You Are Allowed to Ask How Publishing Works

Publishing has a transparency problem. Writers are expected to navigate submissions, querying, marketing, platform-building, bookstore outreach, distribution, visibility, launch planning, and long-term career strategy while somehow decoding an industry that often refuses to explain itself clearly. The result is predictable: talented people waste years trying to piece together advice from podcasts, social media threads, expensive webinars, conference hallway gossip, and whatever scraps they can gather from people willing to speak plainly.

A lot of publishing guidance is built around performance instead of practicality. It tells writers to “build a platform” without explaining what that actually means. It tells authors to “connect with readers” without naming the labor involved. It tells people to “do publicity” without showing them how outreach works, how bookstores make decisions, how review timelines function, how distribution affects sales, or why a book can be beautifully written and still disappear after launch.

That silence is not harmless. It keeps writers confused, embarrassed, and dependent on systems that benefit from their uncertainty. It also creates a culture where asking basic questions can feel like admitting failure. How do I submit? How do I query? How do I market without becoming insufferable online? How do I know if self-publishing makes sense? What does a small press actually do? Why didn’t my book sell? What should I be doing six months before publication? What is worth paying for, and what is just polished nonsense with a checkout button?

These are not foolish questions. They are practical questions. Writers deserve direct answers.

That is part of why I created the Small Press Publishing Collective, and why I’ve opened a limited number of Unruly Lit Strategy Sessions. These are one-hour conversations for writers, editors, artists, and indie publishers who want grounded guidance from someone actively working inside independent publishing every day. Not theory. Not recycled webinar advice. Not “manifest your author platform” nonsense. Real conversations about how books move through the world and what you can do next.

You can bring a manuscript, a launch plan, a submission strategy, a self-publishing question, a small press idea, a visibility problem, or a general literary career mess. We can talk about querying, indie publishing, traditional publishing, distribution, bookstore outreach, PR, audience-building, social media, readership, sustainability, and why so many books stall after publication. The point is not to leave with a fantasy. The point is to leave with clarity.

Every session includes a personalized recap and action email afterward because publishing conversations can get dense fast. A good strategy session should not leave you with a head full of adrenaline and no plan. You should walk away with concrete next steps, a clearer understanding of your options, and a better sense of where your energy belongs.

Participants also receive lifetime free submissions to Unsolicited Press, plus their choice of either an extended feedback report with a future submission or one year of paid Substack access. The goal is not to create a transactional one-off. The goal is to build a longer relationship with writers and publishing people who want more honesty, more strategy, and less gatekeeping.

To be clear: these sessions are not a submission pathway, a guarantee of publication, or a paid evaluation for acquisition by Unsolicited Press. Consulting and editorial acquisitions remain separate. That boundary matters. I can help you think through your work, your publishing options, your visibility plan, and your next steps without turning the conversation into a backdoor submissions process.

Publishing does not need more secrecy dressed up as expertise. It needs more people willing to explain how things work, what choices actually cost, where writers get exploited, and how to build literary lives with more intention and less panic.

Writers are allowed to ask how publishing works. They are allowed to want practical answers. They are allowed to stop guessing.