Today we’d like to introduce you to Abigail Wild

Hi Abigail, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

I was a loner as a child. I wanted to be by myself, creating fantastical worlds in my mind. These worlds were my happy place and where I wanted to live. My real life was full of hospitalizations and screaming parents. I wanted no part of the mundane, just the fantasy. So I sat at my little pink desk drawing, painting, and writing. I just didn’t fit in and I was okay with that.

When it came time to make college decisions, my parents had hopes and dreams of having a travel agent in the family. It didn’t work out for them, so I decided to go to school for visual arts, graphic design, to be more precise. My family didn’t understand what graphic design was, so all of this confused them greatly. They still say “We sent you to school for computers, why can’t you fix our computer?” Fixing computers was not at all what I was learning, of course.

I was a designer for many moons. I had a wonderful time designing for local restaurants, organizations, and churches. One day an author approached me to design their book cover. These were my favorite projects. I felt they gave me the chance at the creativity I had been craving. After so many cover I started thinking about writing my own novel. I played around with it, but never took it too seriously. Until my oldest son was in a skateboarding accident that left him in bed with post-concussion syndrome for two years. When he was able to attend school again, we were faced with teachers and peers who didn’t understand what he was going through. My son’s neurologist said that sometimes you have to find creative ways to explain the situation. That’s when the premise for my debut novel, The Art of Drowning was born. I wrote my son’s story. He didn’t want the story to be focused on him, so I fictionalized what happened by changing skateboarding to soccer, and by making the main character a girl. The medical information is similar, but the circumstances were changed.

After that, I quickly wrote my second novel, More Than One Way to Breathe. This story highlighted the friendship of two of my good friends from high school, fictionalized of course. Mia had a hard home life where she dealt with abuse and Sophie was struggling with Cycstic Fibrosis. This friendship was beautiful, and a bit mystical. Yet through it all, they stayed close friends.

From there I had the idea to start a publishing company. That’s when Wild Ink Publishing was born. The publishing world is brutal, and I wanted a place where aspiring authors could call home. I wanted to be more than a publishing company. I wanted to be educational. I wanted to build something that was more special. That’s what I did. I host anthology projects for brand new authors to get experience in working with editors, and to have their writing published. From there more and more people approached me to publish their novels and books of poetry. It’s been a whirlwind every since.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?

I think most people understand that publishing is an incredibly hard industry to break into. But, having my MFA in hand, I understood this clearly. I was prepared for it. However, having the theory is not the same as having the experience.

In publishing, traditional publishing reigns. Which means, money does not flow from the author, but to the author. This means that to be a traditional publishing company means that you have to invest in your authors and their work. They pay nothing, the company earns off of royalties once the book is published. Which means I’m paying for everything out of pocket until the book is published. If a book doesn’t sell, I won’t recoup what I’ve spent. That’s just the name of the game, and it is hard. I’m not independently wealthy, so I teach for numerous colleges and universities as a way of sustaining the publishing company while I’m growing it. They say it can take up to five years for a publishing company to stand on its own financially. But even still, there are no promises.

So for me, this is a passion project. I do this because I love authors, I love books, and I love watching an author hold a book in their hands for the first time. That moment is worth EVERYTHING.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I write and I design.

I love digging deep down into my soul and finding those things that need worked out. I work past traumas and issues out while writing fiction. This is what keeps me breathing. This is what keeps me alive. This is what keeps me sane.

I design because I have a skill that can help other people succeed. Creating book covers that grab readers eyes is important. I get excited when I see one of my cover sitting on the #1 best seller list for it’s category. I’m happy to have been a part of the journey for that author.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?

I have dyslexia.

That’s it. That’s the surprise.

This means that I have to work extra hard at my craft, but it gives me a leg-up. I understand struggle, and I’ve found creative ways of working around problems. As a child, I was told I would never go to college and that the best I could hope for was to marry someone who could take care of me. Now I’ve earned my MFA, am in the process of attaining a second graduate degree with a 4.0 gpa, and teach writing at various colleges.

Dyslexia helps me with my authors because I understand their struggle and can help them work through issues. Dyslexia helps me as a professor because I can help struggling students from a place of understanding and empathy. All because I understand learning challenges from an intimate place.

Simply put, struggling with dyslexia forced me to grow in empathy. Empathy is incredibly important when holding someone’s innermost thoughts in my hands.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://wild-ink-publishing.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildInkPublishing
• Twitter: https://x.com/WildInkPub
• Other: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Abigail-Wild/author/B07HKF9MXW?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

Image Credits

The image of me reading – Credit goes to Shannon Claire Photography.