Guest Post & #Giveaway: Seed (Dark Walker #3) by Shelly Campbell
- Archaeolibrarian
- Jun 24
- 4 min read
@shellycampbellauthorandart @GoddessFishPromotions
@shellycampbellfineart @goddessfishpromotions
Glitching between dimensions wasn't supposed to be my life, but sometimes you have to dance with the darkness.
I should be dead. Shot twice through the chest. But the Embassy saved me because I’m a one-of-a-kind freak who blips to worlds they can’t reach. Now I’m their personal mule, raiding collapsing planets to fatten their coffers. Lucky me.
And things have gone from bad to worse. My old team is being held hostage, my family’s in danger, and the darkness hunts me across realities. My one shot to end this living hell? Take down the Embassy, save Charlie, and torch the whole rotten system. Simple, right? One misstep though, and we’re toast. Alien breach. Apocalypse. End scene.
If I fail, the darkness won’t stop until it swallows us whole.
Add to StoryGraph | Goodreads | Smashbomb | BookBub
I used to be David.
David had a big family. Wanted to join the army. Always got stuck cleaning out the soft serve machine at his after-school job because everyone else despised the chore. But now he’s gone and I’m all that’s left. A dead animal under glass, gutted and hastily stitched together—you know the kind where the taxidermist didn’t get the eyes quite right? That’s me. Sad display in an Embassy trophy case.
But I’m not just for show. My captors use me well.
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found HERE
What to Look for in a Publisher
If you don’t have an agent to vet potential small publishers, here are five tips to save you some headaches—and heartaches.
1. Unsolicited Offers in Sheep’s Clothing
Picture me at my local coffee house typing at my laptop when I’m swept into fame by a publisher/editor/agent who approached me out of nowhere.
Potential Red Flag.
Any publisher worth their salt is BUSY because, if they’re good at their job, they have an inbox swamped with hundreds of submissions 24/7. They don’t need to hunt down good authors because there are plenty of us querying them daily. If an industry pro comes to you with an unsolicited offer, it’s because:
a) You’ve already successfully published and have sold tens of thousands of copies of your books. Or your famous for some other reason. This professional wants in on the market you’ve worked so hard to build. So, they are willing to offer you a sweet deal, usually huge distribution.
b) Not currently famous? Then this supposed ‘industry pro ’ is likely preying on you hoping you will be so caught up in the excitement of being approached with an offer that you won’t realize you’re being roped into a bad deal.
2. Thou Shall Not Pass ... Without Paying
If a publisher is asking you to pay a fee as a part of the process, that’s another red flag. Reputable publishers don’t do this because, if they believe in your manuscript enough that they think it will sell, they’re recouping the costs of editing, marketing and distributing as a percentage of the sales of that book.
Self-publishing is more accessible than ever. You can self-publish and distribute a book as widely as most small publishers, and keep 100% of the profits. Paying for an editor/marketer/cover designer yourself costs less than paying inflated fees for a vanity publisher to do these jobs.
So, if a publisher is asking for fees, they are a vanity publisher-in-disguise, and you can likely achieve the same product, at lower cost, by self-publishing.
2. Website Warning Signs
Once you’ve curated a list of publishers—websites like The Submission Grinder https://thegrinder.diabolicalplots.com/and Authors Publish https://www.authorspublish.com/ are fantastic resources for this—check out the publisher’s website.
Their homepage should look professional, and should cater toward readers. You want to see books front and centre because this is a business that sells books.
Look at the ‘About Us’ page. You want to find staff with their previous industry specific experience listed. If all you find is a list of the staff’s favourite reads, and what their cat’s name is, it probably means that no-one working there that has any real industry experience because they’d list it if they did. Be wary of that—no matter how nice the cat seems.
Look through their book section. How many books are they selling? Do the covers look good? Check out the books on Goodreads or Amazon. Use the ‘look inside’ option. Read the reviews. You should be impressed by what you find.
3. Books As Far as The Eye Can See
Let’s say you’re perusing the book section of the publisher’s website and they have plenty of books. Hundreds. Maybe thousands.If that plethora of books comes with badly-designed covers, poor reviews, and typos aplenty, you may be dealing with an ‘Author Mill’, a term coined by Victoria Strauss—check out her fantastic Writer Beware blog https://writerbeware.blog/. Author mills make money by pumping out cheap books as fast as they can. Once the book is released, they don’t do marketing.
4. What’s The Rush?
So, you’ve avoided all the red flags and received an offer. Firstly, Cheers! Secondly, breathe, and thirdly, don’t sign it ... yet.
You want a lawyer who specializes in publishing agreements to review it first.Check with your local Writer’s Guild. Some of them offer contract reviews as well.
If a small publisher isn’t allowing you time—at least a week—to review their contract, that’s a red flag.
What’s the rush? Many writers have lamented signing agreements that they didn’t fully understand. It’s a legal document. Take all the time you need to understand it before signing.
Lastly, there’s a wonderful writing community out there who will share advice. Come at us with questions any time and thanks so much for having me as a guest on the blog!
At a young age, Shelly Campbell wanted to be an air show pilot or a pirate, possibly a dragon and definitely a writer and artist. She’s piloted a Cessna 172 through spins and stalls, and sailed up the east coast on a tall ship barque—mostly without projectile vomiting. In the end, Shelly found writing and drawing dragons to be so much easier on the stomach. Shelly writes speculative fiction ranging from grimdark fantasy, to sci-fi and horror. She’d love to hear from you.
Tour hosted by: Goddess Fish Promotions
What are you working on next?
Where do you typically find inspiration for your writing?
This sounds awesome.
This should be a very enjoyable read. Thanks for sharing.
Thankyou for the info.