The Ins and Outs of Author Publishing - A Self-Publishing Panel: Lee Wind

 The Ins and Outs of Author Publishing - A Self-Publishing Panel: Lee Wind

Lee is an award-winning author, who is an incredibly powerful advocate for inclusive storytelling, championing young people, and people who write and illustrate.

He also ran the official SCBWI blog and the Conference blog for many years, and recently passed the baton on to me, Justin Campbell and I am so glad to be covering him in this post!

 Lee serves as Chief Content Officer at Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA), which is one of SCBWI's valued partner organizations.

"I think that the term self-publishing tricks people into thinking that they can just "download the software to their computer", and design the cover of their own book. If you want to publish something that you created, you're now the publisher. You have to hire a team of professionals to help you make your book indistinguishable in quality."

So that's why, at IBPA, the Independent Book Publishers Association, they've begun to use the language of author publishers. "I think it's a really good mental model shift. That's why it's called the Ins and Outs of Author Publishing."

Lee currently has seven books out; his first book being crowdfunded and author-published and the other six being published by independent publishers. 

His most recent is Like That Eleanor, from Cardinal Rule Press, about a little girl who is named after Eleanor Roosevelt by her two dads. Eleanor sees some unfair things happening in her school, and when she talks to her dads about it, they tell her about the real-life Eleanor Roosevelt, her namesake, who inspires young Eleanor to stand up and be an ally to make her corner of the world a little more fair.

His picture book that came out last year, Love of the Half-Eaten Peach, illustrated by Jieting Chen was just named a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Picture Books. Congratulations, Lee! 

"The decision about whether to publish a book yourself, or to have it traditionally published is about a particular project, it is not about you as a creator."

That decision has a lot to do with your journey and what you want out of your journey.

Check out the panel posts by Jolie Stekly and Jaime Temairik for the in depth Q&A session. Panel recordings available through September 14th, 2025! 

Lee Wind writes the books that would have changed his life as a young Gay Jewish kid. His latest nonfiction book for readers 11 and up is “The Gender Binary is a Big Lie.” Kirkus’s starred review cheered it as “an accessible, thorough, curiosity-provoking introduction to gender.” Lee is also the author of YA novels including his gay teen homage and critique of James Bond movies, "A Different Kind of Brave," that Foreword Reviews' starred review called “A gem for young adults.” His picture books include "Red and Green and Blue and White"(art by Paul O. Zelinsky) that the New York Times celebrated as “beautiful.” His June 2025 "Like THAT Eleanor" (art by Kelly Mangan) received a starred Kirkus review that praised it as “An ideal guide for readers of any age to learn how to be an ally.”

www.leewind.org/