Wide for the Win

Community & Resources for Authors Who Publish Wide

Our Mission

Our goal is to help authors grow publishing success across multiple platforms and formats through education, training, support, and community.

Board Members

Erin Wright – President

Erin Wright is a full-time author but unless you’re a fan of sexy cowboys, you’ve probably heard of her because of the Wide for the Win FB group. She co-founded the group back in 2019, and has been posting in the group instead of writing books ever since.

Monica Leonelle – Vice-President

Monica Leonelle is a USA Today bestselling author best known for her book publishing and business expertise at TheWorldNeedsYourPassion.com. Her nonfiction series, The Productive Novelist, has sold over 60,000 copies and helped thousands of writers write faster, become better storytellers, and find their way to success. Her nonfiction series, Book Sales Supercharged, has helped hundreds of advanced authors build their careers and make more money.

She has been independently publishing since 2009 and has written 40+ books across fiction and nonfiction (encompassing three pen names). Before becoming an independent author, she led digital marketing efforts at Inc. 100 companies like Hansen’s Natural and Braintree.

Suzie O’Connell – Secretary

Co-founder of the Wide for the Win Facebook group and resident Photoshop addict. Under her name, Suzie O’Connell is a USA Today bestselling author of small town contemporary romances, and in the near future, she plans to get back to her roots and launch her high/epic fantasy pen name, Kate Aneth. She has been publishing since 2012 and writing full-time since 2014 when she made the oh-so-smart decision to move her books Wide.

When she isn’t writing or working on Wide for the Win tasks, she is most likely found designing covers for other authors or otherwise indulging her Photoshop addiction. She also enjoys spending time out in the beautiful mountains of Montana, usually with camera in hand, and spoiling her menagerie of pets; the current count stands at three cats, three dogs, and three cows.

Where to find her online:

D.F. Hart – Treasurer

D.F. Hart lives in Texas with her very supportive husband and two little dogs that aren’t spoiled one bit. She loves to write and to read when she’s not putting her MBA with Accounting concentration to use. Her favorite authors include Frederick Forsyth, Ken Follet, and J.D. Robb. Other interests include hidden object and puzzle games – anything with a good mystery storyline!

D.F. Hart has seven books out in her thriller series “Vital Secrets”, with the eighth releasing in September 2023. She also is working on another series, “Raven’s Path”, that follows the exploits of a hitman wrestling to reconcile his actions with his moral compass; the first of those stories, “Raven’s Rise”, will be released in 2024 – 2025. 

She also has penned eight contemporary romance books under the name Faith Hart.

All her books are available across all retailers. 

To learn more about her and her work, visit her website or follow her on Bookbub, Goodreads, or Facebook! You can also find her at 2ofharts.com

Mark Leslie Lefebvre – Events Director

Mark Leslie Lefebvre has worked in the book industry since 1992, the same year his first short story sale appeared in print. His roles have included President of the Canadian Booksellers Association, Chair of the Professional Advisory Committee for Sheridan College’s Honors Degree Program in Writing and Publishing, Director of Self-Publishing and Author Relations for Rakuten Kobo, where he created and launched Kobo Writing Life, and Director of Business Development for Draft2Digital. He is also the host of the weekly Stark Reflections on Writing and Publishing Podcast that has been in production since January 2018.

As an award-winning and multi-nominated author, Mark (who also writes under Mark Leslie) has released more than 30 books that include A Canadian Werewolf in New York, Fear and Longing in Los Angeles, Hex and the City and the non-fiction books for writers: Wide for the Win, Killing it on Kobo, An Author’s Guide to Working with Libraries and Bookstores and the co-authored The Relaxed Author with Joanna Penn.

Bradley Charbonneau – Education/Training Director

Author, speaker, and coach, Bradley Charbonneau pulls from his wide experience ranging from corporate marketing in Germany to creating names and brands for companies and products in Silicon Valley to authoring 34 books and doing improv comedy theater. All of this experience funnels into a unique mix to quickly and intuitively filter through language and information to get at the core message of an idea.

Skye MacKinnon – Community Director

Skye MacKinnon is a USA Today bestselling romance author from the West coast of Scotland with over 100 books published. Having lived in several different countries, she now embraces her Scottishness with fantastical Scottish settings and a dash of mythology, no matter if she’s writing about Celtic gods, aliens in kilts or the streets of Edinburgh.

She also writes fiction for children and young adults as Isla Wynter, and non-fiction for authors as Skye B. MacKinnon (starting with a book about German translations). Her books have been translated into five languages and she prides herself on having an international publishing strategy.

Skye moved her books wide in 2018 (the same year she became a full-time author) and hasn’t looked back since. She’s passionate about making her books available in as many places as possible, as well as making the most of her backlist and increasing its value through audiobooks, translations, fiction apps and so on.

Other specialist subjects include cowriting, organising multi-author projects, optimising metadata, newsletter strategy, branding and cover design.

Where to find her online: