Book cover: A rural outdoor scene - a night sky, a big tree, and the front part of a red dodge truck are in view. A black-haired woman in jeans and a flannel shirt sits on the hood of the truck. A blond woman with baseball cap, jeans, and tank top stands on the grass in front of the truck. The two women face each other and lean in close.

38th Read of 2026: Shifting Gears by Jazz Forrester. A lesbian hallmark channel romance plus spice, complete w/ small town glorification, & dishonesty as the cornerstone of the romance. Sadly not for me. Not badly written, though! Just not my fave tropes.

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Red frowns indicate rejection

As a #writer on the journey to #tradpub I tell myself that this means my manuscript has landed in the ‘maybe’ pile for my mental health, sanity, and dignity as I #amquerying 😂 a small victory but *a win is a win* Happy Friday, everyone!!!

Thank you @bookmarkobrien.bsky.social for your edits and suggestions on my query letter + manuscript!! 🫶🏽 Shout out to @litconnect.bsky.social for giving #writers looking to be #tradpub an opportunity to connect with agents. If you are #querying, check out litconnect.net ✨

Shout out to all the #literary #agents out there who write kind messages of encouragement on their form rejections. 🫶🏽 Yall know #querying is a long, daunting process for #writers and it shows 💖Now, waiting for my yes & rep 🙌🏽 Good luck to any aspiring #tradpub #authors in this process - we got this 📝

It's new episode Tuesday! This week we discuss social media and marketing through this question:

Do you need a platform to publish a book?

#booksky #romancebooks #tradpub #indiepub #romancelandia #podcast #howtowrite #socialmedia #marketing

Hey Scammers: Get a Life! Hey Scammers - Get a Life! I received the email of my dreams this week. A senior publicist was interested in all three of my books, mentioning each of them by their title. She said what stood out to.....

Sharing this month's blog post with others I know share my pain. #Authors, #Writing, #WritingCommunity, #WriteLife, #WriterLife, #TradPub, #AmDrafting, #AmEditing, #AmRevising, #AmQuerying, #WriteSky, #WriterSky

www.tammybulsonwriting.com/blog/hey-sca...

Book Cover: Art deco style illustration of two men facing each other. The one in beige holds a glass of red wine in one hand, a knife in the other. The man in blue carries a wine bottle. Their arms cross as if offering the wine glass/bottle to each other as they gaze into each others eyes.

34th Read of 2026: Subtle Blood by KJ Charles. Will & Kim try to lay low but Kim's brother is accused of murder, then Will is framed, so they're dragged back into shadowy cat-and-mouse games w/aristocrats and/or psychopaths. God I love this series so much.

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

The willing surrender A deleted prologue, and why the slow slide from technology use to abuse is already happening around us

Link 👇
rebeccabellan.substack.com/p/the-willin...

#WritingCommunity #AmQuerying #OnSub #TradPub #SpecFic

Book cover: art deco style book cover with two men facing each other and clinking glasses of champagne. One holds a knife. In the background are the shadows of two women with flapper-era type silhouettes.

33rd Read of 2026: The Sugared Game by KJ Charles. Continuation of the very GO-coded Will Darling series, with hijinks involving a spy & a bookseller. Love this series, absolutely going straight into the next! Haven’t been so invested in a series in ages!

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Book cover: art deco style illustration of two men facing each other. The one in beige is sitting and holds a concealed knife. The one in black stands and holds an open book.

32nd Read of 2026: Slippery Creatures by KJ Charles. An antiquarian bookseller and a spy (ish?) with questionable loyalties are caught between two factions trying to get their hands on the potential latest weapon in war. First in a series.

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Book cover: a plain pink background mostly devoted to the title. Illustrative drawing in the bottom third of four figures sitting together. The two women stare longingly at each other, as do the two men.

31st Read of 2026: Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher. YA sorta-retelling of King Arthur, set several generations after Arthur lived and with lots of queer rep. It was okay but not really my thing. 🤷🏻

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Trang Nguyen | Substack WRITER OF TENACIOUS CHARACTERS SET IN TROUBLED WORLDS // repped by Elizabeth Pratt at Trellis Literary

author newsletter is live & my first post is up (how I got my agent)! if you subscribe I promise I don’t have the stamina to write many newsletters so you won’t get spammed with notifs 😌

#queryletter #queryingauthors #tradpub #agentedauthor #substack #aspiringauthor

substack.com/@trangnguyen...

HIGMA (how I got my agent) + query letter! featuring an Etsy witch, Margaritaville in Times Square, and a birthday offer of rep.

how I got my agent (the long version), featuring an Etsy witch, Margaritaville in Times Square, and a birthday offer of representation 🀄️

#querying #querytrenches #author #amwriting #tradpub #queryletter #traditionalpublishing #substackwriter

open.substack.com/pub/trangngu...

Changes The Only Thing You Can Do When Things Aren't Working

Things aren't working out so I'm changing the way I tackle writing. austinpetrini.substack.com/p/changes?r=... #writesky #selfpub #tradpub

Book cover: abstract portrait of a city skyline with a fountain pen nib towering in the middle, all in monochrome blue. In the foreground are copper-colored decorative filigree around the edges, a few lanterns, and two silhouetted figures walking together (again, all in copper)

28th Read of 2026: Copper Script by KJ Charles. A skeptical policeman butts heads with a skilled graphologist. Animosity and sexual tension ramp up in equal measure as the two team up to take down a murderer. Absolutely excellent book!

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Book cover: background is a closeup of a building tinted monochrome purple. Overlaid on this in the foreground is rippling water that a girl floats in, back to us, wearing billowy white clothes

25th Read of 2026: The Narrow by Kate Alice Marshall. YA ghost thriller. This HAD to be GO fanfic once. The redhead character falls, becomes different, & spies under the name Jane Crowley. The narrator Eden has family neglect & a volatile brother Luke. 🤣

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Publishing 101: An Overview of the Publishing Process – Rachel Carter & Rachel Fisher | Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE)

Next up at #IPNECon26: Onion River Press's Rachel Carter & Rachel Fisher's session "Publishing 101: An Overview of the Publishing Process."

ipne.org/publishing-1... #writingcommunity #amwriting #freelanceeditor #amediting #publishing #tradpub

Book cover: Over a sunset-colored background is an illustrative quirky old house with leaning walls and a turret. A pride flag is displayed along one side. In front of the house is an ornate metal gate, and drooping tree leaves that look like grasping hands line the sides of the image. There’s a skull and crossbones in from of the fence and another on the house’s porch. Spiderwebs adorn part of the porch, and there’s a semi-transparent ghost in the sky.

23rd Read of 2026: The Most Unusual Haunting of Edgar Lovejoy by Roan Parrish. If you’re looking for true genderqueer gay romance with a paranormal twist, this book is perfect. Loved every second of it!

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Book cover: Illustrative image of two high school boys sitting on a theatre catwalk, legs dangling, staring at each other piningly. Sheets of paper fall below them.

21st Read of 2026: The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram. Sadly not my fave by the author. A bit gimmicky & the end left me disappointed despite the happy ending. Oh well. Apparently I prefer the author’s adult books.

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia

Cover: Illustrative drawing of two Bengali teen girls on opposite sides of the cover, backs to each other, tentatively reaching hands toward each other. Background is split between pink and blue.

18th Read of 2026: Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating by Adiba Jaigirdar. Really cute sapphic YA romance w/extra themes of identity, family, dealing with false friendships, and standing up for oneself.

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Scraping the WordPress AI Scrapers - Inkican This post is about scraping the AI scrapers or, 'how I get most of the AI scrapers off my Wordpress site and you can, too.' We're trying to write here, people!

Do you blog? Want a simple step-by-step to end AI scrapers once and for all? Gotcha covered, fam.

inkican.com/scraping...

#Authors #Writing #WritingCommunity #WriteLife #WriterLife #Indie #SelfPub #TradPub #AmDrafting #AmEditing #AmRevising #AmQuerying #OnSub #Published #

The Intriguing World of Idioms I’ve been feeling under the weather for the last couple of weeks. When I thought about starting this month’s blog post with that sentence, I started wondering where that particular idiom came...

Not one to "jump the gun", and coming in "just under the wire", here's this month's blog post on idioms. #Authors, #Writing, #WritingCommunity, #WriteLife, #WriterLife, #TradPub, #AmDrafting, #AmEditing, #AmRevising, #AmQuerying, #WriteSky, #WriterSky

www.tammybulsonwriting.com/blog/the-int...

Illustrative book cover, split diagonally. In the top left portion, a young man stands on a snowy path with Christmas decor (poinsettia, bows, old fashioned lamp) behind him. He waves and smiles at the man depicted in the bottom right portion. The bottom right is an outdoor scene of green rolling hills and blue sky. A man stands holding an easel and paintbrush, smiling up at the man on the Christmas side. There is a canvas in front of him with the beginnings of a portrait of the Christmas man. A green top hat is propped on top of the canvas, and there are shamrocks and coins scattered around.

2026 reads: Go Luck Yourself by Sara Raasch. Someone from the St Patrick’s Day royal court is stealing Christmas’ magic. The younger Xmas prince goes to investigate - and finds himself falling for the enemy. Spicy romance w/ a side salad of real depth. 💕

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #audio

Image of The Ribbon Skirt book, showing the honors category seal and stating that the book has received the American Indian Youth Literature Award in Middle Grade Honor.

I'm so pleased! The Ribbon Skirt has been selected for the honors category of the American Indian Youth Literature Award, in the middle grade honor. Chi miigwetch! Congratulations to all the winners! #writingcommunity #tradpub #authors #writing

Book cover: a mostly empty attic with slanting roof. A bike stands against a distant wall, spotlit from the window above it in blue light.

12th read of 2026: A Box Full of Darkness by Simone St James. Spooky, fast read abt 3 siblings brought back to their former home to investigate their brother’s disappearance 20 yrs earlier - if the ghosts who don’t want their secrets revealed don’t get in their way.

#books #2026reads #tradpub

Book cover featuring a landscape scene of a walking trail next to grasslands and a fence, all on a sloped hill with more green-covered hills in the background

11th read of 2026: The Man in Black by Elly Griffiths. Collection of short stories related to several of Griffiths’ series. These are comfort reads for me so it was lovely to dive back into these worlds.

#books #2026reads #tradpub

Book cover: comical stylized line art of a hand holding a martini glass on a background of the nyc skyline. The martini has a cocktail skewer but instead of an olive, it’s an eyeball skewered.

8th read of 2026: Strange New World by Vivian Shaw [4th in series]. Now that the apocalypse has been averted & reality reset, Heaven & Hell must figure out how to work together when angels & demons are allergic to each other. Cue poison darts & angelic possession. 😍

#books #2026reads #tradpub

‘It has become difficult to live’: Hungarian writers bemoan country’s hostile environment Nobel prize for László Krasznahorkai provides a rare glimpse of unity in a nation divided on party lines

‘It has become difficult to live’: Hungarian writers bemoan country’s hostile environment
www.theguardian.com/... #Authors #Writing #WritingCommunity #WriteLife #WriterLife #Indie #SelfPub #TradPub #AmDrafting #AmEditing #AmRevising #AmQuerying #OnSub #Published #

hii my name is emily/emmy and i’m an author querying my first novel THIS WILL DESTROY YOU with 4 current wip’s!! here’s some info on them & if any catch your eye let me know 👀 hehe

also looking for more author mutuals and friends! :)

#authors #writingcommunity #youngadult #ya #tradpub #amquerying

Book cover: Title and author written in white block letters over the following image: Two Black men, one sitting one standing, eye each other. Behind them is an archway of balloons and a number of silhouetted figures in the distance.

6th read of 2026: I Think They Love You by Julian Winters. A sweet & spicy gay romance featuring a once-lovers, then-heartbreak/separation, now-fake-dating scenario. It was really good!!!

#books #2026reads #tradpub #lgbtqia #readqueerbooks