Sword and Silk Books is a small traditional publishing company, celebrating women of all walks of life.
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The publishing business can be a lonely place where everyone feels like they are competing against each other. S&S seeks to be a place of support, learning, and growth.
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At Sword and Silk, we work with our authors every step of the way on their literary journey, helping to bring out the most from their work. From editing, to marketing and publication, Sword and Silk helps our authors produce high quality, interesting and entertaining books.
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At Sword and Silk, we believe that every author has a story to tell, and that every story deserves to be told.
MaryBeth Dalto-Mc Carthy
Senior Editor
MaryBeth is on the lookout for YA and NA novels heavy in plot with the ability to make her fall in love with its characters. Her favorite tropes include love triangles of all kinds, enemies to lovers, dream sequences, and prophecies.
She always wants villains you can’t help but be attracted to, redemption arcs or otherwise.
She loves novels with deep character development, a setting where she can get lost, and plot twists that make her want to throw the book across the room.
Give her main characters you love to hate, but can’t help but hate to love.
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Laynie Bynum
Publisher
Laynie is always on the lookout for Young and New Adult novels that will make her think, swoon, or laugh.
Her favorite tropes include: found families, friends to lovers, the soft bad boy, "we're both oblivious to the fact that we love each other", road trips, and chosen ones.
She loves quirky and snarky characters but will also fall for your cinnamon rolls.
Books that promote her escapism or wish fulfillment are always welcome. Give her all of your rock stars, your vacations in exotic locations, your multimillionaires, and your royalty.
Jennia Herold D'lima
Content Editor
Jennia’s initial editing experience revolved around academic papers and engineering articles before she moved on to the much more fulfilling and captivating world of Young and New Adult fiction.
As a lifelong reader who typically speeds through one book a day, she knew instantly she had found her niche in the publishing world.
While captivated by all genres, she especially loves fantasy, paranormal, and romance, and will never say no to a fairy tale retelling.
Kristin Jacques
Blog Maven
Kristin Jacques is the Sword and Silk Blog Maven.
Aside from mining the internet for ideas, she is an author of YA and adult dark fantasy.
Kristin has a soft spot for redeemable villains, unusual love stories, ride or die sibling relationships, and anything weird and wondrous.
When not penning stories or reading her teetering TBR, she can be found herding cats and children in the suburban wilds of New England.
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Nicole Bezanson
Submissions Intern
Nicole is the submissions intern for Sword and Silk Books, a technical writer, and a published MG/YA/NA author who primarily focuses on books that include romance, drama, and sometimes even a little magic.
An avid storyteller since childhood, she has honed her skills through a variety of educational programs, most recently engaging in coursework about communication for technologists.
She loves stories of all shapes and sizes, but has a soft spot for short reads, protagonists with pets, and anything with ghosts.
When Nicole isn't busy updating her manuscript portfolio or catching up on her To Be Read pile, she can usually be found gardening, horseback riding, or perusing the shelves of a used bookstore.
She and her husband share their home in Eastern Canada with a collection of multi-colored cats and a lifetime's worth of books.
J. M. Jinks
Marketing Intern
J.M. Jinks has always had a love of reading that progressed into writing. She tried to write books even when she was very young, but she never completed a manuscript until she finished Mostly Innocent, A Powers That Be Novel, Book 1. Since, J.M. has continued writing and immersing herself in the publishing world mostly through Twitter and the AMAZING writing community. Since publishing Mostly Innocent, J.M. has won a few writing competitions (#WriteMentor and #RevPit to name a few.)
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To delve herself deeper in the industry, J.M. has started working on the publishing side. She is also the social media coordinator and a content editor for Mostly Innocent's home—Champagne Book Group. She also started her freelance editing business on the side in 2020. And now she has come aboard as a Marketing Intern at Sword and Silk.
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J.M. herself loves to read fantasy, historical, new adult, paranormal, urban fantasy, romance, scifi, and dystopian novels. But any book with a great voice intrigues her. She has been inspired by JK Rowling, Sarah J. Maas, Vi Keeland, Richelle Mead, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Scarlett Dawn, Ray Bradbury, Ayn Rand, Coleen Hoover, Laura Thalassa, Erin Watt, Darynda Jones,Karina Halle, and a million more.
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J.M. lives with her husband, son, two dogs, and two cats in Southern California. She is a teacher under the sunlight and a writer under the moonlight.
Lucy Rhodes
Cover Designer
Lucy is a graphic designer based in Sydney, Australia. In addition to Sword and Silk, her clients include several international bestselling authors as well as a major New York publishing house.
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She loves pretty things, making things, making things pretty, and helping make other people's things pretty, too.
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What makes her happiest, though, is getting lost in the art of storytelling. Whether she’s writing or reading, Lucy is drawn to a heroine who’s learning her own worth, brutish heroes who can’t resist their heroine, and villains who think they’re smarter than you (spoiler: they’re not).
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When she’s not immersed in literature or playing in Photoshop, you can usually find Lucy binge-watching British murder mysteries, tending to her small garden, gaming with her husband or getting lost in the world created by her own run-on sentences.
meet the team
Meet The Team
Laynie Bynum
PUBLISHER
Laynie is always on the lookout for Young and New Adult novels that will make her think, swoon, or laugh.
Her favorite tropes include: found families, friends to lovers, the soft bad boy, "we're both oblivious to the fact that we love each other", road trips, and chosen ones.
She loves quirky and snarky characters but will also fall for your cinnamon rolls.
Books that promote her escapism or wish fulfillment are always welcome. Give her all of your rock stars, your vacations in exotic locations, your multimillionaires, and your royalty.
MaryBeth Dalto-McCarthy
SENIOR EDITOR
MaryBeth is on the lookout for YA and NA novels heavy in plot with the ability to make her fall in love with its characters. Her favorite tropes include love triangles of all kinds, enemies to lovers, dream sequences, and prophecies.
​
She always wants villains you can’t help but be attracted to, redemption arcs or otherwise.
​
She loves novels with deep character development, a setting where she can get lost, and plot twists that make her want to throw the book across the room.
Give her main characters you love to hate, but can’t help but hate to love.