There's still time to join our Writing Against the Darkness team for 2022!

Not a Pipe Publishing’s team, Writing Against the Darkness, will be participating in The Alzheimer’s Association’s annual The Longest Day fundraiser, this year on Tuesday, June 21st!

Join the team here.

For the last few years, we’ve started writing at dawn on the longest day of the year, summer solstice, and we write until sundown. By asking friends and family to sponsor us (with just a few posts from each of us on social media), we’ve raised more than $10,000 and written 142,268 words! Everyone writes whatever they want. In addition to working on their novels, members of the group have written beautiful memoires, poetry which has made it into published collections, and even the lyrics to songs that are now recorded singles. So bring your writing powers and join us in fighting Alzheimer’s disease. We’d love to double the size of the team, double the wordcount, and double the fundraising total this year. We started building the team earlier this year and wrote together on the winter solstice. It’s a lot easier to write on the shortest day than the longest, so this was a great way to dip our toes in the water. But don’t be intimidated; you can write as much or as little as you want, and you don’t NEED to write all day. Some folx even write on the weekend because work schedules don't permit writing on a weekday, and that's totally cool. Every little bit helps. Just go to this link and click on the green “Join Our Team” link.

Join Here

(Be sure you don’t accidentally click the “Donate” button. We’d love the donation to the team’s efforts, but we want you to join our team even more!)

The Longest Day event has always been so much fun! Looking forward to writing with you!

Attention All LGBTQIA+ Authors, Poets, and Artists: Call for Submissions for Our Next Anthology!

Not a Pipe Publishing is excited to announce we are now accepting submissions for our next anthology.

We are so proud of our anthologies Strongly Worded Women, Shout, Denial Kills, and our forthcoming Stories (Within) (available on August 5th of 2022). We want to do it again! When we look at our country and our industry, we’re very concerned about attacks on LGBTQIA+ folks in the USA and around the world. We worry about how those attacks are silencing the voices of LGBTQIA+ authors, poets, and artists. We want to do what we can, so, just as Strongly Worded Women included only female-identifying writers, our next anthology will only feature the work of LGBTQIA+ authors, poets and artists.

Our panel of editors evaluating and selecting submissions is entirely LGBTQIA+ and includes incredible writers like Christine Sandquist, Lydia Valentine, and Claudine Griggs, and our co-publisher Viveca Shearin.

We will accept submissions under pen names to protect our authors/poets/artists. 

We're primarily seeking speculative fiction, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, or any other works with a speculative element. These genres are places of catharsis and solace where people of all identities can imagine new worlds where they are represented, but they're also spaces where marginalized voices have often been pushed aside within the mainstream publishing industry. Give us your sentient spaceships, murderous fae, and weirdest ecology! We're interested in both prose and poetry, and we're willing to consider work in experimental or unconventional styles.

The stories do need to be fictional, though. We're not knocking journalism, long form essays, memoirs, or online rants, but there are other places for those. We want to create a space for fiction and poetry exclusively by LGBTQIA+ authors and poets.

Can you submit if you are an ally? We at Not a Pipe Publishing love allies! This is not the place for an ally’s work to be published, but it is an opportunity for allies to support LGBTQIA+ writers by promoting this book. Tell a friend who is an LGBTQIA+ author about this opportunity, and encourage them to submit. Keep an eye on our social media page for ways to spread the word about this anthology once it appears. 

Short Stories: 2000 to 3500 words would be ideal, but we will consider flash fiction or longer works.

Poems: Up to 350 lines, max, for a single poem

Art: Black and white images for the interior, color images for consideration for the cover

Multiple submissions accepted. 

Reading fee: Zero dollars and zero cents

Deadline: Submissions will be accepted between June 1st and September 1st, 2022. We will attempt to identify all pieces for the anthology by October 1st. 

Authors’ compensation will be in the form of a copy of the anthology and an equal portion of profits from the sale of the anthology.

Send your poem or short story to: notapipepublishing@gmail.com with the subject line: LGBTQIA+ Anthology Submission from _your name__

Cover Reveal: Far from Normal by Karen Eisenbrey and LeeAnn McLennan

Available on Thursday, May 26th, Far From Normal: A Rage Brigade and Supernormal Team-Up by Karen Eisenbrey and LeeAnn McLennan.

Art by Micheala Thorn

This novella brings together the heroes of Eisenbrey’s The Gospel According to St. Rage and Barabara and the Rage Brigade and McLennan’s The Supernormal Legacy trilogy when the band Rage Brigade is on tour from Seattle and comes to Portland, bringing their unique superpowers with them, and runs into the super-powered Brighthall family just in time to confront at attack of a new kind of monster threatening the city. If you like superheroes, garage bands, and girl power, get your hands on both series now!

The Gospel According to St. Rage and Dormant, Book 1 of The Supernormal Legacy, are both FREE in ebook now. The novella will be released as a serial on Karen Eisenbrey’s website (so sign up for her newsletter to get announcements), and it will also be available in eBook on Kindle. (You can pre-order that today if you’d prefer to go that way.)

Stories (Within) Flash Fiction Contest

Deadline extended until this Friday, July 8th, at midnight PST!

To celebrate the launch of Stories (Within), an experimental anthology of stories inside stories inside stories available on August 5th, we're hosting the Stories (Within) Flash Fiction Contest


Rules 

Contest Judges Karen Eisenbrey and Debby Dodds … if they were matryoshka dolls.

Entries must be 50 words or less. (Title and author's name don't count against your fifty words.)

Entries must tell a story within a story.

Example:

Drowning Scorpion

by Benjamin Gorman

Bob lowered his eyes. "Suzy, you know that story about the scorpion and the frog? Scorpion promises not to sting the frog. Frog takes him across the river. Halfway, Scorpion poisons Frog, dooming them both. Well-"

Suzy raised her hand. "Don't be dramatic, Bob. I'll be fine without you."

(50 words)


Entries must be received by July 1st, 2022.

Deadline extended until this Friday, July 8th, at midnight PST!

Winners will be announced on August 5th, the launch date of Stories (Within)

You may enter as many times as you like.

Entry fee: Only $1 per entry. (Scholarships available if this is a hardship. Contact notapipepublishing@gmail.com for information.)

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be announced on August 5th, and their stories published on NotaPipePublishing.com. (Some honorable mentions may be highlighted as well.) The 1st place winner will receive a copy of Stories (Within), a flash-fiction-sized trophy, and a cash prize (amount based on the number of entries minus the cost of prizes for winners. Not a Pipe Publishing will not profit from the contest).


Submit using this form:

Author's Name and Story Title

Submit entry fees with the author’s name and the story’s title via PayPal, here:

(Please don’t forget to fill out the field before clicking “Add to Cart” or we won’t know who has paid the entry fee.)

Judges: Karen Eisenbrey, Debby Dodds and Rick M. Cook

Karen Eisenbrey is the author of the Wizard Girl trilogy, the Rage Brigade duology, the forthcoming cross-over novella Far from Normal (co-authored with LeeAnn McLennan), and short stories in Strongly Worded Women, Shout, and Stories (Within). Learn more about Karen HERE.



Debby Dodds is the author of Amish Guys Don’t Call and has stories and essays in Strongly Worded Women, Things That You Would Have Said, The Living Dead magazine, The Sun, xoJane, Portland Family Magazine, Manifest-Station.com, FlashesintheDark.com, Stumptown Underground, The Crimson Crane, Zinkzine.com, and twice in Hip Mama. Her humorous essay, “Why Sarah Palin Needs Me as Her SAT Tutor,” was an editor’s pick on Salon.com. She won both Best Humorous Essay and Fan Favorite in The Attic’s contest at Wordstock. Learn more about Debby HERE.

Rick M. Cook: When he’s not writing his debut novel, The Devil’s Bridge, he is working on one real-life science fiction project after another. He writes and teaches software to help top aerospace and automotive designers around the world wire their vehicles: futuristic all-electric airplanes to airplane seats and control modules to Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters to wiring for the advancement of human knowledge with satellites and space telescopes. Rick has been writing software since he was fifteen and telling stories even longer to entertain himself and friends. A Dungeons & Dragons game exposed his teenage mind to the world of imaginative storytelling, sparking his creativity every day since. He enjoys reading books of history, science fiction/fact, fantasy, thrillers, and has enough Wikipedia tabs open to support a small invading alien army’s intel. He lives in Beaverton, Oregon, along with his wife and two bundles of fun masquerading as dogs.

Cover Reveal: Unrelenting by Jessi Honard and Marie Parks

Available for pre-order now (link below), it’s Unrelenting, Book One of The Grigori Cycle by Jessi Honard and Marie Parks. Check out this beautiful cover by Gigi Little! And thanks to LGBTQReads for their exclusive cover reveal HERE.

Cover by Gigi Little

A glowing symbol painted on a crumbling wall.
Sentient smoke that chokes and burns.
An ancient magic, long hidden from the world.

Bridget’s most important job has always been protecting her younger sister, Dahlia. But as adults, their relationship has become strained.

Then, Dahlia vanishes. 

Nine months later, everyone has given up hope. Everyone except Bridget, who launches her own amateur investigation. 

The search leads Bridget to something far more sinister than a typical missing persons case—a carefully-guarded plot tied to powerful, age-old magic.

To uncover the truth of what happened to her sister, Bridget must confront this dangerous world, even if it means putting her own life on the line.

“A fast-paced, supernatural thriller that will keep you turning the pages long after you should have gone to sleep.” 

-Dan Wells, New York Times bestselling author

“Epic powers, villains you'll love to hate, and a plot that doesn't stop...”

-Dan Eavenson, Fantasy Book of the Month Podcast

“The sibling bond is stronger than supernatural power in this high-energy thriller.”

-Karen Eisenbrey, author of the Daughter of Magic Trilogy

“...brimming with twists that unravel into something far darker and more chilling.”

-Michaela Thorn, author of Tooth and Claw

"...popcorn action, buttery smooth prose, and delightfully mismatched characters."

-Neal Holtschulte, author of Crew of Exiles

“...a unique take on magic wrapped within a finely-crafted conspiracy."

-Geoff Habiger & Coy Kissee, authors of Wrath of the Fury Blade and Unremarkable

“...a twisted but entertaining world of mystery and unexpected danger."

-Hugh Fritz, author of the Mystic Rampage trilogy

...effortlessly blends supernatural fantasy and thriller into one cohesive, wholly accessible story…”

-Peter Malone Elliot, Pipeline Media Group

Pre-order now from your local independent bookstore through Bookshop.org HERE.

Pre-order through Amazon HERE.
Pre-order for Kindle HERE.

Preorder from Barnes & Noble HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Are you a retailer who would like to have a link to your online or brick-and-mortar store here? Contact us at NotAPipePublishing@gmail.com

Cover Reveal: The Rod of Wind and Iron by Mikko Azul

Book 2 of Mikko Azul’s epic high fantasy The Demons of Muralia series,

the sequel to The Staff of Fire and Bone, will be available on March 15th.

Pre-order it now (links below)!

Cover art by Don Aguillo

The Garanth Army marches against the Askári, razing everything in its path. The demon Laylur’s horde bears down upon the Shäeli, intent on destroying all life on Muralia. Amidst the chaos and death, Cédron Varkáras and Sénna Králl become unwilling allies in a quest to acquire the lost windstone of Yezmarantha needed to create a weapon to challenge the demon. Betrayal is inevitable, trust is impossible. Hope and time are running out.

“In this sequel to The Staff of Fire and Bone, Azul continues to weave a vibrant tapestry of conflict. The odds are overwhelming, and alliances are uneasy. Complete with demons, monsters, mages, and a quest for a magic artifact that could save the land, this is true epic fantasy.”

-Nan C Ballard, author of The Under Carico’s Moons Trilogy

“Secret passages, perilous magic, mythical creatures, and an impossible quest. The Rod of Wind and Iron summons epic thrills from start to finish.”

-LM Zaerr, author of Performance and the Middle English Romance

 

“Building on the foundation of such a thoroughly well conceived universe, Azul gifts us with more cultures, more lore, and more action. Enjoy this vacation and thrill ride in Muralia!”

-Benjamin Gorman, author of The Digital Storm and The Sum of Our Gods

Available for pre-order at Barnes & Noble in paperback and hardcover HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon in hardcover HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon in paperback HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Are you a retailer who would like to have a link to your online or brick-and-mortar store here? Contact us at NotAPipePublishing@gmail.com

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for This Uneven Universe by Benjamin Gorman

Arriving in stores on November 9th: This Uneven Universe, the new poetry collection by Benjamin Gorman, best-selling author of When She Leaves Me, Corporate High School, and Don’t Read This Book. (Pre-order links below.)

Join us for the launch party on November 12th by RSVPing HERE.

“...Gorman exposes rifts, shifts, and thoughtless inequities. Ultimately though, this is a selection of poems about searching in this chaos to find a kind of equilibrium. ‘So remember / say the stars / even in turbulent times /  to be grateful /  for the locations / of every atom / in this uneven universe’”

-Marc Janssen, coordinator of the Salem Poetry Project and author of November Reconsidered

 

“...a sweet surprise of short, full-to-bursting nuggets of self-knowing shared for our mutual growth. It is a collection of small, brave, and pointedly insightful poems that question, warn of thin places on the road while alternately inviting and taunting us to pay closer attention to small essentials.”

-Ayodele Nzinga, author of Horse Eaters, SorrowLand Oracle, and Incandescent

Inaugural Poet Laureate of Oakland, CA

 

“...Gorman tackles head-on the most urgent matters of our time: racial injustice, the pandemic, and how our choices ripple through the universe. These pieces refuse complacency from the reader, and through them we meet a man who proves poetry is simultaneously the most powerful weapon, antidote, and gift he can employ to heal and protect himself and all he loves.”

-Armin Tolentino, author of We Meant to Bring It Home Alive  

 

“...a lovely collection of poems that are both immediately and eternally relevant.”

-Zack Dye, author of 21st Century Coastal American Verses




“Gorman provides insights into the little moments of the day that are the building blocks of what really matters. Each page is layered and nuanced, building upon one another to culminate in a collection that is timely and necessary.” 

-Jessica Mehta, author of When We Talk of Stolen Sisters



Available for pre-order at Barnes and Noble in paperback and hardcover HERE.

Available for pre-order at Target.com in paperback HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon in hardcover HERE. (Paperback not available for preorder there for some unknown reason.)

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Are you a retailer who would like to have a link to your online or brick-and-mortar store here? Contact us at NotAPipePublishing@gmail.com

Open Call for Submissions for Our Next Anthology

Oroboros and Russian Dolls.jpg

[Update: We are extending the deadline, so if you haven’t submitted your story yet, we’ll still consider it. The hard-and-fast deadline is December 1st.]

We’re so glad you’ve enjoyed our previous anthologies, Strongly Worded Women, Shout, and Denial Kills. For our next anthology, we want to do something a bit more novel (see what we did there?). This time, the stories will be nested, one within the other, like Russian nesting dolls. So here’s what you need to do: Write a story, 3k words or less, in which, at roughly the two-thirds mark, a character tells another character a story to illustrate a point. Only don’t write that story-within-a-story. Someone else’s story will be plugged in there! And someone else’s will be plugged into theirs. And so on. Then, the last third of your story will continue when the character responds to/ignores/fails to understand the story-within-the-story which you haven’t even read. And the end of your story will be the story another character responds to/ignores/fails to understand in someone else’s story! Write in any genre; it’s fine if a character in a sci-fi tells a fantasy story which includes a character who tells a Western which includes a character who tells a murder mystery which includes a character who tells a story that’s historical fiction! You won’t know which story will be set within yours and which story will envelope yours, so we hope this will be just as much fun for you as it will be for every other reader! It will be the ultimate celebration of storytelling. Send your story to NotAPipePublishing with the subject line: Nesting Doll Anthology. (We’ll choose a more fitting title for the anthology once we decide on the structure of the overarching narrative of all the stories.)

As always, our authors retain the rights to their work, and anthology contributors receive equal shares of the royalties from sales.

A little tip for being included: Make sure your characters, the setting, and the plot in the first two thirds is memorable enough that a reader will recognize them even with a bunch of stories shoehorned into the middle of yours. Admit it! You’re excited about this writing challenge, aren’t you? And we bet you know another writer who you’d like to see included inside or outside of your story, so share this announcement with them, too. Also, a web presence isn’t required for inclusion, but consider: We want to be able to promote you, and we want you to be able to promote the anthology. Read this.

Our anthologies have been packed with phenomenal, high-quality work, and the themes have been pretty heavy. We fought to make sure more women’s voices were being read. We shouted against the rising tide of fascism. We screamed about the danger of denial. Now let’s celebrate the way narratives are such an essential part of the human experience that our lives are stories within stories within stories within stories within stories…

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for See You When the World Ends by Simon Paul Wilson

Arriving in stores on August 3rd: See You When the World Ends by Simon Paul Wilson

Cover by Matt Wildasin

Cover by Matt Wildasin

Tim loves Naomi Wong from Hong Kong. He just didn’t realise it until now.

When Naomi returns home for her sister’s wedding, it finally dawns on Tim that his feelings for her run deeper than friendship. He starts to have a recurring dream. Unfortunately, he can never seem to remember the exact details, but he knows it’s telling him something very important.

Then the ghostly apparition of a blurred-face woman starts to haunt his waking world.

See You When The World Ends is a fantastic, emotive piece of writing. Difficult to categorise but even harder to put down.”

-Dan Howarth, author of Dark Missives


“With See You When the World Ends, Wilson has distilled that magic which only master craftsmen like Murakami can usually manage; to make the surreal seamlessly normal, while the mundane holds the reader on a knife edge. From the ticking time bomb that is chapter one to the skillfully woven ending, every page of this novel is worth digesting. Possibly twice.”

-Kev Harrison, author of The Balance


“A quick, entertaining read with romance, comedy, and a shocking supernatural threat.”

-Karen Eisenbrey, author of The Daughter of Magic Trilogy


“See You When The World Ends begins calmly enough as a tale of two friends, one embarking on a journey while the other waits at home. Soon though, the story reads like a dream with undercurrents bubbling to the surface, subtext becoming text. I couldn’t stop reading because I HAD to know what was going to happen. You will be as caught up as I was. No spoilers, I promise!”

-LeeAnn McLennan, author of The Supernormal Legacy Trilogy

Available for pre-order on Amazon in paperback HERE and hardcover HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Are you a retailer who would like to have a link to your online or brick-and-mortar store here? Contact us at NotAPipePublishing@gmail.com

Count the Eyeballs, Divide by Two: How to Focus Your Efforts to Build an Audience for Your Writing

Googly Eyes.jfif

A dear friend came to visit for a two person writer’s retreat, and he asked me to help him get his book marketing game in order. I don’t want to call him out or anything (his name is Zack Dye, and you should read his poetry collection, 21st Century Coastal American Verses), but his online presence isn’t … present. And that’s a problem. As a publisher, I’ve found it’s a common one. So pull up a chair, lean forward, and listen to the advice I gave Zack. I think it’s advice a lot of authors can benefit from.

Ah, but I’m an author, too, so let’s start with a story. Back in 2013, when I released my first novel, I was still under the misapprehension that there was something shameful about self publishing. We were just coming out of the days of “vanity publishing” when the gatekeepers were still looking down their noses at this exploding part of the industry. I’d gone through hundreds of queries, had drinks with agents at writing conferences to pick their brains (they’re actually really wonderful, and the most ethical among them won’t let you buy the drinks), and I learned a lot, but at the time they were behaving like a dying breed, like dinosaurs looking up at the falling meteor and whispering, “Oh, shit.” Don’t worry. The best of them have evolved. But back then, the ones who were stuck in their ways thought self-publishing would ruin all of literature and also drive them out of house and home. Books have done just fine since then, thank you very much, and the agents who adjusted to an author-service model rather than a coveted gatekeeper model have done fine, too. But those deer-in-the-headlights agents still carried enough of that derision for self-publishing to scare me out of that route. There are still some people who look down on self publishing. There are also still people who think cars are bad and we should all have horses. It’s cute, but don’t let those people influence your business decisions too much. 

I, unwisely, internalized their fear. Yet agent after agent told me my book was great but too niche to sell to the big publishing companies. (They were right.) So what was I to do? I decided to start a small press. At first, it was just a front, a facade on my house that appears to be brick. I then proceeded to make almost every imaginable marketing mistake. And I learned a lot. By the time I was ready to publish my second book, I’d learned so much I couldn’t stand the idea of my fellow authors having to start from scratch. But I didn’t want to write a whole book about how to publish a book. I write fiction and poetry, not self-help. So I found my people, fellow authors of sci-fi and fantasy, and made the company into something real. Now I have a co-publisher, we have 65 authors under contract, we’ve put out 36 wonderful books. 37 next month. Our authors include two New York Times bestsellers and the poets laureate of the cities of Tacoma, Washington and Oakland, California. And I still have to remind myself: We’re real! This is real! We built this real thing! I don’t think that will ever go away. 

This shift from a guy with a logo and one product to sell to a co-publisher of a real company has changed my perspective on a lot of parts of the industry. [See: Agents. Not the villains who just say, “No,” all the time. Experts who do right by their clients and still serve an invaluable role in the industry.] My views on social media marketing have changed a lot, too. You’ve heard it before; you need to be on social media promoting your work even when it takes you away from your writing and feels gross. Well, that’s true, but the people telling you that don’t always explain why. You know why you love to write. You know why you hate social media. So unless you understand why you need to devote time to social media marketing, you’re going to default to the motivations you understand. 

Maybe I can help.

Let’s skip why you write. It’s some combination of the four reasons Orwell laid out in his essay “Why I Write,” and your balance belongs to you. But let’s linger a bit on why you hate social media, because that will be helpful. My guess is that you have one of two reasons.

  1. You don’t like wasting a lot of your precious writing time dealing with the often toxic, vile world of people at their worst, or

  2. You really enjoy wasting your time and know it’s cutting into your productivity. 

I get it. But here’s what we have to acknowledge.

  1.  The toxic, vile, world of people at their worst is exactly what every customer service employee you know deals with on the daily. 

My girlfriend manages a restaurant. During Covid. (Guys, if you don’t know this, what women deal with online is a LOT worse than what we experience.) Well, my girlfriend has experienced that IRL! Do you think it’s potentially dangerous to tell a certain kind of man that you aren’t interested in his dick pics? (It is.) Well imagine telling that same kind of man that he can’t have his dinner unless he puts on the mask he’s taken an oath to the gods of chauvinism and white supremacy never to wear. But she keeps going back to that restaurant and telling everybody that they need to wear their masks because most people are nice about it and want to give her money for their food.

And you want the nice people to read your books. 

Now, I acknowledge that the anonymity of the internet might make people write things they wouldn’t say to your face. And I will not be the person telling you to grow a thicker skin. That advice generally comes from people wearing crepe suits of privilege and is delivered to people who have to wear suits of armor just to leave the house each day. It’s not fair that you will witness and even experience horrible things online. It’s not right. It’s not easy. But if you want your books to be read, you have to care about the readers. I don’t judge people who keep private diaries. That’s a great mental health exercise. But they aren’t authors. If you write for others, you’ll have to deal with others. Engaging on social media is just as much a part of the job as talking to readers at book signings. (And there are some really unpleasant people who will engage with you in uncomfortable ways at signings, too. Because: People.) But don’t be deceived into thinking the toxicity in the world is limited to the internet, and if you can just avoid the internet, you’ll be fine. Have you seen the footage from January 6th, 2021? People can be just as awful offline. And people are your readers. 

But maybe you’re like me. I’m in the other camp. I like social media way too much. It can be a dangerous time-suck. My work-in-progress is sitting in its file, seething, staring at me judgmentally, and the piles of books-to-read are starting to lean over me dangerously, and I will still find myself scrolling through twitter and Instagram and Facebook where someone will direct me to a video on Tik Tok and then there goes the evening. Sure, there are awful people online, but that’s not what gets in my way. My problem? There are way, way too many brilliant people online! Sure, there are the adorable pictures of my friends’ babies and pets (and sometimes babies and pets together!), but there are also the thinkers sharing ideas that inform my writing. These people allow me to justify the time. It’s not wasted. It’s research! And that’s not even a false justification. But ask anyone who writes historical fiction, and they’ll tell you that research itself can get in the way of your writing. 

So, how do we push past the toxicity but limit the time to efficiently use social media to connect with readers? Here are some lessons I’ve learned the hard way so you don’t have to:

1. Your website is passive.

Back when I was making the switch from a guy with one book and a logo to co-publisher, I knew I needed a slick website, so I went to a friend who was a pro to get his help. He taught me one of the most important distinctions that’s served me well in all my investments of time online. “Your website is passive,” he told me. “No one will know what’s there until you direct them to it.” Before I understood this, I’d visited the websites of some of my favorite authors, people who are pulling in significant annual incomes from their writing, people who could afford to have really fancy, expensive-looking sites, and, with a few exceptions, I found that their sites were pretty blah, and some were downright cheap looking. Foolish me, I thought, “Ha! I will have this competitive advantage by having a fancy, expensive site! I’m so much smarter than these incredibly successful authors!” Nope. Turns out they’re successful because they’re a lot smarter. They knew (or hired smart people who knew) that the website doesn’t make much of a difference. You should have one. It can be a free one. It’s basically a business card with links to your books, your bio, and a place to announce events. And even then, no one will know about the events you identify there unless you tell them elsewhere, because your website is passive. There are authors who develop a following with blogs, but the website is just a repository for that content. The audience is drawn to it because those authors go to social media to let folx know when they’ve added a post. Unless you are so successful people will search for your name, don't sweat the website. And if you are so successful people are searching for your name, don't sweat the website.

2. Your follower count matters.

When I was researching querying agents, one of the pieces of advice I kept coming across was to mention my follower count. I hated this! It felt like this impossible impediment to new writers. But as a publisher, I've totally flipped on it. Here's a secret those pieces on querying didn't explain. Shhh. Maybe they don't want you to know this. I'm going to tell you anyway. There are, secretly, two different things that one piece of information tells the prospective agent. The first is obvious: If you have a million followers on Instagram or twitter, you have an instant potential market for your book. Great for them. It still doesn't make it a done deal. Maybe those million people are really into the cute pictures of your dog and would never buy your 500 page historical novel about the Visigoths. (But some would!) But what if you only have 50 followers on twitter and 53 on Facebook and most of those are the same 48 people? That tells the agent not to publish your book, right? Wrong! It tells the agent you are on twitter and Facebook. I have published people who aren't. Even if I want to, I can't tag them in posts about their book. I can't increase their fanbase because they are digital ghosts. I can't say to the public, "Go build a relationship with this author so you will hear about their second book and buy it right away." If I publish their book, I am assured I will have to do all the marketing myself, and their fanbase won't grow much over time. If you want readers, you must behave as though you are interested enough to meet them where they are.

3. The platform doesn't matter much.

Should you be on twitter or Facebook or Instagram? As a publisher, I really don't care. If you have mastered making Tik Tok videos and have a million followers there, great! If you are the queen of Snap, great! Got a YouTube channel with a million subscribers? Awesome. Whenever a new platform comes out, there's the inevitable buzz about how people have developed huge followings on “book twitter” or “bookstagram” or “book Tik Tok.” Here’s the reality: If there are lots of people there, and if you can connect with those people, that’s the key, not the platform itself. Now, the platform will have a structure, and people who navigate that structure best will connect with the most people there. Are you really great on video? Maybe you make wonderful, short videos of yourself and develop a following on Tik Tok. Maybe your videos are ten minutes long? YouTube. Are you a talented photographer? Instagram is for you. Are you witty and able to write snappy comments that will be shared a lot? Go to twitter. Do you like to engage in longer conversations? Facebook or Reddit. There are millions of potential readers on any of these platforms. You just need to figure out how to connect with them. 

4. What you post DOES matter.

You may have heard of Talia Lavin. She’s @chick-in-kiev on twitter. She loves to post about swords. She’s also an expert on anti-Semitic and white supremacist hate groups. She’s even infiltrated some of them and has written a great book about anti-Semites and white supremacist hate groups in America, Culture Warlords. She tweets a lot about hate groups. She tweets a lot about swords. She rarely reminds people to buy her book. But she has it clearly identified in her bio, so when I kept reading her tweets, thinking, “Who is the fun person with an obsession with swords? Wow, she sure makes insightful comments about hate groups. Oh, look, she wrote a book about that,” then I found myself buying her book.

Or, take Karen Eisenbrey. She writes about band names she finds. She mentions them on twitter and Facebook, and then she posts a regular blog about them. Her posts are funny. Oh, and look, she wrote a couple YA novels about a young woman who starts an all-girl garage band in Seattle (and also acquires super-powers), The Gospel According to St. Rage and Barbara and the Rage Brigade. The interest in band names doesn’t feel forced or contrived; it’s really her thing. She’s a musician herself, and has been the drummer in some Seattle garage bands (as well as playing bells in her church’s bell choir). Her posts drive me to buy her books because I’m interested in her, and now I like her work and will come back for anything she writes.

Or consider Kate Ristau. She decided to challenge herself to learn to draw by drawing a dragon every day for a year. The first dragons were laughably bad. The last ones were really cool. It was fun to follow her on twitter and Facebook and Instagram, see the progression, and be reminded to break my own fixed-mindset thinking about what I’m not good at. Meanwhile, she was also writing about parenting (including essays that were picked up by the Washington Post and New York Times), and about her writing. She rarely says, “Buy my middle-grade Clockbreakers series or my YA Shadow Girls series.” But when I saw that she’s got a graphic novel, Wylde Wings, coming out, I rushed to pre-order it because her social media has helped me form a relationship with her and her work. Did Talia Lavin’s posts about swords detract from my interest in her journalism about hate groups? Did Karen’s fascination with obscure band names keep me from reading (and loving) her Wizard Girl fantasy series? Did dragons, who don’t even appear in Kate’s Shadow Girl series, drive me away? These things helped me get to know these writers so that I was more interested in their work. 

Personally, I post a lot about my support of #BlackLivesMatter and feminism, and I also post pictures of the flowers in my garden and of my dog. I’ve received some push-back, sure. I get hate mail and sometimes even death threats. It’s unpleasant and sometimes quite scary. But I console myself with the knowledge that every single one of the people sending me these threats is taking a little break from abusing women and people of color online, and I know they are a LOT worse to the people they hate the most than they are to the middle-aged cishet white guy who is voicing support for women and people of color. Also, since they rarely come right out and say why they are so angry at me, for all I know, maybe they just hate flowers and dogs. Meanwhile, the people who like that a cishet white guy is sharing about #BlackLivesMatter and also likes flowers and dogs … those folx will like my books!

5. You can’t please everyone online. Don’t try.

I’ve come across a debate a handful of times online about whether or not writers should engage in political discussions while trying to promote their work. I understand where the fear comes from. Those of us who don’t have very many readers look out at the landscape of a highly polarized world and say, “If I have twenty readers, and writing X will alienate half of them, I’d better not write X.” But that formula is wrong. We are so polarized that almost everything has taken on a political valence. (Read Ezra Klein’s Why We’re Polarized for some insight into the origins of this, but also into the way the mega-identities have consumed so much of what was previously considered apolitical before.) You cannot escape it. I understand where the impulse to avoid politics comes from. Some people want to avoid confrontation. Others don’t feel knowledgeable enough to be equipped for such conversations. But here are two facts you must internalize: 

First, if you can avoid uncomfortable confrontation when you don’t have sufficient knowledge to engage in it, that necessarily means your existence is not threatened. People who are threatened already live with that discomfort and know they can’t wait until they acquire knowledge in order to defend themselves. This goes for the people I see as genuinely threatened (women, people of color, the LGBTQIA+, religious minorities, immigrants), but I have to acknowledge that it also goes for the people I see as the oppressors who feel they are under an existential threat if others gain equality (men, white people, Christians, the cishet). These people, whether their fears are legitimate or not, cannot bow out of political dialogue because they genuinely believe they may be, at best, disempowered, and, at worst, eradicated if the other side has their way. If you feel you can afford to check out, you don’t think your existence is threatened. Checking out is an expression of privilege. 

Second, if you’re a writer in the modern world, you’ve taken a side anyway. Are all your characters male, white, Christian, cishet, and native born? If so, you’ve certainly taken a side. If not, and if you’ve written a character who has agency and any identity not on the approved default identities list, you’ve also taken a side. Attempting to present yourself online as someone who is non-partisan amounts to a bait-and-switch; your reader will find that you care about women, people of color, gay people, trans people, people with disabilities, religious minorities, and will either feel betrayed because you didn’t stand up in your online persona, or they will feel betrayed because they want that group disempowered and you kept your affinity for people with those identities secret. You certainly don’t have to post about politics all the time like I do, but don’t shy away from defending (or persecuting, I guess) the kind of people you lift up (or push down) in your writing. 

6. Count the eyeballs. Divide by two.

That impulse to avoid offending is predicated on the formula that the number of readers is fixed, and the offense will limit it. This misconception is the number one thing you need to break when considering social media. And this is really hard for us, as humans. Our ancestors lived in groups of about sixty, and our brains evolved to handle inputs from a social group in that context. If even one or two people, out of sixty, felt your ancient ancestor was a severe enough problem for the group, it really was an existential threat. Because humans can’t survive alone, if your ancestor got kicked out of the group, she died. And if she died, she’s not your ancestor. You are the product of millions of years of humans who knew how to get along, and who changed their behavior as soon as someone said, “Hey, that’s not cool.” So when you wade into social media, and when a hundred people click on a heart or a “Like” button, your brain doesn’t know what to do with that. It’s an instant abstraction. “People like me.”  You release a little hit of dopamine, suck on that for a second, and move on. Because “people” isn’t Aunt Judy or Mom or Maria or Latania. But if even one person says, “You suck!” or even something far more tame like, “I disagree,” or “Well, to play devil’s advocate,” you chug a cocktail of cortisol and adrenaline so you can fight for your life because, remember, your ancient ancestor’s life really was on the line. One or two critics will veto the expressions of hundreds, thousands, even millions of other people. In the modern world, you’ll feel upset and anxious for the rest of the day, like those moments when you have to slam on the brakes to nearly avoid a car crash and you’re shaken even when you get home safely. 

So, some primitive part of your brain says, if you can just keep the number of interactions very small, you can protect yourself from Bob and Vlad who may be pseudonymous trolls with nothing to do but harass people all day online, but who feel like very distinct individuals in the moment. But you also want your work to be read by hundreds, thousands, even millions of readers. Maybe, the primitive part of your brain calculates, if you just produce really high quality work, it will be discovered and promoted by other people, and you’ll wake up one day to find that you’re wildly successful. And look! You didn’t even have to waste time online, and that gave you more time to work on crafting all that excellent writing!

Not only is this dream unrealistic, it’s selfish and dangerous to your own writing. It’s selfish because, when you hope other people will promote your work, you are counting on them to endure that unpleasantness on your behalf. The random fan of your work, Cindy from Tuscaloosa, who says, “You should buy her book. I liked it,” is subject to Bob and Vlad saying, “No it isn’t. You’re stupid for thinking so,” (and, let’s face it, a whole lot worse), and that will produce exactly the same threatened feeling in Cindy’s brain that it will produce in yours. Should Cindy not take an attack on her tastes as personally as you would take an attack on your work? That’s debatable but irrelevant in the moment Cindy’s brain and your brain are deciding to mix that cortisol and adrenaline cocktail. Of course, being online will not protect Cindy from Bob or Vlad, but depending on Cindy to do something you wouldn’t do yourself is unfair.

Second, avoiding the spaces where your readers converse so you can write in peace will not make you a better writer. I’m sure I’m not the first to point this out to you, but writers develop an ear for eavesdropping in public spaces to improve the way we capture voices in our dialogue. We are trying to accurately reflect the way people speak. If you stayed out of all public spaces in an effort to preserve your writing time, the quality of the dialogue in your writing would suffer. The same goes for the written word. You can hide away from social media and read really good writers who can show you how people interact online, but that’s mediated through those writers in a way that’s akin to trying to describe romantic relationships based on what you’ve seen in rom-com movies. Some of it’s right, and some of it’s wrong, and you won’t know which is which. If you want to write the way your readers write and read online, you need to be there. And this isn’t just for that scene in your book that takes place on twitter or in the comments of an Instagram post. Your readers, through their interactions online, are telling you what they care about reading. 

This is most easily illustrated for old fogies like me who remember the pre-Internet era. Imagine if, in 1988, you received a Christmas card in the mail from a friend who included a picture of their cat. Not that big a deal, right? But then, every month after that, they’d sent another picture of their cat with a note asking you to send a picture of your cat. And then, one time, when Susan was over at your house, she’d seen the letter sitting out, and she’d said, “Oh, you’re on Gary’s mailing list, too?” And then she’d revealed that Gary sent those out to a hundred people every month. “He must spend $22 a month on postage alone!” Susan would have said. (Stamps were only .22 in 1988, but $22 then is $50 now.) And you’d agree that Gary’s interest in seeing pictures of other people’s cats was very, very strange. Now, younger folx, imagine I said to you, “I have this friend, Gary, and he probably clicks ‘like’ on a hundred pictures of cute cats each month on Instagram. Isn’t he weird?” You’d say, “No, he’s not, Boomer. You’re weird for thinking that’s weird.” Readers have told us they like cute cats … and dressing up as comic book superheroes, and watching people open packages, and watching people play video games, and comparing everything to Nazis except actual Neo-Nazis. If you aren’t engaged online, you’re writing for Susan in 1988 rather than Gary, only Susan in 2021 is also Gary but she wears a cat costume on her OnlyFans and whispers meow to ASMR fans and licks herself clean for people who pay extra … and you want her to buy your book!

So, here’s the new formula: Count the eyeballs and divide by two. If you can get a thousand eyeballs to look at your cat pictures on Instagram every day, later you can ask 500 people to read your book. If you can get 10,000 people to retweet your joke about Matt Gaetz’ enormous forehead, you can comment on that tweet later to those 10,000 people to read your book. If you can start a really rich and thoughtful discussion on Facebook that involves 100,000 people … okay, ten people … okay, nevermind. There aren’t rich, thoughtful discussions on Facebook. Count the eyeballs and divide by two. How many people are seeing your posts on Facebook? 40? And ten are friends who already bought your book, and ten are people who will say, “Congratulations!” when your book comes out but never buy it in a million years? And the other twenty will unfriend you if you ask them to buy your book but might buy it if someone else recommends it? Then why are you spending so much time on Facebook? Count the eyeballs and divide by two. 

7. Make Social Media Better

If you’re still feeling reluctant to dive into social media, here’s a tip that will improve your experience and everyone else’s: Make it better. The philosopher Immanuel Kant, in his attempt to design ethical rules around “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” but without the religious baggage and in a more consistent, systematic way, came up with this idea that moral rules (or maxims) should be universalizable. In other words, we should think about what the world would be like if everyone else made the decision we were about to make, and if we would want to live in a world where everyone made that same choice, it’s the right choice. There are some flaws with this idea, but it would all serve us well online. Imagine if everyone’s feed were a constant litany of requests to buy their product. Gross, right? So don’t do that. But if everyone were making art and not telling you about it, that would be annoying, too, right? So you should occasionally remind people that you have created art they might enjoy. In between those occasional posts, what can you do to make social media better? Well, don’t you like it when people tell you they like your work? Go find someone who has created a TV show or a book or a painting or recording of a song or a video of themselves doing a dance routine, and, in a way that doesn’t creep them out, tell them they are great. Do you like it when someone tells other people to read your work? Then tell other people to read your favorite writers’ work. Do you like living in a world where the voices of the dominant culture drown out other voices? Me neither. So, on twitter, I make sure I am retweeting more women and people of color and the LGBTQIA+ than I am posting tweets by cishet white men (including myself). (“But Ben,” someone says, “is that universalizable? What if everyone paid more attention to voices that are commonly silenced? Wouldn’t we get to the point where cishet white men aren’t getting any attention? You wouldn’t want that, would you?” To which I say, “Let’s give it a try.”) Do you feel uncomfortable when you see someone post a “joke” which amuses some people but hurts others, especially if the post amuses people who have more power while harming people with less power? Yeah, that’s not a joke. It’s bullying. Don’t do that. And if you see someone behaving badly online, imagine how you wish everyone would react. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone, especially the kind of person that individual is likely to take more seriously, would tell them to knock it off? Then do that. Would the internet be better if that person were reported for harassment? Then do that. You can’t make social media a kind and humane space all by yourself (and if you could, that wouldn’t be kind or humane), but you can make it better through your own engagement in a way you can’t by avoiding it. So, if you recognize that social media is a necessary means to connect with readers but also that it’s sometimes scary and gross, get on there and make it a tiny bit better through your own positive behavior. 

8. Find a healthy balance.

You need to get your writing done. You need to be on social media to let people know you have something worth reading, or all that time spent crafting the work was wasted. So you have to find a healthy balance that allows you to do both successfully.

I don’t know how to do that yet, so I don’t have any useful advice in this department.

Sorry. 

Oh, but here’s something that might help: Don’t try to create all your own content. It’s too exhausting, both for you and your reader. Instead, promote other writers by boosting their content. If it’s uncomfortable to promote your own work, you may find it more comfortable to promote others’ work. I do! So hop online, create an account or two on some different platforms, and tell me about something you’d like to see more of, and I’ll follow you, share that out, and tell folx to like your stuff, too. And if you found this helpful, share it out so your fellow writers let me know about their stuff, too. Helping one another is a virtuous cycle. Let’s jump on it and take a spin!

Lastly, if you are a wildly successful YA novelist who hates trans people, remember that there are rare instances where your online behavior can completely undermine people’s enjoyment of your work, so maybe you can just stay off social media entirely if you’re incapable of using your considerable power to help people rather than hurting them.

---

Benjamin Gorman is mostly on twitter at @teachergorman, often on Instagram at @teachergorman, reluctantly on Facebook here, and even tried Tik Tok a couple times here.



Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for Incandescent by Ayodele Nzinga

Arriving in stores on June 29th: Incandescent by Oakland’s first poet laureate, Ayodele Nzinga

Incandescent eBook cover 6_23_21.jpg

From the forward by K.M. Smith: “Incandescent, the brilliance of expression that Ayodele Nzinga has so lovingly crafted, is red hot in its urgency. It moves subtly, it shifts and crescendos and somersaults across time and space, through light and darkness, joy and pain. This fiery book of poetry comes at you quickly. Questions abound and answers permeate about justice and freedom and existence.”


“I am overwhelmed by the pervasive African love expressed in this collection, but even more so by her profound recognition of Ancestor worship and their essential connection to our existence in the now and in the future. … A continuation of her eternal moan and praise to ancestors, asking, pleading, praying.”

-Marvin X

author of How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy

“Ayodele is a profoundly gifted artist whose creations take on many forms - from community building to directing to writing and educating. ... stirring, beautiful and poignant.”

-Amanda Bornstein

co-founder of The Flight Deck Art Gallery and Theater

“This is the essence of poetry: a recalcitrant and unapologetic collection of verse. The words and meter flow through the pages.”

-Zack Dye

author of 21st Century Coastal American Verses

Available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble HERE.

Available for pre-order on Powell’s.com in hardcover HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon in paperback HERE and hardcover HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for Jessica Mehta's When We Talk of Stolen Sisters: New and Revised Poems

Arriving in stores on June 15th: When We Talk of Stolen Sisters: New and Revised Poems by Jessica Mehta.

Cover Art: “Warm Stratis” by Brenda MalloryCover design by Benjamin Gorman

Cover Art: “Warm Stratis” by Brenda Mallory

Cover design by Benjamin Gorman

This collection of Jessica Mehta’s powerful, beautiful, vulnerable work spans “from dates so long ago I can’t even recall” to her most current poetry in the midst of a pandemic. Her poems call our attention to the unsung disappearance of Indigenous women, the cultural genocide that still continues, the eating disorders that consume us from within, and to love, family, and the courageous choice to see the world from a different angle in the face of death.

“Mehta’s immense attention to detail in diction and form, tokens of homage to other artists, and ability to write in diverse voices and styles shows how much education, experience, and deep care Mehta has invested into these poems. The poet and the poems have book smarts and street smarts, and that combination makes this collection completely uncontainable … Mehta overflows with life, and we are lucky that the spillage produced these poems.”

   -Linzi Garcia, author of Thank You

 

“…visceral, sensual, and raw, built from language that is unafraid to split open and show its entrails, to display the muscle of the heart that makes it tick. With arresting imagery and deft wordplay, Mehta wrestles with the demons of loss, death, body image, aging, eating disorders, and the complexity of relationships with lovers, parents, and one’s self.”

   -Brittney Corrigan, author of Breaking and Daughters

 

“Poems that dare to be this open are a testament to the conviction that human connections come from a willingness to be known. Mehta’s courage, over and over, to reveal her true self, makes reading her work feel like discovering someone who has been a friend for decades and remembering how much you deeply admire her.”

   -Benjamin Gorman, author of When She Leaves Me

Available for pre-order from Tombolo Books HERE. (Jessica Mehta will be doing a reading there in August, so we encourage you to buy your copy from them to say thank you for hosting her!)

Available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble HERE.

Available for pre-order on Target.com HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

We're giving away free copies of Benjamin Gorman's Corporate High School to Public School Libraries, Classrooms, and Public Libraries

Benjamin Gorman explains why Not a Pipe Publishing came to this decision:

[from his blog, www.TeacherGorman.com]

CHS 2021 eBook cover 3_26_21.jpg

“I am a high school English teacher. During Covid, the school where I teach (shout-out to Central High School, no relation to the CHS in this novel) discovered a lot more students wanted to read eBooks than had previously been the case. Maybe some of you like reading on your phones. Maybe you’ve gotten used to staring at screens during the pandemic. Regardless, we found that the cost of those eBooks really added up. And here I am, the author of a book that’s all about how we need to fight back and defend public schools against the increasing attacks from those who see them as a source of corporate profit. I didn’t want this novel to be a burden on public schools (or public libraries which are also essential for protecting the people of a democracy). So I worked it out with my publishing company to provide this edition for free for public schools and public libraries. (There’s a nice advantage to being the co-publisher of the company: I only had to check with my co-publisher, Viveca Shearin, and no one else could stop us. Thanks, Viveca!) We know some people outside of public schools and libraries might sneak a copy or two. We decided it’s worth it. I hope you enjoy this book. It was a ton of fun to write. And there’s a lesson there: Standing up for you believe in isn’t always enjoyable. You get push-back, and sometimes that push-back can be awful. But sometimes taking a stand is a blast! You don’t do it for the party, but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying those bright moments when they come. I hope this book will be a bright moment for you, too.

“Trigger warnings: There’s some challenging material in this book. There’s a scene of an attempted sexual assault. There are references to people experiencing homophobia and racism. There’s one pretty graphic description of a beating. And there are lots of references to environmental disasters that will likely be the consequences of global climate change. I tried to handle these events in the story with care. I think the book is completely appropriate for most high school students and even more mature middle school students, but students who have experienced some of these traumas should be forewarned. There is a balance to be found between accurately depicting the horrors of the world, even an imaginary one, and exaggerating those horrors to make a point. I tried to find that balance, but it’s impossible to know exactly where it is for every reader. So please know there is no shame in closing a book if the content gets to be too much for you. You are more important than anything on a screen. Take care of yourself.”

The free edition of the eBook is available for public school libraries, classrooms, and public libraries HERE.


Praise for Corporate High School

“Benjamin Gorman's Corporate High School is a must-read for anyone interested in joining the fight to save public education.  We proudly proclaim this book as badass and spot on about the fight to save the foundation of our democracy - strong public education for all.” 

-Marla Kilfoyle, General Manager

Badass Teachers Association

"Benjamin Gorman clearly knows high school students, and the importance of a free and public education for them. Corporate High School is fantastic!"

-Tanya Baker, Director of National Programs,

National Writing Project

"Gorman's gut-wrenching satire delivers the lesson that when a school is not a school, learning is rebellion and knowledge is a weapon."

-Karen Eisenbrey, author of The Daughter of Magic Trilogy, The Gospel According to St. Rage, and Barbara and the Rage Brigade

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for Denial Kills: An Anthology of Poetry and Short Fiction

Denial Kills eBook Cover 4_17_21.jpg

Not a Pipe Publishing is proud to release our third anthology. After our success with promoting more women’s voices during The Year of Publishing Women with the anthology Strongly Worded Women, and then our desperate crying out against the rise of fascism with Shout: An Anthology of Resistance Poetry and Short Fiction, we’re directly confronting the epistemic crisis of our post-truth world with Denial Kills.

In these pages, authors and poets point us to the dangers of refusing to see what is right before our eyes. Editors Viveca Shearin, Zack Dye, and Benjamin Gorman bring you the works of Jessica Mehta, Lydia K. Valentine, Kaia Valentine, Claudine Griggs, Ayodele Nzinga, T. J. Berg, Zach Murphy, Joanna Michal Hoyt, Simon J. Plant, Huda Tariq, Ndaba Sibanda, Sarah Jane Justice, Fable Tethras, Joann Renee Boswell, Eric Witchey, Janet Burroway, Mike Jack Stoumbos, Koraly Dimitriadis, Heather S. Ransom, Kate Maxwell, and Bethany Lee. New York Times bestsellers and those published for the first time, from across the United States and around the world, come together to question, explore, illuminate, and demystify.

FDR told us we have nothing to fear but fear itself. But there is another sinister threat that can be deadly. Denial, when allowed to fester, can have serious consequences. For example, a woman who refuses to see the ugly truth about her doomed engagement can end up trapped in a miserable marriage. A wife who refuses to accept that her husband is unfaithful can find herself confronted by his lover, by her own jealousy, and by her own willful ignorance. Denying women the rights to their own bodily autonomy can cost us our happiness, our sanity, and our lives. Denial can take many forms. And when one isn't careful, denial can most surely kill.

Available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for John Dover's Once Upon a Fang in the West!

Cover Art by Don Aguillo

Cover Art by Don Aguillo

It’s here! John Dover’s Once Upon a Fang in the West, the thrilling, blood-soaked paranormal Spaghetti Western, is available for pre-order in paperback, hardcover, and on Kindle. The book will be available everywhere on May 4th!

The Braided Pony saloon is no stranger to gun fire and blood stains on the floor. But when a mysterious gunslinger turns up dead in Ruby’s room, it’s up to the town's drunken sheriff to investigate. Lucky for him, Samuel, a fast-talking vampire, arrives looking to settle a score and attempting to resurrect his dead friend. Now they’re on the hunt across the rocky plains of the Wild West to recover the life that was stolen.

Available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.

Praise for Once Upon a Fang in the West

 

"This gory Spaghetti Western reads like a barroom brawl between Sergio Leone, Robert E. Howard, and Quentin Tarantino with Elmore Leonard howling from the rafters. A bloody, naked Elmore Leonard, how's that for an image you can't unsee? Too much? Well, then too bad for you, ya lily liver. Because John Dover serves up a gorgeously nasty cocktail of resurrection and redemption riddled with bullet wounds and teeth marks...really big teeth marks. Don't be shy, step on up to the bar and knock it down.”

-Charles Austin Muir, author of Slippery When Metastasized and This Is a Horror Book

 

"This book is fast paced, has vampires, demons, ghosts, shoot-outs, violence and a whole barrage of other dark, horrific delights to keep you entertained. There are some really original concepts that I have never come across before and the fact that I am a huge reader means that doesn’t happen very often. John is a great writer, and this book will take you on a journey through the town of Thrall and further into the desert as foe chases foe and old rivalries are put aside to battle a common enemy."

-Kevin J. Kennedy - author of Halloween Land and Owner of KJK Publishing

 

"This is a visceral and indulgent Spaghetti Western romp. Dover's lush descriptions are a delightful contrast to the violent and harsh experiences of his characters. The world Dover writes for Samuel, William, and Finn is nothing short of immersive. Smells of whiskey, blood, and dirt waft off of every page. This story moves from one deliciously gruesome event to the next at breakneck speed. Before you know it, you've finished the tale and read of innumerable dismemberments."

-Cora Y. – author

 

"John Dover’s book, Once Upon a Fang in the West, feels like a gritty, dirty, “Spaghetti” Western with a great cast of characters. Now add Vampire’s and other creatures and you have quite the mix. I couldn’t put it down. I needed to find out who survives."

-Kelley Baker – independent filmmaker and author of Road Dog, From Arrah Wanna to Mule Shoe, and the upcoming Dennis Barton Is A Bastard and Other Stories.

 

"Dover’s Once Upon a Fang in the West is a hilarious page-turner Western, as well as a very explicit, gory vampire tale that binds the genres. Just pour yourself a shot of whiskey and wear an apron before reading."

-Ivonne Saed, author of Triple crónica de un nombre (Triple Chronicle of a Name).

 

"The enemy of your enemy is supposedly your friend, right? But how far would you go to defend your town from a vile creature of unspeakable horrors when that ‘friend’ is an unsavory vampire? Find out in this fast-paced, pulpy tale of horror, gory deaths, and bloody dealings between a sheriff and unwanted visitors to his Old West town. A flesh-rending good time!"

-Rick Cook – author

 

“Visceral, vicious, twisty…a small-town sheriff’s past haunts him as he joins forces with vampires on the hunt for…something worse. Once Upon a Fang in the West will have you checking dark corners and avoiding dark alleys. And never trusting a dead body.”

 

-LeeAnn McLennan, author of The Supernormal Legacy (Dormant, Root, and Emerge)

 

“Can a story with this much blood and gore be called ‘pure’? Because this is pure fun!”

-Benjamin Gorman, author of Don’t Read This Book

 

"Rye whiskey, wry humor, and abundant gore—hold onto your ten-gallon hat for this thrilling, bloody ride!"

-Karen Eisenbrey, author of The Daughter of Magic Trilogy

 

“Four-fisted Western action: one to aim your gun, one to hold your whiskey, and two still (barely) attached to the severed arms of the supernatural baddies who dared to oppose our Big Damn Hero! Hilariously violent fun by a master of modern pulp!”

-Jason Brick, author of Wrestling Demons

 

“A gory good ride through a Wild West where the good guys are bad, the bad guys are worse, and everyone has a taste for blood.”

-Nan. C. Ballard, author of the forthcoming Under Carico’s Moons Trilogy

There's still time to join Writing Against the Darkness!

Not a Pipe Publishing’s team, Writing Against the Darkness, will be participating in The Alzheimer’s Association’s annual The Longest Day fundraiser, this year on June 19th.

Writing Against the Darkness Alzheimer Association.jpg

This year we’ll be writing on Saturday the 19th of June so we don’t conflict with families’ Father Day celebrations on the 20th.

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Join the team here.

For the last few years, we’ve started writing at dawn on the longest day of the year, summer solstice, and we write until sundown. By asking friends and family to sponsor us (with just a few posts from each of us on social media), we’ve raised more than $10,000 and written 142,268 words! Everyone writes whatever they want. In addition to working on their novels, members of the group have written beautiful memoires, poetry which has made it into published collections, and even the lyrics to songs that are now recorded singles. So bring your writing powers and join us in fighting Alzheimer’s disease. We’d love to double the size of the team, double the wordcount, and double the fundraising total this year. We started building the team earlier this year and wrote together on the winter solstice. It’s a lot easier to write on the shortest day than the longest, so this was a great way to dip our toes in the water. But don’t be intimidated; you can write as much or as little as you want, and you don’t NEED to write all day. Every little bit helps. Just go to this link and click on the green “Join Our Team” link.

Join Here

(Be sure you don’t accidentally click the “Donate” button. We’d love the donation to the team’s efforts, but we want you to join our team even more!)

The Longest Day event has always been so much fun! Looking forward to writing with you!

The New and Improved Eban and the Dolphins

A revised version of Eban is now available-- as of today -- on Ingram's Global Retail Network.


https://www.amazon.com/dp/1034724924/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=9781034724926&qid=1618425749&s=books&sr=1-1

A YA environmental fantasy about a boy genius who feels alienated from humans. With permission from a dolphin community, he elects to live in their pod.
Eban is joined by his girlfriend, Emma, who, with her parents, Janet and Ted, acquire an understanding of his philosophies and way of life. Ultimately, Emma and Eban integrate their human and marine lives.
A story of personal and interpersonal conflict resolution through growth, love, and acceptance, there are, as well, strong messages included about the environment and respect for all life.
Sally M. Olsen’s glorious illustrations enhance the text.



Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for Death's Midwife, the conclusion to the Daughter of Magic Trilogy!

Cover art by Michaela Thorn

Cover art by Michaela Thorn

It’s here! Karen Eisenbrey’s Death’s Midwife, the staggering conclusion to the YA epic fantasy Daughter of Magic trilogy, is available for pre-order in paperback, hardcover, and on Kindle. The book will be available everywhere on March 23rd!

When Luskell returns to Eukard City to claim her wizard's staff, she has no plans to advertise her skill for visiting the dead on the Other Side. Word gets out anyway, and she can't say no to those who would benefit from her specialty. But a spirit of legend called Old Mother Bones objects to a living soul trespassing on her domain. When Luskell refuses to heed her demands, Old Mother Bones threatens the person dearest to Luskell's heart. It will take all Luskell's power-and all her friends-to find the legend's weakness before it's too late.

“Girl power at its best! Smashing through wizarding boundaries and redefining opportunities for career and life, Luskell's magical journey comes full-circle as she shapes a long-forgotten skill into a new destiny for herself and those who would follow her.”

-Mikko Azul, author of The Staff of Fire and Bone

“Luskell has grown from a girl trying to discover her power, to a teen breaking glass ceilings, to a woman defining her place in the world, building a community, and lifting up others. This is third wave, intersectional feminist fantasy lit, and I am here for it!”

-Benjamin Gorman, author of Corporate High School

Available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.


And check out the amazing covers for the whole trilogy with new art by Michaela Thorn!




Cover Reveal and Pre-Order Announcement for Zack Dye's 21st Century Coastal American Verses

It’s here! Zack Dye’s 21st Century Coastal American Verses, a staggering collection of poetry, is available for pre-order in paperback and on Kindle today (links below, hardcover available soon). The book will be available everywhere on November 17th!

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Zack Dye’s powerful debut collection travels from sea to sea, shining a light on the ways our country’s systems of oppression twist our sense of identity, freedom, love, and loss into an American mythos we wear like a hairshirt. Dye’s unique experience as a white-presenting Mexican American, as a person who has climbed up and down the socio-economic ladder, and as someone who has lived and traveled across the country, produces a unique voice, sometimes pulling the reader in, sometimes shoving us away angrily, leaving us shaken.

"Zack Dye’s poems channel Walt Whitman, if the American everyman had been writing more often from a place of blazing rage. With verses that can encompass both the immensity of time and the wonder of a jelly donut, Dye’s collection speaks to our struggle to stay human in a pixelated world." 

-Eliza Stricland, Senior Editor at IEEE Spectrum

"Zack Dye's poetry expresses fleeting moments of joy and knowledge in the midst of confusion, misunderstanding, frustration, anger, and self-deception, engendered by the false dichotomies of race, language, and otherness in America."

-Jean Harkin, Author of Night in Alcatraz: and Other Uncanny Tales

"The song of a self with calloused feet and open heart, tumbling and vulnerable, raw and hopeful, inescapably honest."

- Brandon Keim, author of The Eye of the Sandpiper

Available for pre-order on Barnes and Noble HERE.

Available for pre-order on Amazon HERE.

Available for pre-order on Kindle HERE.

More links to come as more retailers offer the book for pre-order.