We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jess Moon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jess, appreciate you joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

Mandy and I founded Shadow Spark Publishing from the perspective of being writers ourselves. Transparent contracts and business practices all aimed at helping each of our authors bring their works to the world was and remains extremely important to us. We are small but mighty. We have fostered more of a collective atmosphere through an in-House private Discord where our authors can chat about marketing, share wins and concerns, or get to know one another. There is also the Shadow Spark Podcast, which covers various topics and has each of our authors on for interviews around the time of their latest release. We aren’t interested in taking over the industry but are always looking to add the right author to our numbers. We seek out those voices that might not be heard via more traditional means and help them shine. Perhaps most importantly to us, though we do have legally binding contracts for each book or series, if an author decides their path lies elsewhere, we will revert all rights to them immediately. We don’t want to hold anyone’s work hostage. I know that happens sometimes with other publishing houses of all sizes but as writers ourselves, Mandy and I were firm from the outset that we will never, under any circumstances, do that. We’d rather lose potential future revenue than our sense of what is right.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Well, I’m Jess Moon, and I co-founded Shadow Spark Publishing with Mandy Russell in May 2019. We work with our authors to bring their voices to the world through print and electronic books. Before founding the House, Mandy and I were querying our own book series, The Alvertaen Axiom, and made it all the way to the contract phase with a trad pub house. When we saw the terms, we decided to refuse and instead forged our own path. Mandy was the one who initially broached the subject of forming our own House, and I’ll admit I was hesitant at first. Running a publishing House is no joke, and there are many, many moving pieces, We didn’t know if anyone would even want to sign with an untested press. Luckily, there was interest, and we’ve been slowly building a solid base of authors ever since. At the moment, Shadow Spark has published a total of 51 novels and 2 annual anthologies, with many more in various stages of publication and/or scheduled for the future. We also have a weekly podcast. More than anything, we look for amazing people with different and intriguing stories. Shadow Spark is an indie publishing House looking to redefine what it takes to be successful in the industry. We develop relationships with our authors to bring their voices to the world. From fantasy to sci-fi, romance to horror to poetry, we love anything & everything unexpectedly incredible & unique.

Any advice for managing a team?

Above all, I would say that the most crucial aspect of managing a successful team, especially one comprised of creatives, is to listen. Be adaptive and understanding while maintaining brand integrity. If people feel heard and appreciated, they are far more likely to put more effort into building your brand with you. Without our authors, there would be no Shadow Spark, and one of the benefits of owning your own House is you get to dictate how it is run. Though Mandy and I founded the House and keep things running according to schedules behind the scenes, we’ve never forgotten that being a writer, published or not, is a very personal passion. Everyone wants their book to be as close to perfect as possible, and it is our job to make that happen. Life happens, though, so if a release needs to be delayed, we work it out. That’s our job. In return, our authors rarely require special circumstances and work together with the House and each other to spread the word about new releases, upcoming projects, and whatnot. We have authors who are gifted in formatting, editing, graphic design, and any number of other skills and are more than happy to lend those skills to the HOuse for the benefit of all. That’s why I tend to think of us more as a collective, these days. Mutual respect has taken us far and is a driving force behind Shadow Spark’s success.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One of the first authors who signed with us, Tom Rimer, was set to release his first book through Shadow Spark, The Glowing 1, during quarantine in 2020. Amazon, who is one of Shadow Spark’s distributors, had an eight week backup due to reduced staffing. We’d put months of work into building up this release and then the night before launch, it was put on hold. Mandy and I spent that night pouring over any and every possible alternate distributor that accepted near-instant approval. It wasn’t fair to Tom, who’d put his trust in us, and would have looked bad for the House, as we were still very new. That was a very long and stressful night, but we were able to pull it off mere hours before it was set to go live, and Tom was able to celebrate his book launch without a hitch. I think that night solidified just how committed Mandy and I were to Shadow Spark. No matter the issue, we will sort it out. He has since gone on to publish an additional four books through Shadow Spark and has been contracted for another which will be released in October 2024.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shadowsparkpub.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadowsparkpub/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShadowSparkPub
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@shadowsparkpublishing

Image Credits
Jess Moon, Micheal Lederer, Tom Rimer, Valerie Storm, M.A. Phillips