After my agent and I parted ways, the funeral was over, I decided I wanted to use the lockdown while being unemployed to write the most J.M. Frey book possible.
I made a list of everything my former agent had critiqued in my writing (too long, too Canadian, too queer, too genre-blendy), as well as a list of all my favourite tropes and moments in other books and fanfics I loved (accidental/arranged marriage, coffee shop AU, grumpy/sunshine, etc.). The idea was that if I queried and signed with a new agent with an extremely J.M. Frey book, then there would be no mistaking who I was and what I did as a storyteller, and my agent wouldn’t be asking me to tone it down or change my voice. I finished Nine-Tenths to these specifications in 2020, and began to query it in 2021.
I guess I J.M. Frey’d it too hard, because by late 2023, I’d amassed 348 rejections. It felt like there was nobody left in the industry to query. I’d had a few close calls, a few in-depth rejection letters or conversations with agents about why the book wasn’t working for them, and even an R&R which I declined to pursue because I thought the requested changes would result in the exact same problem I’d had previously—it would strip the book of its Canadianness and genre-blendyness, two things which define me as a writer.
My 2024 New Year’s Resolution was to self-publish Nine-Tenths. The story and characters had really seized my heart, and though I was working on other manuscripts to take back to the query trenches, I wasn’t ready to abandon this one to the dusty depths of the manuscript trunk. I reached out to successful local indie authors for guidance, hired an illustrator for the cover, made a massive 200-line checklist, set the paperback publication day for my birthday (which meant that to have it complete 90 days on KU, the ebook dropped on my friend’s birthday!), and dove in.
I had hoped that the book would resonate with readers, that people would admire the detailed worldbuilding and the fun voice, and I thought I might earn out what I invested in a year or two. Instead I earned enough to pay back what I spent for the book within three-ish months, have been invited to talk about the book at dozens of bookstores, podcasts, and websites, and have the highest star rating of any of my books on GoodReads. I’m so proud that I didn’t trunk this book, and so pleased that people leaving reviews (nearly a hundred!) and naming it to their favourite book of the year lists are really getting the story.
My proudest accolade with the book is every review that mentions how intrigued and engaged they were by politics and worldbuilding I wove into the love story. Awards are marvelous, and I appreciate every one, but I am most happy that readers are outwardly praising the J.M. Frey-ness of the book.
NoaF: As a writer who’s done it all, how have self-pub, small press, and mainstream publishing been different experiences for you?
In many ways, they’re not very different at all. Regardless of the size of the publisher, every book needs to go through substantive editing, revisions, proofreading, page-setting/interior design, cover design, publication, and marketing. The only difference is who does those things, how many people are on the team, and who pays for it! With the bigger publishers, it’s a different person at every stage; in smaller presses, fewer people wear more hats; and of course, in self-pub, I wear all the hats alone.
I’ve always had great editors and engaged designers, so it’s been overall a pleasant experience no matter which publisher I’ve worked with.
All the things that I deem important for a successful marketing campaign—book launches, reading appearances, podcast appearances, merch, signing events, social media drives and reader review pushes—these are largely the realm of the author, no matter what the size of the publishing company. In larger presses, my book was featured in bigger campaigns and some pre-publishing influencer events/ARC distribution, and giveaways, and of course they were able to leverage their relationships to get the book into big chain stores that I’ve only been dreaming about up until now (Hudson in the airports, Walmart, Target!) But that was pretty much the only difference in terms of marketing. Even in a big press, with Big Five distribution channels, the moment the book is published, any and all marketing falls pretty much solely on the shoulders of the author. There’s exceptions of course, but you have to be a big, big name for those exceptions to happen. Which I’m not. Yet!
In other ways, it’s completely different.
I am unbelievably Type-A, so having complete control over the timeline, the budget spend, the interior design, cover design, illustrations, and marketing rollout has been a dream. I’ve re-published all of my backlisted and discontinued books through my self-publishing imprint, and prior to Nine-Tenths, I’d hired interior typesetters and cover design experts. I found communicating my vision took a lot of mental energy. It wasn’t frustrating, but it made for a very drawn-out process and a lot of back-and-forth. So this time, I did a lot of research and found cover (Canva) and interior (Atticus) software that I could learn and use myself. It meant I wasn’t waiting on anyone to complete the work, didn’t have to give notes, etc. I just did exactly what I wanted, when I wanted (usually at 2 am), and could control the deadlines.
For as much work as it was, mostly a lot of fiddly stuff that took a hundred different upload attempts to get approved on the printer’s websites, it was a lot more relaxing because I didn’t have to stress out about what other people were doing, how their vision might not align with mine, and when I would be seeing things given back for review, or even if I would be included in the process at all. I didn’t have to worry I wouldn’t like the cover they made, or whether I would even have a say, or when they planned on dropping it (it’s a common joke that authors see their covers for the first time as the readership, and that authors find out their release dates the same way the audience does—when it’s listed for sale). I had all the time I wanted to prepare, put things in place before any announcements were made, to complete things in their entirety so I wasn’t scrambling against a clock or other people’s deadlines, and to approach the release efficiently and calmly.
However, any irritation I may feel when having to wait on others and compromise my vision is usually wonderfully outweighed by how much better my manuscripts become when there are other cooks in the kitchen. Every editor I’ve worked with has elevated the story in ways that I would never have thought of or been able to achieve on my own. Every marketing team I’ve worked with has found new and interesting hooks that I wouldn’t have considered. And every cover I’ve been given has helped me understand the genre of the book (and the marketing that works better in said genre) than I could have, or taps into marketing trends that I hadn’t been aware of at the perfect moment to hit the zeitgeist. It’s worth stomping down on my Type-A impatience and being a team player, because the end result is always worth it.
The downside to self-pub is, of course, that I had to pay for all of it out of pocket, and up front—software and image licencing, editor, illustrations, marketing materials, marketing campaigns, etc. I took out a small bank loan to fund that, and luckily my perseverance was rewarded, and I was able to pay it off in its entirety within months of the ebook release (thank you to everyone who bought and read it!). One of the nice things about working with a publisher is they sink their own money into all the up front costs. Sure, that means my cut is smaller when it comes to profits, but it also means it didn’t cost me a dime of my own to make the book.
All in all, I’ve enjoyed both processes. I wouldn’t self-pub again, I don’t think, unless it was a another project that I was really, really passionate about, like Nine-Tenths. I really need to love something to be willing to invest all that time and money again.
Oh! I guess the pubday gifts, if there are any, are more elaborate the bigger the publisher, but I still treasure and wear the tiny dragon pendant that my first-ever small-press publisher sent to celebrate my debut novel. The gifts are nice, but also not the point. (I sure did enjoy that bottle of bubbly Wattpad sent me when Time and Tide landed on the NYT Best Of list, though, NGL!)
NoaF: What’s been your biggest career honour to date?
Nobody even knows it happened except for my former agent, because nothing came of it. But I guess it’s been over a decade, so I can talk about it: I took a meeting with one of the executives at The CW to discuss the possibility of a television adaptation of the Accidental Turn series. The series wasn't complete then, I think I was working on final revisions for book two, and had begun drafting book three. While the series was never optioned, that meeting helped me figure out how to structure the series so it didn’t suffer from what the exec called “Mushy Middle Syndrome”—where the second book in a trilogy only exists to pull readers along into the third and final book, where all the payoffs will be. She begged me to provide them with a story that was complete and satisfying in and of itself in the second book, as that would correlate to the second season of the show, and that’s when a lot of adaptations get cancelled.
I also added the epilogue in The Silenced Tale about Pip and her family moving to Newfoundland so she could be the script consultant on a film adaptation of the faux fantasy books in the Accidental Turn series. I thought it would be a funny wink at the audience, if at the end of the TV show, they pulled back to reveal they were filming a TV show. Alas, it never happened.
As we say in this industry, “Everything is nothing until it’s actually something.” It was great to rate the meeting, but I’m not annoyed the show never happened. That’s showbiz.
NoaF: Do you have a pie-in-the-sky publishing dream? Let’s manifest the big dreams for the new year!
I want what C.S. Pacat has! 😄 I want a massive Tumblr following, with people making fanart and fanfic. I want the readers to grab it and love the world and play in its sandbox. More important to me than big marketing campaigns from a large publisher is that the fangirlies like it. I started in fandom, I wrote fanfic for years before my theatre TA encouraged me to try my hand at original fiction, and I still engage in fandom every day. I would love for Nine-Tenths to flourish in fandom spaces, for people to make up their own stories, write songs, put together cosplay, draw art. The deep-running ocean of creativity that is fandom gave me drink when I was parched for creativity during the lockdown, and it is the well from which Nine-Tenths sprung. I would love for this book and its world to water other people’s creative gardens in turn.
I also want a fully produced, multi-actor audiobook dramatization of the novel to happen. I know I can’t afford to make or produce it myself, so I am manifesting a production house reaching out to me to obtain the rights. Does someone have an in with Michael Sheen? I feel like this would be right up his alley—he can play Owain, and I’m sure he can locate a bright young Welsh actor who needs a big break to play Dav. I’ll let my readers fancast the rest of the book ;)
NoaF: What was the strangest (publishing-related) opportunity you were glad you took?
Well, in April of 2008, I was at a SFF Book Convention in Toronto, and a writer-actor buddy of mine scooped up a group of folks from the hotel bar and invited us up to her hotel room to keep the party going. I was tired and it was noisy, but I liked these folks and I wanted their advice about the rejection letters I was receiving for my first novel. A stranger I had never met overheard us talking about my woes, came to sit with us, and asked about my book. Turns out she was the acquiring editor of Dragon Moon Press, and she ended up signing my very first novel and shepherding me not only through the publication of my first book, but to award ceremonies in New York City. She continues to be a good friend, and an invaluable beta reader on whatever novel I'm writing next. (Thanks, Gabrielle!)
The point I’m making is: go to the events, visit the bookstores, attend other people’s book launches, support your local indies, and have fun. You don’t have to be in networking mode the whole time, but participating in the scene and supporting other writers is the reason I even have a career. When you are kind and generous with your time and expertise, decision-makers and opportunity-creators will remember you at the right moment.
NoaF: What do you read for fun? Who else should we put on our TBR piles?
I am really loving all the queer or queer-coded cozy romantasy fabulist/magical-realism-esque books right now, where everyone gets a happy ending, because *gestures at the world*. Recent faves are: When the Tide Held the Moon, The Sweet Sting of Salt, The Nightmare Before Kissmas, One Last Stop, The Almost Wedding of John Barron Grey, Carry On, Howl's Moving Castle. I wish I had more time to read!!
