If you have not been following along on social media, I have spent the last seven days focusing on growing this community so that we can make some big moves as a publishing imprint. Here is an update!

In the last year, we have published two books--Cry, Voidbringer & Devil of the Deep. We have another book coming out later this year, Buzzard. And we have two books in the works over the next few seasons: From Our Blood and a project I haven't officially announced yet (but trust me, you'll be happy).

Our first two books are both doing very well:

• Cry, Voidbringer was a finalist for a major literary award (a Lambda). We did not win, but being a finalist is, in and of itself, a major accomplishment.

• Devil of the Deep was an Indie Press Top-40 bestseller its first week after publication and has been featured in a number of book clubs, podcasts and blogs in the month since.

And our soon releasing near-future dystopian, Buzzard, was chosen as an Indies Introduce Pick, which is an incredibly prestigious program that will help to boost this books to more bookstores and, ultimately, onto more readers bookshelves.

So, what we are doing is working.

Which brings a me to our next step: growth.

Right now, our publishing efforts are very successful. Which means it becomes my job to capitalize on that success and to amplify those efforts so that we can invest in even more authors, support even more publishing projects, and ultimately have a much greater impact on the way marginalized authors are received within the publishing industry.

Because as we have been talking about for years now, our goal is not just to publish successful books. Our goal is to create a lasting impact and to challenge the way Black and brown authors are received industry-wide. That is an unbelievably big goal, I know. But it is one I fully plan to achieve, which is why these growth pushes are so important.

Practically speaking, my current goal is to find 500 more people to invest into this community at a paid tier, so that we have the budget we need to add a third book to our yearly list. Right now, we have the capacity to publish every 6 to 7 months. By hitting this goal, we are able to shift that so that we can publish every 3-4 months instead, which provides us with a more consistent publishing schedule so that we can more easily capitalize on the momentum of each project to push our overall goals forward.

This is an important step for where I see this imprint going, so I am very passionate about getting us to this goal and moving forward as a publishing community.

Currently, I am actively searching for another project for Fall 2027. And I have a couple of really good contenders. If you are a paid subscriber, be watching for an update on the manuscripts I am reading soon after this blog. I am working on that next. We have the budget to pick up one more project for next year.

HOWEVER, and this is an important however, if we can hit this subscriber goal in the next week or two, I think we will be in a good position to invest in a second new project as well. And like I said, I think the consistency of regular projects is an important next step for us. So I am really eager to meet this goal as soon as possible so that we can start making moves in 2027, rather than pushing those off for 2028.

If you are not already a paid subscriber, consider this your invitation to upgrade today. This email is going to go out to almost four thousand people. So I have every confidence that we can get to this goal today. Which would be great, because the sooner we have those resources secured, the better position we are in to invest in more projects.

So yeah, go ahead and upgrade to that $5 or $12 (or $25 if you're feeling froggy) tier right now and go wait for my subscriber update in just a little bit! (and keep in mind that there is a ton of content being released right now. We are working hard to make sure your investment is returned to you in the kind of content you love).

I am going to continue reading these manuscripts and move forward with the confidence that we will hit this goal. Because I truly believe we'll hit it and be able to invest in even more incredible authors of color.

Love y'all! And happy reading!