The Comfy Hermit

Backstory-skip to get to the good stuff
Long story short, after going through the writing, alpha reader, beta reader, editing, and querying process, I decided to turn away from traditional publishing. I had an offer, it was seemingly a good offer. If I had not contacted a lawyer in New York who wanted to charge me hundreds of dollars to review the contract, I would have signed it. Before payment, review, etc. she offered me advice. She said, “this company is in Japan. So if they violated your rights you’d have to go to Japan to sue them.”

Hermit, remember? Introverted and most comfortable at home. While I do have a bit of the travel bug in me, that just sounds like a lot risk and wasted time. I mean, I could be writing, right?

Anyway, I was over querying. It killed my spirit. Also, the industry, with all these hurdles, the gates you have to get through, it made me mad. It felt like it was trying to keep me from succeeding. Well, surprise publishing industry, I have no quit.

I noticed on this journey that there were wonderful communities and resources available to traditionally published authors that explicitly left out indie/self-published authors.

We work hard.

We matter.

Mission, Vision, & Values

Mission: Provide a supportive, accessible, & inclusive community dedicated to raising each other up.

Vision: to create a hub for self-publishing/indie authors, and other professionals surrounding the industry. This includes resources, a supportive community, and up-to-date information.

Values: Community, kindness, passion.

Community:
-a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.
-> Creatives of all ethnicity, creed, gender expression, sexuality, are welcome.
-> Better and/or contribute to the literary community.
-> Engage to their full-potential (it can’t be all take and no give. You must help out at least one other person to be here aka your neighbor).
-> Welcome others. This ties into kindness.

Kindness:
-the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.
-> The old adage of, “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” does apply here. Leave constructive criticism.
—“This isn’t my thing…” Then why did you engage? Nothing nice to say, go to what is your thing and let those who are excited to participate speak.
-> Absolutely no hate speech is allowed.
-> Obviously, don’t attack someone else. Help! You don’t know.
-> You can swear about a situation, in your writing, but not at a person.

Passion:
-strong and barely controllable emotion.
-> Particularly about the literary world. This can be the marketing aspect, voice acting, editing, writing etc.
-> I just ask that you bring it.

While engaging in the community, if you find someone is violating the mission, vision, or values, please alert The Comfy Hermit immediately.