publishing – Cynthia D. Griffin

Indie Author, publisher, publishing, small press, writing

An Interview with Small Press Wisteria Publishing

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Cynthia D. Griffin

I was lurking around Twitter one day in December, when I ran across a tweet that caught my eye. I think it was the avatar more than anything. A brilliant yellow background that grabbed my attention. I decided to take a closer look, and found a really cool freshly started small press.

What really drew me to this small press was the how it was presented. A press run by a writer for writers. The owner, Claire, also seemed very personable and open when I contacted her through email.

I love supporting small businesses. It’s even better when I get to support self-published and indie authors. That also includes small presses. So here’s a little interview I did to help myself and all my readers get to know this press and the owner just a little better.

Thank you, Claire, for taking the time to do this interview! First, I have some questions about Wisteria Publishing.

What is Wisteria Publishing, and what caused you to start this company?

Wisteria Publishing is a small, independent publisher created by a writer for writers. I wanted to start this company for two reasons. The first being that I had experienced being published twice and both experiences weren’t… ideal. Contracts were hard to understand. The second is that I went on to self-publish and loved the process. Also, I love books! Wisteria is a place where authors earn 50% of profits and read contracts that are easy to understand.

How many and who is currently part of Wisteria staff, and how do you want to see Wisteria grow in the future?

Besides myself, I also have a part time editor and part time creative assistant. Ideally in the future, I’d love to make these roles full-time, hire some more staff and even have a little office somewhere. I want it to put out wonderful books.

What is your biggest dream for Wisteria?

My biggest dream for Wisteria is that it is a Good company. That we are known for being appreciative and fair, and that we are always supportive and supported.

What sort of authors are you looking to work with?

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publication, publisher, publishing, the writing journey, write, writer, writing collaboration

Starting a New Journey

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Cynthia D. Griffin

I have been thinking about it for a while and have decided to finally commit to doing instead of thinking and talking. I am beginning my own publication business. I even came up with a logo for it and everything. lol…

In all seriousness though, I am excited to be doing this. I feel a need to do this for myself and for others. In fact, Endless Journeys very first published work will be my eleven year-old son’s junior chapter novel. He’s been writing like crazy for years now (and it makes me so proud!) and I feel he finally has a great piece to be published. So we have been working on it diligently as a homeschool writing project for some time now. We are now entering the final stages of editing and putting the book together. I am proud and excited to be helping him realize a dream as well as encouraging him to reach for more.

I honestly don’t have any idea how far I’ll be taking this new adventure, but I am incredibly excited about it. I have quite a few writing projects for myself that I can’t wait to start putting out, but just the idea of being able to helps others do the same makes it even more fun and adventurous.

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editing, inspiration, inspirational, publication, publishing, the writing journey, the writing process, writing, writing journey

A Writer’s Wings Cover Reveal!

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Cynthia D. Griffin

I’ve been keeping mostly to myself this summer because it’s been an especially busy one this year. I’ve been packing to get ready for our move, which should happen in a few weeks. We are in closing stages now on our home in Florida. I’ve also been doing a lot of self-reflection work to help clear myself to be more beneficial as a Reiki healer and to be a more balanced person over all. The other major project I’ve been working on is a book that is near and dear to my heart, mostly because it is a large part of my heart–it is one of my very special journals that I’ve been writing in for quite some time.

A Writer’s Wings took years to write, but it was done little bits at a time as any journal is written. I spent a large part of April, May, and June of this year transferring my journal entries into a digital file. Then I spent July working on formatting, layout, and illustrations to place in the book to make it a little more eye-catching. I’ve been working on the cover off and on since April, but it’s only been the last week I’ve buckled down to get it finished.

I have a 11×17 image of the butterfly you see across the front of the cover hanging over my desk in my office. I created the graphic years ago, because I decided I needed something very personal and meaningful to inspire me as I wrote. In fact, as I was brainstorming cover ideas for Writer’s Wings I kept looking up at that image over my desk. After a while a light came on in my befuddled brain and I realized the image was exactly what I needed for the cover, since Writer’s Wings is all about inspiration.

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Blood Feud, Emperors of Ethia, Michael Knost, novel, publication, published, publishing, the writing journey, writing

Blood Feud Cover Reveal!

Posted on May 5, 2018 by Cynthia D. Griffin

I’ve been talking about it for awhile off and on, and the day finally arrived when my awesome newly published book showed up on my doorstep. Imagine my excitement as I opened up the box and held my very first published book in my hands! Then I immediately imagined doing the same with all the other books to come (I’m working on two books right now in fact). Finally after years of hard work, I have something very physical to hold in my hands!

I knew this day would be coming. So over the past few months, I made many book release plans and even came up with some release dates, but in the publishing world release dates can be a tricky thing. Ultimately, I opted for short, sweet, and simple by doing a cover reveal post and another post when the book is up on Amazon. Another reason for this simplicity is I have been and still am heavily preoccupied by our family’s upcoming move to Florida.

In fact, I still can’t give a exact release date so people can start buying the book because I am going to Florida very early this coming Tuesday and will be in Florida for ten days looking for our new home! I am in the process of working with Create Space to get it up and available on Amazon, but I’m not sure if it will be done before I go. I’m not taking my laptop on this Florida trip because it’s supposed to be a little bit of a getaway for me too (hitting two birds with one stone, three if you count spending time with my husband who’s already been in Florida the last six weeks working his new job).

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beginning writer, better writing, Blood Feud, book publishers, Bookerfly Press, editing, Emperors of Ethia, first publication, great writing, how to write, learning to write, lots of writing, Michael Knost, novel, novel writing, publication, publishing, the writing journey, the writing process, writing, writing discipline, writing progress

Taking the Plunge to Self-Publish

Posted on July 10, 2017July 10, 2017 by Cynthia D. Griffin

It has been a long road since I started writing my novel Blood Feud. The journey began in April of 2012. I remember it well — a month of straight writing where the ideas just flowed like water. They pooled onto the page with little effort as months of thinking about my story and characters finally found a permanent place on the page. My story flourished but my poor family suffered from neglect. So at the end of the month and about 50,000 words later, I took a break. A few weeks later I came back to my marvelous work of art to realize everything I had written was total crap. And that pretty much sums up the next four years. Awesome spurts of writing where words flowed and family suffered just to end up with… yep you guessed it, more crap.

That my friends is the way of the writer as I am sure some of you are quite familiar with.

But something happened in my fifth year of writing. During my sixtieth (and really that’s not much of an exaggeration) rewrite of Blood Feud, the crap fell away and a good story finally started to form. At least to the point where I felt confident enough to send my work to a professional author, editor, and friend (Michael Knost) so he could tell me it was crap too. And to my surprise, he said it was a pretty awesome story.

Crap, what do I do now?

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