I have been in bookish spaces for years and, as a result, I have made a lot of friends in publishing. In fact, many of my mutuals work in traditional and indie publishing. Which is great. I love being able to talk to the people making the magic about books, about publishing, about marketing, all of it. It's so much fun. But here's the thing: out of dozens of publishing professionals that I rub shoulders with regularly, would you like to know how many of them are Black men?

One.

Out of dozens of people, I only know one Black man. And I only know three Black women.

I just want you to understand why I am so passionate about the work that I do. A few months ago, I attended an event in Harper Collins home office, where myself and a group of bookish influencers were able to sit down with two of their editors and two of their marketing professionals to discuss the industry and where things are heading. And during that conversation, one of the things we discussed was how passionate these specific editors were for seeing representation in the books that they champion. Especially those of them that were people of color. They were very honest with us. While there has been progress, it is not happening fast enough, and one of the biggest ways it is happening is through the direct efforts of individual publishing professionals who are passionate for change: largely because they, themselves, are people of color or marginalized in some other way.

The problem is, the publishing industry is a very small and tight knit community. And while plenty of work has been done to make sure there are more Black and brown authors getting publishing deals than there used to be, the people who are sitting behind these desks, making these decisions must also represent the communities that are so desperate for real champions. And that is not happening fast enough. Which means that we are in a situation where Black and brown authors are being added to the roster faster than the number of people passionately championing them. And that is a discrepancy that is being deeply felt by those authors as they watch their colleagues be championed more effectively and more passionately.

The reason that I have been fighting so ridiculously hard to grow this publishing community and helping other Black and brown tastemakers to start publishing communities of their own is because there are not enough people who look like me who are sitting in these chairs, directly championing Black and brown authors. And I am convinced that if we want meaningful and lasting change in the way that Black and brown people are given access to publishing, more of these chairs need to be filled by us.

So here I am, once again annoyingly asking you to help us ensure that this community continues to grow. We have exploded in the year that we have been doing this work. In fact, we've added over 1,000 subscribers in 2025 alone. But in addition to people being present and ready to talk about and champion these books, we also need to continue to expand our budget so that we can stand firm in our goal to champion more authors, take on more projects, and get more aggressive in our efforts to meaningfully impact the way that publishing approaches Black and brown writers.

I told you in February that my immediate goal was to hit 500 paid subscribers. And we ended the month fairly close, with less than 150 to go. And we are still around there, so it is time to throw our weight into another growth spurt. Not just to hit that initial goal, but to stretch passed it and to really show how invested this community is in championing authors who are in need of change.

One of the things you need to understand about publishing is that it is extremely time consuming, extremely laborious and extremely expensive. This community has shown up over and over again to champion our authors and to get the work done. I firmly believe we are ready to tackle the pressure of championing more stories, but we also need to make sure that they are good financial decisions. Which means two things:

1. We need to make sure that we are investing our budget and our efforts into the books we are currently championing successfully.

2. We need to grow our community so that we are sufficiently prepared to invest in more projects. Because we are in this to SUCCESSFULLY champion authors. We are not going to sign books we don't have the resources, reach and energy to champion well.

In regard to that first goal, if you are a paid subscriber, you can expect an email in the next day or two with a publishing update on both of the projects we are currently working on--Cry, Voidbringer and Devil of the Deep--along with information on a weekly family time zoom where you can come hear directly from me and, occasionally, from our authors directly on what we are working on and where you can plug in if you want to. You can also start expecting a monthly email with updates on our current goals and upcoming partnerships/content so that you can engage with whatever you find meaningful.

And in regard to our second goal, here is my ask: If you are not a paying subscriber and it will not negatively impact your family to become one, consider upgrading to $5, $12 or even $25 a month. Every single dollar we add to our budget helps us reach out goals and enable us to move closer to our larger goals. I know exactly what impact this economy is having on us all. So please know, I am not asking anyone to invest money they do not have. This ask is for people who can afford to make the investment.

To give you a clear picture of the benefits of investing, outside of your general desire to do so, here are some perks to keep in mind:

$5 subscribers can expect (a) access to all of our publishing updates, (b) an e-copy of every book we publish prior to the book coming out (c) early access to new projects and major announcements, (d) a unique role in our discord community so you can join our subscriber-only chats, (e) access to a regular zoom meeting where you can hear updates and ask any questions you have and (f) plenty of opportunities to actually weigh in on ideas and projects we are working on.

$12 & $25 subscribers can expect all of that, plus (a) an early physical copy of each finished project and (b) your name listed in each of our published books as a contributor. Imagine if you had the opportunity to have your name listed in some of the greatest books on your shelf? Well, we are only acquiring books we firmly believe will keep up with the greats. Consider the value of having your name listed right there on the page and letting everyone know that you invested in them before they were on "best of" lists. Early reviewers are calling our debut publication--Cry, Voidbringer--things like "the book of the year", a "life changing read", and comparing it to books like The Fifth Season. And while it's too late to get your name listed in that book, our next books are every bit its equal.

In addition to that, here are some FREE things you can do:

1. Make sure you add our projects to your Goodreads TBR. Regardless of whether you use Goodreads consistently (I certainly do not. Screw Jeff Bezos), Goodreads TBRs are public, so we are able to use them to show retailers how much interest our books have. That helps us to get them into more bookstores and ultimately, into more readers hands. Many of us have complicated feelings about Goodreads and I won't pressure you to do anything that you morally object to. I just want you to understand the value of those lists. They help us champion authors. Currently, Cry, Voidbringer is our only project on Goodreads, and you can go add it HERE

2. If you intend to buy a copy of Cry, Voidbringer, please pre-order it earlier rather than later. Once again, early metrics make a massive difference when we are trying to project how well a book will do. And that is important as we are trying to champion these projects and get them into retailers. It is also important as we are trying to develop partnerships to position these books for even greater success. HERE is a link where you can go grab the book now.

3. Invite your friends who are not plugged in to online bookish spaces to be a part of this community. You all know people who read who aren't on booktok or bookstagram. They may never hear about this community and a vision that they might really resonate with. So go tell them. Invite them to not only read our books, but to come subscribe.

Thanks, y'all! That's all I really have for you right now. But I just want to emphasize how grateful I am for this community and how excited I am to grow and to fight for even more authors with you!

Also, between us, I am about to drop some really cool updates tomorrow. So, make sure you upgrade tonight so you get to see that update as soon as it drops!