Author Journeys: Indie publishers with Dakota Jackson
Welcome to Author Journeys, an interview series focused on overcoming rejection and other struggles in order to get published, self-publish, or secure literary representation. If you’ve ever felt held back, lost, or stressed out by the path to publication, this series is here to inspire and motivate you, no matter the route you want to take. I’ll be interviewing a range of authors, from self-publishing authors to traditionally published.
Interview with author Dakota Jackson
In this interview, I’m welcoming Dakota Jackson, author of queer fiction. Her debut young adult novel The Other Side of the Looking-Glass was picked up by indie publisher Oprelle Publications, and is set to be released later this year.
You can visit Dakota at her website. She’s also over on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
Welcome, Dakota!
Hey, Rachel! Thanks so much for having me.
Your young adult debut will be published by Oprelle Publications later in the year – could you tell us a little bit about it?
The Other Side of the Looking-Glass is a cautionary young adult novel that delves into the dark start, middle and end of a toxic relationship between a teenage girl and an adult man. It’s a warning for young adults in an industry that has historically portrayed relationships like this as cute and/or acceptable.
The book’s themes are reminiscent of Lewis Carroll’s famous allegories in Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking-Glass, hence the title, but it puts a spin on fairy tales to show the hidden, not-so-desirable undersides. While the novel is centred around this grooming relationship and the way the main character falls into it, the book at its core is not entirely about that. It’s more so about the spectrum of human emotions and the complexities of human relationships—from familial to platonic to romantic and so on. It follows the main character through this manipulative relationship to show red flags to readers and the mindset of young adults that can lead to these circumstances. More importantly, it shows a unique family dynamic and unique identity, and develops both to show how these are the true heart of any story.
How did you come to sign with an indie publisher, and what’s your experience of working with Oprelle been like so far?
I stumbled upon Oprelle Publications while researching publishers open to young adult manuscripts. I think it was actually through Submittable.com. They were accepting submissions without query letters, meaning I could simply send over the opening pages of my novel and go from there. This appealed to me because I’ve never been great at writing query letters! It took about a month before I heard back from them, and they wanted to see the whole novel. After reading it, we hopped on a video call, discussed publication, and the rest is history.
It’s been awesome working with Oprelle. The team is small, making it close-knit, and everyone believes so whole-heartedly in me, making it easy to believe in myself too. I’ve always been reluctant to share my work, and very self critical of it, but the team at Oprelle has been slowly picking away at these things with encouragement and genuine love for my writing. It’s been such a pleasure to work with them every step of the way, and I’m incredibly grateful for the active role I’ve been able to have in the process.
Were there any particular hurdles along your path to publishing with an indie publisher that you had to overcome?
Yeah, absolutely. Being an indie author presents a number of challenges given that the publishing industry is dominated by the big traditional publishers. Finding an audience and marketing my novel is really where I’ve struggled most, but it’s an ongoing effort.
Ever since I signed to have my novel published, I’ve really had to double down on my social media presence and make a daily effort to reach more readers and writers like myself so that when the debut day comes, I have people rooting for me. I’m not the biggest fan of self-promotion, but building a network through social media—especially the BookTok and AuthorTok sides of TikTok—has provided me with more benefits in the end. Connecting with like-minded people reminds me that I’m not alone, and while the marketing hurdle is a never-ending challenge, I’ve learned to take it as it is: a learning experience.
Lots of authors use platforms like BookTok to promote their books – I’ve been on there myself, too! How have you found it, and what kinds of things do you share on your TikTok account?
Out of all the social media platforms I’ve started becoming active on as an author, TikTok is definitely the most active in response. I think it has some of the best algorithms to reach audiences as a creator and it’s a really nice environment just in that it’s not overly professional or anything.
When I go on TikTok and post videos, I feel like I’m able to be extremely authentic, which allows me to present myself and my novels in a much more organic manner than elsewhere. It allows me to share a lot more, too. I started out by posting meme-like videos about being a writer, but recently I’ve begun to share teaser quotes from my upcoming publication and my WIPs, and I stitch other people’s videos to respond to prompts and such. It’s a really great place to meet other readers and writers and create connections as well as friendships. If you don’t know where to start, just follow a ton of reader and writer accounts. In time, you’ll find your people and they’ll find you!
You write stories that reflect reality, and take inspiration from your own experiences to create bisexual/queer unlabelled protagonists. Was this a purposeful decision, or something that came naturally in your writing process?
A little bit of both. I’ve written for as long as I can remember, but when I first started taking writing seriously, I was around eighteen or nineteen. This was around the same time that I figured out my own sexuality and identity. Having these things happen concurrently resulted in a natural progression of my work representing queer identities and relationships. At first, I began to write queer characters and relationships without even realizing I was doing it because I was writing from my own experiences and standpoint.
Now, though, being years into this profession and identity both, I make a conscious effort to continue reflecting on diverse identities—especially queer ones. My protagonists are almost always bisexual or queer unlabeled (like me!) because I think this is a place where the publishing industry is lacking, but recently I’ve been trying to broaden my horizons to have characters of other identities and backgrounds as well. Representation is so, so important and I want to build my foundations in this industry as someone who works to shine light on them. That’s the most important thing for me. So it may have started as a bit of a coincidence, but it’s definitely been a purposeful decision every day since.
What advice would you give to writers looking to draw upon their own experiences in their work?
Do it? Haha, but seriously: take your experiences and build on them. Write not only what you know and what you’ve been through, but what you don’t know and what you were lacking in.
For me personally, nearly everything I write has some sort of foundation in reality: whether that be something as simple as ‘this side character makes the main character happy because of his outgoing personality,’ which is something based on the way I view my brother-in-law interacting with me and my family, or something much more complicated like ‘this character experiences a lot of internal and external conflicts throughout their life due in part to their battle with depression,’ because this is something I’ve personally dealt with. Either way, there’s both a sliver of truth in what I write and how I write it, and a bit of exaggeration and fantasy. I take myself and my experiences and I spin them into something larger, something more applicable to outside groups at large.
So if you’re looking to draw on your own experiences to write, just go for it. Take what speaks to you and let it grow. Take your past and give it a different present. Take your present and give it a different future. Take your opinions and give them a different perspective. Make readers think, make them learn, make them want to come back for more. Simply: write what you need to read. I can guarantee someone else needs it, too.
What are the best parts of working with an indie publisher, in your experience?
The collaborative aspect, for sure. There’s a sort of intimacy to indie publishers simply in that they are small teams. Joining that small team as an author allows for so much open communication and genuine collaboration. As someone who feels a bit protective over her work—and any changes/critiques to said work—this was huge for me.
From the start, I have maintained a level of agency in the publication process that I think traditional publishers simply don’t have. I’ve built such an effortless rapport with my editor and publisher, and they’ve made it so easy for me to share my opinions. They’ve also made it clear that my opinions matter to them. You know, even the cover design I had a major hand in. We went from emails about rough ideas, to phone calls about the top three options, to a rough draft open for criticism and so on. We’ve stayed in contact about just about everything since I signed and I can’t imagine working with a larger, less communicative team. Indie publishers are seriously gems in the industry. Working with one has been an honour.
Do you find that indie publishers are more open to the types of themes you explore (toxic relationships, grooming, complicated families)?
I think so. Being small and independent, these publishers have much more freedom to pick and choose styles and/or themes that the mainstream can’t. Unfortunately, traditional publishers have to be businesses first and foremost, meaning that themes that might not sell as well, like those I write about, will get turned down for something else—no matter how important or well-written that content is. Indie publishers can afford to be more niche in their choices, focusing on themes like grooming or complicated families because that’s what they want people to read.
This is my experience so far, at least. As sad as it is, big publishers tend to focus less on themes that people need and more on what buyers want. Business is business. Indie publishers need to sell too, of course, but I get the impression that they put that secondary. I’ve been really lucky to find an indie publisher that’s open to the things I write about and the themes I explore because they share similar feelings to me on them.
What’s next in the works for you, if there’s anything you’re able to share?
Right now I’ve got a lot going on. My debut novel The Other Side of the Looking Glass is in the middle of the publication process, set to release in October or November of this year, and at the same time, I’m in graduate school for my MFA in Creative Writing and I’m working on a number of new projects. In my MFA program, I’m finishing and editing a contemporary fiction novel in the adult realm about mental health and found families, and in my own time, I’m working on a young adult fantasy series. I’m currently in the middle of book two for that one. So, I have lots of WIPs and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they will hit the shelves in the near future. I hope to stay in touch with readers and writers about it as I progress!
