Lee Child, the Jack Reacher author, just signed on with a brand-new publishing house as an executive committee member. What he said about it is worth a minute of your time.

The house is called High Line. It was started last month by Neil Blair, the agent who represents J.K. Rowling. It has offices in London and New York. The books will be sold the usual way, through regular bookstores, with Hachette handling distribution. So this is not a self-publishing platform. It is a small new publisher inside the regular system.

They are starting with two labels. One, Odessa Editions, is for Jewish and Israeli fiction and nonfiction. The other, Antidote Books, is for nonfiction that looks at hard questions from more than one side. Their first books are planned for next fall.

Here is Lee Child, from their website:

“The world is in a ridiculous mess, and we won’t fix it by silencing people, ignoring ideas, or sticking to what we think we know. High Line aims to give a voice to those who need one… This is exactly what publishing should be doing.”

The person running the company put it even more simply: we exist to serve the writer, not the other way around.

A few thoughts:

This is not Lee Child quitting traditional publishing. He built his career inside it. Years ago he even argued that self-publishing was not going to replace the big houses. So read this as someone on the inside saying the job could be done better, not as someone burning the place down.

The line that matters for us is the one about serving the writer. A lot of you have felt the opposite. You send the book in. Then you wait. Somewhere in there, the book stops feeling like yours and starts feeling like it belongs to a meeting you were not invited to. The editing gets light. The help getting it in front of readers gets lighter, unless your name is already famous. If a new house is willing to say out loud that the writer is the point, that is worth noticing. It is also worth waiting to see whether the actual deals match the nice sentence.

The other line, about not shutting people up, is also of note. Publishers have always had to choose. They cannot print everything. The real question is whether the choosing has gotten so narrow that whole kinds of books, and whole kinds of writers, cannot find a door. A house willing to publish something that might annoy somebody is at least admitting a basic truth: books that only comfort the people already in the room are not doing their job.

Whoever publishes you, big house or small, should be able to say without squirming that they are there to serve the work. Real editing. A real plan for finding readers. Honesty about what they will and will not do. You can ask for that. And you can also walk away from a deal that cannot offer it.

Regardless of this news, keep writing the book that might bother someone, including you. Ask yourself the hard questions and go deep. Real art has the capacity to make us nervous, Susan Sontag said.

New houses can open all they want. None of them can write the manuscript. That part is still up to you. I’m cheering you on.

-Brandy

Read the news here: https://www.highlinepublishing.com/about https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/101223-agent-neil-blair-launches-high-line-publishing-studio.html

Hey friends,

A new book just came onto my radar and I wanted to share it with you. Allen Arnold is a friend of mine and I greatly admire what he does. He’s also a former Big 6 Fiction Publisher, so he has tons of experience in this world. I saw him this summer at the Realm Maker’s Conference.

Here’s his website to find out more about what he does: https://www.withallen.com

The blurb for his new book is below. If anyone in this community would like a copy and you can’t afford one for yourself right now (no judgement) just send me a message through Patreon with your address and I’ll forward your information to Allen. He’ll send you the book. <3

You Are Made to Create.
What’s in the Way?

There are endless ways to bring beauty, life, and order into this world—from cultivating ideas, gardens, and relationships to creating stories, songs, and an atmosphere of love. We do so through who we are and what we make.

Yet something is off. Projects and pursuits that once filled us with joy are now filled with turbulence, confusion, and exhaustion. Our original creative design is compromised—disrupting our desire and ability to create with the Creator and affecting how, why, and what we make. It is the Creativity Glitch.

For decades, Allen Arnold has helped thousands overcome their creative struggles and make what matters. Through personal stories, practical steps, and biblical insights, he now reveals how you can…

• Replace Doubt with Desire

• Resist the Glitch

• Get & Stay Unstuck

• Find & Pursue Your Groove

• Achieve the Six Stages of Creativity

• Create with God in New & Real Ways

We were created to be glitch-free. We can be so again—by recovering what’s been lost, resisting the glitch, and pursuing our creativity with God.

Wow, has it been 12 years? I came across this video and thought I’d share it with you. This version of me had no idea of the road ahead!

International publishing specialist, literary agent and then acquisitions editor? What?

Taking hundreds of pitches and evaluating thousands of manuscripts? Say what?

Leading national conferences and meeting so many amazing authors? And teaching, teaching, teaching! Eh???

And the best part — this beautiful Patreon community!

I’m so glad you’re all here. I treasure all our conversations. I love hearing your stories behind the stories. And I love how we’re cheering each other on.

It’s an honor to walk with you!

Enjoy this bit of 2014 Brandy. And don’t forget to document every stage of your journey too. It matters!

~ Brandy

https://www.patreon.com/BrandyVallance/posts/blast-from-past-171151906?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Check out Quill & Flame’s hardcover book design. 😍 What do you think?

https://www.patreon.com/BrandyVallance/posts/171043285?utm_campaign=postshare_creator

(as I’m getting settled in)

Friends,

I’ve been sitting with the Obsidian list for a little while now—reading, listening, turning the pages of what this line is meant to hold.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I put my Manuscript Wish List up here:

https://manuscriptwishlist.com/mswl-post/brandy-vallance/

Obsidian is science fiction, horror, and fantasy that redeems the dark.

We go into the shadowed rooms—the supernatural, the uncanny, the science that slipped its leash, the weird and the wonderful and the worlds gone wrong—because that is where courage is tested and light is proven. A candle in daylight is pleasant. A candle in a dark cellar can be a revelation.

We do not publish darkness for the sake of darkness. Senseless gore and cheap shock won’t be a fit. An Obsidian story may walk through night, but it must not end there. The last word belongs to hope—the kind that has looked something dark in the face and still chosen to stand.

For this line, it’s important that when the reader closes the book, the darkness has not won.

I’m drawn to Deep POV and literary writing. Strong senses. Body language that tells the truth. Sentences I want to stop and write down. If your work has been called poetic, lyrical, or immersive, I want to see it.

Fringe science. Creatures. The thought-provoking and the unexplained. The spirit of The Twilight Zone, The Confessionals, Blurry Creatures. Romance is welcome but not required.

For this line, there are content rules of no profanity and no open-door romance.

Agented submissions are welcome anytime. Unagented submissions open in June. Be sure to check that MSWL link for more info.

I’m still finding the rhythm of this new desk and I’m excited to grow with it. Thanks for being a part of this community where we can all grow together. ♥️

More soon.

The kettle’s on. 🫖☕️

Brandy