Big Announcement!

Rachel Spangler • April 4, 2025

Bigger Table Books

I have been teasing a big announcement for some time, and I have been working toward it for much longer, and now today is the day!

I am thrilled to announce that I have founded a new publishing LLC called Bigger Table Books!


So what does that mean? Initially, Bigger Table Books will function as a framework that will allow me to begin publishing my own work. Stage one will see my learning the business of publishing and beginning to take ownership of my career in a more direct and hands on way. I hope to release Relationship Material (a spin-off of Informed Consent) under the Bigger Table Books banner this summer. I also hope to move some other books I have the rights to under the BTB brand in the coming months as well, so stay tuned for more details there.


If this stage goes well, I have big dreams for expanding publishing in distribution channels to include a broader section of the community in ways that offer authors, readers, and even fellow publishers a new option for sharing sapphic stories without big corporate intermediaries.

But that's getting ahead of myself. For now I'm excitedly looking forward to learning and growing as an independent publisher of sapphic fiction. This is my community, this is my passion, these are our stories, and I am honored to share this journey with all of you!


Sincerely,


Rey Spangler



Press Release
March 4, 2025



Author Rachel Spangler Launches Bigger Table Books 

Rachel Spangler, the best-selling author of 25 sapphic romance novels and a prominent figure in LGBTQ fiction, has announced the founding of a new publishing house, Bigger Table Books. With multiple Golden Crown Literary Awards and Independent Publisher Awards to their name, Spangler plans to use this new imprint initially to publish their own work, with ambitions to expand and support other sapphic authors in the future.

Spangler, who has 17 years of experience as an author and 10 years in publishing, brings a wealth of expertise to this endeavor. They previously worked in submissions at Bywater Books before transitioning into the role of senior romance editor, where they collaborated on books by Goldie-winning authors such as Anna Burke and Jenn Alexander. In recent years, Spangler has focused on editing independent clients and mentoring emerging authors through the publication process.


“This is an exciting time, not just for me personally, but for the entire field of sapphic publishing, as we have so many new opportunities to grow and expand our genre,” Spangler said. “Things are changing fast. I look forward to learning and finding ways to keep serving our community of storytellers in the rapidly changing landscape around LGBTQ publishing.”


Spangler also reflected on their journey in the industry: “I’ve had so many people support and teach me over the years. I’ve worked with some of the best minds and most generous people in our field, and as I take this next step of claiming ownership over my own career, I look forward to paying some of that forward. I want to be an advocate for our community and our stories.”


Considering their proven track record as an award-winning author, editor, and mentor, Spangler hopes that Bigger Table Books will further embody their commitment to creating inclusive spaces within LGBTQ publishing.


For more information Bigger Table Books or Rachel Spangler’s work, visit their website www.rachelspangler. com or follow them on social media.

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Facebook memories reminded me that we are approaching the 1 year anniversary of my stem cell donation. On June 1st of 2021, after five days of injections, I underwent a medical procedure to donate stem cells via a line in my chest. Those cells were then transferred into a cancer patient somewhere in Ohio. In addition to feeling like a high tech medical miracle, it was also a huge, awe inspiring experience for me personally, and I’ve spent the time since then feeling so proud and honored to have been in a position to so something so powerful. Then about two weeks ago I received a phone call that my recipient had passed away. I’m gutted. The news has ripped at me in ways I could not have anticipated. This is, in effect, the death of a stranger, a young woman in a different place, whose name I have never known. And now I will never know it. In some ways I don’t feel entitled to this level of grief. In so many ways she’d only ever existed for me as an idea. But we were not nothing to each other. I have prayed for her every day for almost a year, and now I pray for her family. I have wondered and worried over her. I have woken up in the middle of long nights and on Christmas morning thinking about her. Every time I notice the little scar on my chest where the line went into my body, I have felt her with me. Still, I did not know her. And I never will. When the transplant coordinator called, she broke the news quickly, then she said that she needed one more thing from me. She wondered if I might release my remaining stem cells to researchers. I was still a bit rocked back from the start of the conversation, and this request confused me. She explained that there were some cells left over after the transfusion, and they still belonged to me. Legally and ethically, those cells, even after they left my body, are a part of me, and no one can do anything to those extensions of my body without my releasing them. I thought about asking her if anyone had mentioned that to the Supreme Court, but I was too sad in the moment. The anger would come later, but as I’ve pondered that fact, it has helped me at least contextualize the level of grief I am feeling: A woman died with a part of me inside of her. I have tried to temper the dramatic impulse to surrender to the idea that if she died with a part of me inside her, a part of me has died as well, but I’ll admit I have gone there a time or two. What I have leaned on more frequently, though, is that despite not knowing anything other than her rough age and gender, we shared something more fundamental than names or letters. We shared stem cells, the very building blocks of what makes us who we are on a cellular level. With those cells I sent my hopes, my best impulses, my health, my love, the pieces of my blood and bones that allow me to live such a wonderful life in the hopes I could sustain her with those things. Turns out I could not. It has been two weeks of wondering if I could have done more. Fearing that my body, which I have always had a problematic relationship with, has failed me again, and this time betrayed someone else in the process. Worrying someone else paid the price of my insufficiency. Remembering loved ones I have lost to cancer, feeling that pain anew. Imagining the anguish of those who loved her as deeply as I loved the people I lost, and almost crippling empathy for the pain they are living in right now, pain I couldn’t save them from even though I tried. It’s been dark in my brain. My emotions have overwhelmed me often. Sadness ruled the first week. I burst into tears several times at inopportune moments, and cried until my face hurt. This past week anger took over. I will admit, other than a general sense of the injustice of it all, I didn’t understand where the anger came from. Then in session this week, my therapist explained that anger is a common outlet for a sense of helplessness. 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