Q: What's with the flower logo?
A: It's a version of a drawing by Søren Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard's focus on the Sermon on the Mount often brought him back to the imagery of the lily of the field—we thought it would be the perfect tribute to his work, while encapsulating Victorious Hermit's mission for both authors and readers to live out our callings where God has placed us. Readers should consult SK's little book, The Lily of the Field and the Bird of the Air for more.
Q: How are you going to sell books?
A: We plan to center our work around in-person events, particularly in the Washington, D.C. area, where we are based. Poetry readings, performances of plays, and discussions about nonfiction books will all serve to build up the local church and offer opportunities for people to meet our authors. (And buy their books!) Our work will also be available for purchase on this website, as well as the major online book retailers.
Q: Who are you?
A: Victorious Hermit is founded by Haley Byrd Wilt. Haley worked as a journalist for nine years, reporting on the U.S. Congress of all institutions (she aged about three decades in that time) before quitting to do very earnest work like this. Haley's background in writing, editing, and journalism has equipped her to help authors prepare their books for publication.
Q: What kind of books will you publish?
A: Good ones! If you're asking this as a writer looking for a publishing home: We are interested in narrative and scripture-driven poetry, earnest theological books written with heaps of fear and trembling, and detailed, lively nonfiction built around journalism rather than opinion writing. For novels, we take primarily science fiction and fantasy works in the hopeful, delightfully strange tradition of the Inklings. We have a soft spot for Christian characters who have to deal with space aliens. We are not the best fit for memoir or personal musings (unless you write like Frederick Buechner).
Q: Can I submit my book to you?
A: Yes, any time! Send an email to me—haley@victorioushermitbooks.com—with some information about yourself, a bit of detail about your project, and the file. For poetry and nonfiction, we take submissions from people affiliated with various Christian denominations, though we expect our authors to hold to the Nicene and Apostles' Creeds.
Fiction writers, meanwhile, don't necessarily have to ascribe to the Christian faith, though we intend to select stories with deeper truths to them—which does mean they'll have Christian themes.
We do not accept work created with artificial intelligence. If you've plugged it into a chatbot, just don't send it to us.
As a small press, we won't be able to accept most submissions. We will likely publish three or four books per year.