Jess Lourey and The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One

Thank you to Dani for inviting me to talk about my self-publishing experience. Going the self-pub route had not been my original choice. I had what I thought was an awesome idea for a young adult novel—two kids realize they’ve been living inside To Kill a Mockingbird for the past five years, and they undertake an adventure through great literature to find their real home and parents—and I wrote it. My agent loved it, I mean dropped the “F” bomb on the phone with me she loved it so much, but she couldn’t find a home for it. Publishers gave us positive feedback but said that ultimately, they couldn’t sell teenagers on classic literature.

Now, I’ve traditionally published seven mysteries, with the eighth coming out in October. I also serve on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America. I’ve got some hard-earned publishing knowledge, and I’d been hearing the same buzz as everyone else: self-publishing is big. It’s huge. It’s the future. You can write a book and quit your job cuz the money’ll come rolling in. I don’t normally believe hype, but I personally knew people who’d made tens of thousands a year self-publishing. And what did I have to lose? None of the trad publishers wanted Toadhouse.

So I hired an editor, and a professional cover designer, and an interior formatter, and used my promoting knowledge to come up with a marketing plan. All told, I spent around $6000. Quite an investment, but I couldn’t expect people to pay their hard-earned money for a substandard book. The self-pub process took longer than I thought—nearly three months—but on July 17, my book went live on Kindle, and then the print version became available through CreateSpace 48 hours later. I’ve received six five-star reviews and sold 74 copies in the past week. Not enough to quit my job, but a step in the right direction. Here's more about the book:

The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One

Aine (pronounced "Aw-nee") believes herself to be a regular teenager in 1930s Alabama, but when a blue-eyed monster named Biblos attacks, she discovers that the reclusive woman raising her isn't really her grandmother, that fairies are real, and that she's been living inside a book for the past five years. With her blind brother, Spenser, she flees the pages of the novel she's called home, one terrifying step ahead of Biblos' black magic. Her only chance at survival lies in beating him to the three objects that he desires more than life.

As she undertakes her strange and dangerous odyssey, Aine must choose between a family she doesn't remember and her growing attraction to a mysterious young man named Gilgamesh. Only through treacherous adventures into The Time Machine, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Tale of Two Cities, and the epic Indian saga, The Ramayana, will she learn her true heritage and restore the balance of the worlds ... if she can stay alive.

"Lourey's wonderful way with words will whisk readers away to an amazing new world!” -- Anthony and Agatha Award winning author Chris Grabenstein 

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Jess Lourey is the author of The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One, the first in a young adult series that celebrates the danger and excitement of reading. She also writes the critically-acclaimed Murder-by-Month Mysteries for adults with a sense of humor. She's been teaching writing and sociology at the college level since 1998. When not gardening, writing, or hanging out with her wonderful kids and dorky dog, you can find her reading, watching SyFy-channel original movies, and dreaming big. You can find more out about her and her books, and read an excerpt of The Toadhouse Trilogy: Book One, at JessLourey.com/Toadhouse/ttt.html.