Kingsgrave was never born out of a business plan, it began at home with me and my daughter building our household, sharing our love of books, ideas, and creativity.
Somewhere in those conversations, I picked up a pen, started writing, and really didn’t stop. What started as a bit of fun quickly delivered a novel’s worth of words; not quite a novel in professional terms, as it would need some refinement, but it definitely gave me enough to try to shape it into something more presentable.
With the signpost of an editor, my local writing group, some of whom became my beta readers, the rough draft grew into a finished book. But then came the question: Do I publish it? And if so, how?
Like many new authors, I looked at the traditional publishing route. But the deeper I went, the less convinced I became. It wasn’t just the difficulty of getting past the gatekeepers, agents, and the expectations of the market, but also what happened even if you did succeed? Low advances, tiny royalty percentages, most of the heavy-lifting and marketing left to the author, and a good chance of the book still failing.
I also considered self-publishing and the so-called “hybrid” routes, but I didn’t want my work to disappear into the endless churn of Amazon, and I certainly didn’t want to give away control of my intellectual property or settle for something that looked self-published.
What I wanted was the professionalism of a traditional publisher, with the fairness, control, and reward structure of independent publishing.
And so Kingsgrave was born.
But it would be ridiculous to launch a business just to suit the needs of one person; it just doesn’t make business sense. And so Kingsgrave wasn’t born purely for me, but for those in our creative writing group who would like to publish and for other independent-minded authors who want, what we believe, leans towards the best of both worlds.
We focus on producing books of real quality, indistinguishable from those accepted by the ‘Big Four’, and, unlike the big publishing houses, look to ensure that our authors retain creative control, their IP, and, crucially, a fairer share of the revenue.
It hasn’t been an easy journey.
Publishing requires infrastructure, systems, and a lot of learning, but what it has given me, and our community of writers, is proof that there is another way. We believe we have a way to bring books into the world with integrity, professionalism, and greater respect and care for the people who wrote them.
This is the reason why Kingsgrave exists; to put power back into the hands of authors, and to make sure that books born from passion, not market formulas, have their chance to be presented to the world at large.