Yesterday I received this email from Clay Stafford, the founder of Killer Nashville:

Dear Judy,

I hope you’ve already heard, but if not, I wanted to let you know that “Finding YOUR Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide” has been chosen as a 2024 Killer Nashville Finalist in the Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Awards. That’s a narrowing down from the Top Picks (books our judges thought every reader should read) to the Top 6 Finalists. You can see your listing here https://www.killernashville.com/2024-silver-falchion-award-finalists.

Congratulations on being chosen as a Finalist of the Best Books of 2023. The winner in each category will be selected from these six in August at the Awards Dinner on Saturday night.

Clay Stafford
Founder Killer Nashville

These sorts of niche publications never earn what I like to call “Stephen King” money, but it sure feels good to be a Silver Falchion Award Finalist for Best Non-fiction. Finding YOUR Path to Publication: A Step-by-Step Guide takes an honest look at 5 paths to publication (Big 5, Traditional, Self, Social, and Hybrid/Assisted), and the steps needed for each. As an author, I’m self-published, Big 5 published (WWL Mystery, a division of HarperCollins), and have been traditionally (small press) published and I also did a lot of research. Fingers crossed and some Shameless Self-promotion: if you’re looking for the book, a list of retailers can be found at https://books2read.com/findingyourpathtopublication/