Letterswitch Publishing

Treat your shelf to a great book.

Our story

One's life is, in its essence, a series of stories.My best story is how I came to know my wife, Alison. In the summer of 2000 she was at home in Nova Scotia looking up a friend who lived in Massachusetts on ICQ (shout out to the elder millennials out there, everybody else can get caught up here) who was also named Justin Freeman; only, rather than typing MA for Massachusetts, she made a typo and entered MO instead.For Missouri.Where I was sitting, thankfully having put off going to bed.That case of mistaken identity sparked a conversation, which led to another, and another. Then to postcards from abroad and calling card-fueled long distance phone conversations, but not meeting in person. I was a farm boy marooned in the Ozarks, and the shores of Nova Scotia may as well have been a moon of Neptune. Life continued conspiring by all its twists and turns in keeping us from meeting......until fifteen years later.We had stayed friends all that time, in and out of contact, and then the stars aligned such that we were able to meet each other. It went well enough that I sold everything I owned that wouldn't fit in three suitcases and moved sight unseen to the Yukon, where she was living at the time. A year after that we eloped on a lark on the beach; two years after that our daughter Molly was born; three years after that our son James was born, after we'd made the cross country move back to where it all began.I try not to dwell on the fact our entire subsequent family tree into perpetuity hinges on the delicate happenstance of Alison having mistakenly pressed a key with her right finger instead of her left.One switched letter has spawned stories large and small in the thousands, and will inspire legions more as successive generations pay their homage to it. As I pursue a childhood dream of writing by founding a micropublisher, I thought there was no better way to keep a sense of gratitude kindled for the power of a good story than to call my endeavors Letterswitch Publishing. Our aim is to offer beautiful books that educate, encourage, and entertain, from voices with unique and important things to say. I hope you'll stay in touch as we work to provide a space for great writing to flow from, where else, the beautiful shores of Nova Scotia......hopefully with fewer typos this time.

Our Books

At Letterswitch Publishing, our passion is producing beautiful books that strengthen families through education, encouragement, and enjoyment. The press is currently in its opening phase, but there's a lot of projects in our development pipeline, so stay tuned!

New in 2025: A Little Grieving

For the first time, your child has experienced the death of a loved one. How do you even start trying to explain what's happened?A Little Grieving lays out a process parents can use to frame conversations during a grieving process with young kids. Written in collaboration with pediatric crisis counselor Samantha Renner and full of helpful anecdotes and practical advice, A Little Grieving is a map for navigating one of childhood’s - and parenthood's - most trying seasons.Whether you have recently suffered loss or are looking ahead to an inevitable talk to come, A Little Grieving will empower you to have straightforward conversation about death with your child with a method designed to develop insight, empathy, and resilience.

Other Titles in Development

Here are some concept covers and artwork for a few of the fair few projects we have in the hopper! Look for these and other titles coming soon. If one jumps out at you, please let us know - popular demand may influence which titles we prioritize for publication:

Public speaking isn’t just a skill—it’s an art that can amplify your message and captivate your audience. Whether you’re a hesitant speaker or someone terrified of the spotlight, Public Speaking for Normal People provides the tools and confidence to make every speech shine.Drawing from his experience as a police officer and pastor, R. Justin Freeman shares practical tips for introverts and reluctant speakers alike. Learn to silence self-doubt, master your tempo, use silence effectively, and craft openings and closings that stick.With humor, empathy, and actionable advice, Public Speaking for Normal People will encourage you approach a stage with confidence - no matter what it is you're trying to say.

When twelve-year-old Molly Moss crashes her bike on a broken sidewalk, she decides to fix things herself — by running for Deputy Mayor! With no age minimum in the town charter, Molly launches a campaign to oust grizzled incumbent Larry Nichols - but when the campaign turns ugly, will Molly find the strength she needs to go all the way to Election Day?

An exasperated parent pleads with their stubborn kid to eat just one vegetable in this hilarious picture book for kids. With rhyming verse and colorful illustrations, One Veggie in Your Face will sound familiar to picky eaters and their longsuffering parents who'd do just about anything to see them take one big bite.

When a delirious nineteen year old woman traveling alone is carried off of a stagecoach in the tiny town of Sagebrush, Montana Territory, rancher James Anderson is tasked with solving her mystery. When tragedies begin to strike the town in the wake of her arrival, though, his work takes on an urgent new importance - but saving it from a new unseen threat will require vanquishing some of his own ancient demons first.

Some frequently asked (or, in some cases, wholly anticipated) questions about Letterswitch Publishing:

Who are you, anyway?

Mostly me: R. Justin Freeman. I've done a little bit of everything - grew up on a cattle farm, sold shoes, worked in a warehouse, been a groundskeeper, built miles of barbed wire fence solo. I was a police officer once upon a time (not that kind of police officer), and had a stint as a pastor after that (not that kind of pastor - it's a long story). For the past decade or so I've been a freelance writer, but seeing my kids learning to read gave me the itch to create something less ephemeral than articles and blog posts...so here we are.There have been and will be a variety of helping hands dipping in and out of view over time - hence my use of "we" and "our" on the site, lest I delude myself into taking all the credit - but the day to day operations are my doing.

What are your credentials?

In terms of the credentials informing the topics I personally write about most, I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Pastoral Ministry and am a former POST certified police officer for the Springfield, Missouri Police Department, where I worked in the Patrol Division. I was also honored to win a Shorty Award in New York City in 2013 for a wry essay on the futility of evading arrest.Otherwise, my writing is informed by my lived experiences in immigrating to Canada and living in remote Yukon Territory, being an at-home dad to two, founding a non-profit once upon a time, and a host of other things. When it comes to my non-fiction work, if a subject would benefit from additional perspective - such as Samantha Renner brought to our debut book A Little Grieving - I have no hesitation in bringing other voices into the discussion.

What's the mission here?

The aim is to educate, encourage, and entertain families with beautiful, well-written, thoughtful books on a variety of subjects. Traditional publishing often means being subject to impersonal editorial control and having to create content that is broadly marketable at the expense of tackling anything in depth. Being a micropublisher means we can address niche subjects larger publishing houses would almost certainly pass on. In a publishing landscape characterized by a swirling blizzard of shallow content, we seek to build a quiet cabin tucked out of the wind where we can light a candle and take a deep breath and think deep thoughts. We invite you to join us there.Letterswitch has a queue of works in progress from a small roster of writers we'll be working through in our opening phase. In time to come, the goal is to open up to other writers and expand Letterswitch's catalog - but we're currently in our launch phase.

What is your release schedule going to look like?

In a word? Measured. My primary job is being an at-home dad to my two kids; Letterswitch, for the time being, exists in its margins. One of the main reasons I had for taking the trouble of founding Letterswitch rather than going on submission with a traditional publisher was to ensure I maintained the flexibility I require to be there for my family when they need it - so expect a relatively light release schedule in this phase, particularly while I still have a preschooler at home.

Why do you use American English when you're based in Canada?

As a dual citizen who's now fully Canadian at heart, this causes me a bit of angst, I'll admit. However, beyond my spending my first thirty years in the States, I publish for general audiences - and the vast majority of potential readers I sell to online expect American English. At some point in the future I do plan to issue editions formatted for marketing in Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

Do you accept manuscript submissions?

I really appreciate any interest you have here, but I'll have to defer it for the time being. While this is very much on the roadmap, at the moment we don't have the bandwidth to consider outside submissions for publication. Please feel free to introduce yourself, but the timeline for opening to submissions is best characterized as long-term rather than short or moderate, so if you have a complete manuscript that belongs out in the world, I'm not currently able to give it the attention I know it deserves.

What can I do to help your efforts?

First of all, if you've gotten this deep into the site, thank you for your interest. Other than buying a book and leaving an honest, detailed review on your platform of choice, the next best thing you can do to support my work here is allowing me to stay in touch by e-mail. Subscribers get early access opportunities, subscriber-only content, discounted products, a voice in title development priorities, and a sneak peek into the workings of micropublishing with a very occasional e-mail update - anybody who knows me in real life knows I tend not to say anything that doesn't desperately need said, so fear not for your overladen inbox:

Contact Us

We've been told we're good listeners - see if you agree:

PO Box 2108
Liverpool, NS B0T1K0[email protected]

Next to purchasing a book and leaving a review, the next best thing you can do to support my work here is to allow me to stay in touch by e-mail: