Running an Indie Press: From Beta Bliss to Death Threats

Sometimes, I think that running an indie press was a pretty cool life choice. Other times, not so much. April and May have reflected that roller-coaster pattern in ways both old and new. It turns out that May is ending with a “first time” life experience that’s been a shocker. But rather than beginning with the ending, let’s memorialize (ha! see what I did, there? check the publishing date, if you didn’t) one of the high points first.

An Indie Fantasy Publisher’s Wet Dream

We spent most of May gathering and collating feedback from about a half-dozen beta readers on our upcoming epic romantasy novel, What God Has Ordained. While we awaited those results I processed quite a bit of trepidation. It’s been over ten years since Michael and I published the fantasy romance Dead Man’s Trigger. As you know, lots has changed since then. Did we still have what it takes to immerse readers in a setting, a story, a world? I had doubts, I confess—but then, I’d been struggling with doubts, loss of confidence, and for a very dark time, even the loss of hope.

But then the first result came back, and I went from doubt to delight in about fifty words.

“The author clearly has a long, fully realized story to tell. These five chapters demonstrate the capacity to tell it well. The romantasy readership for a book with elements like a destined lord-and-lady pair, a forbidden foster-sibling love, and a richly detailed ecclesiastical fantasy world is a real and hungry one.” — C.M, Beta Reader, 2026

My God, it looked like we have somehow, for the first time in our married lives, tapped into a mother-lode. But before I could talk myself down from that wonderful first feedback, the rest was pouring in. It was at least that good, or even better. I cried happy tears, I admit—I’m even tearing up now, just remembering it. If you know what it’s like to believe you’ve lost something precious forever, only to find that you’ve still got it? You will know exactly what those weeks were like around here. It was like falling in love with writing all over again—and like finding myself again, too.

What an effective anodyne for the stresses of website upkeep and optimization! I’ve loved almost every minute of working on the manuscript revisions. Each morning I can’t wait to get back to them. We’re 3/4ths of the way finished already!

An Indie Publishing Experience on the Other End of the Spectrum

So. If you’ve been around lately you’ll have noticed the changes to the website’s home page and even the page on which you’re reading this article. Obviously, we did not undertake the change to MetPub’s theme on a whim. It’s a painstaking process that involves timing, coordination, and backing up the site’s data in case of calamity. But, our old theme was GARBAGE—paid-for GARBAGE, at that. It just could not do some of the things we wanted it to do (despite the promises of the authors), so I found us a newer, and hopefully a better one.

Then the newly selected theme has to be installed, then activated, then customized. As I discovered to my dismay, with these WordPress themes the learning curve is straight up, and there is no way to save your changes in process.

So of course, my laptop shut all the way down when I was over half-way through the first attempt. And during the second attempt I somehow hit a key combination that closed my browser window before I got the change-over finished.

I won’t lie. I was frustrated enough to cry, and I did. It sucks when you’ve followed “best practices” and done all the work, only to lose it through machine fuckery. It sucks even more when you realize that you can be all the “frustrated” you want to be, but you will still have to sit back down and try again. No promises, no guarantees—just maybe this time hurry to get something done and “published,” even if it’s incomplete—and for pity’s sake, watch your fingers!

Going through the ordeal did give me a valuable insight, though it’s not new or even original. So here’s some small press owner advice: Pay a professional to do this work, if you can afford it at all. It’s not guaranteed to save you stress, but at least you can blame someone else if it all goes horribly wrong.

However, I have to admit that I think it looks great. It performs wonderfully, too! But, I’d like your opinion: How is MetPub’s new theme working for you? Scroll down and leave me a comment!

An Indie Publishing Experience That’s Become Too Common

In a previous post I wrote about the legal issues we’re pursuing over the illegal publishing of the Raven & Iris books (mostly) by affiliate sellers all over the web. This kind of book theft has become yet another internet epidemic, a crime for which few criminals ever face consequences. I can’t go into too many details here, but: Michael put in a lot of time researching our particular issue, its extent, and what legal recourse we have—then turned it over to our attorney. He says we should be hearing something soon.

Think good thoughts for us—we really can’t finish the third book in the R&I trilogy until this gets sorted, and in our favor.

Yesterday, I Received My First-Ever Email Death Threats

Yep, that’s how May is ending: With some loser threatening me in ALL-CAPS with death and other gruesome outcomes if I don’t vanish from social media, Goodreads, and Amazon forever.

I’m not even on social media anymore. And they want I should take this seriously? 🤷🏻‍♀️

I find it moderately interesting that the threat email arrived after I’d posted two mild-mannered comments in various discussions on Goodreads—the first time I’ve participated in any online discussion in YEARS. But, I knew when I re-engaged online that I would be letting myself in for this kind of thing, eventually. I was just a little surprised that it came so soon.

I don’t think there is anywhere to go to report it. As far as I know, it’s not a crime to use ignorance, all-caps, and bad grammar to make idle threats to someone’s well-being.

But then I think, maybe it should be.

If you like what you’ve read here, or if you have any questions about self-publishing vs small press publishing, scroll down to our comments to let us know what you think. Michael and I are not comprehensive experts in the field, but we are always willing to share with you what we know!