How I Got My Start

As a kid, I was an avid reader. When I say avid reader, I mean I walked down the halls at school with my nose in a book on a more than regular basis. I read all the books that interested me in the school library before fifth grade and began going to the public library once a week, checking out the maximum of ten books every time. While other kids got in trouble for texting under their desk in class, I got in trouble for reading under my desk.

As many young book-obsessed readers do, I grew up into a teenager and became much more worried about boys and going out with my friends, and my precious books I loved so much became not much more than decorations for the bookshelf in my room. I didn't love my books any less, I just temporarily decided reading wasn't my number one priority anymore.

Life and love and family took up much of my time until a few years ago. I found my way back to reading and stumbled upon the wide, welcoming world of BookTok and Bookstagram. Here is where my journey really started.

I began reading, diving back into it with a vengeance. Consuming a book, sometimes a book and a half, a day led me to discovering what ARC (advanced reader copy) reading was. I couldn't believe my luck at getting chosen to be on ARC teams. A free copy of an unreleased book, and all the author was asking of me was an honest review? Yes, please! What a treat, honestly.

After doing ARC reads for a few months, I saw an author asking for beta readers. For anyone who isn't aware of what that is, I'll tell you. A beta reader reads the book before the final editing and formatting stages are complete. They assist in proofreading the book to catch any small grammar mistakes, typos, and small plot issues. I beta read for a few authors, thoroughly enjoyed it, and moved up into being an alpha reader.

What's an alpha reader, you ask? A small group of individuals who love to read, and who also have an knack for catching larger plot holes, lines that don't make sense, and other things. They're sort of like baby editors. Having a solid alpha team can make an author's job, and the editor's job, so much easier. I loved being an alpha reader even more than I loved being a beta reader.

For a short while, I bounced between alpha, beta, and ARC reading. Eventually, I happened to be ARC reading for an author, and as I was reading I kept noticing quite a few grammatical issues and typos, as well as a few plot points that could use some tidying up. I began posting the errors I was finding in the chat thread we had been asked to. The author reached out to me privately and asked me if I wanted to help re-edit her book. I happily agreed, moving on to assist in editing another book of hers. She appreciated my help so much that she recommended me to a friend, who I worked on two of her books with. They then told all of the authors in their found author family about me, which led to me working on I think four more books.

And then, one of the lights of my life, A. E. Boss told me that she was writing a book and asked me to not only be her official editor, but also her PA (personal assistant). I agreed, wholeheartedly, even though when we first took the project on, neither of us really had any clue what we were doing.

We bulldozed our way through it together, though, and I quickly found my footing and began thinking to myself, "Self, I'm really good at this. We should do this as a job."

I took on another author, my bestie, my unrelated sister, S.T. Aries, and decided if I was going to really do this, I needed to make it official.

So, Indie All, Be All was born. I am so excited to see where this goes, and I am so incredibly looking forward to getting to know all of the amazing authors I'll work with in the future.