Tag: indie publishing

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Academic Contemporary Fiction English Major Fiction Flash Fiction Flash Fiction Series Khali's Corner Mental Health MFA Creative Writing Publishing Reviews

Khali’s Corner: Grad School & Writing

Hey, y’all!

This has been a crazy 2 years, and I hope that if you’re reading this, that you are somewhere safe, warm, and feeling loved (and if not, then I love you!) With that being said, I’m starting a small segment called Khali’s Corner where I will give a few updates about myself and what’s been going on with me and my writing. I also feel like doing this every month or so will help me to somehow have a better connection with you as my audience, whether you are visiting because you’re interested in becoming published, or you’re visiting to read the different pieces of art (FYI: books and stories are art), or maybe you just want to know who is behind the curtain of Lemons & Gold Publishing.

The catch to this is that after this Khali’s Corner, you will need to join my email newsletter to keep up with what I am doing every month as a Publisher, a Student, an Author, and so forth (I wear a LOT of different hats in real life!). So, after this blog post, make sure you sign up for our email newsletter for Lemons & Gold Publishing.

As a Student

Most of you all know that I am a student in grad school. I am a full-time student and the reason I’m even typing this is that we’re on break, and I pulled my back, so I can’t do anything else right now but write…which is great! However, grad school is kicking my ass HARD! I am completing my MFA in Creative Writing with Southern New Hampshire University and, I don’t know if it’s due to my neurodiversity, but the workload has been kind of hard in the last 2 semesters. I had a lot of other deaths and changes in my life and family in the past few months and so no matter how much I planned and used my planner and tried to stay on schedule, I just couldn’t get with it this semester. I still got good grades this semsester, my GPA is down to a 3.7 from the 3.9 I had earlier in the year.

So far, my mind has opened up to all the possiblities of what I can participate in, in the literary world. A lot of my classes have been about learning different genres, learning about how to publish stories whether you decide to do traditional publishing, self-publishing, (or join me and get published with a small press!) or do the hybrid route as working with a publisher and deciding on what you want control over, just have them publish for you.

I have realized that I am definitely a Speculative writer. My classmates even agreed unanimously that I am definitely, for sure not a contemporary writer…but I do great work with contemporary elements. I love to write magical stuff, I use a lot of magical realism and science fiction in my work. I thought I was a contemporary writer and it’s the equivalent of saying “I like my coffee in my sugar”, I like having fun in my stories and so I use contemporary elements sometimes to set the story, and then add sprinkles. Lots of them!

I will be going into my second year of grad school in just a few days of writing this post, in January. So there will be updates along the way, every month. I will also be keeping up with the details of my writing projects, especially Scribe because that beloved novel of mine that I have yet to finish, is my thesis for my program. So, I do have to meet word counts with that by different deadlines. So, you’ll be hearing about me army crawling through the house just trying to survive the rest of the year. I will be graduating in October 2022 with my Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Yes, I want to be a Professor.

As an Author & Publisher

Okay…so, I feel this is going to go hand-in-hand with my decision to become a Publisher. So let’s just say it…

We all know how the job market is right now, right? Okay, so I spent the first half of 2021 as an ESL teacher. I was happily teaching kids in China online when life happened and I had to quit the job in June, hoping I could either land another online ESL job or just find a job somewhere. I currently live in the middle of nowhere, Florida, so finding a job in person has been extra hard, and when you’re a person with disabilities, it becomes extra hard to find a job that you can even tolerate…but I tried! A lot of jobs turned out to be scams, a lot of jobs that I used to do I became overqualified for, and there are a lot of jobs pretending that they need help and lying to get it. I got extremely discouraged because it seemed like I would never find anything. 

So, I prayed about it and received the revelation that I have all the skills I need to open my own publishing business. I wasted so much time this year on nonsense, I haven’t been able to read for fun or even enjoy Netflix or anything this year, just be a student and find work. I told myself that I will not be living like that anymore, so I am focused on running my own publishing company and being a full-time grad school student. I have the knowledge now on how to market and do social media marketing and copywriting and SEO for different platforms, I know how to create nice book covers by genre and niche (like the update I did for the Visionary Chronicles? I did that by myself!), I know what makes a good story, I’m a trained editor (I’ve taken a Technical editing class in undergrad, but will complete another editing class in 2022), I have a background in retail & call center work and have always had a position as a trainer, supervisor, or other position of leadership and I love to give valid feedback that will help the person improve, not just opinions, so why not publish other authors and help them find their way as well? So here we are!

As an author, I have been pinpointing my weaknesses as a writer. I’m not that much into worldbuilding, but I make some great fast-paced scenes, I’m great when it comes to creating action and making the reader think twice about what they just read. I like writing to have fun, to entertain, and to learn something…like fables for grown folks.

I was going to write about the 2 projects that I have planned for 2022 coming directly from me, but that will be in another post. I’ll see you there! Be Blessed! (Join the newsletter! Don’t sleep!)

Categories
Fiction Flash Fiction Publishing Uncategorized Writing Tips

What to Expect From Us as Your Publisher

Thank you so much for visiting Lemons & Gold Publishing!

Lemons & Gold Publishing is a small, boutique indie press that specializes in publishing speculative novels by Black authors due to the pushback that Black speculative authors receive from the mainstream publishing houses. About 2% of 2,000 speculative authors that were published in 2015, were Black authors. That’s unacceptable!

Therefore, we’re currently accepting and publishing manuscripts from Black authors (across the Diaspora), who write fantasy, science, and contemporary speculative fiction. This can also include stories that have a lot of magical realism elements in them as well.

It’s exciting to get your first book published, but it’s also important to know what you’re getting yourself into, so why should you work with a small press? Well, you get more of a face-to-face, personal approach with the publisher. Small presses are able to sit with you and help you improve your story and your overall writing craft as a writer. We do this by highlighting your strengths and pointing out substantial weaknesses in your story. 

Being that we are a small press, this also allows you to receive more in royalties with us than you would with a big-name publisher, simply because you don’t have a pile of people to pay.  Lemons & Gold Publishing will support you as you begin your career as an author.

As the Head of Publishing at Lemons & Gold Publishing, Khali LaBre will help you by:

  • Completing a development edit of your novel to make sure your story is cohesive and doesn’t have substantial errors
  • Formatting your books for ebook and print distribution 
  • Creating a beautiful book cover that fits your books genre and market* 
  • Promoting your book before, during, and after your release date* on our social media outlets and our website, where we will also list you as one of our authors
  • Distrbuting your books to a wide number of retailers

Why should you work with Lemons & Gold Publishing? Great question! Although we’re new, our founder and owner, Khàli LaBré, isn’t new to publishing. She started in 2018 as a self-published author while finishing her undergrad degree in English. She published two novels that year and did the entire process by herself as a broke college student. 

She knows what it’s like to write 4th and 5th drafts, edit the book into oblivion, participate in critique groups, to create her own book covers, submit a book to be added to the county library, and later down the road after she had already published her first two books, she worked as a digital marketer and learned how to advertise on social media. She’s currently in an MFA master’s program, fine-tuning her creative writing abilities and learning about the industry. 

Khàli LaBré is well qualified to help you on your journey and provide you with the resources you need to guide you on your next steps after publishing. She will help you avoid the mistakes she made when she first became a published author, and will tell you what she knows to help you with your journey.

Once you submit your story to us, we will respond within 7-10 business days. If your story meets our criteria and we find interest in it, we will let you know within that week if we would like to publish it and send you our offer. 

From that point, we will complete extensive edits, critiques, and coaching moments, and also run promotional campaigns before, during, and after your book is published and launched. We will also offer you a book cover, or you can use one that has been made for you as long as it meets our standards as our publishing brand. 

We will also help you find ways to do your author events (especially online right now due to the pandemic), and other resources to promote your story. If we find your work to be exceptional, we will submit your story to be nominated for various book awards.

What We Expect From You as an Author

We expect our authors is to bring us a completely finished manuscript that meets our genre and standards, preferably pre-edited and reviewed or beta-read. Authors should also be promoting themselves and their work prior to working with us and will be responsible for their part in self-promotion. More details will be given when we give you our offer and meet with you on a scheduled Zoom call. 

To submit your manuscript with us, you must follow our submission guidelines that can be found on our website at https://lemonsngold.com/queries/ 

Our overall goal is to have a bigger team and provide even more for our authors and readers throughout the year and into 2023. Khàli has so many ideas in store, but it really depends on you and your support as authors, readers, and subscribers to help us in our efforts to see this goal come true!

We are the Voice of the Black Superhero!

Cite Your Sources!: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/09/black-science-fiction-writers-universal-racism-study-finds-fireside-fiction-blackspecfic

Categories
Contemporary Fiction Fiction Flash Fiction Flash Fiction Series Publishing

What’s New in 2022?

Alright, so it’s been a while since we’ve posted a blog post, and we sincerely apologize for that, but we have a very good reason as to why. After completing her first year of grad school, Khàli LaBré has decided to take her author brand, Lemons & Gold, and expand it into a Black indie publishing company! That’s right, Lemons & Gold is now Lemons & Gold Publishing!

As of December 2021, we are now an indie publishing company that is currently publishing and promoting the stories of Black authors who write speculative fiction. This includes fantasy fiction, science fiction, speculative contemporary & literary fiction (contemporary, thought-provoking stories that include some elements of magical realism), written by Black authors who would like to work with a small publisher to get their books published and promoted a little faster than waiting for a big publishing house to see and accept them.

Now, that being said, yes we know that there are thousands upon thousands of Black authors wanting to be published; however, we will be making sure that the quality of the stories that we decide to publish will be of good quality. We are not going to be publishing just any and everybody. The best part is that even if we decide to not go with your story, you will receive critique and coaching from a qualified source to get you on the right track. This will be discussed in another post.

So, let’s talk about what our 2022 goals are as a publishing company:

  1. Publish 10-12 Books! Yes, you read that right! We have a quota to meet! There are so many Black authors who are struggling to get their books published simply because instead of focusing on the plight of us as Black people, they want to write about us in fantastical lands and living magical lives. This genre is being overlooked in the mainstream publishing industry, so we want to pave the way here at Lemons & Gold Publishing, after all, that’s kinda how we got started.
  2. Grow Our Own Community: If you haven’t done it yet, now would be the best time to sign up for our email newsletter! We are completely revamping the way that we engage with our readers and have a LOT in store for 2022! So please sign up for the newsletter, and also stay tuned because we will also be starting a Patreon that you definitely will want to be a part of that will include some goodies throughout the year!
  3. Coaching and Promoting Amazing New Black Authors: One of the best things about working with us as a publisher is that Khàli has completed the entire process herself as a self-published author and learned what to do, and definitely what not to do when it comes to promoting your novels before, during, and after a launch. We want our authors to know that they are supported by making sure their names and books are being showcased in every avenue possible.

If you are interested in becoming published with us, you can see our submission guidelines here: https://lemonsngold.com/queries/

So, there you have it! These are the 3 biggest goals that we have for 2022! Will we accomplish these goals? Will you be one of our newest authors? Find out on the next episode of….hmmm…don’t have a title for that yet! Lol! Happy New Year!