Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.
Today we’re interviewing Kel E Fox, author of Darkhaven and more, as she launches her crowdfund campaign on Backerkit as part of The Book Bazaar 2025.
Kel is raising funds for a special chocolate overload hardcover edition of Darkhaven. YA urban science fantasy meets queer magical space opera in this sassy epic adventure, with the first book in a new hardcover edition featuring extra scenes, bonus material and custom interior formatting.
Follow the campaign and pledge your support!
Please tell us a little about yourself and your Backerkit project.
Hi, I’m Kel, and I’m a chocolate fiend. As it happens, so is Gabby, the MC of my debut novel Darkhaven, so she and I are teaming up to bring you a special edition of Darkhaven – Operation: Chocolate Overload! Darkhaven is the first book in the ongoing Lightless Prophecy saga, a contemporary science fantasy with magic, mystery, gods, other worlds and characters who eat a lot of chocolate when the universe is ending. (Figures.) Darkhaven was first published in 2021, but only in ebook and paperback. This Backerkit campaign will bring Darkhaven to hardcover for the first time, and it does so with lots of chocolatey style – chocolate in the chapter headers, in the bonus scenes, in the notes, on the early bird bookmark art…
Why did you join The Book Bazaar 2025?
I’d been thinking of doing a campaign for a Darkhaven hardcover, and the timing was right! I joined because I was excited to work alongside some fabulous fellow indies.
Have you crowdfunded before? What do you hope to achieve with your project?
I have! I did an illustrated first edition of my romantic gaslamp fantasy mystery, The Secrets We Save, last year. And oof that was a LOT of work (the illustrator being yours truly), but the book is gorgeous. I’m not going full colour paintings for this project, but I want to have fun. Sketches and doodles, cheeky annotations, even some audience participation… (have your Nutella preferences immortalised in print. Y’know. For posterity).
Tease us with your Backerkit campaign! What rewards can we expect?
Chocolatey ones! Not literal chocolate, sadly, what with food safety considerations and shipping from Australia in summer, but chocolate in the story, chocolate in the chapter header art, and notes on chocolate from yours truly.
Gabby, our MC, is renowned for her snacking (it gets mentioned in reviews), so expect a special edition in ebook/hardcover with:
- Author annotations on the many snacks
- Backer participation! Vote in the chocolate polls on BackerKit and see the results in the ebook and hardcover
- Custom chapter headers with chocolate cake and other fun doodles
- Recipe for a chocolatey treat
- Bonus scene featuring, naturally, chocolate shenanigans
There will also be more bonus stories and some cool extra incentives, such as Operation: Chocolate Overload printable bookmark art for early backers!
Why did you decide to self-publish/publish with a small press and what has been your biggest success so far?
I researched the pros and cons of indie vs trad, and at the time, the smartest business decision was self-publishing. I might spend years getting a trad deal, but without a pre-existing fan base and solid author platform, I was unlikely to get a great contract, and chances were I’d never earn out any advance. Or I could spend those years putting books out and building that fan base, with the option to republish or relaunch a book if I made mistakes in the marketing. Which I most certainly have! But the great thing about self-publishing is I get a chance to fix them because I still have the rights to the book.
Plus I like writing weird, niche stories that don’t fit neatly into genre categories, which is a tougher sell everywhere but especially difficult to pitch to an agent. I love the creative freedom being indie offers me.
What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?
Being able to keep promoting ‘backlist’ books that a publisher would have stopped trying to sell after a few months.
What tips can you share on self-publishing or crowdfunding with your fellow indies?
For crowdfunding, I’d say keep it simple when you start out. Avoid the temptation to offer all the bells and whistles and fancy add-ons the more established crowdfunders are doing! Unless you want to, of course. But it’s so easy to spend HUGE amounts of time fussing over complicated rewards, loads of art and other paraphernalia, and when you work out the actual hourly rate for your time after costs, it might not be worth it. Focus on the simplest way to get a great story out there.
Same for self-publishing, really. It’s taken me four years to realise that all the fussing over marketing strategies and fine-tuning my website and socials and so on doesn’t have much return for a new author. The advice ‘your best marketing strategy is to write the next book’ is usually true. However, I would add one thing – do start trying to get reviews on your books as soon as you can. That’ll help a lot when you want to start advertising or marketing harder.
Can you recommend a few of your favourite SFF books from indie/self-published authors?
Absolutely anything by Tansy Rayner Roberts, but especially Belladonna U. A weird and delightfully clever Aussie urban fantasy that hits different.
The Sunbolt Chronicles by Intisar Khanani for fun, heartfelt and sometimes heartwrenching adventure.
The Sea at the End of Everything by Emily McCosh. Such a beautiful, mellow mood.
What are you working on after your campaign?
The Solstice War Fairy Tales, a series of absurd and angsty queer romantasy retellings including The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and several more! The series starts with Another World’s Stars, an enby/m Sleeping Beauty novella available now in Kindle Unlimited.
Do you have any last words?
Thanks for reading! I hope to see you over at the Darkhaven – Operation Chocolate Overload launch 😀
About the Author
Kel E Fox is an author and artist based in Australia, writing gritty and whimsical stories about finding love, family and self-acceptance in complex worlds. Always with magic, art and/or dancing.
- Website: KelEFox.com
- Bluesky: kelefox.bsky.social
- YouTube: youtube.com/@kelefox
