We were lucky to catch up with Rose Gaspard recently and have shared our conversation below.

Rose, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

I’ve wanted to be a writer for most of my life. I am a storyteller at heart. One of my earliest memories was staying up late telling my sister stories to help her sleep. A few years ago I found myself at an impasse. I decided to throw caution to the wind and follow my dreams. I wrote my first manuscript. I had a close friend beta read for me. He loved the story and pushed me to get it out there. I chose the traditional publishing route at first. I queried various agents while I was continuing my research in the publishing business. After almost a year, one thing became clear to me: modern day publishing wasn’t about telling stories. It was about selling stories.

The books I wanted to read were not being published. In addition, POC authors were egregiously underrepresented in the publishing industry. At first this discouraged me a bit, but I’m contrary by nature, so I decided to start my own publishing company. I had already spent a year researching and knew the basic steps. The rest was implementing a plan. I started Threepaths Publishing LLC and acquired all the necessary legal paperwork.

I joined Reedsy and utilized their list of contractors: Editors, Copy Editors, Assessors, Cover Designers etc. I placed the request and was surprised when several contractors bid on the job! they liked the project and wanted to work with me. I met my editor, copy editor, and cover designer through Reedsy’s site as well as other sites. Once I had the MS ready, I applied for the copyrights and used Amazon’s KDP to publish my first book, Selah: The Book of Books Chronicles. Which is going to be the first book in the Book of Books series.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In the beginning of my publishing journey when I was searching for an agent, I was asked about my social media presence and marketability. The focus was more on if they could package with the same material used for other authors. My dream for Threepaths Publishing is for it to become a force for change in the Publishing Industry. I want to showcase authors who may not otherwise get a representation. The outliers, mavericks, those who don’t use tropes to gauge their story’s value. Books like movies these days, are now reboots and the regurgitation of other books and stories. Agents and publishers are quick to ask authors “what are your comps?” which are comparable titles, basically what other book will you book remind me of? Threepaths Publishing doesn’t want to know how your story is similar to others, it wants to know how you story DIFFERS from others. I don’t want to focus on tropes, or comps but more on the authors voice and if the story is compelling.

I am different because I believe stories are created because there are people out there yearning for them. It only takes someone to have the courage to tell a story that hasn’t been told yet. Someone had to take a chance on Stephen King, Andy Weir, Brandon Sanderson and others. Underrepresented authors only need someone to do the same for them. I think the industry would be surprised that readers would buy those books. The readers are waiting for those voices, and God knows originality needs to be promoted again.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I knew how many free resources were out there for creatives. Marketing has been by far the greatest challenge thus far. But I found resources like Reedsy, Bookbrush, Canva, and Motionleap that help with creating arresting images for ads and book trailers. Many of them have free options, though the paid versions are of course better.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social Media has been hard for me. I’m a private person and sharing myself with the world was very difficult. In the beginning I only posted images. Then a publisher told me readers like knowing who they are buying from, that’s why they put author photos on books. I started being more vulnerable and sharing with my followers. I don’t only post images, but started posting reels on IG and started joining conversations on Twitter. I also started a YouTube channel, though I don’t give it half as much attention as I should. But I noticed my followers grew. At the end of the day people are trying to connect to each other. They want to know they are not alone in the world. That’s what books do, they connect with people.

Contact Info:

• Website: Threepathpublishing.com
• Instagram: writepath111
• Twitter: Writepath111
• Youtube: Book of Books Chronicles
• Other: rosecarmelgaspard.wordpresss.com

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