Morgan Elizabeth Huneke's Publication Story + Q&A

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who liked to write stories and dreamed of being a published author. She loved to imagine walking into the library and seeing a shelf full of books that she had written. It was her favorite daydream, but she wasn’t sure if it would ever come true.

That girl was me. I wrote stories as soon as I could write, and I was making them up even before that. My early stories were quite ridiculous, but around the time I was 14, I figured out what kind of story suited my writing and my mission, resulting in Across the Stars and The Experiment. It was at that point I started thinking seriously about being a published author. We had started a prayer meeting with some close friends, the primary purpose of which was to pray for America, and every Wednesday night, I felt it pressing on me that I needed to publish my books. Across the Stars is about an American revolution-esque fight for freedom and The Experiment is a science fiction extrapolation of the direction America seems to be headed—they’re both very much inspired by my love for America and passion for working toward her restoration.

I had started a list of traditional publishers, but for some reason, I never felt serious about pursuing that route. I started praying—a lot—that God would make it clear to me whether or not I was supposed to publish these books, and how it was supposed to come about. A family friend had used a selfse books, and how it wasion for working toward her restoration.

ay for Ameriquite ridiculous, but-publishing company, and so I started looking seriously into that avenue. However, as it was one of those pay-hundreds-of-dollars-to-do-anything companies, I felt no peace about using them. Yet I still felt that calling to publish my two books.

Sometime around the beginning of 2013, some friends of ours came over to sell us Girl Scout cookies, and my mom started talking to their mom about book publishing and such things. The kids had read Across the Stars, so I talked to them about what they thought and they agreed to beta read The Experiment. While they were still at our house, their mom recommended that I read Molly Evangeline’s (now Jaye L. Knight) books and ask her for advice. And so I did.

Molly recommended that I publish using CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon’s independent publishing platforms. She walked me through the process, answering the hundreds of questions I had about formatting, cover design, ISBNs, websites, etc., stressing the importance of creating a professional product, and just making sure I had the support and information I needed to get it done. I never could have done it without her. She also asked me to proofread her indie publishing guide shortly before I published, which prevented me from publishing Across the Stars with the copyright page in the wrong place just in the nick of time.

Looking back, I can see how God orchestrated my story and caused every detail to fall into place. It’s really the truth that if you seek to follow Him in all that you do, He will direct your path.
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I would like to open the floor now for questions. Feel free to ask Morgan any questions you might have about writing, her writing, her writing process, or anything else you can think about. She'll be around sometime today to answer them!