When Elizabeth Richardson's novel TRAD died on submission, she did something a lot of authors are told never to do: she published it herself, one chapter at a time, on Substack. In a single summer she built an audience of 800+ readers, turned her book into a twice-weekly must-read, and proved that a "dead" manuscript can have a very loud second life. In this episode, Elizabeth joins Cait and Jenna to talk about the highs and lows of querying and going on sub, why toxic positivity runs rampant in publishing, and how the no-rules era of indie publishing is opening doors that used to be firmly shut. She shares her surprisingly simple serialization strategy (it started with fanfiction), why she treats every release like a debut, and the hustle behind actually getting people to read your work. Whether you're querying, on sub, or just Substack-curious, this one's for you.