Long Overdue Newsletter - June 2026
- Chris OBrien
- Jun 29
- 6 min read
So, there's been some exciting news...
Long Overdue Books has been acquired, and I have joined the Everbrook Holdings family of companies alongside DiggyPOD. I will be serving as Vice President of Author Services. Full press release available here.
Looking Back at the Entrepreneur Journey
Seven years ago, I had a first draft for what would become Long Overdue Books. Like any first draft, those early ideas were all over the place. Started out as manuscript editing. Considered calling it “Retired Authors” for retirees starting a writing hobby. Or maybe it’d be for families recording their family history.
Finally, the name hit. Long Overdue. The mission: Help people bring their "long overdue" book ideas to life.
The Diggypod Connection
Editing expanded into book design, cover design, publishing, and an online bookstore. Services changed, but one thing remained the same: Our book printer, Diggypod.
In my opinion, Diggypod has the best print quality. Best and fastest customer service, too. Not only printed in the USA, they print in Tecumseh, Michigan, two hours south of my hometown, Midland.
Under Anica John’s leadership, Diggypod has big dreams for authors, expanding into a full-service home for the entire author journey. Editing. Design. Coaching. Ghostwriting. Printing. Marketing. I’m excited to join this team and help more authors bring their books across the finish line.
For perspective, Long Overdue published 30 books in 6 years. Diggypod has worked with over 30,000 authors in 30+ years. I’m gonna need a bigger bookshelf!
But this isn't goodbye from Long Overdue. Oh no. We're just getting started!
Long Overdue is a hybrid publisher. Pre-acquisition, the workflow looked like this:
Author seeks editing, cover design, and/or formatting help
Long Overdue provides these author services
Long Overdue publishes the book
The only thing that has changed is the starting line. Author services now begin with DiggyPOD. But you'll be talking to a familiar face (me).
From there, authors can self-publish, start their own publishing house, publish via Long Overdue, or pursue a different publisher. The finish line for printing remains the same: Diggypod. 301 Industrial Drive, Tecumseh, Michigan.
What I'm Most Excited About
I've had day jobs this entire time. And I've liked those day jobs, don't get me wrong. But it meant scheduling author meetings after dinner, and my windows for Long Overdue were either early in the morning, late at night, or on weekends.
With a 4-year-old son, those extra time windows kept on shrinking. Now, with a 4-month-old daughter... yeah, right. There's no such thing as extra time. And I wouldn't have it any other way.
But now the passion project is no longer a side project. Books are the day job. I can meet with authors during the regular 9-to-5 schedule and work on a project at any point in the day. This change in bandwidth has me totally energized and has led to many creative sparks and new ideas.
Thank YOU.
To the authors who chose Long Overdue Books as their publisher, thank you. You're the reason any of this exists. To my wife, Ashley O'Brien, thank you for your endless support in bringing this dream to life. To Annie Leue and Heather Nelson for your amazing cover designs, Kimberly Galitz for the cartoons in the monthly newsletters, and to everyone who helped support, even if it was just listening to those wild first draft ideas or reading a newsletter. That encouragement meant the world to me.
And to anyone out there working on a book, or thinking about a book, or thinking about maybe one day, just maybe getting started, you’ve got this. As you embark on your author journey, Diggypod and Long Overdue Books are here to help.
New Releases
Babington: Triumph, Tragedy, Inspiration follows Kevin Babington’s incredible journey through the people and horses that shaped his life — from childhood dreams, unforgettable partnerships, and Olympic achievement, to rebuilding purpose after unimaginable adversity.
Through deeply personal stories, humor, reflection, and unforgettable moments, the book captures not only Kevin’s accomplishments as an athlete, but the character of the man behind them.
His story serves as a reminder that greatness is not measured only by victories in the ring, but by the strength to continue forward when life presents its greatest obstacles.
Adrien Janis Bledstein once wrote that the "'coat of many colors,' worn by Joseph in Hebrew Scriptures, is possibly the most famous garment in the Western world."
From Thomas Mann's magnum opus, Joseph and His Brothers to the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, the story of Joseph and his brothers has fueled imaginations for nearly four thousand years. The poignancy, emotional impact, and mysteries of divinely ordained destiny are no less vivid today than when this story was first written millennia ago.
God's Curious Pencil is a retelling in formal verse that seeks to bring out aspects of the story that may be missed in a casual reading of the Genesis account-the three dyads of dreams, the unnamed man who "happened" to hear that Joseph's brothers had gone to Dothan, Joseph's surprising answer to Potiphar's wife, and his strange dealings with his brothers when as Vizier of Egypt, he recognized them, but they did not recognize him. The key to Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers for selling him into slavery in Egypt is found in his declaration, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."
Kate Buss's sixth collaboration with Long Overdue Books is here!
And yet again, the illustrations look incredible. Any time you combine Kate's artistic ability with Diggypod's print quality, it's always a great recipe.
The sleepy Wisconsin village of Oak Cliff lies in the shadows of towering limestone cliffs. Its century-old charm and the mystique of a legend involving tons of lost Civil War gold make the town a popular tourist destination. Attracted by the village’s relaxed lifestyle, ex-Chicago cop Nick Garrett, moves north and assumes the role of police chief, looking for a quieter way of life away from relentless big city crime.
When a prominent Oak Cliff resident is murdered, Nick and the entire town are shocked and looking for answers. As the investigation unfolds, Nick quickly learns not everything in his peaceful village is as it seems. He wonders if the town’s dark past and the legend of the missing gold might be enough to drive someone to kill.
In 1959, when Emily Morgan is six, her family moves to Muskoka, Canada, on the fringe
of the Canadian Shield. They’ve purchased a fishing resort north of Toronto. For Emily,
it’s a move as exhilarating as it is frightening. But her mother, Katie, raised as an orphan in Alaska, knows a thing or two about life in the near-wilderness.
Emily’s parents met and fell in love in Dutch Harbor, Alaska during the early months of
the Pacific war. When her father’s job with the navy moved to San Diego, Katie wrote
scores of notes and letters to Charlie, sometimes twice a week. Charlie saved Katie’s letters. Charlie saves everything.
Emily is like her mother in many ways, and so she, too, writes. Initially she writes about
the resort. But over the course of thirty-five years she writes about growing up in
Muskoka, about canoeing with her moody older sister, and about bicycle adventures with her exuberant older brother. She writes about her father’s family, including his difficult mother and his blind sister, Dora. She writes about her mother’s upbringing at the Presbyterian Children’s Home. She writes about her parents’ love affair and about others at the resort and around Muskoka.
Moving Parts is Emily’s stories—funny, entertaining, often heartwarming and
occasionally heartbreaking. Emily never meant them to be anything more than stories. But now her own children have assembled them into a book. And they’ve included some of Katie’s letters to Charlie, to fill some gaps. Even so, it’s a bit like turning pages in a family album of old photographs, wondering who some people are, wondering if things are in the right order and if something’s missing.
"I'd argue the most important part is I get to keep my role as Team Dog."
-Crash, Team Dog
Best place to keep up with all things Long Overdue is a tie between our monthly newsletter and our Instagram page. If you enjoy this newsletter and know someone who might enjoy it as well, let us know, we'll make sure to add them to our subscriber list. We also got back on Facebook recently, you can follow us here.
And check out our website - Long Overdue Books. Long Overdue Books is a community for creating books. It's a place for authors (and soon-to-be-authors), readers, editors, artists, and designers to come together and move their stories from ideas to finished books.
Also, if you have any questions, ideas, stories to tell, you can reach Cal the Librarian at - library@longoverduestories.com
