Meet M.T. Falgoust of Wagging Tales Press

Today we’d like to introduce you to M.T. Falgoust.

Hi M.T., please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Wagging Tales Press officially became an LLC in the fourth quarter of 2025, but the truth is, this company has been quietly in motion for much longer. I’ve been operating as an independent publishing house since 2013—first as a sole proprietorship, doing the work, learning the market, and building a body of award-winning IP long before there was any formal “studio” language attached to it.

The turning point came when I realized that talent and good ideas weren’t the real bottleneck in getting projects made. Friction was. Rights issues. Unclear development paths. Reinventing the wheel with every project. Watching promising work stall out under the weight of logistics made me decide that if I was going to keep doing this, I needed to build something smarter and more sustainable.

So… I did.

Growing Wagging Tales Press into a three-division LLC was a monumental exercise in redefining “bootstrapping.” Some days, we served the bootstraps for dinner. I serve as Founder and Chief Creative Officer, but also as writer, editor, and IP developer. More importantly, I operate as a studio head and the head of a publishing house, designing a system that makes great ideas easier to move from concept to market.

Today, the company operates as an integrated studio ecosystem. Every idea begins in WTP Story Studio as a “Ruff Cut.” Yes, spelled that way, because morale matters and the current, in-house staff has four legs. Then it moves through a rigorous internal development and viability process before funneling into either Wagging Tales Press Publishing or Unleashed Studios, our Hollywood-facing division. Many of our projects are “mixed breeds.” They are developed first as books, then redeveloped for screen once they’ve proven their strength. The goal was never to be another writer with a good idea and a host of headaches. The goal was to build a frictionless, rights-cleared pipeline that doesn’t break under real-world conditions.

The proof that this wasn’t a hobby came early and consistently. My own books have received recognition from organizations like the Clive Cussler Adventure Writers Society, the New York Book Festival, Readers’ Favorite, and internationally through the Oshima Picture Museum’s International Picture Book Competition. Alongside that, I’ve spent years developing projects for other clients as a ghostwriter, many of which have gone on to earn strong ratings on Amazon and Goodreads. That was the market telling me the work connected. The next step was making sure the business could sustain it.

To do that, I didn’t just build an LLC. I built an operating system. Internally, it’s called The Beast: a studio blueprint that houses SOPs, production templates, development frameworks, and even self-care protocols so the machine doesn’t burn out its operator. It’s equal parts playbook, manifesto, and survival guide, and it’s what allows a one-woman studio to function at scale.

At the core, Wagging Tales Press exists because I believe stories are more than entertainment. We don’t just tell stories. We architect experiences. Stories that start in ink but were never meant to stay there. Stories that move across books, screens, and conversations. Each quarter, we rotate a curated slate of original IP, developed with intention and built to travel.

We currently operate out of the New Orleans/Baton Rouge area, often called “Hollywood South,” with expansion plans already in motion for a Burbank office opening in June 2026. The aim has always been clear: build something durable, imaginative, and scalable, without losing the human voice at the center of it.

And if someone reads this and thinks, Where has this person been? That’s perfect. I’ve been here. I’ve just been building.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not even close. And honestly, I’d be suspicious of any founder who said otherwise.

The biggest challenge wasn’t talent, ideas, or even workload. It was sustainability. Building something real while wearing every hat forces you to confront hard truths quickly. There’s no buffer between vision and execution when you’re the one doing the writing, the editing, the development, the packaging, and the business operations. Every inefficiency shows up immediately. Every bad process costs you time you don’t have.

There were moments early on that made that reality impossible to ignore. I remember being invited to speak at a conference. I was good enough to be on the stage, but not yet in a position where the economics worked. I slept in my car in the hotel parking lot because I couldn’t afford the room. At the same time, I was raising five kids. That wasn’t a sob story. It was data. It made one thing very clear: if I was going to keep doing this, the business had to work as hard as I did.

Another major struggle was refusing the false choice the industry often presents: creative fulfillment or commercial viability. I watched too many great projects stall because they were either creatively exciting but structurally unprepared, or commercially viable but creatively hollow. Bridging that gap, without burning out or diluting the work, meant slowing down long enough to build systems instead of constantly reacting.

There were also very real resource constraints. Growing the company into a three-division LLC required redefining what “bootstrapping” actually looks like. Some days were about creative breakthroughs. Others were about discipline, triage, and deciding what not to chase. I learned quickly that momentum doesn’t come from doing everything. It comes from doing the right things consistently.

The upside of all of this is that the struggles forced clarity. They pushed me to design a studio model that removes friction instead of adding to it, one that protects both the work and the person doing it. Nothing in the system exists by accident. It all exists because something broke once, and I refused to let it break again.

So, no. It hasn’t been smooth. But it’s been intentional. And that’s made all the difference.

As you know, we’re big fans of Wagging Tales Press. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Running Wagging Tales Press today looks less like a romantic creative schedule and more like operating a very lean studio.

I structure the business around rhythm and review. Every Friday, I hold an executive meeting to map development trajectories for the coming week: where my time will create the most leverage, what needs to move forward, and what needs to wait. Mondays are for post-mortems: assessing throughput from the previous week, what worked, what didn’t, and where systems need tightening so the same misstep doesn’t happen twice. At the end of each month, I evaluate all three divisions independently to make sure each one is pulling its weight. Quarterly, I zoom all the way out to rotate the slate and decide what we’re building next.

And that is the hardest part of the job.

The most difficult call I make on a regular basis is stepping back from something I want to work on in order to focus on what I need to work on. With this many balls in the air, indulging that instinct simply cannot happen. Focus and drive are the only things keeping this freight train from derailing.

Day to day, I am hands-on with at least two, sometimes three projects. I still ghostwrite. The lights need to stay on. That said, there are plans in motion to sunset that aspect of the company before the end of 2026, and we have already begun phasing out those clients. It is important to me to be very clear that any Hollywood-facing IP is 100 percent right-owned by the LLC. The pipeline is clean by design.

A couple days a week are spent developing pitch collateral. Look books. Pitch decks. Mood boards. One sheets. But feeding the pipeline with new IP is where the bulk of my hours go. I do make sure to step away for the occasional me day, because burnout helps no one.

The biggest misconception people have about running a creative business is that it must be wonderful to go into work whenever you want. Sure. You try creating an entire universe, populating it with people and creatures who have backstory and motivation, making them all do something interesting, and acting as the Department of Transportation & Development while patching plot holes on the streets of your story. Then tell me how flexible your schedule feels.

Professionally, I am in what I like to call my “year of no”. Early on, I jumped at every opportunity out of a scarcity mindset. I believed that if I did not take the next job, nothing else would come along and I would starve, both literally and creatively. What I learned is that saying no, and being more selective, is what freed my schedule to work on projects that mattered. It is what allowed me to build this business. Is it scary? Absolutely. It still is every time those two little letters come to my lips. But if something is worth doing, it is worth doing right. And that means waiting for the right opportunity, not just the next one.

Some people have questioned whether this is too massive an undertaking for a solo operator. My answer is simple. There’s a difference between reckless ambition and strategic scalability. I know which one I’m building.
If I had to define what success looks like operationally by the end of 2026, it would be this. The business is profitable, with a clear growth plan for 2027. My name is mentioned positively in the right rooms. And I am working five days a week instead of seven. A girl can dream.

As for growth, I am focused on partnerships over payroll. A structure is only as good as its foundation, and right now that foundation is strong but narrow. This year is about building strategic partnerships that allow what I have built to sustain over the long haul.

At its core, Wagging Tales Press operates as a one-woman story studio with three integrated divisions: independent publishing, IP development, and Hollywood-facing packaging. We specialize in building original, rights-cleared IP designed to move across formats, from page to screen and beyond. What sets us apart is not just the stories themselves, but the way they are built. Every project is developed with structure, viability, and longevity in mind, so when an opportunity presents itself, the work is already prepared to travel.

Brand-wise, what I am most proud of is that the company does exactly what it says it will do. The process is intentional. The pipeline is clean. The slate rotates with purpose. Whether a project is published, packaged for screen, or developed in both directions, it is handled with the same rigor and respect for story. I want readers to know that Wagging Tales Press is not about chasing trends. It is about building worlds that last.

One quiet win that confirmed I was on the right path came early on, when the very first pitch the company made came back with a pass on the script. But along with that pass came the following feedback, verbatim:
“This is a strong, sexy concept that is polished and clearly and rightly positioned for the prestige drama lane. New Orleans is not just a setting here but an active force that permeates the story. Great psychological hook that is effective and actor forward.”

That was the moment I knew the system was working.

Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Build for sustainability, not validation.

When you are just starting out, it is easy to confuse attention with progress. Likes, praise, and opportunities feel good, but they do not mean what you are building will last. Focus instead on whether your work can be repeated, improved, and supported over time.

I also wish I had learned sooner that saying yes to everything is not bravery. It is fear in disguise. Being selective is what creates the time and space to build something that actually belongs to you.

Pay attention to friction. When something feels unnecessarily hard or draining, that is usually a signal that a system is missing or broken. Talent alone will not fix bad process.

And finally, do not wait for permission. Start where you are, build what you can, and let confidence follow the work.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.waggingtalespress.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waggingtalespress
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wagging-tales-press