Brown Butterfly Publishing

10/01/2026

Come on down to the WV Pumpkin Festival Milton WV! Brown Butterfly Books is all set up and ready to stock your shelves with books!📚

09/30/2026

There is a moment when the writer has to become the publisher.

The manuscript is finished.

Now there are new questions.

What kind of editing does my book actually need?

What belongs on my copyright page?

Do I need my own ISBN?

Who owns the files when I hire someone?

How do I evaluate an editor, formatter, illustrator, or cover designer?

What should I check in my print interior?

What about the ebook?

Is my cover actually publication-ready?

Which distribution option makes sense?

What happens when I receive my proof?

And how do I know I'm truly ready to click Publish?

That gap between finished manuscript and published book is exactly why I created The Self-Publishing Steward.

This self-paced course walks authors through the publishing stage with the mindset that your manuscript is something entrusted to your care.

Not something to rush.

Not something to upload blindly.

Something to steward well.

We will walk through the decisions, documents, quality checks, professional-service considerations, publishing components, distribution choices, and final review process that help move a manuscript toward publication.

And you won't just receive information.

You'll have practical working resources to help you make and record those decisions along the way.

If your manuscript is already finished and you're wondering:

“Now what?”

This course was created for that exact season.

I'll be sharing more about The Self-Publishing Steward and what is inside.

For now, tell me:

What part of self-publishing feels the most confusing to you?

09/29/2026

What if the book isn't the first thing that needs your attention?
I've worked with writers long enough to know that unfinished manuscripts don't always come from a lack of information.
Sometimes there is something deeper sitting between the writer and the words.
A lie.
A fear.
An old agreement.
A voice that has been whispering:
You're not really a writer.
You waited too long.
Someone else has already written it.
You aren't qualified.
You won't finish anyway.
And that is exactly why I created The Anchored Author.
This is not a publishing course.
We are not choosing ISBNs, uploading to Amazon, designing covers, or figuring out distribution.

The goal is the manuscript.

The Anchored Author is a self-paced journey designed to help you recognize what has been keeping you from writing, anchor yourself in truth, clarify the purpose of your book, develop a workable writing direction, return when you get interrupted, and move toward one beautiful milestone:

A completed first manuscript.

Because there comes a time when the book you keep saying you are going to write deserves more than another promise.

It deserves pages.I'll be sharing more about The Anchored Author soon.

But today I want to ask you one question:

How long has the book inside you been waiting for you to finish it?

09/23/2026

Finished manuscript ≠ publication-ready book.

And that's okay.

There is a process between the two.
I'm going to keep helping you understand it here.

Save this if publication is your next step.

09/22/2026

Writers don't only need to know how to START.

They need to know how to RETURN.

Save this one:
Recognize → Re-anchor → Reopen → Resume

Which step do you need today?

09/20/2026

I'm super excited about my new publishing website! Check out my new services, including COURSES for those who prefer self-paced learning!

Publishing consultant and book coach Dr. Renée Ecckles-Hardy helps Kingdom authors emerge from their creative cocoons as published authors.

09/16/2026

One of the biggest self-publishing mistakes happens before the author ever clicks Publish.

It is doing the right things in the wrong order.

A first-time author may:

Hire a cover designer before confirming the final page count.

Format a manuscript that still needs substantial editing.

Buy services without knowing exactly what the vendor is responsible for delivering.

Create a copyright page by copying one from another book.

Choose distribution options without understanding what those choices mean.

Approve a proof because they're simply excited to finally hold the book.

None of these authors are careless.

Most simply haven't been shown the complete publishing process.

Self-publishing gives you tremendous control.

But control comes with responsibility.

When you become the publisher, you are making decisions traditionally handled by several publishing professionals.

That means you need more than a collection of random YouTube videos telling you which button to click.

You need to understand:

What needs to happen.
Why it matters.
When it should happen.
What you can do yourself.
When you may need professional help.
And how to check the quality before moving forward.

Your goal should never be simply to get the book uploaded.

Your goal is to publish a book you are prepared to stand behind.

That's the difference between rushing a manuscript onto a platform and stewarding a book through publication.

09/15/2026

Sometimes the problem isn't that you don't know how to write.

09/09/2026

Finishing your manuscript and publishing your book are two different milestones.
When you type The End, celebrate.
Then stop.
Your next step is not automatically:
Upload it to Amazon.
A completed manuscript may still need editing, formatting, copyright-page decisions, cover preparation, publishing information, distribution decisions, quality checks, and proof review.
Writing created the manuscript.
Now you have to steward it into publication.
Over the next few Wednesdays, I'm going to teach you more about what should happen between:
“My manuscript is finished!”
and
“My book is published!”
Save this series.

09/08/2026

You do not have to write the whole book today.

Sometimes writers stay stuck because they keep staring at the entire book instead of asking one smaller question:

What is the next writable piece?

One paragraph.
One scene.
One story.
One page.
One section of a chapter.

A finished manuscript is built one writable piece at a time.

So here is your writing question for today:

What is the next piece of your book that you can actually write?

Tell me in the comments.