The Unorthodox Author
It's gone like this: I write for fun -> oh, I can write for serious? -> wait, this is very serious and I don't like it -> I write for fun again.
I’ve been writing my entire life but it occurred to me that I could pursue writing as a career later than it should have, during one cold rainy afternoon a few days after I turned 35.
And you may think, ah, well, a lot of creative people start out on pragmatic career path and then pivot later on. But no, it wasn’t that I didn’t think being creative could pay out. I know that it pays. Because I’m an artist.
I draw for a living.
February 2021, seated at an easel, looking suspiciously like I don’t actually know how to use an easel.
And it wasn’t even that I didn’t think other people would connect to my writing, because I’ve been sharing stories online for nearly a decade, and I’ve got a small but dedicated following of readers. Some people, somewhere, have already connected to my words. And, if put on a bigger scale, I think my work could reach an even broader group.
So… Why did it take me this long to “take writing seriously?”
If I figure it out, I’ll post another blog entry, and update this one. Because hell if I know.
(Does this intro count as a cliffhanger? Because cliffhangers have been something of a hot topic in recent days, and some readers abhor them. If that’s you, I’m sorry.)
So, for the last three years, I’ve been doggedly chasing this idea that came to me suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere: I want to become a full time novelist that makes thrilling, spicy, cozy, scary, romantic speculative fiction. You may notice that many of those adjectives aren’t well-paired. That might explain what happened over the last three years.
Or, well, what didn’t happen. I’ve yet to publish a book*. Here’s a brief rundown on the process of “traditional publication” for novels, if you’re not already acquainted: you write a book, you write a letter describing the book, you e-mail that letter to a literary agent, that literary agent takes anywhere from two weeks to two years to reply, and if the response is positive and they’re interested in helping you get that story to a publisher, they become your agent.
Then the process begins anew: you edit a book, your agent writes a letter describing the book, your agent e-mails that letter to editors at publishers, and those editors take anywhere from two weeks to two years to reply, and if the response is positive… Money happens? And a book comes out? Usually after two years. (Is 2 the publishing industry’s “angel number?”)
May 2025, meeting with an agent to discuss my high stakes, high fantasy duology, Summer Snow.
If all of that seems confusing and/or drawn out, then I’ve done a pretty adequate job at describing the process. And to be clear, I’m not deriding the industry. I get why everything has to move at this pace; I get why it works this way. I respect it. I share this explanation not in frustration, but to shed light on why I wound up here, inside this cafe, drinking a blueberry iced tea, writing this blog post about how I “failed.” Though I’ve done a good job of very sweetly framing it as an unorthodox journey instead of that.
After three years of pursuing publication, I’ve written three novels and completed the steps above three times to no avail. No agents are interested in partnering. Now I’m left with three books that I don’t think are half bad, that I don’t really want to “trunk” (an industry term referring to putting the story away, near-permanently), and a band of readers that would probably enjoy checking them out. Am I really supposed to pretend these books don’t exist?
Like many writers in this very same scenario, I’ve pivoted to the well-tread path of self-publishing, but also—not really. That’s where we get to the unorthodox part of my experience.
I wrote a novella called Hawk & March, mostly as an exercise to learn how to self-publish a book. Beginning in November, I went through all the steps necessary to make it available to purchase—writing, editing, cover-making, and marketing. And, after all that, I decided that this self-pub process isn’t really for me.
The same way that “writing seriously” came to me in a flash of inspiration, so came the idea of publishing my stories my way. In a weird way.
Here’s the plan: I will publish these books through the official self-publishing channels (Amazon, B&N, etc.), but I will also publish them here. For free. Essentially—if you want to buy an ebook, you can. They’ll probably cost 99c. If you want to buy a paperback, you can. They’ll probably vary from $12-$18 (depending on printing costs).
But you can also read these books, on my website, for no extra cost. Why? idk because I felt like it.
While I edit the first of the three books I wrote during my pursuit of tradpub (a sci-fi mm romance called Hermes) I’m going to post the edited parts week-by-week here. Essentially, you can follow along in a serial fiction format, if you’re into that. I’ll have comments enabled, and I have a Discord community readers can connect with, too.
And once all the chapters are posted, the story as a whole will be available to read free, and it’ll also be available for purchase on the channels outlined above.
Then I’ll repeat the process with the other two books—a high stakes fantasy and a cozy mm romance—until this place is just rife with fiction. Won’t that be cool? I think it’d be cool.
And all the while—I’m still going to pursue tradpub. I’ve got another story that’s hopefully high-concept enough to allow me to break through the very thick walls the industry has built, and I’ll be drafting that during 2026.
If all of this work sounds like a lot, know that I know. But I’m a fast writer and have sufficient fuel in my tank after years of writing workshops and critique groups and people who’ve doubted me. That last one really gets me going. Someone called me “attention seeking” last week. Oh, I’ll show you attention seeking.
Here’s where I’m starting. I have 1,062 followers on TikTok. I have 38 subscribers to my newsletter. I have written 12 books. I plan to publish four by the end of 2026.
If you’d like to support me, or any of this, the easiest way is to subscribe to the newsletter below. But you can also follow me on socials, buy the books when they release, or send me a ko-fi. But know that all I really want, truly, is for people to enjoy these stories. Reading is more than enough for me, and I thank every person who’s decided to do so.
Thank you, reader, for reading this post. Talk soon!
— Charlie
*Hawk & March comes out February 4th, 2026.