Wheelborn is born

The desire for greater independence births an imprint

As an indie writer, I, like most other authors, have been using the free ISBNs from Amazon as the cheapest way to get my work out. It’s easy, no fuss and, best of all, free. But it does have a drawback. Having that free ISBN is restrictive, it ties your book to Amazon, and it also means where Publisher is listed on the book page, it will show up as ‘Independently Published’. I’m also taking steps so that if ever Amazon kicks me off the platform (which it seems to arbitrarily do to folk on occasion), I can continue in other ways.

I actually have no issue with having the label ‘Independently Published’ overall as I am happy to read indie books and I have read a good many over the years. But I do know it can plant an element of doubt in the buyer’s mind (I have encountered a few to put me off, especially non-fiction). I also wanted to develop something which is mine, where my logo on the side implies a product of quality. I have been publishing my own work for a while (alongside being published in the small presses) and feel that I have enough experience - and ability - to justify this development. Of course it costs money, Nielsen ISBNs are £93 for one or £174 for ten. I spent weeks dithering about buying them but took the plunge and purchased ten.

But what publisher name? I didn’t want something that would restrict me just to dark fiction as I have a variety of ongoing projects outside this field, but I wanted something that reflects me. On the back of my business card, I have the tagline ‘A wheel of stories always turning’. And the Wheelborn family name runs through my Five Turns universe. It was perfect. (I didn’t want it to be Wheelborn Press or Wheelborn books or anything that would imply that it was more than it was. Although, again, I wondered if I was shooting myself in the foot by leaving that off.)

Cue hours of fun playing with logo designs and this is it. A simple badge to go on my book spines.

Now, what would be the first book to adopt this imprint? For me, that was easy. As The Wheel Turns - More Tales from the Weald gained little traction when it first came out, and I reread it recently. The standalone stories are good, they are the Five Turns world and as I’d never created a hardback before, I decided to update the content (adding one previously published story and a new one, both featuring a Reborn character). So, second edition time with new added stories, new cover, a hardback version and under my Wheelborn imprint.

The proofs arrived this week and I wasn’t happy with the cover, it didn’t ‘work’ though on screen it was ok. I redid the cover totally and am currently awaiting a proof just to be on the safe side but it’s more the world I try to convey in The Five Turns, that pastoral, rural idyll. And I’ve updated the blurb to reflect the content. My folk horror has never been the ‘cult’ aspects which play out so frequently in the genre. It is a blending of the pagan with the folk and heritage crafts, the rural traditions, something not found too often in other folk horrors. It carries the Wheelborn logo proudly on the spine.

As usual, the cover was created in Affinity Photo. I used free creative commons images, did a bit of masking and cropping and using filters within Affinity. Absolutely no AI in this one. If you’ve read The Five Turns of the Wheel, you’ll know the figure represents Tommy (the peacock feather is a clue).

The hardback contains a ‘prettier’ layout with images alongside story title pages (where the page would otherwise be blank). Creating a hardback was a challenge to myself, to see what I was capable of. I was pretty pleased with how these turned out. I wanted this book to have a ‘luxury’ feel to them and I will say I was impressed with the proof Amazon sent me.

The ebook is now available on Amazon and I’ve included it in Kindle Unlimited for the moment. I’m hoping the old reviews will link into the new edition in a few days (apparently it takes 5).

The paperback and hardback will also be on Amazon but I now have the freedom to upload it to other places should I so wish (I have those other ISBNs to play with).

Yes, this has taken a lot of work and I found making my mind up to do this a stressful process - because I kept dithering - considering I was taking on extra costs when budgets are tight, but I’m glad I’ve done it.

As the book says, the wheel is always turning,

Steph

:)