Running Wild: The Origins of a Groundbreaking Publisher

As the powerhouse founder of Running Wild Press, Lisa Diane Kastner has been featured in Forbes and has claimed a spot on multiple “Best of” lists. In her acquisition editorial endeavors, she has identified talent like Jamie Ford (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet) and Tori Eldridge (Dance Among the Flames) among many other acclaimed authors and titles. A celebrated author in her own right, Lisa (pen name: Kali Metis) has just released “Family Pack” (Running Wild, October 3, 2024), the hotly anticipated follow-up to her 2022 novel “Cure.” 

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The very first time I hung out with the gentleman who became my husband, I had been complaining about how I knew so many amazing writers but they couldn’t seem to get published. In the midst of a local coffee shop, he took a sip from his flat white, shrugged and said, “Why don’t you start your own press?” 

Amazed, I asked him, “Does it work that way?” 

I had been in the writing community since I could remember. I had even led a writers organization, Pennwriterse. But to start a publishing house? Did it work that way?
“That’s how it works in music. Why can’t it work that way in publishing?” he asked. 

Now that was a great question. 

I spent the next few years spending every opportunity I couldto pull aside editors from large houses and ask them, “Can I buy you a drink? I’d love to hear about how you choose your titles.”

I wanted to understand how decisions were made and why decisions were made. With that knowledge, myself and a dear friend, Jade Blackwater, decided to launch Running Wild. We used one of my earlier titles as a guinea pig. According to all of the research we conducted, we did everything right. I was convinced that it sell in the millions!

I think it sold twenty copies, total. 

With the knowledge from that experience, Jade decided she wanted to refocus on ther areas of her career and I decided to continue forward with Running Wild. There were still tons of great short stories and novellas that needed a home. 

We published a short story and a novella anthology with the determination to publish at least one of each anthology a year and continue finding new voices. 

I wish I could say that everything went fabulously . In reality, so much went wrong from losing cover designers to the hunt for viable formatters to the wonkiness that we discovered working with IngramSpark and then adjusting to the quirkiness of our new publisher and distributor, IPG, that I still feel like I’m learning every day. 

I still remember being in a deep depression and ready to send an announcement that we were closing our doors, when I received a notification from Kirkus Reviews that changed it all.

Not one, but two of our books were going to be named among the best of the year by Kirkus. 

In shock, I stared at the notice, waiting for another shoe to drop. When none did, I cried. I cried with disbelief, validation, joy, euphoria, and relief.  This was the validation I needed. It was my confirmation that the world needed Running Wild. And here we are, eight and a half years later, still earning awards, still finding groundbreaking talent, and thrilled to be in a position to do so.

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Lisa Diane Kastner (A.K.A. Kali Metis) is the author of the CURE series. Learn more about her work at: https://lisadkastner.com.

“A study of otherness, identity, and belonging in the shape of a high-stakes supernatural adventure, Metis changes up the werewolf genre in a beguiling mix of mediaeval and modern. With a touch of romance and a good dose of danger, CURE eclipses expectations.” —Lee Murray, USA Today Bestselling Author and Bram Stoker Award® winner

“The stakes couldn’t be higher for Luna. Love, health, safety, family, identity–they’re all in play as she sets out on a journey that stretches across continents and centuries and finally into the mystical, a menacing world of secrets and myths and shapeshifters. In CURE, Kali Metis deftly weaves storylines of past and present that hurtle toward a breathtaking climax that make it impossible to put down this spellbinding tale.” —Curtis Smith, author of The Magpie’s Return, named best of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews 

“Kali Metis (Lisa Diane Kastner) is an exciting and unique new voice in modern fantasy and a writer you need to pay attention to.” —Taylor Grant, Bram Stoker Award® Finalist and author of The Many Deaths of Cole Parker

FAMILY PACK

FAMILY PACK is the follow up novel to CURE and continues the tale of LUNA AUBER as she discovers her own destiny and provides the origins of the two primary lycanthropic organizations, The Lycanthrope Society (TLS) which believe that humans and lycanthropes should exist in harmony while The Righteous Group (TRG) believe that lycanthropes are intended to rule over all other species and Luna’ s battle to prevent the dessimation of the world as she knows it.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips