The Many Publishing Lives of Skye MacKinnon

Never mind that Skye MacKinnon shares her Scotch heritage, teaching ability, and calm courage in the face of a changing world with J.K. Rowling’s Professor McGonagall. Or that MacKinnon’s cat never appeared during our interview, so spectacle-shaped markings around the cat’s eyes—like those on McGonagall’s feline form—cannot be ruled out. According to MacKinnon, before she began her own publishing journey, authors, in her eyes, were akin to “mystical beings.” 

Of course, these days, MacKinnon—McGonagall comparisons aside—seems like a mystical being in her own right, to her readers and to other authors. She’s well known in the Wide For The Win community (https://www.wideforthewin.com), where she serves on the board as community director. She also founded a Facebook Group to provide resources for indie authors marketing German language translations of their books (https://facebook.com/groups/marketinggermanbooks). In her own author career, MacKinnon has published sixty-six adult novels and co-written thirty adult novels, four short stories/novellas, and eleven anthologies. She’s also published sixteen picture books, including one non-fiction title, and a young adult novel, all in a range of genres and under a variety of pen names.

A Series of Publishing ‘Accidents’

MacKinnon’s publishing journey began “in a series of accidents,” she says. While she’d always loved writing, others had convinced her that “author” wasn’t a proper job. So she chose a career in journalism, working first as a science specialist and later in communications. Then, in 2013, after losing a bet, she “had to write a story—quite a spicy story—about cavemen … [that] taught me my first bits and pieces about self-publishing.” At that time, self-publishing was still limited to the Smashwords distributor, and authors had to format their works using the platform’s original and infamous file formatting tool, colloquially dubbed the “meatgrinder.” Not unlike a dragon, the “meatgrinder” accepted files formatted to its excruciatingly exact standards and spawned e-books for all imaginable devices. MacKinnon’s ability to tame this legendary beast could be argued to be nothing short of magical.

Four years later, in 2017, her first book took off. “Suddenly, I had fans and readers and a Facebook Group and a newsletter. Basically, I had to learn very quickly, because everything was happening so fast.” Nota bene: That book was called Meow, and it’s still her bestselling book and series across languages.

Without worrying about paperbacks, other retailers, or other formats like audiobook, she published on Amazon with Kindle Select and focused on writing the next books. “In retrospect,” the former journalist says, “I wish I’d done a lot more research.”

But she also agreed that skipping it might have actually helped her early publishing efforts. “If people do the bare minimum and somehow succeed with that, then it can still work,” she says. “It does help if you have savings or support from other people. It probably doesn’t work in [the] Reverse Harem [genre] anymore. I was in the gold rush.”

MacKinnon’s first book replaced her day job’s income after a few months, and she went to part time at six months. She still had no plans to become a full-time author. Then, at nine months, her work contract expired. Instead of looking for a new job, she gave herself a trial year to write full time.

“Luckily, it worked out,” she says, “and I’ve never looked back. I always tell people, ‘Don’t be hasty. Do it one step at a time, and think about all the consequences if it doesn’t work out.’ I was lucky.”

In addition to luck, she had insider knowledge of her writing genres. “I always write what I read,” she says. “That’s why the genres I write change … from Time Travel to Aliens to Historical to Contemporary and Fantasy and you name it.” Despite hitting the gold rush with the Reverse Harem genre, she leaves room for the muse. “I don’t want to be as rational about [the choice of genre] because I want the characters and the worlds to be the important thing.” 

Publishing A Unicorn

In Christmas 2018, MacKinnon’s email newsletter for readers of her adult novels included “this tiny wee story about how a unicorn side character came to be,” she explains. “He’s not a shifter, he’s an actual unicorn, and he’s quite sassy and snarky, and people just have always liked him and wanted more.” Replies from newsletter subscribers, however, were confusing. Instead of professing their own adoration for the story, many responded, “My kids love this!”

True to form, she experimented to find out if this unicorn was a fluke. “I made some illustrations … published it under a new name, and suddenly, I was a children’s book author.” It was no fluke. By November 2023, MacKinnon had finished her seventeenth or possibly eighteenth picture book, which she publishes under the pen name Isla Wynter. Fun fact: the pen name draws two character names from her other book series.

With no children of her own, MacKinnon claims she wasn’t “well placed” to write children’s books, but she happens to have an excellent source of insider information. Her sister, a primary school teacher, regularly fills her in on the kids’ favorite animals. MacKinnon quips, “Sloths are apparently on trend.”

A Whiskerhood of Authors

Early in 2017, MacKinnon joined forces with a small group—first six authors, then four—and collaborated on writing projects, anthologies, and book signings. Besides finding and filtering new opportunities, the group became friends who have chatted every day for the last six years. “We all saved a lot of time and effort,” she says.

While acknowledging the value of groups that include authors with advanced skills, MacKinnon says, “in the beginning, I think it’s way more important to have people who are at the same stage or only slightly more advanced. You can grow easier that way.”

Magical Powers in International Markets

In 2020, once her bestselling series came out as audiobooks, MacKinnon applied her formidable research and communication powers—in two languages—to German translations and the question of how best to publish them. “It’s definitely a journalism thing. If I don’t know something, I will find out,” she says.

Her habit of emailing sources directly works well for early access to information. “You never know in advance if this will be actually worth it or if it will be a ten-hour waste of time,” she says of the research required to check out a new opportunity. But she admits, “I do find little nuggets of gold.”

By the time her first German translation was released, she was getting steady requests to turn her knowledge into a book. Wryly, she notes that Self-Publishing in German: How to Translate, Publish, and Market Your Books, which came out in 2021, took much longer than expected. One frustration unique to non-fiction was how quickly, and confidentially, new features appeared. A major new feature—print books—for Tolino, the largest German distributor of e-books, was announced the day after her book came out. “But to be fair, they had shared several other things,” she says.

A second edition of the book will have to wait, because recent health issues have limited MacKinnon’s work time to an average of an hour a day. But even this unplanned reduction in hours was a useful “experiment” for this self-identified workaholic.

Before her illness, she says she was “scared to go on holiday for a week.” Now, she has proof that “if you get your system right and … routine in place, it’s possible to take off a long time and not see a massive drop in income.”

Weird and Wonderful Genre Shifter

Currently, MacKinnon has four to five “main” pen names, evidence of her creativity, productivity, and her ability to shift gears. Skye B. MacKinnon is her nonfiction pen name, and Skye MacKinnon is for Adult Romance, her “main breadwinner” accounting for 80 percent of her time. She writes in so many subgenres that she’s developed a handy quiz for readers looking for their next book: https://skyemackinnon.com/index.html.

Her children’s book pen name, Isla Wynter, takes the lead from Halloween to Christmas. She reports that her bestselling Isla Wynter book is The Little Ghost Who Didn’t Like to Be Scary but that The Pink Ghost may soon overtake it. She adds, “I’ve never had this many Halloween sales. It’s ridiculous.”

Her secret pen name is used for “other weird Erotica since [the cavemen], but mostly because I lose bets or it’s a challenge or is for charity … [like] the Australian wildfires.” An older shared pen name has been retired, and a new pen name is in the works for her first crime novel.

“I love an experiment,” she says, “which is why I think my writing style and the things I write about change quite often.” Her “best ever bestselling book” was an experiment—a cute premade cover inspired a book that was “so out there and so weird.” She didn’t expect it to find readers, but it was published in three languages and featured in bookstores. “Sometimes,” she says, “you will be pleasantly surprised. Sometimes you will be terribly disappointed. … It’s definitely worth trying because you will never find out what could have been.”

Alongside her own writing, MacKinnon offers author consultations at https://perytonpress.com/consultations. As a mentor, she is willing to experiment to discover the truth about new publishing opportunities and shares her discoveries generously. Her extensive backlist also gives her the freedom to organize charity anthologies or do other time-intensive activities that don’t pay for themselves. “Herding authors,” she says. “It’s worse than herding cats.” With a smile hinting at deep and mystical knowledge, MacKinnon adds, “I have a cat.” It’s enough to remind one of a certain beloved Hogwarts professor, and though MacKinnon may not teach wizardry or witchcraft, her career thus far has been nothing short of magical.

Like Harry Potter’s Professor McGonagall, MacKinnon has secret identities, magical publishing powers, and a feline inquisitiveness. Is it mere coincidence that her cat, Valkyrie, didn’t appear during our conversation?

Laurel Decher