Introducing: The Order of the Pen Press, LLC

A long time ago, I had a dream: to be a published author. At the time, I didn't think about /how/ that would happen, just that I wanted to write stories and have them, somehow, end up in printed book format.

In 2014, Sarah Rodecker and I co-founded The Order of the Pen, an email-based writing group where members shared stories and flash fiction and gave each other writing tips and helped edit and beta read WIPs. As the years went by, tOotP sort of disbanded. We'd all become adults, and while a few of us still continued to write, most members were busy with work and college. We still kept in touch, but the group emails and monthly meetings stopped going out.

A snippet from a monthly meeting email.

Fast-forward to May 2020. Sarah and I are preparing to self-publish our co-written book Ships, Secrets, and Survivors. We are finally getting into those lovely, nitty-gritty publishing details and reach an unforeseen problem: taxes. If you are self-publishing by yourself, you can just use your social security number and report the taxes when you do your own yearly W2s. But....two of us wrote the book.

Unsure what to do, we spoke to a local accountant, who advised us that the best option was to start a business and use a business tax identification number. Now I have been doing small business finances for 5 years. Sarah had taken accounting classes. Neither of us are afraid to get down and do things ourselves. And with the knowledge that I already planned to self-publish my other books, and Sarah was considering that route for some of her own WIPs, we decided to take the jump and do it.

But what to call the publishing business? We almost did zero brainstorming whatever. We already /had/ a name. So we checked in with the old OotP members and got their okay. The paperwork was filled out, and we became official.

So, y'all, allow me to introduce...

The Order of the Pen Press!!

For the moment, our little publishing business is "just" for our books. The final Pirate Hunter Chronicles books are coming out in 2021. In 2022, my own series, The Red War Annals, will begin releasing. 2023 will see the release of Fire Horse - a sci-fi duology (also co-written by me and Sarah).

After that, we still have many other WIPs bouncing around in the works. We will always be open to helping the original Pennites get their own works published as well.

All that being said, we are certainly not opposed to, in the future, opening our submissions to writers outside our original Order of the Pen writing group. Helping young writers achieve their goals to become authors has always been a dream of our own. So maybe, someday, submissions will be open!

We look forward to sharing our adventures in the coming years! You may follow us on Instagram HERE and on FaceBook HERE. Our website is HERE.

I'm so glad it's finally time to share this news!!! We've been sitting on this since....May 2020, I think. But guys. I'm just...beyond excited. Pirate Hunters has been such a journey. Starting a publishing business. And in another year, I'll get to share Marywyn's story that has been on my heart since...2015, I think.

Here's to an awesome year!!