Sapph-Lit has acquired our second book! Here's everything you need to know.

I have been holding in this secret for MONTHS and I'm so relieved I can finally talk about it!!

ENCORE was an agented pitch that Sapph-Lit received back in May, but I was sowing the seeds for this acquisition for months, even years, before then. If you've been in Sapph-Lit for a little while, you know that last June we read HERE FOR THE WRONG REASONS by creative (and romantic) partners Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang. I was first introduced to Lydia through a mutual friend (we all went to college together!) and we went for a writing date at my favorite restaurant in Bushwick. We totally hit it off and she sent me an ARC of the book she and her girlfriend Annabel wrote together. Being a reality TV fiend, I fell in love with their story of two women falling for each other as contestants on a Bachelor-esque show and immediately made it a Sapph-Lit pick.

Now, Lydia and Annabel and I talk almost every single day and have become good friends of mine, so when I heard they wrote Book 2 and were out on submission, I quite literally begged them to submit it to Sapph-Lit. We talked for weeks about the ins and outs of Bindery, the indie publishing process, what my experience with publishing our first book SATURN RETURNING has been so far. I met with their agent, they met with the Bindery team, and everyone agreed ENCORE belonged with Sapph-Lit <3

We're shooting for a Spring 2027 publication date -- maybe a little Valentine's Day moment? Editorial kicks off next month and I can't wait to get started!! Of course you KNOW I already have the Pinterest board in progress.

🦢 What is ENCORE about?

In their early twenties, Amelia Wells and Ramona Sloane were once two-thirds of Swanboat, a confessional indie-rock trio that released one perfect, widely acclaimed album, went on one intimate (but sold-out) tour, and reached a cult of fans that continued to rabidly follow their respective solo careers.  

Five years later, Amelia is a star: she’s headlining her own world tour, transitioned into poppier music, and she’s somewhat settled down with the greasy-haired, pretentious indie-rocker asshole she’s been on/off with since her late teens. Sure, he’s not completely psyched about her rising star and obsessive fan base of “Wellies,” and fine—she sometimes misses the intimacy of writing and performing music with Ramona and their third bandmate, Beatrix Fink. But Amelia has everything she’s convinced herself she wants. That is, until her label suggests Swanboat reunite for a US tour.

Hyper-independent to a fault, Ramona has been perfectly happy with her life post-Swanboat—despite having been dropped from her own label due to “creative differences.” Back in her hometown of Chicago, she’s a DJ at her local indie radio station, and still plays her own guitar-heavy music to her small but devoted fan base at local venues around the midwest. She doesn’t want the kind of attention that would result from reuniting with her old bandmates—two of the only people who have ever been able to knock down her carefully-constructed walls. And she definitely doesn’t want to see Amelia after everything that went down between them on the final night of their first and last tour. It’s enough that she’s forced to hear Amelia’s inescapable single every time she listens to the radio along Lake Shore Drive. 

If Amelia’s being honest, she’s been feeling a little uninspired—and her label is losing patience waiting for her third album. Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing to, in her manager’s words, reconnect with her roots. As for Ramona, her refusal to sell out has provided her with more dignity than it has a financial cushion. And they’d both do anything for Beatrix, who seems more than enthusiastic about the idea of reuniting—and who doesn’t know why everything fell apart in the first place. But keeping a secret requires admitting that something happened, and neither Amelia nor Ramona wants to do that. All they have to do is get through two months, playing the songs that made them all fall in love with each other in the first place—and try not to do it all over again.

ENCORE is a dual-POV rom-com for fans of second-chance romance like COUNT YOUR LUCKY STARS by Alexandria Bellefleur and HAPPY PLACE by Emily Henry, and music lovers who enjoyed DAISY JONES AND THE SIX.

🦢 So what does this mean for your Bindery membership?

Bindery Babes, our $5 tier, will receive an e-ARC of ENCORE when it's available. You'll also access exclusive Bindery content that shares insight into the publishing process (design, editorial, etc.) including snippets from the manuscript.

Sapph-Lit Producers, our $12 tier, will be sent a physical copy of the ARC right to their doorstep! You'll access all the content Bindery Babes get, but you'll also get invited to monthly publishing Zoom meetings to get updates on the process straight from me! Maybe you'll even get to meet our amazing authors Annabel and Lydia <3 The most exciting part of course, is that your name will be printed in the acknowledgements section of the book, because none of this would be possible without your support!!

Let me know if you have any questions for me, for Annabel and Lydia, for the Bindery team! I can't wait for you to read ENCORE and to meet the girls from Swanboat 🦢✨ This is all so surreal, pinch me!! xx Nina