Why Leaf Sheep House Exists
Small Creators; Big Impact
10/19/20263 min read
My Research-Demotivation Spiral
Every author eventually hits the same fork in the road: query or self-publish.
I hit it, and I did what a careful person does. I researched. I listened to published authors, hopeful authors, and agents. I read the pros and cons from every side. And I was still confused, because the more I learned, the less any of it added up to an answer.
I was trying to decide something that should have been creative: whether to write closer to the market or lean into a cross-genre book I couldn’t stop thinking about. But the questions that kept landing on me weren’t creative. They were about money and reach. What I kept hearing was that even if an agent picks up your book, a publisher may offer little marketing support unless you already have a following, which was the main reason to go traditional in the first place. Meanwhile, the self-publishing route meant paying for editors, cover artists, and formatting, or spending a lot of time learning it all yourself.
Somewhere in that process, I noticed what was missing. It wasn’t talent or effort. It was a place where the process itself made sense.
What real support looked like
The closest I found was a Facebook group about crowdfunding publishing. It showed me what real support looks like: authors cheering for each other, sharing what worked, and putting their money and attention behind each other’s books.
It made me want to build on that idea: collaborative, cooperative, crowd-funded, peer-reviewed. And I wanted it to stand on its own, without depending on Big Tech for something this important to creators.
The potter who asked “what if?”
Around that time, I kept thinking about George Ohr, the potter. Apart from his amazing mustache, he is known for thrown ceramic shapes that have whimsical ruffles, elaborate looping handles, or have intentionally been squished. His work has a playful element that doesn't take itself too seriously. At the beginning of his career, he made work to support his family. Then his work burned. Instead of stopping, he became more innovative, more creative, and more prolific. He dug his own clay and made his own glazes. He did the whole process end to end, far beyond what other ceramic artists were doing. It was as though, at each step, he asked “what if?”
What impresses me most is his unshakeable faith in the merit of his work. That’s the spirit I want to build around: the belief that your work is worth the time to discover how to do it well and that playfulness is part of the journey.
Why a sea slug?
We’re big board game nerds. Playing Catan, we’d call out trades in wrong-on-purpose terms: “BRICK-WHEAT-HOUSE,” “SHEEP-WOOD-ROAD.” “Leaf Sheep” was already waiting in our back pocket for a future hand-dyed yarn company, named after a tiny, colorful sea slug. When it was time to name this company, the two ideas collided.
The little spines on its back looked like books. And honestly, how cute is it to be a book sea slug instead of a bookworm?
It also says something about who we’re for. The publishing world has its whales: giant publishers and giant distribution currents. We believe there’s room for the little creatures too. Not a whale, still making big waves.
What we believe
Our values are simple, and we hold ourselves to them:
Fairness. Authors, illustrators, and creators should be paid fairly and credited properly.
Respect for your work. Your work is yours, and tools shouldn’t quietly feed it into something you didn’t agree to.
Clarity. You shouldn’t need six hats and a month of research just to publish a book. We curate so you don’t have to dig.
Community. The best advice comes from people with real experience, and they should be easy to find.
Craft and beauty. Books are meant to be made with care, and we want the tools and the experience to reflect that.
We’re not building against anyone. Plenty of authors rely on the platforms they use today, and we’re not here to shame that. We’re building something alongside it, for the creators who want more support and more say.
What’s next
We’re heading toward a soft open beta on January 1. Between now and then, I’ll be writing here every week about what we’re building and why. If you’re an author, an artist, or a reader who’s felt lost in the noise, follow along.
Sources
Images sourced from Robert Brooks Keefe Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
and https://www.metmuseum.org Public Domain, via picryl.com
Biography Summarized from https://georgeohr.org/george-ohr/eorge
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