How WBW Press Came to Be, Upcoming Book Launches, and Our 2-Phase Publishing Plan

The garret room where I was hiding from my wife and children (one and three) had one piece of furniture, even though the square footage was enough for a small apartment. It was a red, very modern sofa with fake silver legs that I think are more properly called “chrome-ish”. Needless to say, it was uncomfortable. 

We were in Belarus, in a village outside a small city in a country with no large ones. The roof leaked. It was February. You can probably imagine what February in Belarus is like. 

Cold. Wet. Dark. 

But all that paled with a greater unpleasantness that was like a worm in my chest. I was not a provider for my family. 

Of course, it was my fault. My inability to get along with my boss had caused a mediated “amicable” parting that was intended to be beneficial for both parties. Except the mediator had forgotten to make sure that there would be a parachute of any kind for me. 

So here I was, spending an extended period of time living off my wife’s family, two very boisterous babies in tow (don’t feel bad for me, we now have four). I had just recently been in quite a different place, emotionally speaking. I had gotten “the call” from an agent. And it was a good agent from one of the top literary agencies in the world. 

Visions of a life doing nothing but writing fabulously successful books danced in my mind, even as the daily reality of actual paying work started to go down a cliff. After initial promises, my agent contacted me less and less, then stopped. 

And by month 5 in Belarus, I realized that he had forgotten who I was. 

So. No six-figure book deal, no instant stardom, and not even a decent job for the everyday expenses. And my kids were not even eating all that much yet. And I was hiding from them in shame on that awful red couch, scrolling through international Netflix offerings that got weirder and with every swipe of my finger. 

I honestly don’t remember exactly where or how I got out of that morass. But I do remember, vividly, reading Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith on the subject of the indie writer revolution and how to build a business with your writing. The more I read, the more I was mesmerized. And the more I realized how little I knew about the business of publishing. And what I didn’t know could have ruined any future chance of success as an author. 

Yes. I am indeed saying that it was all for the best that I had bottomed out in my personal career, then got dropped by a crappy agent who later on got fired for ethics violations. Because if I had signed a contract with a publisher, I would have lost control of a story that was only beginning to be told. A story that would eventually become an interconnected universe of stories spanning time and genres that hasn’t even been fully explored yet. 

I would have lost the rights to my characters, themes, titles, names, and mythic creatures. It would have been the end, not the beginning, of my publishing career. And The Wood Between the Worlds Press would never have been born.

But back to that in a minute. 

This realization–that control over my intellectual property (i.e. my stories) was the source of my value in the publishing marketplace–completely changed the way I think and the way I act. Immediately, I started to learn how to set up an author-publisher business. It was early enough in the so-called indie revolution that there were only a few gurus who pretended to know everything. So it was easy to sift the wheat from the chaff. I just swallowed anything by Rusch and Smith. 

Ten years later, I’ve had two successive years of six-figure income in my author business, and things are not slowing down. 

(PSA for writers: if you want to hear how I did it and how you can get published today without losing your soul, I’m running a free author webinar on that very subject this month. You can sign up here.) 

What does all this have to do with The Wood Between the Worlds Press?

Even in the early years of my author-publisher business, I wanted other writers to share in this wealth of information that I had found. I wanted them to have the same freedom I had, the same potential to create a body of work that would be a true legacy to leave their children and community. So I invited several authors to join me in those early days, and I even tried to help them get set up with the same business model I was using. But at the time, I had neither the bandwidth nor the experience to help these authors take advantage of the entrepreneurial reality of indie publishing, nor was the market quite ready. 

That was ten years ago. 

Today, thanks to St Athanasius Press, some generous benefactors, and the maturation of indie publishing, this vision is becoming a reality. 

Those who have followed us for a while now have heard me talk at length about why we are all so desperately hungry for better stories, why these stories are so vital to our relationship with God and one another, and what we at The Wood Between the Worlds Press are doing to transform the publishing landscape. You’ll know that over the past few decades, publishing (especially in the US) has gone through a chaotic shift as old business models are phasing themselves out of existence and new ones are not quite ready to take center stage. And you’ll know that The Wood Between the Worlds is at once the gathering place for readers who want better stories and also a refuge for today’s best writers to enjoy more equitable terms than they’ll get anywhere else.

And now that you know the backstory of how WBW Press came to be, you’ll understand that the first thing I wanted to do was to extend a renewed invitation to the writers I left behind ten years ago, as well as others who have found limited success in the indie space but are interested in the vision of Wood Between Worlds as a gathering place for this generation’s Inklings. A force multiplier for people with similar storytelling styles and worldviews. 

And so, we are launching phase 1 of Wood Between Worlds Press 

The idea with phase 1 is to take writers who are already published and help them reach more people and get their author-publisher presence/business set up the right way. This way, whether they choose to continue publishing with WBW Press or choose an indie route, they will have received everything that I have learned up to this point to set themselves up for success. 

This phase is not about active acquisition of new work.

It’s about amplifying books that are already out there but deserve a wider readership. It's also an opportunity for the Press itself to start getting its sea legs under it and to try out our essential business plan to see if it has as much potential as I believe it does.

This August, we’re launching a Kickstarter featuring special editions–with beautiful covers, maps, and illustrations–of three already published authors we’ve known and respected for a long time. While geared toward a younger audience than what Wood Between the Worlds will publish when we launch phase 2, these authors are aligned with our mission, and we hope this initial Kickstarter helps amplify good writers while gathering a dedicated audience of readers for our official phase 2 launch.

Want to learn more? Click here to sign up and be the first to hear when Kickstarter goes live and discover three worlds built on African folklore, Celtic legend, and music as magic!

Phase 2 is where we really start seeking new voices and growing our readership

We are partnering with

St. Basil Writers' Workshop

to cultivate the best new voices we can find, especially writers who are inspired by the vision and ethos (and mythos) of the Inklings.

More information on phase 2 will be coming later this year. For now, I can only say that I am already acquiring books from new authors who are very talented, and I cannot wait to share their stories with you!

As it happens, I’m now back in Belarus for the summer. I’m no longer on an uncomfortable red couch in a garret room, but in a nice cafe in the old town of Vitebsk. The coffee is delicious, the pastries are to die for, and I’m no longer avoiding my wife and children. They are my inspiration now, and I am finally able to provide for them as they deserve. 

I get to make up stories for a living. And now I get to introduce you to stories that will help you live better, more meaningful, more beautiful lives. I hope you come along for the ride!