My Publication Journey
About Skye AKA S.D. Hegyes
Fantasy Author, Monster Lover
S.D. Hegyes is a pen name Skye writes and publishes fantasy books under. She currently resides in Montana with her husband, two monster-munchkins, a bearded dragon, two dogs, and three cats. She tends to write about monsters ( and other things that go bump in the night) falling in love.
First Steps to Self-Publish
I commissioned an artist who’s work I loved for a cover and submitted Puck’s Choice to an editor on Upwork. I’d been shopping another novel with agents for awhile to no avail. Back then, it wasn’t Upwork, but I can’t remember what it was. We agreed to two rounds of edits, and she got the first one back to me before Thanksgiving.
She had two pieces of advice for me: one- I make it novel-length, and two- I change it from first person to third person POV.
Although, I didn’t think it at the time, it was the best advice anyone had ever given me. It turns out, I’m not really good at first person POV. In fact, I suck at it.
Inspired and with a plan at hand, I re-wrote Puck’s Choice in third person and submitted it back to her before Christmas. She replied and let me know it would be after the holidays before she could even look at it, which I was fine with.
Despite several attempts to contact her once the holidays were said and done, I never heard from her again.
Losing Hope
Discouraged, because I’d wasted my money on an editor that wouldn’t respond to me, even just to tell me they could no longer handle the job, I gave up hopes of self-publishing Puck’s Choice and called the editing and cover a loss.
I focused on the short stories I’d written in 2010, collecting them, sending them to various beta readers in various genres, and editing them. March 2014, I created a baaad cover for Short Story Smash. Then I formatted the final file and pressed “publish” on my first self-published book.
I returned to the drawing board with Puck, and by that, what I mean is I perused Facebook groups for small presses accepting submissions. One of my best writing friends, V.L. Jennings had just re-published her first novel with a small press and loved them.
Cedar Loft Productions
Although they weren’t accepting submissions, there was another who was: Cedar Loft Productions.
I read and re-read their submission guidelines and finally submitted Puck about the end of July 2014, knowing I wouldn’t hear back for up to six weeks.
On August 11, 2014, I got a reply. Someone wanted Puck. My husband and I celebrated! I was going to be an author!
Contracts were looked over and signed, and finally, it looked as if Puck was heading in the right direction again.
The manuscript went through the edit it should have gotten from the Upwork editor, and some things were changed I was happy about and some that I wasn’t so happy about.
I got to choose between two concepts for the book cover (shown below) and got the final file for formatting and proofreading.
A cover reveal occurred in September and Puck’s Choice, the first book in the Shifters & Mages series released December 3, 2014. I was a published author!
Red Flag
As part of my contract, I was supposed to market my book. Seventy-five percent of marketing was done on my end and twenty-five was done on the publisher’s end.
As such, I made a ton of business cards and bookmarks, a handful of postcards, a ton of goodie bags to give away, and attended several events where I had a table set up and sold books.
I always spent more money than I made. Tables were expensive and I only had one book published. I still follow and talk to several people I met at those events though, so I didn’t mind.
Sometime between 2014 and 2016, when the next Shifters & Mages novel, Jenna’s Story, released, Cedar Loft Productions became Cedar Loft Publishing (CLP).
I signed on with the company as a publishing partner, where I helped do the following:
- work on marketing strategies and packages
- read submissions
- prepare books for publication
- minimal administrative duties
- updating web sites
The owner of CLP told me she wanted someone in place in case of emergencies, and maybe even someone to take over the company when she retired. She and her husband were the sole owners of the company, and they were both starting to have health issues that worried them both.
She even asked if I’d be interested in the publishing company.
Did I want to own a publishing company? Yes. It sounded like a win to me.
Sales dropped. Across all the books with the publishing house. When I asked why, I found out I was one of the few authors who marketed. CLP was marketing as well, but only to the same venues with little-to-no results.
Downhill
CLP hinted at closing even before Jenna’s Story debuted. If sales didn’t pick up, it would.
I joined different Facebook groups and studied indie authors and how they marketed their books. I made suggestions to market books and help sales. My words fell on deaf ears and nothing happened.
Everything came to a head at the beginning of 2017 and by the end of February, CLP decided to close its doors. My books remained published until September, when the contract ended. Soon after I got full rights to my novels back.
Moving On
It’s been over a year since I got my rights back. At first, I debated shopping it around to other publishers, but I decided against it.
I’m working on re-publishing the Shifters & Mages series, but it’s slow work. I’m working with an editor I love who doesn’t seem to hate me yet. I owe her more than she’ll ever realize.
I’ve found a new artist to do the covers. Remember when I was first thinking of self-publishing and I hired a cover artist and an editor? I no longer have the cover I commissioned, which makes me sad.
Someday, the Shifters & Mages series will be published again, and when it is, it will be better than it was prior. I just have to get to that point. For now, it will remain on the list of previously-published books.