Hey,

By this time I expected to be telling you our first audiobook was done or that I’d started writing Casey Grimes 5.

Instead…I’m giving you a surprise look into the life of an indie author. Yeah, you guessed it. That author is me. 

If you’ve been on our secret mailing list a while, you may be familiar with the story behind the Casey Grimes books. If not, let’s catch you up: I’m a dad and author who started writing novels a decade ago. My goal was to write books my kids would love reading, and to my delight, I succeeded. Fist pump!

Other people loved the books too. They won fiction contests and a couple international awards, Reader’s Choice and Wishing Shelf—where the winners are chosen by kids. In fact, the stories created so much buzz, I just knew I’d land a rock star agent and sign with a big press like HarperCollins or Penguin. 

Instead…all the agents said, “Sorry, not interested.” Eventually I learned the big agents and publishers were looking for certain kinds of stories—written by certain kinds of people. And without getting into the details, my stories weren’t the right kind of story—and I was not the right kind of person.

In case you don’t know, I am a married guy with a bunch of kids. I like hiking, pickup basketball and barbecue. I wear jeans and a t-shirt whenever possible, and I think kids’ books should have adventure, danger, and important battles. I think they should have courage, tenacity, and hope—not some agent’s cultural agenda. I love writing this kind of story, even though some people think they are old fashioned.

People like me make book agents yawn and roll their eyes.

It took me a while to figure that out—about a thousand “Nos” from agents, actually. But after I spent some time feeling bad, I decided to try and get Casey Grimes published on my own. After all, I already knew kids loved the stories. 

Beginning in 2020, I started learning how to publish books. I created our family business, Lion & Co Press, to the cheers of my wife and kiddos. The Mostly Invisible Boy entered the world. Just as important, I started learning how to market the books so people could find them. 

In 2022 and 2023 the series really took off. We sold over a hundred thousand copies and people wrote so many kind reviews that I’m still not caught up. In fact, when I post reader notes on Facebook, I’m a year behind.

We also have thousands of Casey Grimes fans on this mailing list. Maybe you’re one of them. And that’s good news—even great news. But you know the bad news is coming, so…

Here it is. Since I’m an indie author without a huge industry backing me, we have to use advertising to sell the books. That works fine…until the ads stop working. 

That’s what happened a couple months ago. Our Facebook ads crashed, and they kept crashing. No one at Facebook can explain it. But when the ads crash, there are no new readers. When there are no new readers, the author—that’s me—stops making money. 

So here at Lion & Co, we’re in a tough spot. I’m in the process of rebuilding the Lion & Co ads. We’re hoping and praying the rebuild will work. 

If the new ads do work…we can get back to work on the audiobook and Casey Grimes #5. We’ll start looking for ways to help people hear about the books without Facebook. Because if Facebook can ruin your business at any time, that’s pretty scary. 

If the ads don’t recover, well…Casey Grimes will have to retire. I’ll need to get a different job.

So now you know why Casey Grimes is in trouble. If you love the books, this might come as a shock. It feels like a shock to me as I write this. So we’ll both take a moment to grab a deep breath. 

Deep breath. In, out.