A New Beginning

Welp, I wanted to make this a personal, non-Quill & Crow blog, but here we are.

As much as I’d like to escape the pressure at times and go play in my imagination, Quill & Crow Publishing House is a part of me now. I guess I have to honor that at times. 

Today, we debuted our brand new logo, and as I posted it to our socials, I remembered we’re nearing our third anniversary as a company. So, of course, now I’m nostalgic, and I must write about it. 

I did not set out to be a publisher—I went to school to become a librarian and wanted to write creatively on the side. Since I was little, all I ever wanted to do was be around books, however it worked out. I wrote my trilogy throughout grad school and spent the last year researching publishing between classes. But it did not produce the results I’d hoped for. I learned how bleak the industry really was and how much it had changed since I dove into the worlds of Anne Rice and Stephen King as a kid. I enjoyed no part of the querying process, nor did I want to give up creative control/profits when I’d have to do a ton of work myself anyway. 

I soon found myself investigating small presses, thinking that might be a great alternative, but that proved even bleaker a prospect than before. Within a year, I watched several “presses” collapse while others came under fire for various cancellable things. There were so many, a friend of mine started calling them “pop-up presses” —it seemed every other day, some frustrated writer decided to throw some shit up on Canva and call themselves publisher, hoping for glory and praise, only to let the whole thing crumble when they realized there is work and humility involved. Indie publishing is not fast money–—it’s not even really slow money sometimes. I realized there was a hunger for legit presses that valued their authors and truly honored the creative spirit.

And it hit me: why don’t I just fucking do it?

I graduated right when Covid peaked, so there were no open librarian jobs for me. I figured I could take the downtime to research more, test things out with my own books, and see if I could even do it. I planned on taking things slow and moving quietly; armed with my tax refund and early profits from The Ancient Ones, I embarked on doing all the business-y things. In hindsight, I should have known better than to think I could move quietly. Luckily, though I caught the attention of plenty of naysayers and toxic Twittering types, I also caught the attention of a few people (they know who they are) who offered to help me. 

Initially, I was focused on The Ancient Ones and doing all the authorly things (which I hate, by the way; my hats go off to all of you busy promoting authors), but I really wanted to do something collective, so I came up with the #CrowCalls poetry prompts. I was shocked and thrilled to see all the participation.

I was struck with another wild idea: I should publish all these poems in a book!

I’m not sure if I found them or if my fellow Crows found me, but the Dark Poet Society was born. From there, things took off pretty quickly. I put together my first anthology, Anomalies & Curiosities, and again, I was surprised by how well it was received. I won’t bore you with the details, but 11 anthos, 6 poetry volumes, 4 novels, 1 short story collection, and a trilogy later, I still don’t know what the hell happened, but I’m still here. 

Now, I’m not saying all has been smooth sailing (a failed podcast, low funds, unreliable people, social media exoduses, personal life stuff). Still, we’ve pressed on, and we’ve survived longer than I even imagined possible. Maybe it’s better to have low expectations because then you’re happy with whatever result. But not a day goes by that I’m not ridiculously grateful for this opportunity and for all the wonderful folks I’ve met. I’m still not convinced the ship won’t sink eventually, but anyone who knows me knows I’m going down it. Probably cussing, too.

When I threw together a logo for Q&C, I, again, had no idea what I was doing. I love crows, so there had to be a crow in there, and maybe some fancy lettering. I wasn’t exactly sure at the time what vibe Q&C would give off or if my idea for the brand would hold strong. I figured I could always change it in the future. Well, the time has finally come when I feel comfortable settling into a logo that will hopefully take us onward. 

While I’m sad to see our little OG crow fly on, I’m excited about our next step. Although I am the one who drives this whole thing forward, a Mama Crow is nothing without her Murder. To all the Crows who have come in and out of my life, including the wonderful people who have held on throughout the peaks and valleys, I am forever grateful. There’s no way I’d have the energy to keep it moving without you.

So yeah, Q&C with birthed from an ADHD out-of-a-job librarian and a bunch of dark poets.

How much more indie can you get? 

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