Happy Iceland Update: I’m no longer with Wild Dog Press

As many of you know, in June 2022, I received notice that my travel memoir, Happy Iceland, was a finalist for the inaugural Wanderlust Travel Book Award through Wild Dog Press.

After six years of writing and revising this book myself, hiring a book coach, feeling overwhelmed and abandoning it for a year and a half, then lots of crying, a nonfiction workshop with Florence Williams, more revisions, more crying, a professional editor, and more revisions and even more crying, this felt like my big break. I had sent this book to over 150 agents and indie presses who all said “No.” Then in August 2022, I received my big, “Yes!”

The original launch date was going to be December 2022, which I had doubts about from my own experience in book production. I had been in the midst of shopping out my full-length poetry collection while watching my other writer friends earn book contracts. No one produced a book that fast.

Sarah, the mastermind behind Wild Dog Press, provided editorial feedback to my book, laying out valuable insights as to what amateur-ish writing mistakes I was making. I learned what all the agents and indie presses were seeing in my work that told them “this book isn’t ready yet.”

I was overwhelmed but also invigorated. It felt great to have clear ideas of what needed…