Introducing LitNuts, the Literary Pilgrimage, and a Giveaway!

For Readers

So, LitNuts brings you books of short stories, essays, or poetry that many other newsletters refuse to include (because collections don’t sell as well as novels). LitNuts also features new releases and award-winning books that other newsletters exclude because of price. (Many newsletters feature ONLY ebooks priced at $2.99 or less, which is fine – but not all great books are $2.99 or less!).

For authors, you’ll be happy to hear that LitNuts founders Mike O’Mary and Kathleen Meyer handled publishing and marketing for an indie press for more than 10 years. This is important because that means they understand the challenge of getting your books in front of readers. 

For Authors

LitNuts is an affordable vehicle that focuses on indie books and has engaged subscribers. Their goal is to help authors increase their book’s sales rank with online retailers, generate more reader reviews, and create positive word-of-mouth. 

Toward that end, they are building a subscriber base of booklovers who want to hear from indie presses. And we are focused on keeping things simple and flexible for authors. They offer a flat price of $25, so it’s simple. No tiered pricing or convoluted advertising offers to analyze.

At the same time, they give authors the flexibility to advertise short story, essay and poetry collections, to link to your website so book lovers can purchase directly from you, and to set the price of your e-book according to your needs.

About LitNut and owners Kathleen Meyer and her father, Mike O’Mary:

LitNuts is a woman-owned, family-run business founded by Kathleen Meyer and her father, Mike O’Mary, who share a love of literature and reading. Kathleen is an avid reader with 10 years of marketing experience, including with Dream of Things, a small press founded by Mike in 2009. During its 10 year history, Dream of Things published three New York Times Bestsellers, three winners of the Hoffer Award, and one book that has been optioned for a film. Kathleen and Mike drew upon their experience of publishing and marketing books on a shoestring budget to create LitNuts, in the hope of helping other indie presses achieve success. 

Authors and readers, visit LitNuts.com to sign up for their newsletter, where you can hear about incredible books from indie publishers that you wouldn’t hear about anywhere else. 

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You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.


Guest Post from Mike of LitNuts

Learning from Literary Pilgrimages

First of all, thank you to Ashley for inviting us to do a guest blog post, and greetings to everybody who follows Ashley on her blog and via social media.

If you’re like Kathleen and me, you love books, and you’re interested in the people who write them. One way to learn more about authors is to visit sites that were important to them – the literary pilgrimage. Today, I’d like to share a few sites that I’d recommend, and invite each of you to share your stories. 

“He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, and as a kid, I would walk from my house to the Camp Taylor public swimming pool or to Cherokee Park. Later in life, I learned that Camp Taylor is where F. Scott Fitzgerald was stationed during World War I (an experience Fitzgerald had in common with the fictional Jay Gatsby), and that the Cherokee Triangle neighborhood that borders Cherokee Park is probably where Gatsby met Daisy Fay Buchanan. 

During WWI, Camp Taylor was on the outskirts of Louisville, but over time, Louisville incorporated Camp Taylor into the city. Some of the old barracks are still there, being used as apartments. The next time you’re in Louisville, take a walk through the Camp Taylor neighborhood or around Cherokee Triangle – and keep an eye out for the ghosts of Daisy, Gatsby and Fitzgerald.  

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The Fog

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

I went to college in Galesburg, Illinois, home of Knox College, the only remaining site of a Lincoln-Douglas debate. Galesburg was also the birthplace and childhood home of Pulitzer Prize winning poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, who left school at age 13, traveled as a hobo at age 17, and then served in the Spanish-American War before attending college. He wrote in the free-verse style of Walt Whitman and became a major figure in American literature. 

Upon Sandburg’s death in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson declared, “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America.” Today, Sandburg’s childhood home is a State Historic Site, and a reminder of the poet’s humble beginnings.

“Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”

W.B. Yeats

When Kathleen was 13, I took her on her first trip overseas (and only my second!). We few from Chicago to Shannon, Ireland, rented a car for a road trip to Galway, Cork and Dublin. On the road to Galway, we saw a modest sign that said, “Yeats Tower” – also known as Thoor Ballylee, former home of one of the key poets of the 20th Century, 1923 Nobel Prize Winner William Butler Yeats. 

Some say Yeats spanned the transition from the 19th to 20th Century modernism in poetry. He was prolific in his writing – and in his love life, believing erotic adventure conducive to his creativity energy. I don’t know about that, but I could see how the peaceful grounds of Thoor Ballylee would be conducive to writing. Today, it’s regarded as the most important public building in Ireland and a resonant site for literary pilgrims from across the globe.

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Share Your Pilgrimage

In addition to loving books, Kathleen and I both love travel and have made many trips together and separately over the years, including visits to Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, the D.H. Lawrence Ranch in Taos, New Mexico, Victor Hugo’s home in Paris, Ernest Hemingway sites in Paris, Ketchum, Idaho, and Oak Park, Illinois, and more.

I think it’s possible to gain some insight into the writer via such visits, but I mostly find it a good time to contemplate their contributions to English literature and to be glad that Kathleen and I – and all of you – are the kind of people who appreciate great books and the people who write them.

In your comments, please share any literary pilgrimages you’ve made or would recommend. Thanks!

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Ashley Hubbard

Ashley Hubbard is a blogger and freelance writer based in Nashville, Tennessee focusing on sustainability, travel, books, plants, coffee, veganism, mental health, and more. She has two other websites - wild-hearted.com and odditiesandcuriositiestravel.com

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Kathleen

    Thank you for helping spread the word about LitNuts and indie publishing, Ashley!

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