My Publishing Journey: Fire & Flight’s Launch Week

As many of you know, the first novel in my epic fantasy series, the Heirs of Tenebris, released last week on July 19th. Knowing that Fire & Flight is out in the world and that there are actually people reading the novel I poured my heart and soul into is mindboggling. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the fact that I’m a published author of a young adult fantasy book, but I’ll certainly never forget my launch week. Aside from the posts I shared on social media promoting my book release, I wanted to share my actual publishing journey with you and talk about some of the things that had happened behind the scenes of Fire & Flight’s debut (and mine too)!

First and foremost, I’d like to share a dirty secret with everyone: I’ve known about Fire & Flight’s actual release day for about a year. Yes, you read that correctly. I knew what the actual date was this whole time and didn’t share it with anyone until a month before the big day because I was afraid of timeline delays or other production setbacks that would otherwise force the release back. It was also recommended to me by my amazing team at Paper Raven Books to withhold the release date so people wouldn’t get excited for an imminent release, realize it was a little while away, and then ultimately forget about it if they weren’t connected with me on social media. I think this tactic worked out, even if I lied (via omission) to 90 percent of my friends and family about the knowing the exact date.

But the focus here is what happened during release week, so here goes nothing:

The week of Tuesday, July 19th will go down as one of the most chaotic, anxious, but otherwise greatest weeks of my life to date! The outpouring of support from everyone is something I will never, ever forget. Friends, family, total strangers, everyone. I am so grateful and overwhelmed by the enthusiasm over Fire & Flight’s release. And while holding the #1 slot in five categories for four days during the e-book promotion period is something I’m still reeling from, I am truly humbled by the support and welcome Fire & Flight has received. I’m excited to see what comes of Fire & Flight’s success, as I think any author’s dream is to build a community for fans of our works. That’s everything I’ve been trying to do with the Heirs of Tenebris trilogy—even if I didn’t initially know it. Fire & Flight began as an escape I didn’t know I needed and now, I hope it can become an escape for others as well. Hence my new (and unofficial) tagline: “Welcome to Tenebris.”

Knowing that so many people are reading Fire & Flight or plan to read my novel has bolstered this idea to create a community on my social media profiles and for fans of the trilogy, especially as my team and I obsessively checked my sales and category rankings throughout launch week. With every download of the e-book and every text or post proclaiming “I grabbed my copy!” that reached me, this dream of mine swelled. I don’t know if it’s overly ambitious or if this is just the beginning for me as an author, but I sincerely hope to create something bigger than myself and the words I’ve written. Like many authors before me, I hope my words and the messages my readers take from Fire & Flight can inspire, comfort, and provide a catharsis you didn’t know you needed.

This past week has been a near-never ending line of shock waves and statements of “it can’t get any better than this,” but in truth, I’ve only just reached one peak in a mountain range of possibility. I don’t know how high the next peak is, but from where I stand, Fire & Flight’s release, the launch of my first epic fantasy series, and my author debut have been an outstanding success. I’m not sure when the exhaustion of this last week will catch up to me, but right now I’ve never felt more exhilarated and I plan on using this momentum to bring the sequels in the Heirs of Tenebris trilogy to all of you and carry on in my publishing journey.

Through months of editing, revisions, and finally formatting—all the while building a platform for myself to help spread the word—I couldn’t be prouder of the journey to get here. And with book two well under way in its second draft, I’m looking forward to the next chapter in this adventure as this next installment moves through the publishing process. If you’d like to join me on my journey, you can do so by signing up for my newsletter or following me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and TikTok. From the bottom of my heart, welcome to Tenebris!