Nerdology 101: Big Dreams

Hey loves! Welcome back to Nerdology 101. The blog where I, Maria Levato, Nerdiest Overlord of Hel, guide you to a greater understanding of the Nerd Culture. Mwuah-haha-haha!

Anyway, this week I’m going to expand on a concept I’ve mentioned quite a few times in recent blog posts: Wanting to get an agent and move toward traditional publishing with my new series because my vision for it is not compatible with my position as an indie author. So, let’s get into some Nerdology!

What the statement actually means?

What does it mean for a series not to be compatible with my position as an indie author? Simple: What I want isn’t something I can accomplish by myself or with the help of the people I currently work with. It has nothing to do with how good my team is and it doesn’t mean I’m doing poorly; it just means that if I had a publisher, I wouldn’t have to pay the thousands of dollars I spend to produce a book and I could focus my own funds on realizing other aspects of my vision. Using totally made up numbers here, if one party invests 10,000 into a book and another party invests 10,000 more, there’s more money than if only one party invested 10,000 and that’s all they could do. And yes, trad publishing is free to the author, but that doesn’t mean the author spends no money. It means they spend no money on the creation of the book. Plenty of authors still invest in the book in other ways and it can be the difference between the book flunking and getting launched into the stratosphere. Would it be nice if I landed a deal that came with all the marketing money I could dream of and I never spent a dime? Sure. But I’m not putting all my chips in that basket because that’s rarely the case. If I get lucky, wonderful, but if not, I’m perfectly content to have a strong publishing partner who can just take the required production investment off the table so I could focus on bank rolling the extra stuff.

So, what is it you want to do that’ll cost so much?

EVERYTHINGGGGGGGGG! I have so many ideas here. Realistically, most of them won’t work out even with a publisher, or will take a while to become doable, but some it will be perfectly attainable if I’m not spending money on 1000 non-negotiables.

1. I don’t just want one special edition; I want FOUR for each book in the series. Why? Because this is very much a series where readers are going to want to pick their team. Pretty much, in each book, four gods from various pantheons will be competing to represent their pantheon in the FMC’s harem. To me, every character has colors and vibes that represent them. I want to design special editions based on each of the competitors so readers can choose based on their favorites. I’m talking different covers, edges, and internal art for based on their favorite. Maybe even different playlists. While it’s not an affordable idea, it’s a fun one and I think it’ll be worth doing.

2. I want character sheets/guides. Obviously, because competitors for each book will be from the same pantheon, they often have established relationships, various titles and powers, etc. I’d love to include character sheets with pretty artwork and a basic breakdown of who each character is.

3. Book tour. Loves, I do events as an indie. I do them in as many places as I can because I want to reach my audience. The travel costs me big time though. If I had some loose change, I could come to a lot more of my audience and do it a lot more frequently than I can without help. I know you’re going to want all those custom special editions signed and I want to be able to come to you so you can get them signed.

4. Spin-offs and side stories. Obviously, not everyone’s favorite will be chosen by the FMC. I’d love to be able to do spin-offs to follow up on some of the crowd favorites. The base series will be five books though. Just in ISBNs for a regular paperback and ebook, not even counting spin-offs or special editions, that’s over $200. To do the special editions and the spin-offs, that’d be over $1000 in just ISBNs.

5. Merch. To put it simply, this one isn’t about money as much as it is negotiating power. Agents and publishers are in a far better position to find partners for merchandising than I am. If I did it, it would be about money because I’d have to pay for it. If they did it, it’d be about liscencing and likely wouldn’t cost me anything.

6. Reach. Obviously, all of this hinges on the book doing well from the gate. I’ve been busting my ass off for years and my Instagram has had 3k views in the last 30 days. That’s growth compared to where I started, or even where I was a few months ago, but once you factor in the view-to-sales conversion rate and whatnot, you realize that it’s still a far cry from the kind of reach that would finance something this huge. Publishers can help with that. Even a publisher that doesn’t help with it would be freeing up money so I could pay for more help with that (I will have slightly more starting in Nov because I was able to offer a bit more to my PA so she’d have more hours, but even that I can only do for a couple of months before we return to our norm).

There’s still more I could say here about what I want to be able to deliver to my audience and how trad publishing this series would help me accomplish that, but I think you get the gist. Ultimately, the things I want to give you all just require me to have a bit more help. So, stick with me and know that I’m considering all of this in every decision I make for this series. It's for you, dear reader. It’s always because I want to be able to give you more. Well, and the fact that I just find it so fun to do, but that’s besides the point. LMAO.

That’s about it for this week’s segment of Nerdology 101. Stop in next Friday for more. Also, keep in mind that Nerdology 101 will be having it’s 1 year blogaversary at the end of October and that I’m hoping to do something kind of special for it. Anyway, until next time, have a nerdy week!

Nerdology 101: Interview w/ Eliwood S. Gheist from The Hook and Quill Press

Hey, hey! What’s up, nerds? I’m Maria Levato, self-proclaimed nerdologist and indie author, back once again to bring you another segment of Nerdology 101. Today, we have a very special segment featuring Eliwood S. Gheist (she/they) from The Hook and Quill Press, making this our very first interview. Before we dive in, I want to take a moment to thank her for joining me. It’s so exciting for me to have my first interview and I hope you all enjoy it.

Now, let gooo!

Maria: “What is your role at Hook and Quill?”

Eliwood: “I am the CEO, and primarily that means signing paperwork and running the social media accounts. We started this company as a co-op, and every member has put in an incredible amount of time and work to get us here.”

Maria: “Tell me about the formation of Hook and Quill? Your website mentions that it was born of a writing support group, what did the evolution from that to being an indie press look like?”

Eliwood: “Many of us met on Bluesky, particularly through the WIPSnips promptgame. Being all writers of similar mindsets, we tried making a Discord where we could support each other through the trials of all phases of writing; brainstorming, drafting, editing, querying. Our focus has always been on uplifting each other and encouragement, and I think that naturally helped us all start to feel more confident in ourselves and the future. We commiserated about the difficulties of getting published, and talked through the merits of tradpub versus selfpub. One of the main struggles of self publishing is having to handle every aspect alone; proofreading, book design, marketing. The joke became “what if we started our own publishing company?” And gradually, it just stopped being a joke, and became a hypothetical: “What would it actually take for us to be able to do that?””

Maria: “When producing books, what does the process look like internally? Does Hook and Quill function more like trad or self-publishing, or is the approach new altogether?”

Eliwood: “We are in the process of producing our first book, and while we have planned out the process as much as we could, there’s still more to learn with every step. The first step is to assign roles to members who volunteer for them; things like proofreading and formatting the manuscript. We develop a social media promotion campaign, and schedule goalposts for release. After proofreading and edits, we make sure we have cover art and formatting ready. We arrange an interview with the author in our newsletter, as well as potentially on our sister podcast, From Tree to Book Writing Group. And then we think about distribution! We try to go wide, and make sure we are available on as many platforms as possible. We are reliant on the selfpub model at this point, as we don’t really have any funding or ability to order large volumes of books (or any place to store them or any way to distribute), so we’re doing everything using as much as we can by ourselves, and rely on things like Print-on-Demand and word of mouth to get where we want to be.”

Maria: “How many member authors do you have and what have they written?”

Eliwood: “There are six authors, and our happy helper Kelsey Ann. Of the writers, there’s Lizzie Blackwood, Samantha Breaux, myself, T.D. Gonzalez, Emily Klotz, and Kara Moon. There’s more details about what each author is writing and has written on our website (https://hookandquillpress.com/writers/). If you enjoy fantasy, science fiction, horror, romance, queer love, or any kind of story that focuses on character and humor and heart, we’ve definitely got some great books coming out for you!”

Maria: “Are there any new works from members coming out soon?”

Eliwood: “We are releasing our first book Bludeye Beach on January 1st, 2026, and preorders have just opened up! Join Edie Grayson as she navigates family drama and romance, all while trying to figure out the eerie mystery at the heart of idyllic coastal town of Bludeye Beach.

“We’ve got a few other titles in line to be released throughout the year; keep an eye on Emily Klotz, Lizzie Blackwood, and Samantha Breaux! In addition, we’re going to be releasing quarterly Zines to feature shorter pieces from our writers, if you’re interested in a smaller sampling. These will be available for individual sale, and made available to any of our supporters on Patreon and Ko-Fi.”

Maria: “Are books written by members available widely? Where can readers find them?”

Eliwood: “We are planning a wide release, and would like to make our books available to as many people as we possibly can. The best place for more details will be our website and the HookandQuillPress Bluesky account. We also highly encourage people to request a copy through their local library when they are available. Part of our company mission is to support the writing community, and writers would not be where we are without libraries!”

Maria: “Is Hook and Quill currently accepting submissions? If not, do they have plans to accept new members in the future?”

Eliwood: “At this time, we are not accepting outside submissions or new members, primarily because there’s a lot that we’re still figuring out. But who knows what the future holds!”

Maria: “How can readers keep up with the happenings of the press?”

Eliwood: “We have a monthly newsletter that gets posted to our website, Patreon, and Ko-Fi; hookandquillpress.com, and HookandQuillPress everywhere else. If you track us down on one of our socials, I hope you’ll stop to say hi!”

Maria: “What are some of Hook and Quill’s goals for 2026?”

Eliwood: “We want to share the work from our writers with the world, but we also want to uphold our company goals; uplift the writing community and support indie artists.”

Maria: “Is there anything else about Hook and Quill or its members readers or writers may want to know?”

Eliwood: “We are so grateful to be doing this work, and we thank you all for the support we’ve been shown. Check out Bludeye Beach, releasing January 1st, 2026! Preorder your copy now!”

That concludes our interview with Hook and Quill. To support the press, be sure to buy their books, leave reviews, and engage with their content. For more content like this, engage with mine. I’ll see you back next week for the next segment of Nerdology 101. Until then, have a nerdy week!

Relevant Links:

https://www.instagram.com/hookandquillpress/

bsky.app/profile/hookandquillpress.com

hookandquillpress.com

https://www.patreon.com/cw/hookandquillpress?utm_source=search&vanity=hookandquillpress