Hello Friends,

I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend full of books! As you know, Bindery recently closed out another Pitchfest and I wanted to provide everyone an update.

We have been searching for our first acquisition for the last 6 months! Each Pitchfest we hold brings in numerous submissions, with a VERY small percentage of Indigenous folks. We have also had few agent submissions. We did make two offers to previously traditionally published authors, but they chose to go in a different direction. We are still searching for the right book.

What you may not know is that I have been doing a lot of work on the backend, meeting with community members, contacting writing programs, doing whatever it takes to get the word out about our imprint and this publishing opportunity. This work will continue and is just part of the process for this imprint.

If you've been following me for a long time, you know that I read EVERYTHING, from poetry and non-fiction, to fantasy, to literary fiction to horror and romance. Over the last couple of years, I have been known for two things: highlighting Indigenous books and emphasizing the importance of Women in Horror (and maybe challenging the men in horror, a little.) I run two book clubs (Good Day to Read Indigenous (STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES IS JOINING OUR MEETING THIS MONTH AND IM STILL SHOOKETH) and Women in Horror) on Discord, you can join those here.

After much deliberation and another unsuccessful Pitchfest, I have made the decision to expand Boozhoo Books to include horror books written by women. I want to be clear that my desire and goal is unwavering. I want to publish Indigenous books! And I hope that the promotional work I continue to do will bring in more submissions. I also fully intend to grow this platform and work on garnering more paid subscribers to be able to sustain both Indigenous books and Women in Horror long-term. (Hopefully including INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN HORROR). My long term goal is to be able to release 4 titles per year. I hope you are able to see and understand this vision. (And if you are able to upgrade at any time, please do! It truly does impact the amount of titles we are able to publish each year.)

I've decided to narrow scope a bit, and so if you're a writer with a manuscript or an agent with a client, here is what I'm currently looking for:

1. Native American/First Nations genre fiction centering Native/First Nations characters. (preferably: thriller, horror, romance, mystery (cozy mystery!!!) fantasy (YA or Adult). If you have novel length stories outside of this genre, I will still read. I am not looking for non-fiction at this time).

2. Women in Horror: social, grief, gothic, haunted house, outdoor/survival, cults, feminine rage, feral, eat the rich, fungal, climate

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

Upcoming:

Indigenous Books Your Favorite Influencers recommend

Shelves and The City Blog (very belated LOL)

Monday Newsletter

Quiet Time Book Club Monday Night