I’ve been a writer my entire adult life. Traditionally published. Scripts. Television. After successfully self-publishing my first children’s book decades ago, I then sold the series to Bantam, and life happened. Many moons later, I returned with my first adult novel and was shocked by the new landscape. It was not the publishing industry I remembered.

After two unsuccessful book launches and the realization that there was no obvious place for a genre-defying writer like myself, I decided to stop wasting time dancing for the algorithm and create what I wanted my career to look like.

I built Gilded Bard because I kept thinking about what we actually need.

We pour ourselves into stories, then launch them into a system that reduces them to a cover image, a blurb, a retailer page, and a prayer.

Gilded Bard gives books a home. A place where readers can explore the story, meet the characters, watch trailers, browse media, discover excerpts, find events, support the author, and engage with the book long after they’ve finished reading. A place we control. A place we own. A place built for stories rather than stores.

Gilded Bard also connects to Asugoh, a new reading system designed to help stories find readers in a different way. Together, they’re designed to give us more control over how our work is shared, discovered, and experienced.

Here’s what’s honest: Gilded Bard is early. I’m a solo founder. I’m not a tech company. I’m a writer who has spent a lifetime building systems without realizing that’s what they were called. And I’m asking for help from the people who understand better than anyone why this needs to exist.

To fund the next phase, Gilded Bard is launching a Kickstarter. The goal is $30,000 in 30 days. If we hit it, we fund the backend: writer accounts, page claiming, onboarding tools, and the infrastructure needed to open Gilded Bard to other authors.

But I’m asking for more than money. I’m asking for writers who want to help shape this — what it includes, what it prioritizes, and what it gets right that everything else got wrong.

Take a look, and if you see something we should do differently, I value your feedback.

If any of this lands, I’d be grateful for your support and even more grateful for your voice.

Let’s build this right.