I Signed Up To Be The Substitute Familiar Of A Struggling Witch To Pay My Bills And I'm Just Now Realizing...
THIS BOOK NOW HAS A SEMI-SEQUEL! 97 MORE PAGES OF QUEER WITCHES!
Three months, room and board, all outstanding bills taken care of. Complimentary magical aptitude. Absolutely no catch.
Becoming a witch takes a lot of hard work, and not everyone has the resources to devote themselves to such a grueling process. But thankfully, magic isn’t completely unattainable! Witches need familiars in order to thrive, and sometimes the best candidate for the job is in the neighborhood instead of through a portal to the otherworld.
But what happens when you try on a new life and realize it fits you better than your old one? What do you do when it comes with an expiration date?
Substitute Familiar is the most worldbuilding-heavy light novel I’ve written yet, depicting a modern world with magic, demons, and folks trying to make it work. It’s about getting the chance to try something you’ve wanted to do for a long time, and all the unforeseen consequences that come with it. It also has a lot of self-actualization, girls kissing girls, and gender feels, because that’s what I do!
Please enjoy, and let’s keep making wonderful things together.
This is a light novel of 96 pages with 11 interior black & white illustrations.
Want to get a sneak peek? Download the free demo to read the first two chapters!
Want to read even more? Substitute Familiar Stories, the 1.5 semi-sequel featuring 25 short stories set before, during, and after this book, is available here!
Purchase
In order to download this light novel you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $3.75 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Comments
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This story is absolutely delightful, I loved seeing the Em's self-discovery and slowly bumping against and growing from her own doubts and limitations and experiencing euphoria bit by bit. I found Em PAINFULLY relatable, and it was super cute to read! I wish I had discovered your work sooner, and I'm gonna have loads of fun slowly reading your other stuff whenever I can!
Okay I saw the title on my itch homepage, and I just gotta say the title has me dying
This is one of the best things I've ever read, I haven't gotten hooked on something like this for years! Is there anything more after the 1.5 semi-sequel? I might be slightly addicted to Em and Amanda.
Absolutely gonna read other stuff you make too! So glad that I found this in the bundle.
If anyone's looking here wondering if it's worth it, it absolutely is, it's easily become my favorite series
Thank you for the kind words! ^^ There's no more Subfami content yet, but Substitute Familiar #2 is on my list of upcoming works I want to get to. There's still a bunch of adventures for Em and Amanda to go on!
This is a really great story. I've read a lot of your stories, always so fully and affirming, but this one is more substantial and thus gives bigger feels. The complexity of the sister's relationship and the world give it life. And the cat, the cat is my favorite character. Finally, the images are sooooo cute.
Do you want to join the summer bundle:
https://itch.io/jam/itchio-summer-bundle-ending-it-alll
I find the protagonist uncomfortably relatable for someone ostensibly cis
fun fun fun fun fun!
Lovely. I got this and Three Wishes off a bundle. Definitely enjoyed this much more because Three Wishes was kinda weighed down by constant anxiety, while this just has her enjoying her best demon life!
This story was sooo cute it gave me mouse and gender feels
absolutely beautiful. I relate so much to the protagonist and this was a wonderful journey to go along <3 the ending chapter made me so happy I almost cried. and the art is simply adorable :)
This was wonderful
I’ve had a lot of difficulty with reading entire books these past years, and I’ve scarcely managed a few pages.
However, I finished this whole book in less than two days and enjoyed it end to end. Beat Em to crying a couple of times haha. Anyway, I’m glad I decided to check this out! To say it’s my favorite book technically isn’t saying much, but. It kind of managed to open me up to the world of reading, and for that I’ll be forever grateful. Beyond it being an incredibly cute and touching story in which I beat Em to crying a couple times lol
So hyped to finally have this in my digital collection! <3
I was intrigued by the title, even moreso with the description and tags, and having bought and read it, it was so worth it. As a longtime trans girl this story resonated strong with my heart and the overall heartfelt atmosphere of the story was very wonderful, and I'm so so happy for the characters aaaaaaaaa
I'll definitely be checking out your other stories, though probably not right away since, like Em, I also have very bad money issues, so it'd be over the course of a while, whenever I can get my hands on some spare. Guess you could say I'm exactly the kind of person who would sign up for the job offer that kicks off this story ^_^;
In any case, thank you so much! This story made my night, made my day, it was just... wow!
Thank you so much for the kind words!! <3
omg this is such a cute story!!!!!!!!!!
I just got this in the Trans Fiction Bundle and omgggggggg I can’t get over how absolutely adorable this story was!!! It was such an amazing read and felt lovely to get to know all the characters. Honestly the whole thing was just super well-written and made me tear up a bunch <333333333333333333
Thank you so much for writing this story!
I'm so glad the story resonated with you! Thank you so much for the kind words! <3
Absolutely! I can’t wait to read more of your work ^_^
I picked this up as part of the Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, and I have to say, this story was worth the price of the bundle on its own!
There's something so compelling and fulfilling about the writing of this story, like the main character who gives me a feeling of a pattern of refusal to look within, but is forced to have a look at themselves as the story goes on. That the main characters grows both physically and emotionally as the story goes is really enjoyable.
I really loved how affectionate the story was, and the genuine emotion of this story really touched my heart.
i just wanna say this... im not much of a reader, usually, but i very quickly fell in love with your writing and characters. i started reading and couldnt stop, and even afterwards i couldnt help but keep thinking about these stories... this one is likely my favorite, the worldbuilding was excellent!
thank you so much for making these, theyre the trans stories i never knew i needed! i cant wait to see your future projects <3
So I got this in the Racial Justice and Equality bundle, alongside the Cat Wishes book, and I gotta say- I am IMMEDIATELY enamored with your writing and world building and just how RELATABLE these trans story lines are!!!!!!!! I'm going to immediately buy the rest of everything you have for sale here, I LOVE it!!
This is so cute!
I got this in the massive bundle and I must say... If I knew how good this was gonna be I would've payed regular price for it, it was so good, really well written (in my opinion), interesting story, as well as an interesting world.
You can still pay the regular price for it if you want ;)
hey i got bundle i was wondering do i get asses to ln with and if do how do i asses it?
Okay so you should've received an email with something like "thank you for purchasing this" and in the email it'll have a link to a page where you can download anything from the bundle
i found it but dam it took awhile it took awhile until i figure it out thankyou
hi zandra - my birthday's coming up soon; are print copies still available?
Yup! They're currently available as extras on my current Feline Therapy kickstarter but they should be up on my shop soon!
Well, that was just excessively adorable. Any chance of a sequel, or other expansion on the setting?
okay, I found this one to be pretty insufferably adorable.
preety much worth the time invested
I loved this so much!
Aaaaaa, this was so good!