Horan explains the process of self-publishing her novel

Instead of publishing her book traditionally, Horan decided that the best route for her was to use self-publishing company IngramSpark. Since she decided to self-publish, Horan’s book can be found everywhere.

“I don’t really understand how it works, but apparently it’s at some small book store in Boston,” Horan said. “I didn’t even know about it until one of my mom’s coworkers messaged her and was like, ‘just ordered your daughter’s book from this book store in Boston that likes to highlight the voices of women and people of the LGBTQ community.’” 

The design on the cover of Rolling Hills was of utmost importance to Horan. Her cover artist is Beverly Johnson, a character designer and book illustrator. She designed the characters in one of Horan’s favorite novels, the Rosewood Chronicles. When explaining to Johnson how she wanted it to look, she wanted to make sure her descriptions were accurate so that it would be the “exact projection of the image.”

“I explained to her what I wanted it to look like using a lot of Pinterest photos and I cannot describe to you when I say that it’s exactly what I pictured,” Horan said. “I sometimes just look at it and I’m like, ‘did she read my mind?’”

Horan waited to create her cover art for a while because she was scared that it wasn’t going to look like how she imagined it. Luckily, the result was everything she could have asked for.

“It is literally perfect; like everything about it,” Horan said. “The way that Hattie [the protagonist] looks on the front cover is exactly how I picture her in my mind.” 

Horan’s editor of Rolling Hills is Susan Arnold, grandmother of Horan’s childhood best friends, Jo and Lainey Anthony. Horan is incredibly thankful for all of the work Arnold contributed to her story.

“She’s incredible and this book really would not be anything like the way it is right now without her,” Horan said.