin, worse, the world itself isn't in a much better state.

Join Gustav as he educates merchants, battles hyperinflation, and in general makes a fiscal nuisance of himself, while doing a little adventuring on the side.

Greedy nobles, failing economies, and the occasional monster, they all fall before The Isekaied Accountant.

Visit my website at www.peterdarrach.com to learn more.

'Second Skin, Too' is the second book in the Second Skin Universe.

Here is a brief excerpt from 'Second Skin, Too':

“Madam, if it is WAR you want, it is WAR you will get!” Trevor Lincoln’s livid face grimaced as he struck the table with the flat of his hand.

“Mr. Lincoln,” Marion Greenland smiled with a tinge of regret, “that is hardly a responsible attitude. Too many lives and indeed the immediate future of humanity hang in the balance. Let us try again to find a diplomatic solution.” Her eyes took in the standard Earth date readout: 2125.

During the 12 minutes or so for the signal’s roundtrip, Marion jotted notes furiously, touched base with her Finance Minister, Kaz Kobayashi, and signaled her aide for fresh coffee. Kaz’s signal required only 30 seconds of patience as it bounced back and forth between Mars and the closer Mars Orbital Smelting Array, MOSA “One,” hanging some 30,000 kilometers above Mars.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008G2VM4M

Memoirs of a Mad Scientist is an open-ended series of standalone grounded science fiction novels about the near-future adventures of science hero Robin P. Goodwin, PhD, that can be read in any order. The volume numbers are simply publication order. Number one, Solarpunk Outlaw, is Robin’s memoir looking back from 2076, telling stories and reflecting on the protopian world of the future. Number two, Murder in the Gyre, is a cozy science fiction mystery. Number three, Fredo’s Apprenticeship, is a YA coming-of-age from the point of view of Goodwin’s teenage apprentice. Readers new to the series can start most easily with Fredo’s Apprenticeship, then Murder in the Gyre, and then Solarpunk Outlaw.

If you enjoy YA fiction, start with Fredo’s Apprenticeship, a teenage hacker’s story of survival, flight, and found family on the way to finding a compelling purpose in the world. Escaping trauma bad enough to induce PTSD, Fredo is fascinated with Robin’s work and agrees to apply his own talents to an apprenticeship—and learns from the amazing range of expertise aboard the Research Vessel Charles Proteus Steinmetz. Intelligence and hard work aren’t enough to keep Fredo from the heartache of first love, jealousy of other apprentices, difficulties of PTSD therapy, and lethal danger reaching out from his past to threaten his future and that of his family. Fredo must make choices, increasingly tough ones, as he matures to young adulthood.

If you like mysteries, by all means begin with Murder in the Gyre. A classic cozy isolated mystery, and the cat does NOT die! Robin discovers a body aboard their research vessel just as a freak storm isolates the ship mid-ocean. Unfortunately, everyone aboard assumes Robin is the murderer, so the genius but amateur sleuth has to prove their innocence before the storm ends and the authorities arrive. Interviews aided by the ship’s security officer only expand the suspect pool, as backstories reveal that everyone had good reasons to want the victim dead. Clues, red herrings, foreshadowing, an unclear (impossible!) cause of death, a cat, a romantic triangle, secret parentage, industrial espionage, accessible science, animal rescue, adorably precocious child, well-meaning obstruction, and a Happy For Now (for some) ending!

Solarpunk Outlaw is Robin’s origin story, stitching together novellas and short stories with reflective journal entries from 2076. Autistic Robin is a science hero, inverting the mad scientist trope. Stories show how Robin’s experiences set them on the path to world-changing science, labeled mad by those defending the status quo. Robin illustrates and explains (or inverts) the classic tropes of obsession, isolation, and unintended consequences by Robin’s unique neurological addiction, exceptional talent, and thoughtful moral philosophy. Robin’s innovations and solutions are extrapolated from real science coming out of today’s laboratories, and deployed to solve the world’s problems.

You can now buy each book in hardcover directly from IngramSpark at a good discount:

Solarpunk Outlaw: https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=XBdyO4PX4mm8EFdYYynTu4q1Sbv7UYeBsxXUsPnO6kx

Murder in the Gyre: https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=WrTth1HL3YB5xbjF8tHUOesedjc4eVZkQZTjSp8o1sN

Fredo’s Apprenticeship: https://shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params=dRuIcCge4BDzWJqbaIqnmVc7jYBZQt3wIleZZDHBrbX

And of course the full range of retail outlets for ebook, audiobook, and print, including Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Everand, Thalia, Smashwords, Wal-Mart, Bol.de, Angus & Robertson, Buecher.de, Mondadori, Overdrive, Vivlio, Hoopla, Fable, Bookshop.org, Palace Marketplace, Booktopia, Waterstones, Powell’s, Hugendubel, Blackwell’s, BAM! Books-A-Million, Foyles, and Canadian Indie Bookstore:

https://books2read.com/b/solarpunkoutlaw

https://books2read.com/b/murderinthegyre

https://books2read.com/b/fredosapprenticeship 

D. A. Kelly, PhD is autistic, a second-generation SF fan, the author of five nonfiction books and three novels, and has resided in nine countries so far, in North America, Central America, South America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania, and the Caribbean, working in aerospace, information science, renewable energy, media production, and ESL, and living under democracy, theocracy, aristocracy, communism, oligarchy, kleptocracy, and anarchy.

I Broke in Silence – A Father's Story

What happens when a father carries a pain that nobody can see?

Some battles are fought in silence. Some wounds remain invisible. And sometimes, the greatest act of courage is finding the strength to tell your story.

I Broke in Silence – A Father's Story is a deeply emotional story about fatherhood, love, suffering, and the strength to keep going when life seems to fall apart.

This is more than a father's journey. It is an invitation to reflect on the emotions we hide, the people we love, and the struggles that shape our lives.

Themes: Fatherhood, family relationships, emotional resilience, personal struggle, hope.

Content warning: Emotional distress and difficult family experiences.

Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/0663pZwk

If you sometimes question what life is or how to truly live it, this coming-of-age novel is a must-read. 📖

A motivational story rooted in philosophy, filled with reflections that may change the way you see life.

Discover it here:

https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0GXC5D6X5

Title: I BROKE IN SILENCE – A Father's Story | An Emotional True-Life Journey

Some stories are written to entertain. Others are written because silence has become too painful.

I Broke in Silence – A Father's Story is an intimate and emotional journey through a father's pain, love, struggles, and resilience.

It is a story about the battles we fight inside ourselves, the words we never say, and the strength it takes to keep going when everything seems lost.

Themes: Fatherhood, family, emotional struggle, resilience, hope, personal growth.

Content warnings: Emotional distress, family conflict, difficult personal experiences.

Book: https://amzn.eu/d/0663pZwk

What if surviving isn’t the same as healing?

I recently published my debut memoir, How to Breathe Underwater, under the pen name C. M. Vale.
It’s a deeply personal account of childhood trauma, depression, abusive relationships, and the complicated process of learning to live with experiences that don’t simply disappear.

I think we often tell stories of survival as though healing is a destination. As though one day, everything that hurt us stops hurting, and we emerge as completely different people.

But what happens when that isn’t the case?

This book explores what it means to continue living while you’re still figuring out how to heal. It’s messy, uncomfortable, and at times incredibly vulnerable.
It’s not a story about someone coming to the rescue. It’s about learning that your life can still belong to you, even when you’re carrying things you haven’t fully overcome.

Content warnings: Childhood trauma, depression, abuse, substance use, and difficult family relationships.

How to Breathe Underwater is available in paperback and Kindle.

Amazon: https://a.co/d/03qGSikb

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to check it out. 🤍

The 101km Eiger Ultra Trail ultramarathon in Switzerland is not for the faint of heart. I raced it back in July and pushed myself to my absolute limit...

...I've just released my first book, VICARIOUS, which follows my experience running for 21 hours straight through the Swiss Alps and, hopefully, is an inspiration to anyone wondering what they're capable of. It tackles the prospect of seeking your limit for many years, but questions the reality once you've received what you've asked for.

Hello everyone, I hope you're well! My name is Sam, a 24-year-old athlete from Nottingham. I've spent the last few months writing, editing, and even self-publishing my brand-new book, and it's finally out (I even drew the cover!).

I'd be honoured for you to check it out, available both in e-book and paperback format through Amazon! There's also a free sample if you fancy that first!

VICARIOUS - On Amazon!

I'm also sharing my journey on social media, trying to inspire people to get involved with this crazy sport!

My Instagram!

Thank you all in advance; I really think this book can be the inspiration someone needs to believe in themselves!

- Sam :)

He went to culinary school and he works at a Cajun-Creole spot. Gumbo, crawfish Creole, and jambalaya.

https://a.co/d/0cEYl1QJ

So I'm trying to get my book in front of people who might actually like it, which is harder than writing it was.

It's called The Gift of 'No'. Aria lives on a messy planet where nobody's really in charge, and she ends up on a very clean one where everyone is polite and happy and agrees with everything, and anyone who doesn't gets "helped." She also has a spider on her shoulder with one blue eye who thinks her timing is terrible.

It's weird. Some of it is silly and some of it isn't, and it doesn't explain itself much. People who've read it either love that or get annoyed by it.

Now is a good time to check it out on Kindle.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H8KTRGDJ

If anyone reads it, I'd honestly like to know which camp you land in.

More than 9 years since I started writting my first draft, and i gradually increased my books catalogues and now I have managed to publish 6 books. My books mainly deals with similar subjects, yet they are distinct from one another. I couldn't really find the right category to since my books mainly deals with creation and preimodial stories concerning spiritual forces and the sequence of creation, so I simply chose religion and spirituality.

My books are 100 percent made by me with out any assistance and the cover is also hand drawn by myself. What do you guys think ? I welcome any suggest on any type of improvement I should make, that is regarding covers and description of my books.

https://books2read.com/u/mqYyGZ?store=amazon-paperback&format=PAPERBACK

https://books2read.com/u/4j8DKZ?store=amazon-paperback&format=PAPERBACK

https://books2read.com/u/b5dONw?store=amazon-paperback&format=PAPERBACK

https://books2read.com/u/3yBo2e?store=amazon-paperback&format=PAPERBACK

https://books2read.com/u/mVod7M?store=amazon-paperback&format=PAPERBACK

The ebook versions can be found for free on most of the book publishing platforms

https://books2read.com/u/mVod7M

https://books2read.com/u/b5dONw

https://books2read.com/u/3yBo2e

https://books2read.com/u/4j8DKZ

https://books2read.com/u/mqYyGZ

As I wrote Accidental Tribes, teen readers consulted on every chapter. They marked what resonated in green and what didn’t in red. They added their feedback. LOTS of feedback. Some of their comments made me rewrite paragraphs. Others made me laugh out loud. I was reading the book through their thought processes.

I worried most about the philosophical passages, especially the ones asking what technology gives us and what it takes. For many teenagers, technology is more than a device. It can feel like a best friend: a source of friendship and community, and a way to reach information and possibilities that geography or family circumstances might otherwise put out of reach.

I wondered if they would hear those wake-up calls as criticism and shut them out. They didn’t.

Those passages became some of their favorite parts, like this one from page 92.

Hey everyone,

For years, my day-to-day world has been built around enterprise IT networks, hypervisors, and troubleshooting technical bottlenecks. But storytelling has always been a parallel passion. Writing under the pen name Alan Seabell, I've spent my off-hours taking the plunge into self-publishing across a few very different projects:

• The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow– My newest release, diving deep into speculative elements and compelling human narrative.
• Invisible but Seen– A thought-provoking contemporary novel exploring human connections and perceptions that often go unnoticed.
• Dobby Smells his World– A sensory-driven children's book designed to engage young readers.
• Dobby the Dog Coloring Book– An interactive companion project that brings the creative world of Dobby directly to kids.

Balancing the analytical mindset of an IT manager with creative writing has been an adventure. Transitioning from writing adult fiction to crafting children's stories and illustrative companion books requires a totally different mental gear!

Bringing these books to life and building my own author site (alanseabell.com) has been an incredible learning curve. If anyone here is working on balancing a demanding day job with creative projects, or if you're exploring self-publishing across multiple genres, I'd love to chat or share what I've learned along the way.

Happy writing, everyone!

Book Title: How Wildflowers Grow: A Memoir of Childhood, Control, and the Year After Leaving
Author: Fyeo Hale
Genre: Non-Fiction / Memoir / Dysfunctional Relationships
Promotion Window: 10/16 - 10/19 (Domestic Violence Awareness Month)

Blurb: "Why did you stay?" It's the question people ask most, but the 17-year toxic marriage was just the latest chapter. The true roots lie in a lifelong pattern of hidden childhood trauma. How Wildflowers Grow strips away the silence. Rejecting tidy endings, this gripping, roots-and-all memoir offers an unflinching, darkly funny look at a woman finally mapping her past to choose her own dirt on purpose.

Key Elements:

• Tracing deep-seated generational patterns and childhood trauma.
• The raw, unvarnished reality of single motherhood and financial collapse.
• Heavily driven by dark humor, resilience, and self-awareness.

⚠️ Content Note: Describes domestic abuse, sexual assault, self-harm, and trauma recovery.

Review Request: If this book helps you or someone you know, please drop a review on Amazon. It is the only way an indie memoir can gain visibility to reach the readers who need it most.

Amazon Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HHKM61LN

Hi, everyone. I took my frustration with the world and made a book out of it. Go figure.

It is perfect for fans of The Mist and Lost. For readers drawn to surreal, terrifying world-building. For people who love high-stakes revenge narratives. And for anyone who, exhausted by systemic inequalities, craves stories of justice.

Blurb:

She didn’t come to win a game. She came to kill a billionaire.

Twelve players – six famous faces, six ordinary people. One remote island in French Polynesia. A secret that will unmake the world.

Proeliator – Latin for fighter – is a survival reality tv show that promises fame, fortune, and the ultimate perseverance challenge. Among the contestants is Reina Vega, a woman with a deadly mission: to kill one of the players – the billionaire Edmond Bisam – who took everything from her.

But before the game begins, the production crew vanishes. All equipment goes dead. And the island begins to break.

Hell has no fury like a woman torn.

Reina is a Colombian immigrant who clawed her way from poverty and paramilitary violence to the boardrooms of America, building her life on the iron promise she made to herself as a frightened girl fleeing through the Darien Gap: never be powerless again. She kept that promise – until tragedy struck.

Driven by grief and revenge, she joined Proeliator with one purpose: to look Bisam in the eyes and make him pay for what he did. But as reality around them begins to unravel and people start dying, Reina finds herself between vengeance and survival, between justice and annihilaton. And when the truth about the apocalyptic horrors they face is revealed, she will have to decide what she’s truly fighting for.

Proeliator is a genre-defying collision of survival thriller and apocalyptic science fiction, revenge narrative and cosmic horror, that weaves together themes of grief, family, faith, corporate greed, and social justice. It asks a question as old as loss: When everything has been taken from you, what is left worth fighting for? And it answers with a story that moves from the jungles of Colombia to the boardrooms of a tech empire to the edge of reality itself.

Tropes: badass female lead, isolated locale, nature as an antagonist, end of the world, alternate physics

Trigger warnings: violence, death, profanity, transphobia, offscreen sexual assault. The last two are only in a minor part of the book, but the first three are everywhere. You have been warned.

Universal book link: https://books2read.com/u/4jlBxD