I’m Leslie Rindoks, founder of WayWord Books. For the past two decades, I’ve worked as an editor, book designer, writer (writing as Avery Caswell), and publisher.

During this time, I have watched big box stores shift the industry to a distributor-dependent publishing model, eroding publisher profits and subsequently author royalties. At the same time, technological advances made it possible for anyone with a computer to “publish,” flooding the market with books of questionable quality.

Alongside this evolution, it has become increasingly difficult for authors to succeed. Published writers earn on average less than $7000 per year, and that includes income from teaching and speaking engagements.

In 2019, my novel Salvation won first place in a Southern fiction contest and was subsequently published by a small, independent press. It was well received — earning many five-star reviews. Despite this success, while I went on my book tour, Zoe, my pet sitter, earned more feeding my cat Poe than I earned in royalties. Don’t get me wrong, Zoe’s a great kid, but something’s seriously wrong with this math.

I thought there must be a better way – both for readers to gain access to great books, and for writers to make a living writing them.

And now there is.