Celebrating Bridget E. Baker
Bridget E. Baker has always loved writing, but timing and confidence do not always arrive together. Believing in yourself, in your talent, and in the stories you want to tell can be difficult, especially when others label your work “too weird” or insist that writing across multiple genres will never lead to success.
Bridget chose to move forward anyway. By trusting her instincts and breaking traditional publishing rules, she found readers who connected deeply with her distinct voice. Her fearless pursuit of the career she wanted and always belonged in serves as a powerful reminder that authenticity matters.
We hope that by sharing her story, you find the inspiration to fill your pages with the words only you can write, no matter how “weird” they may seem.
A Very Unconventional Journey
A Guest Post by Bridget E. Baker
My name is Bridget Baker, and I’ve been addicted to stories for almost forty-five years. My mom said as a toddler, I begged her repeatedly to “tell me another story,” until she wanted to tear her hair out. In kindergarten, my teacher stepped out to grab something, and when she got back, I was standing in the middle of the room, pointing at anyone who stood up and telling them to sit back down, because I was in the middle of telling them a story about our new dog. In second grade, I won a state-wide writing contest for a story. . . about a spot of air.
I took a small detour when I went to law school, but after a few years of molding other people’s true stories into fiction, I started writing my own again. Sadly, the stories I wrote were pear shaped, and the publishing houses only wanted circles or squares. I spent two years finding an agent only to have my agent tell me that my stories were all, “just too weird. Can’t you write something normal?” (In her defense, I had just sent her a clean horse-shifter romance.) It turned out, I simply could not write something normal.
Weird, Wild, and Free
Spoiler alert: my agent was wrong. People did want to read a horse shifter romance. It took me several years of indie publishing before I started ignoring other people and really just writing the stories I wanted to write.
I have broken literally every publishing “best practices” rule. On my first fantasy romance series, The Birthright Series, I wrote a series with villain stories for books 2, 4, and 6. Two publishers told me that was completely nuts. My horse shifter romance, My Queendom for a Horse, is one of my best-selling romantasy books. I write clean fantasy romance that you can hand your mom or your teenage daughter. I was told that was stupid. Fantasy romance readers all want spice. I write women’s fiction under B. E. Baker that’s set on a ranch instead of the beach. I wrote a second women’s fiction series where my characters escape and move to Ireland.
Not to mention, I write dragon fantasy where the dragons are the bad guys who invade the earth, and my main character likes the dragon who isn’t the big-bad-boss. I write women who are nerdy and can’t use swords, guns, or fight at all. (Marked, by Bridget E. Baker.) I wanted to write the heroines I wanted to read about, and I didn’t listen to what publishers said readers wanted. And I won’t even go into how I’ve written a historical fiction about the Donner party or a memoir about my beloved horse… I always write the stories I want, no matter whether I am sure how to sell them.
A Fruitful Partnership
From the very start, the River-Bookseller-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named hasn’t cared about the indies. Sure, we can put our books on their platform, but they just float out among the sea of books. Barnes and Noble’s different. In fact, I hadn’t been putting books out for very long when Nook reached out to me. They told me they had noticed my unique books. (Not weird, not strange—unique.) They asked me if I had looked into promotions with them, and they told me that they’d like to partner with me.
Partner.
I loved that word.
I had never felt like anyone in the book world wanted to partner with me. It was me and my laptop against the whole world.
But B&N Press was different. They had promotions they were eager to consider my books for. They told me that great stories helped make new readers. I realized for the first time that I was competing with far more than just other authors. In fact, they weren’t my competition at all. They were all on my side.
Booked & Busy
We’re competing for consumers’ limited time for entertainment and good stories. Unique stories kept people reading. Reading is better for their brains, and it was our job to keep their brains healthy and happy. I have been delighted ever since to partner with B&N Press for promotions and live streams. I’ve done quite a few live streams with NOOK, where me and other author friends (my comrades, not my competition) would talk about the books we’ve published and encourage readers to check them out.
I have considered Barnes & Noble my very best partner for quite some time. It may sound like I’m trying to recommend them in Jane Austen language, but I can’t think of a better way to explain how lucky I feel that they want to partner with strange little indies who just want to tell the stories of our hearts.
I hope that, if any of these sound great to you, you will check them out. But don’t feel guilty if you go watch Netflix instead. I will still love you. (Just not quite as much.)
What to Read by Bridget E. Baker
- Buy 1 Get 1 FREE sale: Explore over 50 books in this exclusive promotion running January 2026
- Fantasy Series
- Women’s Romantic Fiction Series
- Standalones
About Bridget E. Baker
Bridget won her first writing contest in second grade with a story about a day in the life of a little spot of air. Who says you need a good hook? She has not stopped writing or talking since, though she briefly detoured into a legal career. Eventually, she left her job to spend less time counting gobs of ill-gotten gains and more time telling stories.
Bridget knows she should choose a single genre, but she refuses to limit her imagination. She writes stories set on Earth as we know it, Earth as it might be, and Earth as it may one day become. She writes about teens ready to take on the world, adults ready to give up, and everyone caught in between.
Bridget loves her husband and all five of her kids most days. She shares her life with a Border Collie bursting with energy, three quarter horses, backyard chickens, lionhead rabbits, and two demanding cats. Each day, she balances time with her kids, rides her horse Leo, helps legal clients, and writes whenever she can.
Connect with Bridget E. Baker
Website: bridgetebakerwrites.com
Instagram: instagram.com/bridgetebaker
Facebook: facebook.com/BridgetBakerWrites
