Indie Author Spotlight with J.M. Gokey

On May 2, 2025, Andrew Valenza was invited by J.M. Gokey, author of “The Chosen” and “The Hatebug” to feature on her website’s Indie Author Spotlight. Thank you, J.M., for letting us reshare this article here.

Please check out all of J.M. Gokey’s works on Amazon and Goodreads!

Check out all of her Indie Author spotlights at https://jmgokey.substack.com/

Welcome back to yet another edition of my Author Spotlight Series. This week, meet Andrew Valenza, Author and Founder of Valenza Publishing. I will also be sharing some recent and upcoming releases toward the end of the article. Happy Friday!

Full article:

Hello! I'm Andrew Valenza. I'm a writer, publisher, U.S. Army Veteran, film nerd, newspaper editor, and most importantly, a husband. I began my artistic journey because of the inspiration I received from my late grandmother, Dolores Valenza, a world-renowned artist. She put a pencil in my hand and an essay booklet in front of me one night when I couldn't sleep and told me to let the creativity out. I'd always wanted to be a movie director, but after that night, I fell in love with writing.

For years upon years, I worked on a fantasy epic that went through multiple iterations, all wildly different from each other in terms of tone, literary style, and target audience. I could never figure out what about the story wasn't working, why I couldn't make it translate from my mind to the paper. The project would go on hold, and I'd come back to it after a little while, but still, never panned out and I started thinking novel writing just wasn't for me. That was until "Empire of the Void" gushed out of me like a very fun word vomit.

Everything about "Empire" came so easily, like the story existed and my job was not to create it or even tell it, but be a surrogate for it to be told. The reason for this, I realized, is one) the story does exist, and I am just a medium for it; and two) there was purpose to it.

I wrote "Empire" for my dad, and for everyone who had a childhood like mine with bonding over a shared love of film with those closest to us. While everyone else was writing homages to their favorite, I wanted to write something that brought reader, not back to the cinema or their favorite films, but to the couch. I wanted something that reminded them of that feeling of sitting next to an older sibling, a cool aunt or uncle, your parents, and being handed that love of storytelling from the generation before.

I got very lucky with "Empire," thanks to a co-worker at the time, who offered himself as my mentor in the self-publishing world. While everyone was getting ripped off by $5000 online courses that wouldn't actually help you sell, I wouldn't take what I received for granted. That is why I founded Valenza Publishing.

Our first project was "Thrall" by J.T. McGee. J.T. was my old creative writing teacher in high school, and the person who got me into reading, through his old busted up copy of Stephen King's "The Gunslinger." While in his class, he was actually working on an early draft of "Thrall" and I would often help workshop some of it, though I can take very very little credit in it. As I was working on my first draft of "Empire" in 2022, I finally read a self-published version of "Thrall," and while the story was great, the book itself in terms of publishing needed a lot of work.

I took on "Thrall" as our first project, alongside the guy who taught me creative writing and fueled a love of reading in me. It has been truly amazing. And now we carry on, searching for great manuscripts that just need a little bit of tender love and care before release. Not everyone has the time, finances, or industry know-how to give their book the high-quality release it deserves. We care about the story first and foremost, and want to help talented voices achieve their dreams of being published authors.

What genres do you cater to?:

All. As far as titles we want to bring into our library, we focus mainly on fiction for all ages. In the future, we would like to open a children's book imprint, and if there's interest, we'd love to expand to non-fiction. But for now, we offer work-for-hire services to anyone, for any genre.

Are you open for submissions currently?:

If you have patience. Unfortunately, we are taking no more submissions for the 2025-26 fiscal year. We are blessed to have a full plate ahead of us for the projects we can take on and give our full attention. If we can't give a book the absolute best, we won't treat it like "content," putting it in our library for the sake of making a quick buck. I hate content, and art deserves respect.

Our work-for-hire services are always open, though, for graphic design, editing, formatting, and self-publishing consultation and project planning.

Tell me a little about your own books, Empire of The Void, any future works:

"Empire of the Void," or, "The Empire Marathon," is a journey through sci-fi film history. Our heroes are a married couple from Earth, Dex and Lacy Prullen, exploring the furthest reaches of the universe and accidentally stumble upon an evil empire led by a god-like being. After being taken prisoner by the Empire, Dex and Lacy fight to find each other again and find peace in the universe before she is offered up as a sacrifice that will doom the entire human race.

What makes this series so fun, other than Lacy's character who readers seem obsessed with, when I say this is a journey through film history, I mean it. The first book is the classic space opera in the vein of "Flash Gordon" and "Star Wars." But the second book, "Lost World of the Void," will take readers to the '20s/'30s creature feature. It's basically "King Kong" in space.

In this one, Dex and Lacy find themselves on a backwater jungle planet. The natives quickly find them and mistake them for the god(s) of their mythology, not-so-coincidentally the Emperor. It falls on Dex and Lacy to investigate the prophecies the Emperor has laid in the people's history, and free them from his rule, while desperate to avoid his ever-watchful eye.

Future works are definitely on the way. The third book, "Gods of the Void," has been postponed from release, but I am hoping for a summer 2026 release.

Tell us about your "Donate a Book" program:

So this has actually changed. We used to donate a book for every fifty sold. These would go to either a school, library, or care package for veterans deployed overseas. But, during the Christmas season of 2023, I donated a dollar from every sale of "Empire" to the Gary Sinise Foundation. While I'm proud to have done that, it wasn't financially viable long-term. Especially when we only made 70 cents from certain distribution channels per book.

Now, because I didn't want to stop the giving, we have pledged to donate 2% of our gross income every month to a veterans/first responder organization. Often it's the Gary Sinise Foundation. I love that guy. He's so cool, and I love what he does.

We still donate to schools and libraries when possible, and last Christmas we raised about $300 to build care packages to send to troops deployed overseas for the holidays. And we were able to put copies of our books in them.

Tell me about the Thrall series:

I am so proud to be working on this series. I love being able to tell people my old high school teacher is my employee.

But in all seriousness, it's an extremely gratifying experience. "Thrall" was a story J.T. had been working on for decades, and the original release was not successful. Now though, "Empire of the Void" is the foundation of this company, Dex and Lacy are the logo, but "Thrall" knocks it out of the park at every single event we do. People go crazy for this book, and we get so many reviews saying that people read both books in a single weekend, they couldn't put it down. You should see J.T. at events now, he's like a celebrity, both in how he carries himself, and how people react when the see "the bald guy on the back" of the book and him signing a copy for them.

It's so awesome.

Tell me about The Second Act Comeback?:

If there's a book I want to put in people's hands, it's "The Second Act Comeback," by Jamie Norton. I think this might be our most important book for people to read. It's this incredible, based on real experiences from the author about overcoming a history of domestic and emotional abuse, and trying to find a way to take hold of your life again.

It's absolutely incredible.

And the author, I'll tell ya, was persistent as hell to get it published and I commend that. His passion for it was so obvious long before I knew why. It was a book I read on my honeymoon and I mean, I went to Disney. I fell in love with "Star Wars" again because of Galaxies Edge, and I had just married the prettiest girl in the world. But one of the best parts of that honeymoon was reading "The Second Act Comeback."

Tell me about "Bookends":

"Bookends" was our first straight-up romance book. "Empire" is at its core a romance, but the readers are there for the adventure.

"Bookends" is about a girl who works in a hole-in-the-wall bookstore, but lives in the books. She's obsessed with a controversial romance author who just so happens to walk into her store one day, and whadd'ya know, he's into her too.

The book is kind of a hallmark movie, but also a warning about balancing reality and escapism, while also a love letter itself to the books that helped us through the hard times. Because sometimes, these books we read are more real than reality. We just have to know when to break out of it, and when it's okay to fall into the story's warm embrace.

It also gave me a heart attack because a month out from publication the author, Ella M. Hayes, decided she wanted to remove the "adult scenes." 10 copies had already been printed and are now scattered to the winds, so if you have one of them, hold onto it. Might be worth something one day.

And to top it off, her next book is SO adult.

Are there any upcoming releases you'd like to share?:

Speaking of, "Witch's Brew" by Ella M. Hayes will release this September. And going back to what I was saying about us trying to be generous, ARC requests are now open! We want people to know that if they use Goodreads or Fable, please request a copy via the Valenza Publishing Instagram page (@valenzapublishing) or through the author's (@ella.hayes.books).

The third book in the "Thrall" series is also on its way for 2026, as well as the third "Empire of the Void" book for 2027.

Our website is www.valenzapublishing.com. You can find us on social @valenzapublishing. All of our books are available anywhere you can buy books; Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walmart...

But if you see it physically on store shelves, snap a pic and let us know!