It’s Friday! A few weeks ago, that would have meant a lot more to me than it does today. (Spoiler alert: one of the things on this list is that the days of the week don’t matter that much anymore.) But Friday means that I’ve officially had two weeks as a full-time member of the…
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Writer’s Digest Conference 2015: A Reflection
This past weekend I attended the 2015 Writer’s Digest Conference in New York City. It was only the second writing conference I’ve ever attended, and far larger in size and scale than the first. There were maybe four times as many agents and editors as there were at the first one I went to (the Missouri Writer’s…
Read MoreHow I Sold My First 10,000 Books
It’s been a crazy year and a half for one Amira K. Makansi. Since I began my journey as an author and a publisher in July of 2013, my co-authors and I have released two books and a novella, all set in the world of Okaria, a futuristic post-apocalyptic civilization. In early April we announced…
Read MoreIn The Language Of Dreams: Why Genre Fiction Deserves To Be Considered Great Literature
Pretension exists everywhere, but sometimes I think nowhere more than in literature. How many of us read The Grapes of Wrath in high school? How about The Great Gatsby? Or Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter? But, let’s be real: who ever assigned The Lord Of The Rings to a high school curriculum? Or what about Dune, Frank…
Read MoreWhat Happens When You Don’t Like A Book You’re Supposed To Love?
About four weeks ago, I took a book out of the library that I was supposed to love. A good friend of mine recommended it to me about a year and a half ago and it had been on my to-read list since then. Looking for one last ‘literary’ read before harvest sets in and…
Read MoreAgents, Line Up Here! My Version Of A Query Letter
Dear Mr. or Ms. Agent, Hello! You probably don’t know me, but you’re about to. Biblically. Ha ha, get it? No? Your loss. Well. Moving on. My name is Suzanne J. K. Veronica Green Meyer, and I’m thrilled to announce that you’re one of many specially-selected agents who have been invited to fight for the right…
Read MoreWriting and Running: On Triumph And Sacrifice
Writing a book is like running a marathon. You start out feeling great. You’re flying. You’re not tired yet (not even a little bit!) and you fucking love what you’re doing. That’s the first few miles, the first few chapters, dominated by euphoria, the thrill of your story, the thrill of activity. Then you get…
Read MoreWrite, Publish, Repeat?
We live in an age of newness. Everything must constantly be new. We must supply our readers with new books, new blog posts, new articles, and new tweets, every moment of every day, or we become irrelevant. We must reinvent ourselves daily in order to hold attention. We must bring new subjects to new people…
Read More2013 — A Great Year to be a Reader
Wow! It’s seriously a thrill to see The Sowing included on a list like this. I can’t believe I’m seeing my name alongside names like Hugh Howey and Brandon Sanderson. Thanks to Will Swardstrom for including me, and for taking a chance on The Sowing. I can’t wait to check out his work in 2014.…
Read MoreWhat’s The Deal With Genres?
Genres are incredibly important things. The best books, of course, will transcend genres – I think of my favorites Catch-22 or the Brothers Karamazov when I think of books that transcend genres and become simply ‘great books’. But when we as writers or publishers are in the process of writing and marketing our works, it’s…
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The Z-Axis 