Traditionally Self-Published with Mica Merrill Rice

Breaking Free: How One Writer Built Her Publishing Path with Maria Glymph

• Mica Merrill Rice • Season 1 • Episode 5

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“When the characters take over, let ‘em.” - Maria Glymph

In this episode, we sit down with author and indie press owner, Maria Glymph, to talk about her newest release Biography of Deception, her self-publishing journey, and the road to founding Modern Odyssey Books. 

She shares with us: 

- A look behind Biography of Deception, a literary mystery, and what inspired it

- Why she chose the self-publishing route

- What inspired her to go from self-published author to founder of her own indie press: Modern Odyssey Books.

- Advice for authors who are considering options for their publishing journey

About Maria: 

Maria Glymph is a writer who explores poetry, fiction, essays, and hybrid forms, guided by the belief that each story finds the shape most fitting for its tale. An avid reader and art lover, she draws inspiration from diverse voices and creative expressions. 

Alongside her own work, Maria is the founder and publisher of Modern Odyssey Books, where she champions global authors and innovative narratives. She divides her time between her writing and building Modern Odyssey into a respected independent press. Learn more at mariaglymph.com and modernodysseybooks.com.

Have a publishing question? Email me at mica@micamerrillrice.com

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"Traditionally Self-Published" theme music is written by Landon Bailey and performed and produced by LNDÖ


UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

What's up, plot twisters, and a warm welcome to my page turners, the intrigued readers and listeners who are just stepping into the story. Whatever title you fancy today, I am so happy you're here with us. You're listening to Traditionally Self-Published, where we unravel the chaos of self-publishing and help you write your own success story like a pro. I'm your host, Mika Merrill-Rice, author with a passion for learning and sharing the love. I'm bringing you real talk with publishing pros and indie authors just like me who flipped the script and built thriving author careers on their own terms and are doing it like a pro. So whether you're a first-time author or you're a seasoned pro, you're right where you need to be. We have a special guest today from an indie press who knows nearly everything there is to know from idea to publishing through a press and beyond. So if you're curious what makes an author shine in the spotlight versus waiting in the wings, then this show is for you. I'm joined today by Maria Glimpf, an author and owner of an indie press who I discovered on Substack under her Modern Odyssey Books publication. They offer up monthly chats to give you behind the scenes and share the books that are in their catalog, including her which we are going to be talking about today. So we all cover her latest release, her process for crafting literary fiction, the journey from self-published author to indie press owner, what indie authors should look for when considering a small press, and we're going to conclude with my Inkstarter lightning round and Maria's five best tips for authors. So welcome, Maria. How are you today? Thank you for having me. I'm doing well. I hope you are too. Good. Awesome. All right. So let's talk about biography of deception so before I start with the questions I have to say this book was for me just such a fun read so biography of deception for those that haven't read it yet and you want you will want to this is a literary fiction with a mystery twist I did not see the plot twist coming at the at the end but basically it follows all of these co-workers in an office they go in a conference room one one of them has a incredible plot twist that just literally had my mouth like open, like I did not see that coming. So great read. Fantastic. What I want to know is what inspired this story?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, thank you for all of that that you said. You know, it's interesting what inspires any story. I mean, it really was sort of like the crash of several things. I had just left the corporate world decided that I no longer, you know, wanted to work in a corporate environment, that I was ready for something new. Obviously, all of that experience was in the back of my mind as I sat down with this story that really was going to be about something else. And then it just sort of unfolded. The other thing is that when I was a young girl, I read Harriet the Spy, which was a favorite, favorite story of mine. And somehow, it crashed into this other idea. And then, you know, and that's how it all really came about.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it definitely works. And it's so funny that you mentioned Harriet the Spy. I, I did read Harriet the Spy as a little girl as well. And in your book, I tabbed every time that you mentioned or like referred to a book. So not realizing that you had a whole list of references in the back just for me. I'm like, wow, Yeah, she, you know, I noticed this reference to Harriet the Spy and it all kind of made sense as I read through it. So I love that tie in. How did you balance the literary elements with the mystery plot?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, it's interesting. I had not even thought of it having a mystery plot until Kay Stratton, who is a writer, read it and made that comment. And then James Hartley from the Madrid Review called it kind of a whodunit. And it was like, you know, I hadn't really thought about, I just thought about it as a story of the twist. And so my, you know, my tendency is more kind of on the literary side and that's also, you know, my aspiration. I read a lot of poetry. So I think that obviously comes through. Language is really important. And then the other thing is, you know, I wanted to, there were a few things about the story and, you know, if you've, it, you that anyone out there you if you've worked in a corporate environment or in any kind of work environment you know when people say you know my personal my professional life are separate that's not true because you are always your complete self and so part of what I wanted to bring into the story was that these characters are wholly who they are with their full breadth of experience in life even though they're in a conference room talking about some other thing. And so, and I think that that's really the aspect of sort of balancing plot versus introspection and character, et cetera.

SPEAKER_00:

Very nice. Uh, yeah, I did, uh, speaking of characters, that was another thing that I really enjoyed. Um, this is obviously like an, it's a novella, but the way that you describe the characters was you just, I knew exactly who, what kind of personality I was dealing with, like the arrogance of Batiste, um, you know, the people pleasing, uh, Sloan and like all the different characters. I, and I just found myself saying like, wow, I, You know, maybe it's just that these types of personalities exist everywhere in any work situation that you go to. But I just found them so relatable. And you did a fabulous job of describing them so effectively to make this, you know, just to get that sense of their personality, but also still being able to move the story about quickly and not giving so much info dump. It just, I don't know how you did it. It was perfect, whatever you did. So I want to know, what is your secret for giving them that kind of depth so that we can connect with them in just this short amount of time?

SPEAKER_01:

So I guess there are two things that come to mind. One would be wanting to render them as people who are human, meaning they have positive attributes and they have negative attributes because we all do. And I think that that makes them very relatable because you see someone and you, you know, I don't, or my hope is you don't look at any of the characters in this book and despise any of them. And you don't, you know, overly love any of them. You look at them and you think, oh, Oh, yeah. And then the other thing is, to your point about I didn't overdo sort of the backstory, I think that what I gave was little snippets of backstory that were important. And, you know, there are things that everything shapes our life, but there are some events that happen to us that have more gravity than others. And there are things that we, you know, they show up. And they, we carry them and they come out and, um, and that's just what happens. So.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was great. Uh, definitely helped to move the plot forward, understanding who they were and their, you know, who they are outside of this place and how it applies to what is going on in the story was just great. All right. So let's talk about that crafting the story a little bit. So when you sit down to write, what's your story starting point is, are you thinking about your characters? Are you starting with the plot or your theme? You know, so I'm

SPEAKER_01:

a woman with many projects. Let's just start there. It can be anything that spurs it. It can be a line that I read somewhere in a story. That happened to me about 25 years ago. I read a line in a book and it conjured up just a whole world and a whole other story that I worked on and off on and now i'm going to focus on it can be that it is the you know the kernel of a plot or it could be that it's a character you know there's no one way you just never know what's going to sort of trigger your imagination or at least i'm never sure what's going to trigger my imagination and and i'm uh also i would say i'm a thinker and so what happens is that i'm triggered and then i think about things and it's always sort of working in the back of my mind. And then I sit down and, and I take a lot of notes. And then it's like, Oh, isn't this interesting? Oh, well, what if this? Well, you know, so it just sort of unfolds for me that way.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't know if everybody's like that. But I'm gonna agree. And it's probably the same thing. You know, it's a starts something small, you question everything about it. And and then, you know, maybe it's a story or not I have on myself, I keep note cards in every room on my house in my purse. And I just sort of like, all right, I'm going to just write down this little idea that just came up. It keeps me from forgetting it for one, but then, you know, I'll come back to it because you never know where this is going to develop. So that's great. All right. So what about how you develop the story? Are you a plotter, a pantser or a planter? And do you feel like this, the length of your story changes the process that you're going to use?

SPEAKER_01:

So I'd say, you know, I'm a combination of all. Sometimes I just sit down and start writing something. Sometimes I then sit back and think, I'm a very visual person. So sometimes I have to put things up like on post-its and look at it so that I can make sense of it in my head. Sometimes I want to think about how something might connect from one part to another. And so then I, again, I'm visual. So I need to see that. So maybe, you know, planning and plotting it out a bit more um i don't think that the so i'm not one for labels and i um you have to spend my life not conforming to anything and so i don't really think about it in terms of length or whatever it's going to be whatever it's going to be and then when it's done you know that's what it is and i don't feel the urge to call it anything um like biography of deception i did refer to it as another because it's a wonderful story but it's shorter it's not a big novel so it's like okay we can call it that I didn't need to call it anything so yeah I don't think length I think why put a boundary on something you know

SPEAKER_00:

yeah I do like that it's funny because I think that the labeling there's more of a spotlight on it lately but if you go back in time I was looking this up not that long maybe a couple years ago, I read The Old Man in the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, which in today's world would be referred to as a novella, but it is not. It is listed as a novel. And I think you're right. I think when the story is done, you're done. You just know it. There's nothing else that you want to do to it. It's where it needs to be. And I think people are going to enjoy it for what it is. If you tried to tease this out any more than it is, it wouldn't have been the same. experience for me so yeah I agree with that yeah how do you approach your editing and your refining of your prose

SPEAKER_01:

well I've only until I started Modern Odyssey I had I'd never really I'd written a lot but I'd never submitted anything or so I'd never gone through great lengths of editing is what really the point I'm trying to make that's So I've published three things of mine. One was a book of poetry, which is separate. But my previous sort of little story novella was Hope Time and Other Things That Are Hard to Measure. And when I wrote it, I had met Jane Marshall in kind of a writing community. And I liked her. She's easy to like. And she was an editor and a writer. And so I just said, hey, you know, would you be open to edit my work? I do my own sort of reading and rereading and scrutinizing of the word and the sentence and the why do I want this and you know and then I and then I handed it off to Jane and and she did her magic and we went back and forth and then it's done and ultimately I have to be satisfied with it it has to be the language that I want it has to be the story that I want it has to convey you know what I want but with biography of deception it's interesting because I I wrote it and then I set it aside um I wrote the first draft and then set it aside to work on hope time and then I went back to it and I wrote it and even after I'd given it to Jane to edit and we went back and forth I still wasn't quite I wasn't wasn't working for me so then I went through and once again I looked at every piece of background for characters I changed some. I looked at every word, the language used. Was this the right thing? I mean, I really took the time to, you know. And part of editing, I think that's really hard, is letting go of things that you've written that you think are just so beautiful. And they are. They just don't fit. You'll hear a manuscript, and so set them aside. So anytime I I write something, I have like the document that says extras, but don't throw away, you know, because you might be able to mine something out of that elsewhere. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that is awesome. I love it. Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, you mentioned earlier Harriet the Spy. You obviously reference many, many different books and authors in here and other influences. But are there any literary influences or favorite mystery authors who shaped your style? And I say mystery because you weren't really writing this as a mystery, but whoever shaped your style, you know, whoever that author or that book that just, you were like, all right, you know what? I really like this and I want to do this.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'd say at the top of that list is Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I remember reading Love in the Time of Cholera and sitting up in bed thinking, oh my God, you can write this way. And I loved it. and I loved him and I love magical realism and part of that is because I love mythology and folklore and the kid in me just believes that things like that can happen and you know why not the other two that I consider as part of my holy literary trilogy are Nikos Kazantzakis and not because I'm Greek but because he was an excellent writer and then Lawrence Durrell and so you know and all have very different writing styles but I just love them and I read a lot of poetry I read it daily I read a lot of drama I like to read plays as well I think all of that just sort of infuses but so but if I had to pick one person I'd say it's Marquez.

SPEAKER_00:

Very nice all right we're going to go on your journey Maria from self-published author to indie press owner this is like a big jump I really like Looking forward to hearing about how you got into this. So going back to the beginning, what was the self-publishing journey like?

SPEAKER_01:

So when I decided to leave my corporate job, I, so most of my career, I had been a consultant, my own business. And, and so obviously that was an option. I could go back to doing that. I had done that before. I had another idea, which was different. It had more of a pro-social aspect to it that I did explore, but ultimately decided not to pursue. And the third was to write. And that's something I've always wanted. And, you know, when I was young, I'm, just wanted that one day where all I get to do is write. I don't have to do anything else. I get to get up and write and write and write. And life just doesn't work that way. So at this point, I decided I would focus on writing. And then I was faced with the natural fork in the road, which is, do I want to go and look for a literary agent and seek traditional publishing? Or this world of self-publishing has gotten better and is no longer stigmatized as far as I can tell. And so is that perhaps something that I might want to do? And there are pros and cons for both. I'm not criticizing either or saying one has the advantage over the other, but I chose the latter. And I didn't just want to self-publish. I decided I did want to build something, which would be an independent publishing house to be able to publish other authors as well. But I started with me.

SPEAKER_00:

That's great. And what are the biggest lessons? You kind of touched on it a little bit, but what are the biggest lessons you learned from that indie publishing when you were doing that? It takes time.

SPEAKER_01:

It takes time and a lot of patience. Having been a business owner previously, it's not new to me to sit around and think about the business all the time. But I will say that to use an expression my mother used to have, which is, I've been I'm breaking my head trying to figure out how to sell books. million different pieces to the puzzle of how do you get books out there and get them sold. And that's the biggest challenge.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I agree. I mean, as a self published author, and you mentioned as indie press, but I imagine like even maybe even some of the bigger ones, depending on the book, I guess, you know, what's getting out there, what's getting picked up. So, so you you talked a little bit about like going from self publishing and, and And then eventually opening your, your indie press. But was there one like defining moment where you're like, all right, this is just what I'm going to do. You know, like just maybe one thing that happened that just kind of sparked this. And you just said, I'm going for this.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. And it's, it's kind of a sad story. So a very good friend of mine was, was ill. And my husband and I went to the U S to, to be with him and his wife. And it was during the time of being with them that I was processing at the time how all this might work out. It's after having not been in an American grocery store because I live in Switzerland, I was in the grocery store and I went to the section where they had puzzles and magazines and that sparked the idea for the In Search of series, which I publish, which are literature inspired puzzle books. And at the same time, my friend, he died, and it was a way of processing grief, which is how I ended up with that book of poetry. I didn't set out to publish it, but it's the way that I processed the loss of a very good man who was a friend of mine. And so those things were sort of all happening at the same time, and that's when and how I solidified that I was going to launch Modern Odyssey Books. Well,

SPEAKER_00:

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend, but you you know, there's like some, some kind of, um, happiness at the end of it. You know, this is the moment that, you know, you, you decided this is what I'm going to do. Maybe it was a life is short or whatever the case may be. Um, so, but we're, we're glad that you did. Cause I am a big fan now. So, all right. Um, so the transition from author to press owner, was it sort of gradual, you know, you had this idea, you just said you were going to do it or you were like, all right, tomorrow I'm opening up the business name. This is it. I

SPEAKER_01:

think it was both. I mean, at first I was thinking about, you know, what do I need to do to just get this up and running? But I wanted from the beginning to publish other people. And what's interesting about the author publisher split is because those, while they overlap, they're really kind of two different roles, if you will. And I spent most of my time at the moment with the publisher hat on and very little with the writer hat on. And that's okay because, you know, I'm building a business and it's more important that I do things for, you know, the other writers. But, yeah. But it all kind of came together at the same sort of time.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. What makes your press unique compared to other small presses?

UNKNOWN:

Well,

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, I can't, I'm not one to compare. It's one of the things I have a little bit of a issue is not the right word. But, you know, in the literary world, we have a tendency to want to compare. Like my book is like this book and that book. You know, my publishing house is like this publishing house or not like that. I mean, that doesn't, it's just not the lens through which I look at it. I think there are a lot of really great publishing houses out there. I think there are some really unique and literary and, you know, small. There's some people doing just some great things, great, great things. You know, what I'm doing is just a little bit different. It's, you know, I've got the puzzle books also, which it means it's not just, you know, literature. So, you know, it's just a little bit different. I want to showcase, you know, I guess two things. I don't know if this makes me unique, but I'm interested in global authors. So I have a tendency to read people from all over the world. That's what I like. It's a wonderful way to learn about different cultures and stories. And then the other is to just let forms be what they are. If someone comes and has some unique hybrid kind of thing, great. If it's a good story, let's do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. What do you find the most rewarding part of what you're doing now? I

SPEAKER_01:

think it's, and I'll use Jane as an example. So Jane Marshall, you know, she's the first author that I've published and her collection, a line drawn or printed six routes through Madrid. And, you know, it's just seeing how happy she is, you know, when she saw what the cover was, when she held the book in her hand for the first time, you know, throughout the whole process. I mean, And it was like, you know, this is her dream. My goal is to help her make her dream come true. And so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's incredible. And it was a great, great book. I love the cover. I love both of your covers. They're very unique and just stand out to me. So that's great. What do you find the most challenging? I

SPEAKER_01:

think the most challenging is the marketing and book selling. I mean, without a doubt, you know, the rest of it is easily overcome. I'll use Jane in her book again as an example. I mean, she's done a remarkable job of just promoting herself and her book as well. You know, but it's, but I mean, that's, that's the biggest challenge.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I don't think that really goes away. I tell people this all the time, you know, between self publishing and even going with a press, you will find that a lot of your time as an author is spent marketing your own book, you believe in your book the most, you know, it's not, not that you don't love Jane's book or that, um, you're not behind her. You are. Um, but it just helps. It has to be a relationship, you know, I think, um, when you're a press and an author. Um, and then for me, obviously it's just, it's just me, but, uh, I would have to do it anyway. Yeah, it is very challenging. Oh my goodness. All right. So how about some advice? Um, so you have self-published, you've, you've owned your own businesses, you've worked in corporate, you understand a lot of the business side of it. How do you know it's a good fit for a press of any kind? Wouldn't matter if it's bigger or a little, but what are you looking for? You

SPEAKER_01:

know, it's interesting. This makes me think of, I have a friend who's in the process of job hunting and, you know, in talking with her the other day, it was all about, you know, I've got my list of questions that I want them to answer and, you know, and I'm ready in case they ask me about this and that and the other. And it's like, what do you want? I mean, you're trying to make sure that you fit what they want, but what is it that you want? And I think it's the same with an author. It's like, what do you want? Are they offering you what you want, whether that's in all the contractual royalty and all that? Are they offering you the kind of marketing support that you're looking for, the editorial support? Do they have the values? Are they publishing things that you align with or not? Or You know, I mean, there are a million questions, but it's not how do you make them want you? It's how do you make you want them? Also, it's again, because everything is two-sided. It's a relationship. So that's, I think, how you, when you feel like it's a good fit, then it's a good fit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I agree. And so on that, so I don't discriminate against any way of publishing. If you want to be published I think of self-publishing, presses, hybrids as options. There are options that we have in our toolbox and maybe you self-publish with one, maybe you go hybrid with another, maybe you do traditional with another, whatever the case may be. But what should authors look for in a press before signing a contract?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, one is I'd look at all the contractual things. very closely. I'd make sure that, you know, all of the important bases are covered about all of the different kinds of rights, how the royalties are split, whether it's, you know, gross or net and, you know, all that, that it does indicate what the responsibility is of the author versus just the publishing house. It's like, it's like any other contract, you know, even if you were signing a contract with a company to deliver something in else. You want it to be clear of what part, what's your part and what's their part. And that goes both ways. And so, and if there's any question, you know, that isn't in there, then I certainly would pursue it. Now there are standard contracts and all of that, but still I'd seek out some advice on that. Yeah. That's the main thing is just be very clear of what part of what's your responsibility and what's theirs.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you ever feel that there would be a moment where a self-published author would say, all right, maybe I should just say a self-published author? Like, is it ever the better option or is it more like whatever you're feeling this book, the book that you've written needs to do is what you're going to do?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think it goes back to what you just said a little while ago. I mean, you don't have to pigeonhole yourself into anything. It might be that, you know, that you published with your first book with the press and then the second one you want to do yourself or vice versa. You know, you decide I'm going to do this one for a number of reasons, including because I want to learn all the ropes myself of the back end of things. You know, but you're never stuck into one thing. And then that goes back to the contractual. If you want that flexibility, make sure that the contract you're signing is for that one book versus for, you know, a myriad of books or so. But yeah, I mean, I just don't believe that you get stuck in a lane.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I agree. And what's one myth you want to bust about indie presses?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, the only thing or the biggest thing is that they're second tier. You know, again, I can appreciate there are a lot of people out there who want one of the big traditional publishing houses. They want Random House or Picador. They want to have their name on it. That's fantastic. But Modern Odyssey isn't a lesser press just because it's not that. So Modern Odyssey books is, you know, as legitimate, as literary, as, you know, everyone has their own sort of niche. Everyone has their own, you know, special qualities. It's not about size and prestige is a way that's a value and people value that in different ways.

SPEAKER_00:

Very good. All right, Maria, we made it the ink starter lightning round. I'm going to ask you some questions. And you could just tell me whatever comes to mind. So the first one is the first book that made you want to be a writer?

SPEAKER_01:

I can't think of a first book, but I will say that it was many books. When I was in high school, I took creative writing and comparative novels, and it was just that whole experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Very good. All right. If modern Odyssey books had a spirit animal, what would it be? A

SPEAKER_01:

spirit animal? Well, as someone who doesn't know a lot about spirit animals, I'd say an eagle. Okay. An eagle. I love it. For me, it symbolizes freedom, obviously courage, which is what it takes to not only set up an independent publishing house, but to publish things that, you know, I think are of literary merit, regardless of what other people think. So

SPEAKER_00:

I'm an eagle. I think the eagle fits that wonderfully. What about tropes? What's your favorite mystery trope? Well,

SPEAKER_01:

not really. I mean, I love mysteries, you know, but I'd have to say the whodunit.

SPEAKER_00:

Whodunit's the best.

SPEAKER_01:

One

SPEAKER_00:

word that describes your editing style. Oh,

SPEAKER_01:

laborious.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll take

SPEAKER_01:

it. And what's your current read? I am reading The Cowboy and the Cossack by Claire Whitaker. It has been on our bookshelves for the over 30 years that we've been married. My husband has two worn out copies from when he lived in Alaska and they passed that book around and I'm only just now getting to it and I'm sorry it's taken me so long. It is a wonderful read wonderful

SPEAKER_00:

you'll have to send it to me so I don't forget the name I'm always looking for new reads I especially love finding old ones that are sitting on shelves my aunt is a big reader as well and she has a lot of books of what we always did so it's finding some random book that's you know been in out in the world for 30 40 years I'm always amazed at how how much I do love them so that's great all right we are to the five best tips. So I would like to ask you for your five best tips for authors. This is something that we can implement right now the minute they stop listening to this podcast into their own writing.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I mean, I think the first one would be kind of focus on the language, you know, the word choices, eliminate any excess. That's not uncommon as a writing tip. The other is to be specific you know it's not a tree it's a sycamore you know just conjures up very different things in the imagination I do think it's important to you know read it take a break from it read it I think it helps you just get clarity on your whole story and and then another one I guess would be think about how your characters can say things without having to say a word. Like what are the gestures they can use? You know, what's the subtext? That would be one. And then I think, which is the last one would be the one that's really the joy of writing is that when the characters take over, let them. Let them do whatever they want to do. I

SPEAKER_00:

think they sort of do. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I have just a few more and we are all done. Where can listeners find your latest book?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you can go to the Modern Odyssey Books website, which is modernodysseybooks.com. You can also find all of the books on Amazon and then through bookshop.org or online. You can just look up the book. Yeah, I'm trying to think. And then in terms of if you're a bookshop and you're listening, then you can order through Ingram or Gardeners.

SPEAKER_00:

Very nice. All right. And I'm assuming that we can learn more about the Indie Press as well on your website. And then any upcoming releases that we should be on the lookout for? I'm excited. I'm waiting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Two rather immediate things. We are about to open subscriptions for Paravion which will be an annual subscription for a monthly narrative to show up in your mailbox so each month it'll be featuring a different author I've asked Jane Marshall to be the series editor and she is doing that and so we're looking forward to it and we will have a submission process etc and we're getting all of that in place right at the moment so more of that to come the The second is, and it kind of goes back to what you said about love to discover older texts. We have a new series called the Brown Paper Library, and they're small, unique curations of works across time, and there'll be surprises. So we might intrigue you with the title and a small blurb on the back, but you won't know what you're getting until you get the book and open it up and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. I am a big fan of Blind Date with a Book. You don't even need to tell me what it's about. Just give me a little short title or whatever it is that you want me to know and I am all for it. So thank you so much, Maria. This has really been super helpful. I've really enjoyed getting to know you today and I hope to have you back again soon. Thank you so much. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, thanks. Enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening to this episode of Traditionally Self-Published. If this episode helped you, subscribe, leave a review and share with your author and reader friends like. And be sure to check the first episode where I share a bit about how this all came to be and why building a helpful community is so important. Until next time, be bold, write smart and keep turning those pages.