Attention Beauties, Beasts and Fairies! Whimsical’s Next Fairytale Is Here. 🐉

Greetings Gentle Reader from the Land of Whimsical!

Open me for our next fairytale fanatic classic edition and an insider look into how we pick books for publication!


We are SO excited about this particular newsletter. We’ve got lots of news for you all, including our newest classic… and to be honest, one of our favorites! Many books are built off the back of fairytales (shoutout to our very own Numina Parables series by Mckenzie Catron!), but how often can you say we’re publishing our own special edition of the Brothers Grimm?

Grab your beverage of choice and read on for more exciting news like our upcoming sale, a way to read our newest original release for sale, and a look into how we pick books for publication!


Grimm’s Fairytales is up for preorder!

That’s right!! You can now preorder your own newest classic HERE, exclusively available through our website! There isn’t another edition like this on your shelf. Can we say, obsessed!? 😍

Look at that gorgeous cover by our very own Micheline Ryckman. We’re absolutely obsessed with all the details!

So, what is it?

Grimms’ Fairy Tales is a German collection of over 200 different fairy tales written by the Brothers Grimm, (Jacob and Wilhelm), that had the first volume published in the early-1800s, with the final volume published in the mid-1800s. This Whimsical Publishing exclusive edition of these classic tales comes with a complimentary pre-order bookmark, sprayed edges, interior illustrations and Whimsical-created dust jacket and hardcover artwork!

Grimm’s Fairy Tales is a collection of various short stories; the first volume was published in 1812, and contained 86 different tales! And guess what? This exclusive collection features all volumes published by the Brothers.

Preorder now, if you want to reserve this exclusive bookmark! We only have a limited quantity, so the sooner you order, the more likely you are to secure one!

We also only have limited quantities of the sprayed edges, so preorder before May 12th to get yours!

Snag your preorder now!

How Does A Publisher Pick What Books To Publish?

Have you ever wondered how a book gets picked from the sea of submissions? Are you a writer anxiously approaching the time where you have to send out your work? Or a reader morbidly curious how this one book you picked up got selected over hundreds, sometimes thousands, of others?

We can’t tell you what every publisher does, but we can tell you what we do here at Whimsical Publishing and give you a peak behind the curtain in the book production process. I think it’s important to start from the beginning. The founder of our press, Micheline Ryckman, after having success with her own books and art, wanted to be able to share the love with other storytellers. Since our press is family-run, she wanted the authors–and the stories they tell–to also feel like family.

First and foremost, it’s important to follow the guidelines. You’d be surprised how many submissions have to be sidelined because someone simply doesn’t follow the rules, especially when they’re stated on the publisher’s website. For example, Whimsical Publishing only takes agented submissions, so therefore, only agents can submit. 

The second step is to make sure it fits with what we publish. Like we said, we want the books to feel like a family, so therefore, we want them to align with what we publish. We publish closed-door books, but we also publish books that have big adventurous plots, strong romantic stories, and high stakes.

Now, the third step is where things get a little trickier. While we want things that align with what we’ve published, we also don’t want to be publishing carbon copies over and over. We want something that’s also a little different from anything we’ve ever published. For a while we primarily had romantic fantasies before we scooped up Hayley Reese Chow’s science-fiction fantasy. This makes it easier for a publisher to market to a wider audience, and to make sure their books aren’t competing with one another.

You’ll hear this a lot if you’re in the business of books, but it’s a very subjective business. Finding a book that’s just in the perfect perimeter of what you’re looking for differs from publisher-to-publisher, which is often why a book is submitted to multiple different publishers before finding it’s perfect home!

If you want to learn more about books, check out of SUBSTACK  for more!


SALE ALERT! 

We’ve Got Books For Your Budget.

Starting on February 22nd and going until the 25th, we will be hosting our Almost Spring sale! For three days, use the code ALMOSTSPRING25 to save on anything on site!

Additionally, we’re having an overstock sale bonus. YES. That means you can get an EXTRA 5% discount on top of our 25% off deal specifically for our overflow of The Arrow and the Alder.

Use the code ARROW30 for a 30% of ANY edition of The Arrow and the Alder.

While it’s not a sale, we do have an opportunity upcoming for you to read a book for FREE! Starting on February 24th, Fangs, Fate, And Mondays, Hayley Reese Chow’s next release, will be available on NetGalley. If you want to read the book early, and help us out by leaving a review, this is your chance!


Speaking of, we’ve got loads of upcoming buzz for our new releases in March. Mark your calendars so you don’t miss out:

  • New Whimsical Novella Title Reveal – March 3rd
  • The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Release Date – March 17th
  • Author Live Chat with Kaitlyn Carter Brown – March 30th
  • New Whimsical Novella Cover Reveal – March 31st

If you’ve read all the way to the end, you deserve a cup of hot cocoa. 

Thank you all so much for supporting our journey thus far. We’re a small team and we appreciate and see all your comments, messages, and orders. As a family run press, it means the world!

Until next time,
Whimsical Publishing 🩷🦩

Fangs, Fate, And Updates With Your Favorite Small Press 💌

Greetings Gentle Reader from the Land of Whimsical!

We’re here to grace your inbox with some exciting news and updates! We hope everyone’s been cozy and warm these past few weeks. It’s been busy over here as we hurry to get you new gorgeous editions of your favorites and put together what we hope will be your next five star read. 

In this newsletter, you’ll find:

  • How and where to order Fangs, Fate, & Mondays (and when to read it for free on NetGalley!)
  • What makes a Small Press Different than a Big 5 Publisher
  • Fangs, Fate, & Mondays Author Interview TONIGHT @ Whimsical Publishing Instagram 

Starting with this newsletter, we’ve decided to throw it back to the blogging days! Each newsletter will contain a small blog style article giving you an inside look on all things books and publishing from our Whimsical perspective. Read on to learn more!


Fangs, Fate, & Mondays is up for preorder!

Yep! You heard that right. You can now order Hayley Reese Chow’s next novel HERE for the exclusive edition, and/or on Amazon for the eBook!

Look at that gorgeous cover by our very own Micheline Ryckman. We’re absolutely obsessed with all the details! If you need a refresher on what this delightful, fantasy-genre-blend novel is about, here’s the blurb:

In Azalea Springs, a family curse just means more paperwork.

After her best friend was murdered, Dessa Blue McKinney swore she’d never return to the paranormal town of Azalea Springs. But after she walks in on her fiancé cheating with her business partner, she has nowhere else to go but home. Desperate for a distraction, she agrees to fill in at her uncle’s Paranormal Intermediary Office until she decides what to do with her life. But when the new intern is the handsome golden boy of the most notorious family in town and her dead friend’s sister goes missing, old secrets bubble to the surface, and the past may not be so willing to let her go.


Meanwhile, perpetual screw-up, Jamison Kane, is reeling from his role as the primary suspect in a triple homicide and the brand-new bearer of a family curse. When Dessa’s uncle offers him an internship to search for a cure, he reluctantly agrees—and totally not because Dessa was his high school crush. The job description? Keep the werewolves and vampires from tearing each other’s throats out, solve the missing persons case, and don’t fall in love with Dessa McKinney.

It definitely sounds like a Monday, but at least in this office, the coffee really is magical.

Enticed by the plot? Now, can we dangle this beautiful exclusive edition in your face. Look at these absolutely gorgeous sprayed edges and case laminate artwork by Micheline Ryckman and Keri Manlet!

If that doesn’t get you, we also have these amazing preorder incentives right alongside it! I mean look at that adorable little sticker? And the art work (swooning)? But remember, these are only available until May 26 2026.

Snag your preorder now!

What’s The Difference Between A Small Press And A Big Five Publisher?

Out in the world of publishing, there are hundreds of different kinds of publishers. Some that only publish picture books, others that take every genre on the face of the earth, some that publish three books a year and others that publish three hundred books a year.

Both strive to publish the highest quality stories.

So what makes a publisher considered a small press versus a Big Five Publisher? 

Distribution is a key factor between both. Did you know there’s actually different companies responsible for getting books out? And each of those companies have different reach? Bigger publishers partner with bigger distributors. 

Bookstores, like Barnes and Noble, tend to be picky on what books they stock and therefore, prioritize books from certain distributors over others. Books with bigger publishers have an advantage and a higher chance of getting placed in bookstores.

Small presses typically partner with smaller distributors, such an IngramSpark or handle distribution themselves from their own personal warehouse! This still allows them to get their books distributed widely online, but they have to work a little harder to be noticed by bookstores and aren’t often prioritized when libraries and bookstores stock new books. You can help these odds by requesting books from your favorite small presses at your local library or favorite bookstore!

Budget and Teams are often bigger at a bigger publisher, which can have its ups and downs. While this means more money might be invested in a book and most authors get advances, it also means they can acquire more books and only a few can be selected as “lead titles” (books that are often given the most marketing budget and attention). 

At a small press, they work with much smaller teams (for example, at Whimsical our team is only 5 people!) and budgets. Because of this, small presses can only take a few manuscripts on per year, but are able to invest more equal time, energy, and money into each one. While big publishers often have more resources in terms of publicity and marketing, and have teams dedicated to that sole task, small presses have to take it all on their own and marketing support can vary greatly from publisher to publisher. Small presses rely heavily on reader support to be great (huge thank you to all are readers!)

Both strive to put out the best stories possible! Both are entirely valid paths for publications. Both handle everything from covers to editing and strive to get the best possible version into the hands of readers.


Tune In TONIGHT on Whimsical Publishing’s InstagramFor A Live Chat With Hayley Reese Chow!

Tonight Whimsical’s owner, Hannah Greentree, will be hosting a book giveaway and interviewing our very own Hayley Reese Chow, author of Into The Churn and upcoming Fangs, Fate, and Mondays on livestream at 7PM MST / 8PM CST). Live on the Whimsical Publishing Instagram (@whimsicalpublishing).

(Psst, we will be doing a giveaway of a copy of Into The Churn during the live)!!

Join us for a fun chat AND for a chance to win the giveaway!


Make sure to mark your calendar for these upcoming Whimsical dates! We have a lot more in store for you all this year. 

  • New Whimsical Classic Reveal – February 17th
  • Fangs, Fate, & Mondays goes live on NetGalley – February 24th
  • New Instanolde Novella Title Reveal – March 3rd 
  • The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe Release Date – March 17th 
  • Alice In Wonderland Release Date – April 21st

If you’ve read all the way to the end, you deserve a cup of hot cocoa. 

Thank you all so much for supporting our journey thus far. We’re a small team and we appreciate and see all your comments, messages, and orders. As a family run press, it means the world!

Until next time,
Whimsical Publishing 🩷🦩

COVER REVEAL & GIVEAWAY!!

Cover Reveal & Giveaway for

A Goblin of the Glade

HELLO MY WHIMSIES!!!

So excited to share this cover reveal with you all. Megan McCullough designed the cover and we are so thrilled with how it turned out! She did a beautiful job. <3

A Goblin of the Glade is now available for preorder HERE in my shop in paperback, hardback, and jacketed exclusive edition. The first 200 orders will receive, for free, all the preorder incentive goodies you see pictured below. This book is also available for preorder in kindle format on Amazon. (Please note: preorder goodies are not included with purchases through Amazon.) Preorder goodies consist of two postcard artworks by yours truly, a bookmark featuring artwork from Hillary Bardin, a bird painting done by McKenzie Catron, and a signed bookplate from McKenzie as well.


Here’s my (Micheline) review of AGOTG:

Ever wonder how you’ll heal, or how you’ll ever recover from a past so traumatizing that it haunts you by day and night? 

Well, this is exactly what Primrose, Poppy, and Posy, personally endure as they embark upon a predestined quest to save their darkening world. The journey is harrowing, the bogeymen even more so, but while these sisters face the past to secure a future for all, they might just find that healing comes in the form of each other. 

This action packed, Grimm-style fairytale is everything you want to read this Christmas. This book is about family, unconventional love stories, and facing the darkness together. 


THE BOOK BLURB: 

Ten years have passed, but neither Primrose nor her sisters, Poppy and Posy, can shake the belladonna-soaked trauma of their childhood. Though the triplets have grown and are no longer captive, the memory of Black Annis’s iron talons and needle teeth still linger.

While Posy finds reprieve in studying with the Elder Mother and Poppy drowns her mental wounds in song and service, Primrose copes by traveling wherever the wind takes her. Much like her beloved half-brother Rush used to, she finds solace in seeking new havens. However, news of Sparrow’s dying mother draws Primrose home again, and she resolves to stay in the glade to spend one last Christmastide with the only woman she’s ever called mother.

That is until a shadowy Pooka appears with a message tangled in Fate’s red thread: a prophecy from the fabled Numina that threatens to upend the family all over again.

With only the suspicious, dark Pooka as their guide, the triplets must follow the Numina’s destined trail to a perilous mountain haunted by trickster spirits. But when their dubious quest delivers them into the claws of the infamous witch Baba Yaga, the goblin sisters are forced to face their childhood nightmares or let the world, and those they love, be forever consumed by darkness.

A Goblin of the Glade, the second book in McKenzie Catron’s “A Numina Parable” series, returns to all the beloved characters of the first book, and then some. Embark on a journey filled with sisterly love and unique companionship in this new high-stakes fantasy adventure reminiscent of Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales and European folklore.


Want to be one of the first to read and review AGOTG to help get the word out about its release?

Request an ARC of A Goblin of the Glade


We also have a very unique opportunity to WIN a paperback ARC! CLICK HERE for all the details and to find out how to enter!


And last but not least…

A Christmas in July SALE!

Everything in the shop is 30% off from July 11-28 with code XMASINJULY.


The Kindle edition of Into the Churn is on sale for just 99 cents! Snag it now!

RELEASE DAY IS HERE! Let’s celebrate with a giveaway!

Into the Churn is now OFFICIALLY out in our big wide world!!! HAPPY RELEASE DAY to Hayley Reese Chow!!! WOOT WOOT!!! If you’ve yet to hear about this tale or haven’t been able to decide if it’s for you, check out the blurb HERE and then go check out Chapter One HERE! I am so excited that you can all finally read this, I love this story with all my heart and hope you do too! If you do get to read it soon, please consider leaving a review anywhere you can, it helps Whimsical’s books SO MUCH!!! Click each link below to be taken to the product page.

File:Goodreads logo - SuperTinyIcons.svg - Wikimedia Commons Amazon logo on transparent background 14018561 Vector Art at Vecteezy  

Unknown planet from outer space. Space nebula. Cosmic cluster of stars. Outer space background. 3D render.
Preorder incentives include 2 character artwork postcards, 1 map artwork postcard, a double-sided bookmark, and a signed bookplate.

We’ve celebrated all this past week with fun things via social media, but today I’ll be doing another celebratory GIVEAWAY as well! We’re going to give away a standard hardcover (no dust jacket) PLUS a set of the sold-out preorder incentives to one person! To enter, CLICK HERE. This giveaway is open internationally and ends March 10th, so go go go! If you need a reminder of what those preorder incentives were, check below!

 


Kindle Sale EXTENDED ONE MORE DAY!

Unknown planet from outer space. Space nebula. Cosmic cluster of stars. Outer space background. 3D render.

We decided to keep the Kindle discount going throughout release day! This means the kindle version of the book is on sale for just 99 cents but only until 11:59 PM PDT.  After midnight on April 5th it goes back to its regular price, so don’t miss the chance to snag it while it’s discounted! 


Easter Sale

Speaking of discounts – we’re having a sale! But don’t delay! It’s a short one. From April 7 – 10th, use code EASTER for 25% off your entire purchase!

The Kindle editions of all of Micheline Ryckman’s books are also discounted for this sale! If you’ve been waiting to snag the e-book version of her stories, now’s your chance! Each book is priced at $0.99 – the lowest they’ve ever been! Snag them quick!

 

The Maiden Ship kindle edition
The Lion of the Sea kindle edition
The Rightful Bearer kindle edition

Charting Stars kindle edition

 

 


Don’t Forget!

The one-year anniversary special edition of A Daughter of the Trolls is available for preorder! Find all the details and submit your order here. This edition will be released on April 21, 2023.

 

 

New freebie postcard! For the month of April or until supplies last, this postcard of Kaz Brekker from Six of Crows will be FREE with all orders of at least $10 (before shipping).  There are only 50 though, so you better hurry if you want to add the King of the Barrel to your collection!

 

 

The Prince of Hearts bookmark will only be in the shop for TEN MORE DAYS. After that, he’ll be gone and we will reveal the next one in the series!

 

 


Last but not least, did you see this new character art inspired by We Could be Villains?

It’s now up in the shop!!!