On the Birth of an Indie Novel
It’s been a long road to get here, but Happy Cat Press was born on April 20, 2023, and my debut novel Apothecary 709 was released in September 2023. Let me tell you how it all came to be.
While I’ve kept up with the demands of running a fast-paced graphic design studio for 20 years, when it comes to my personal professional goals, I’ve always been the tortoise rather than the hare. I’ve known I wanted to be a writer and artist since I was a kid. I used to sit in my windowsill and compose (and illustrate with crayon) tiny books of bad poetry, while questioning my parents in the other room about how to spell most of the words. I’d staple the spines of the tiny construction-paper creations at least twenty times, and sometimes glue in bits of string, or cat-hair, or sand. Flash forward some fifteen years and I was lucky to study creative writing at Florida State University. I learned the nuts and bolts of crafting good fiction, and while my early work still contains a few gems, it lacked something I didn’t yet understand. Life experience.
After graduation, I got busy adulting, and those childhood dreams of becoming an author were pushed to the back burner. I married my best friend, landed a good job in communications, and found I really enjoyed designing our association’s newsletter. I learned PageMaker (which later became InDesign) and early Photoshop. I sought continuing education courses in Web design and graphics to advance my on-the-job skills. This English/Business major who’d always been an artist soon found herself working mostly in graphic design. With the encouragement of some amazing coworkers, I later decided to strike out on my own. I started a freelance graphic design studio which would become my career. I’m grateful every day that I get to do such a cool thing (from home!) for a living, but my old love of writing kept calling from the shadows. “When are you going to come back to me?” was the siren song.
One day about fifteen years ago, while working in my vegetable garden, the thought wouldn’t leave me—Why aren’t you writing? Why wasn’t I doing the thing I had always wanted to do? I decided to pick it up again and see what would come of my attempts. I started a novel— “THE” novel I’d had in my head since I was a teenager. But experienced writers know how that tale ends. I spent my first few hundred thousand (crappy) words in the attempt to bring that amazing vision to life, and of course the execution fell flat. My skills were rusty. I hadn’t been studying the craft of fiction enough in the intervening years since I’d been immersed in it back in school. I hadn’t even been reading enough. My 300k word steampunk epic had some amazing characters and scenes, but it was in no shape to query. Ditto the other novellas and unfinished attempts I’d begun. They all served their purpose though, to sharpen my pencil enough to bring me where I needed to be. (And I intend to revisit that manuscript again in due time.)
Then one night in 2010 I had a vivid dream so cool I didn’t want to forget it. I wrote it down in story form and it became (after many revisions) the first chapter of Apothecary 709, which would become my debut novel thirteen years later. I drafted the book on and off while I still struggled with the other steampunk WIP (work in progress). Apothecary was my “fun” escape when I got too stressed about my other “serious” project.
Apothecary also evolved over the years with my skills. My early drafts had a spark of life that I knew was worth something, but my characters were a little flat, my pacing off, my focus spread too thin. I credit the help of my amazing critique group, The Outcasts, for helping me identify what worked and didn’t, and encouraging me to keep going.
When I had a draft of Apothecary I considered worthy enough to enter the querying trenches, I wanted to polish it into its best shape, so I enlisted the help of Jessica Morrell, a fantastic editor I met at the Tallahassee Writers Association’s conference a few years prior. Jessica was phenomenal and taught me so much in our time together, which has improved my writing forever. She also helped me see what I didn’t want to see—my draft was still not ready.
Armed with my new set of expectations and skills, I set out to rewrite it again. It took about another year, but afterward I knew I had something special, and I was finally ready to query.
In 2019 I began in earnest, obsessing over the dreaded query letter, finding lists of agents, taking part in fun Twitter pitch contests. I had decent luck with the latter and got some solid leads which led to agent requests, but I was running up against a new problem. My draft was still too long, which resulted in automatic rejections from most agents I contacted. At that point it was about 160k. I had already cut it down from 180k. Being Gen X, I had grown up reading fantasy epics which were about this length, and didn’t realize it would be a problem, but I would soon learn that tastes and industry demands had changed. (Longer books mean more paper and thus are more expensive—not a risk most agents are willing to take on an unknown writer.) After about 20 rejections, I determined to break out the scissors to make more cuts to the novel. I got it down to 130k—the form it’s in today. It’s honestly a stronger draft now, and I am glad I learned the “less is more” lesson, albeit the hard way.
Now it was early 2020, and I was ready to hit the querying trenches once more, with my novel that I was sure was finally ready for the big time. AND, you know the rest of that story. It was 2020. The COVID-19 panic and lockdowns soon hit. Everyone, including the publishing industry, struggled to make sense of what was happening in the world. Publishers laid off editors. Agents weren’t acquiring anything. I watched the drama unfold on Twitter and heard from fellow querying friends that they weren’t getting anywhere either. My graphics business lost income because much of my work is driven by industry meetings and conferences, which were all cancelled. Everything turned upside down. It felt like the worst possible time for me to be querying again, and I gave up.
That was it. I just didn’t send it out. I participated in a few more last-ditch efforts, like mentoring contests through Twitter, but they didn’t pan out. I didn’t want to get any more rejections, and I didn’t want to wait around another few years for things in the industry to hopefully change.
After the shock of 2020-2021 was behind me, I switched gears. I decided to go Indie.
That was always my fallback plan, and if I’m going to be honest, it was what I always expected would happen. I just wanted to give that big contract dream a chance first, which was probably more about my own ego than anything else (although lack of funds and know-how plaid a role in my unwillingness to go it alone too). Like it or not, I had to come to terms with what I was hearing from other writers and from agents and editors I watched on Twitter. The industry had changed from what I knew in my younger days, so my expectations needed to change. The best chance for my book was not what I originally thought it would be. The best path for my book was like anything else in my life—something I created for myself.
For the past ten years, as part of my graphic design business, I have created book covers for indie authors and small press clients. I love this part of my work, and I take joy in helping authors put a “face” on their baby. I’ve won several book cover design awards, and have made many contacts in the industry this way. That experience also taught me a good deal about what it takes to go indie, and I have much respect for the authors I know who are creating, producing, and marketing their own books.
So, what was I waiting for? I had the technical skills I needed to do this thing. I just needed to cross the finish line.
In 2022, I hired an amazing editor to help me get the book ready for publication. Joan Leggitt, with Twisted Road Publications, did a rockstar job. Then I was ready for final proofing, interior formatting, and the exciting task of designing my own cover (for which I already had tons of ideas). I brainstormed indie press names, but all the fun ones related to alchemy and mysticism (themes in my book) were already taken. I mused the right one would arrive when ready, just like my book’s first chapter had come to me in a dream. I was ready to take the final steps of self-publishing.
Then, I found out I was pregnant!
Now, dear reader, I was 45! My husband and I had also tried for many years to have children and had come to the difficult acceptance that we couldn’t. So, when I found out on Christmas morning (!) that I was pregnant, I was in shock.
Life throws you curveballs sometimes, and then there are massive realignments of everything you know! I was thrilled! But it took all my attention and energy for some months. When I was finally ready to think about the book again, I had found a name for my indie press, inspired by my cat Tesla. Happy Cat Press was born in April of 2023, and my sweet baby boy was born in August. AND, somehow despite my new-mom-level lack of sleep (and resulting zombie-like automaton state), I was able to hit “publish” on Apothecary 709 in September!
I’m very proud of the book. It’s not backed by a big publishing house, but so much love went into it. It’s a great read with a cool cover. I’ve already received fan emails from a couple readers, and that encourages me to keep going.
Did I do the launch right? Heck no. I missed most of the things you are supposed to do for a successful launch apparently. I didn’t do pre-orders. I only gave a handful of ARC copies to writer friends. I didn’t do the massive build-up of marketing posts (even this blog post is months late, you might note). I didn’t do any blog tours. I’m not even on TikTok yet (gasp!) The list goes on. I’m still learning this marketing thing as I go, and I hope to do a little better on book number two, and even better on book three…
In terms of indie author marketing strategy, I’ll be blogging about what I learn. So, bookmark this site or subscribe to my newsletter if you would like to read more about what worked and didn’t work for me.
One thing I’m excited about is my first book signing! This is coming up tomorrow! It will be a chance to greet the world—at least my super-supportive local writing community—as a debut author. If I’m lucky I’ll sell enough copies to cover the cost of the books I ordered for the event (and possibly the kick-ass unicorn bookmarks I designed as giveaways).
It’s a solid start to my writing journey, and it’s the journey that counts. I’m loving every step of the way.
Thank you for your time!
—Cristen Elizabeth Rose
