By this point, you should know that I am not afraid to dream big. More importantly, you should know that I am not timid about asking y'all to dream big with me. As a community, we have done some big things in the year and a half we have been taking on the publishing industry, and I have to be honest... we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of what I want to accomplish.

One of the first commitments I made when I started here was to take this ground-breaking work Bindery was doing and to ensure that Black and brown voices were at the forefront of it. And with your help, I have kept that promise. With your help, we have worked our asses off to build one of the largest and most engaged audiences at Bindery and to prove that we are a force to be reckoned with in the publishing world. And now, when Bindery is being discussed in public spaces, Left Unread is almost always a part of the conversation.

Left Unread has consistently broken internal records and forged new paths at Bindery. We have been a standard-setting community and have very successfully blended traditional publishing and indie marketing methods in a way that has enabled us to reach real success without ever losing sight of the importance of the authors we are working to uplift. We have been featured on the cover of Indie Author magazine, a New York Times Square billboard and multiple other incredible blogs, podcasts and publications. And that is ENTIRELY because you--members of this community--are consistently loud, active and invested in fighting for our mission. Which is to create space for Black and brown authors.

I guess what I am trying to say is that, because of you, we have more than proved ourselves.

But like I said, we have only begun to scratch the surface of what I want to accomplish with this imprint.

The goal has always been change. I am not satisfied with just publishing successful books. I want this community to become a force in the publishing world. I want the work that we do to be so profound, and so loud, that other publishers have to take note of what can be accomplished with Black and brown voices at the front. And, as a community, we have reached a point where, in order for us to move forward, we need substantial growth.

Which is why...

...it's time for our next outrageous goal

In order to move forward as an imprint, we need a few things to happen:

1. We need to be publishing more books.

2. We need to be marketing at a new level.

3. We need to be investing in indie authors directly.

If our goal is to cause meaningful change in the publishing industry, there is a lot of work to do. And all of it is going to take massive amounts of energy, effort and money.

This primarily means two things:

1. I am going to be shifting a lot of my content back toward engaging in large-scale conversations about the publishing industry, indie authors, and what bringing systemic change looks like. I have been very focused on getting our initial books out into the world and ensuring they are successful, but these conversations are also a very important part of our goals here. Our community is great at engaging in those conversations and making sure they are loud enough for other bookish spaces to hear about them. My hope is that we can continue to do that, but at an even bigger level. More to come on that.

2. I need to grow our paid subscriptions. As it is right now, we are one of the largest communities at Bindery, which is a huge part of why we have been able to publish every season since we joined. But to become the presence we are trying to be in this industry, we need to be regularly putting books out and investing real effort into being a part of every space and conversation. And, most importantly, we need the work that we are doing to be sustainable. Occasional bursts of effort don't get the job done, even when they are huge efforts. We need to be able to sustain this work consistently for a very long time. Eventually, it will sustain itself as we have more and more successful books under our belt. But that is just not how things work in the start of new businesses. Especially businesses with the kind of expenses that come with successful publishing. For us to operate at a larger scale, building this part of our community is essential as we grow.

So what are our immediate goals?

GOAL #1

First, and foremost, I am going to try to promote the hell out of our community and get our paid subscriptions up to at least 1,000 members. And as is my M.O., I am going to try to do it immediately. It is February, which is when most Black businesses see their largest growth every single year. So I am going to be my normal ridiculous self and try to boost our numbers to 1,000 paid subscribers by the end of this month. And I'd love your help with that. I have been working toward this goal for a long time, but I am very motivated to get us there quickly. The world is only growing worse and worse and literature plays a huge role in shaping society. I do not see the fight for Black and brown authors as a side-quest. This is essential work. We NEED the arts to center the voices of marginalized people.

How can you help?

• First, if you are not already a paid subscriber and it is doable for you and your family, please upgrade to the $5 tier. Investing in this community helps us to, in turn, invest in more authors and to invest in solutions even outside of the books we publish. I want to build this community well enough where we can start meaningfully investing in indies too, because we cannot get to change without championing the people at the bottom. And we are far from being able to do that meaningfully.

• Talk to the readers in your life about the work you are helping us to accomplish and invite them to come invest in it too. I know that for many of us, $5 a month is a big investment. But it isn't for everyone. So help us to reach the readers who won't be inconvenienced by investing $5 or $12 a month into fighting for authors in the margins.

I will be doing a very targeted campaign for the rest of this month to help us grow this community and I'd love for as many of you as possible to be a part of it. I will be posting in here regularly with ideas and calls to action for anyone who wants to help us make content and push the content we are making. So watch your emails and/or your app notifications and engage when and where you can! Thanks.

GOAL #2

As I begin reintroducing content about the publishing industry, disrupting systemic barriers, and examining literature more critically, please engage. For these conversations to have the impact we need them to, our community is going to have to jump in and really engage. That means joining in the conversations, talking critically about the books we are reading in book club, jumping into discord talks, and sharing the content we are posting publicly so that more readers can be exposed to those conversations.

While I am focused on building our paid subscriptions so that we can take our publishing efforts to the next level, our overall community growth matters just as much. Our community, as a whole, engages in conversations, helps to promote the books we are championing, and invests time and energy into making sure our efforts are successful. So I will also be working to create public content and to pull more people into the free tier, to enable our publishing conversations to have an even larger reach. Sharing that content and inviting your own communities to come be a part of the conversations we are having matters very much. Currently, we have several thousand people subscribed to the free tier. I'd love to see us double, or even triple that, so that every conversation we start spreads in bookish spaces quickly and effectively.

Summary

I know I dream big and I ask a lot of the people dreaming with me. And I never want you to feel pressure to be more involved than you want to be. But for those of you who WANT to be more involved, this is what we need right now.

In the meantime, I have some pretty exciting content planned and will be dropping some incredible stuff over the next few weeks. So please make sure you pay attention to your emails/notifications! (Including later today, if you are a paid subscriber. Rumor has it, I am dropping a deleted chapter from Devil of the Deep for super secret book club!!!)

Love y'all!!!