Meet the creative Northampton author working hard towards self-publication of second book in 2027
Meet the creative Northampton author working hard towards the self-publication of her second book in 2027, after sharing the challenges of breaking into this line of work.
Megan Leyman’s debut book The Trip Between The Two, which is an LGBTQ fantasy story inspired by the thoughts she had before coming out as a transgender woman, was hybrid-published in April 2025.
She has now written a second book called The Fantastical Overlook Bakery, which is a cosy fantasy about a musician who takes a break after a traumatic experience and ends up working in a bakery run by mythical creatures from another world.
Megan has experienced the difficulty of getting a book traditionally published, through a literary agent and major publisher, and has opted to take the independent self-publishing route with her second book.
The author is also a small linocut printmaker with an independent business called Bonfire Cherry. Megan created a lot of artwork that the people of Northampton could buy at fairs, as well as it being on sale at Matchbox Cafe.
During the time running her small business, which she still does occasionally and has new designs coming in the new year, Megan enjoyed blogging about her life – which encouraged her to try writing as another way of being creative.
Megan told the Chronicle & Echo that she used writing to get stuff off her brain, and she wondered how she could turn that into something that could help others – which is when she began working on her debut book in 2024 before it was published the following year.
With the theme of waking up in your dream body and wondering if it is too good to be true, this resonated with others in similar situations to Megan and she received good feedback following its publication.
Megan’s second book is inspired by her work in a supermarket bakery, other Northampton businesses, anime and manga, as well as exploring grief, and she looks forward to releasing it in March 2027.
As her first book was within the niche of LGBTQ fantasy, Megan hopes that writing a cosy fantasy will make her writing more accessible to a wider range of readers – but admits trying to get a book traditionally published is like “trying to win the lottery”.
Megan hopes to get the story out there to show the world what it has been missing with her author journey, and will continue using her writing as a way of connecting to her audience as it grows.