Sparks is getting published!! (Patreon)

YESSSSSSSSS I’ve been waiting to be allowed to talk about this for what feels like forever LOL… some of you may have guessed already, but yeah 🥲 published!! By DARK HORSE?! Unreal… I’m still in disbelief LOL. I thought I’d make a more in depth post here about it in case anyone is interested!

First off- Sparks will still be free online on Tapas and my website (and here ofc) forever/keep being updated etc- the deal is just for the printed rights! I also keep the IP and everything so there’s no worries there- I checked and if the books do so poorly that DH decides to stop selling them, the rights revert to me and I can self publish/print them. (Hope that doesn’t happen though HAHA)

The deal is also just for 3 books- each book will be ~150 pages, so book 1 will cover the academy arc and books 2 & 3 will cover the palace arc. The hope is that they do well enough that DH will pick up the rest of the series! If they don’t, I’ll self publish the rest of the series and try to make them look as similar as possible so they still look nice as a complete set.

The books won’t include the 18+ bonus scenes (lol) but they’ll be uncensored (nipples ok 👍) and afaik none of the language needs to get changed either (I was worried there might be too much swearing hahaha). I’ll be making bonus material for the back of each book, some of which I’ll share here but I’ll keep some of it secret so that there’s still a surprise when/if you buy the books!

I‘m really excited about this- I see a lot of mixed opinion on twitter etc about whether it’s better to have a publisher or self-publish, but personally running a Kickstarter was always a very intimidating thought to me… I’m sure I could’ve managed it, but there’s a lot of weird tax stuff that I would’ve had to do, which is more difficult because of my immigration status in Canada (also the reason I haven’t opened a merch shop yet… they don’t make it easy!!). So for me having it out of my hands and having DH handle it is perfect! I’m also excited about the potential for people who aren’t already aware of the comic to find it! Idk. There’s something about the idea of walking into a bookstore and seeing my book on the shelf that makes me shit my pants (positive)

ANYWAY… YEAH… VERY EXCITED!! It’s a pain that it’s a bit of a wait (I have discovered just how slowly the publishing industry moves now lmao) but after book 1 the plan is to have a book out each year >:)

I’d also like to mention that this absolutely never would’ve happened if not for my agent (@mmmlysaght on twitter) Maeve is incredible 🙏 legend 🙏 and I have complete faith in my DH editor Konner (@penberzerker on twitter) they really seem to understand what I’m doing with Sparks and are leaving creative control totally in my hands (which was something that would’ve been a deal breaker for me) they’ve been so wonderful to work with!!

I’ll cut myself off here bc I could blab for ages but if you have any questions or anything I’m happy to talk about it more!