Big (Unexpected) News

And My Plans Going Forward

Well, I can say with upmost certainty that when I wrote my blog about making changes in my writing career at the end of last year, it never occurred to me that the changes I’m about to tell you about were going to happen EVER, let alone as fast as they’re happening. To avoid being needlessly dramatic, I’ll get straight to it, but first, grab your drink of choice, maybe a snack, and get comfy. Because boy howdy, do I have news.

Friends, the inciting incident of this chapter of my life started just a few weeks ago. I received an email from the head honcho of the company that published my novels explaining that big changes were underway. Some of you might recall that I mentioned the first iteration of these changes in my blog that I posted this time last year. To recap, the company would no longer be acquiring romance or young adult novels, which resulted in my two in-progress deals to be dead in the water. This was when I first started thinking about my next steps and what I might want to do to get my work published going forward. Due to this being my final year of my degree program (I’m graduating in October! YAY!), I decided to kick this can down the line and only made tentative plans of what to do next once I’d graduate.

Well, flash forward to the email two weeks ago and the second iteration of changes were upon us: not only would the company no longer be acquiring my genre, but, in the interest of branding and consistency, they no longer wanted to have those genres in their catalogue and were giving the option of reverting rights back to the authors.

In other words, they were unpublishing my books.

I’m not gonna lie, at first, this felt like a kick in the teeth. I had spent so many years trying to get an literary agent or a book deal, and to feel like that was getting undone and setting me back to square one was a challenge I didn’t anticipate having to face. I found myself, not for the first time in my recent life, realizing there wasn’t a place for me in this space I thought I had won some territory in. It had moved away from me and I wasn’t sure I was ready to let go my tiny fingerhold and accept that I needed to start heading down a different road. (Oh, I do so take my wrong roads, don’t I?)

But, after talking to many writer friends, looking over my goals, and researching the current writing landscape, I started to realize this wasn’t an ending. This was the opportunity I’d been too scared to take before. See, I’d been having this pressing feeling that I needed to sub my written but not yet sold books to some midsize publishers, work on some joint project with writerly friends, and grit my teeth and plunge back into the trenches.

Later, I’d said. Now, the universe replied.

And getting my rights back was a gift I didn’t even know I’d wanted. To be honest (again), I’d had regrets about my previous novels. I didn’t love the title change my editor had insisted on for my debut. I love that book but every time I said the new title, I felt the tiniest bit ridiculous. (Now I get to retitle it anything I want!) I’d had “friends” tell me my covers sucked. (Not nice, but another opportunity to consider a redesign.) I even regretted some of the lines I’d felt obligated to add because of the genre-mandated steam levels. (Now I get to do steamy-clean my way; industry standards be damned.) Basically, the rights reversal has turned into my chance to experiment in a space I didn’t feel ready to explore yet, but is perfect for my do-overs. (I can’t tell you how many do-overs I’ve been praying for, so it felt really, really good to finally get one.)

While the timing isn’t what I thought I would have chosen, I’ve decided this massive, unexpected change was exactly the kick I needed to push myself into dreaming bigger and better than I’ve let myself for years. My writing to-do list just got a lot more focused, and I’m so excited for what I (and some of my writing friends) have cooking behind the scenes.

All this to say, watch this space, because boy howdy, do I have big plans, and I can’t wait to share them all with you.

(Oh, and last call to get my novels as they currently exist. As of July 1st, 2026, they’re going the way of the dinosaurs!)