introducing: the beautiful name

i'm writing and self publishing a trilogy...this is my first book writing update!

part newsletter, part diary

dark academia. secret societies. witchy main character. generational cycles. multiple storylines and characters. friendships and the tensions that come along with them. espionage. addiction and struggles with toxic and abusive relationships. a magical drug that allows the user to see things they shouldn’t—or must. breaking cycles of toxic masculinity. centuries old college archives. coverups of crimes finally being exposed by one woman.

this is my book series in a nutshell.

this is the first official update on my book writing and self publishing journey. i’ll be giving updates on where i am in the editing and publishing process. this includes my reasons for self publishing, my struggles with structuring plot and ensuring the story flows (while still being nonlinear, my favorite !), as well as the logistics of what i’ll be doing to make the book as beautiful and polished as possible so as to avoid the ‘that’s obviously a self published book because its so ugly and there’s a thousand typos’ situation.

my series doesn’t exactly fall into a genre, which is one of the many reasons i’m pursuing self publishing. it’s part new adult, part mystery and intrigue, part thriller, part fantasy, part dark academia a-la the secret history.

the official, back of the book blurb is as follows:

What happens when a group of powerful men, who have gotten away with violence for generations, are finally exposed? Since childhood, Diana Foster and Carmen De Luna were inseparable. After suspecting her father of hiding a dangerous past, Diana pushes Carmen away to protect her from the Foster family history. In her first year at Mondegreen College, Carmen witnesses her professor leading a ritualistic meeting of a secret society, during which he ingests a strange purple substance. When Carmen decides to seek the truth about the society, what she discovers places her in Logan Richardson’s path—the professor’s son and heir to the society’s seat of power. Though estranged, Diana and Carmen are connected by one entity: the wealthy and patriarchal cult controlling the town of Mondegreen. Along with a group of others whose lives are altered by the addictive purple drug, the young women find themselves deeply entrenched in the society’s machinations with no discernible escape. 

writer? me. marketer? promoter? me. publisher? me.

in order to self publish, i have to do everything myself. which to be honest, isn’t all that much different than traditional publishing nowadays anyways. regardless, 100% of the marketing and promotion falls to me, whereas if i was signed traditionally, perhaps 60% would fall on me. and if i must market and publish it all myself, i might as well ensure the cover looks how i want, that my favorite scenes aren’t cut for the sake of (hypothetical!) readers who ‘won’t get it’ or ‘won’t like it’ because it doesn’t fit into neat genre categories or tropes. i have more faith in readers, it seems, than the publishing industry, generally speaking. i believe people can handle several main characters and nonlinear storytelling and plots A-D, not just A-B.

i will be detailing my entire process from start to finish and documenting the resources i use.

i currently make writing content on TikTok as well, which is linked on my profile. i also use pinterest to create character boards and visuals for settings. i’ve linked them both here for ease:

as of right now, i have the first novel drafted and edited. i have been employing beta readers using Upwork to read the novel and give me feedback on what they enjoyed, disliked, were confused on, etc, based on their experience as avid readers.

i am still searching for a professional editor to help make book one as perfect as possible—because my ultimate goal is for my books to blend in with traditionally published novels. i want people to be surprised when they discover i published it myself. it will read, look, and feel like a ‘real book.’

my goal for the publication date of book one in The Beautiful Name series is summer 2025.

i’ll still be writing other non-related book writing pieces like reviews, articles, essays, creative non fiction, and short stories. consider lillian written a multi-faceted blog to say the least. stay tuned for news :^)