Why a Thought Leader Turned to Philosophy While in Prison

Malcolm X, the 1960s American Black Rights activist, was born in the ghetto and barely went to school. Yet his views were sought by world leaders and his book. The Autobiography of Malcolm X, is deservedly a classic work of political literature. Oh, and it has sold over six million copies. over a million in the first eighteen months...

How he got from insignificance to world fame in a few fast-paced years is an amazing story, but at the heart of it is a small collection of books that he came across in a prison library while serving a sentence for larceny.

Graphic Novel Creators Kenny Porter & Zach Wilcox

Kenny Porter is a professional writer living in West Michigan. He's most known for content development, writing comics, copy, blogs, and fiction. He graduated from Grand Valley State University with a BA in Writing. The writing program at GVSU allowed him to create his own curriculum, which he used to focus on fiction, writing for the web, genre studies, and manuscript development. He started his career in writing during high school and has since gone on to publish short stories, write articles for online magazines, and has won the first Top Cow Talent Hunt for Writing.

Video Game Artists/Graphic Novelists Arey & Fy

Alejandra Green and Fanny Rodriguez are casually known as "Arey and Fy." They are the authors of the popular webtoon-turned-forthcoming graphic novel Fantastic Tales of Nothing, in which a vast continent with ages of lore, traditions and conflict plays host to the adventures of an unlucky boy as he travels from the Mourning Prayers to the Courts of Power and probably gets in more trouble that he can handle. Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins will be publishing. Alejandra "Arey" Green is a concept artist and animator from northwest Mexico. Arye likes to think of herself as patience in the flesh, a lover of the sea and surfer of whales (although she'll deny that). Fanny "Fy" Rodriguez is a user interface designer and illustrator from northeast Mexico. She never sleeps, is a mountain enthusiast, and has weird taste in music (she won’t deny that).

Penn State Professor John Gastil & CSU Assistant Professor Katherine Knobloch

I got the chance to sit down with two authors who have a surprisingly optimistic view about politics and democracy. John Gastil is a professor at Penn State, and Katie Knobloch is an assistant professor at Colorado State University. They have collaborated on research for more than a decade, and Hope for Democracy: How Citizens Can Bring Reason Back Into Politics, forthcoming from Oxford University Press, is their first book together.

Author & Illustrator of Mental Health Comics Holly Chisholm

Holly Chisholm is the artist of Just Peachy comics, which Booklist has called "thoughtful and poignant." Her popular Instagram account for Just Peachy comics was her compromise between drawing and journaling; it helped her record how she was feeling at the time of being diagnosed with depression and work through some of the darkness. At first it was scary to put her deepest thoughts and fears out in the open, but the responses and messages of support from droves of fans made Chisholm realize how much it was needed to talk about mental health. After about six months of making these comics, she decided to quit her job and freelance part time so that she could dedicate more time to making and promoting Just Peachy. In the future, Chisholm is hoping to make another book, and would love to be able to do this full-time, while raising awareness about mental health and her personal struggle with depression.

Scandinavian-Inspired Dark Epic Fantasy Author Tina LeCount Myers

Tina LeCount Myers is a writer, artist, independent historian, and surfer. Born in Mexico to expat-bohemian parents, she grew up on Southern California tennis courts with a prophecy hanging over her head; her parents hoped she'd one day be an author. Tina lives in San Francisco with her adventurer husband and loud Siamese cat. The Song of All is the first book of the epic fantasy trilogy The Legacy of the Heavens. Her latest book from the trilogy, Dreams of the Dark Sky, publishes February 2019 from Night Shade Books.

Founder, President at Experience Digital Marketing for Authors and Publishers

Michael Mejer is an established, trusted digital marketing expert in the non-fiction business book space. The culmination of years of experience in publicity, marketing, and sales in this niche has empowered him to help dozens of authors take their social media platforms to the next level to help promote and grow their books, brands, and businesses.

Hollywood, NY & SF Book Fest Honorable Mention Recipient Andrew Buckley

Andrew Buckley is an editor for a small press, a professional copy and content writer, and a cohost for a geek movie podcast. He is the author of The Perils of Growing Up Werewolf series. His forthcoming book is The Fate of Freddy Mitchell, book one in the Dead Kid Chronicles, about when the fates of the underworld fail to capture a young soul at his scheduled time of death, and the very fabric of the universe begins to unravel—while the fates scramble to correct their mistake, he is forced to deal with a chatty crow, dark and sinister creatures hunting him through the night, a murderous gang of soul hunters, and the fact that he no longer appears to be as alive as he used to be. Andrew now lives happily in the Okanagan Valley, BC with one beautiful wife, three kids, one cat, one needy dog, and a multitude of characters that live comfortably inside of his mind.

Blackstone Publishing Hits the Ground Running

Blackstone is somewhat dissimilar from other book and audiobook publishers in a number of ways. One of the most obvious differences being that the company began as an audiobook company and then became a print and eBook publisher, whereas most multi-format publishers started by doing print books. In fact, because of our strength and reputation in the audio market, we have never accepted a manuscript for print and eBook only.

Eisner Award & YALSA-nominated Graphic Novelist Jason Walz

Jason Walz is an Eisner Award-nominated comic and graphic novel creator living in Minneapolis. He is the author of several comics and graphic novels, including the Last Pick trilogy and Homesick. Last Pick was a Kirkus Reviews Best YA Science Fiction of 2018 Selection and a YALSA 2019 Great Graphic Novels for Teens Nominee.

Morality vs. Legality in Historical Fiction

The question of "right" and "wrong" is as old as the human race. Great thinkers have struggled with it throughout history. At the core of my novel The Abolitionist's Daughter, based on an actual incident, is the age-old struggle between legality and morality.

Confessions of an Author Newbie: A Story of High Hopes, Heartbreaking Failure... and a Stick-Figure

This is my only-slightly-inspirational story for the world’s would-be writers out there. I can honestly say, “Believe in your dreams,” but make sure you’re ready to pull out your heart and stomp all over it a few times. Publishing your book is a series of amazing highs and devastating lows. Someone told me once—not only do you need to believe in your work, you need to bleed every word. Now, I finally understand, and as I’m mopping up the carnage—I’d like to share my gory details.

Co-Founder & Executive Editor of Unnamed Press Olivia Taylor Smith

Olivia Taylor Smith is the co-founder and executive editor of the Unnamed Press. She is also a certified silver pin sommelier with the North American Sommelier Association and translator of the graphic novel Panthers in the Hole, about the Angola 3.

Iowa Writers'/Yale Writers' Grad & Author of Historical Fiction Diane C. McPhail

Diane C. McPhail is an artist, writer, and minister. In addition to holding an M.F.A., an M.A., and D.Min., she has studied at the University of Iowa distance learning and the Yale Writers’ Workshop, among others. Diane is a member of North Carolina Writers' Network and the Historical Novel Society. She lives in Highlands, North Carolina, with her husband, and her dog, Pepper. She is the author of The Abolitionist’s Daughter, a personal narrative dealing with the struggles of imperfect souls to do right in a time of bitter conflict—a view of Southern Abolitionism, a deadly civilian clash, and the emerging role of women in a world depleted by the bloody conflict of men—a viewpoint far from prevailing stereotypes of the Civil War South, with themes of justice, racial relationships, and equality as timely as today's headlines.

Comparative & Competitive Books Matter

It's important for authors to hold themselves in high esteem, by making comparisons of their writing to success stories. That is why I like to sit down with the writers I work with and nail down what the comparative or competitive book titles to their manuscript might be, before making a submission to editors at publishing houses. We in the industry casually refer to this as asking what the "comps" are (short for comparative or competitive book titles). These are books in the current publishing marketplace that are similar and successful. It's not just about simply saying that a book or author is not unique—it's about celebrating how great a potential publication could be...

Author, Translator and Writing Streamer Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson works as a translator and editor for the Japanese news-entertainment website SoraNews24. He runs ScottWritesStuff, a creative writing livestream on Twitch, and in his free time can be found playing video games and Magic: The Gathering with friends. Metl: The ANGEL Weapon is his first novel. He lives in the Japanese countryside with his wife.

Editorial Director of Sourcebooks Casablanca Deb Werksman

Deb Werksman is the Editorial Director of Sourcebooks Casablanca. She previously ran her own publishing company. Werksman is the country's foremost editor of Jane Austen sequels, and acquires single title romance in all subgenres, as well as historical and women's fiction. Sourcebooks is the country's largest woman-owned independent publishing house, and they are known for their sales and marketing, as well as our focus on building authors' careers.

Books in Translation: Foreign Rights Generate Author Income

Here at the Trident Media Group literary agency, the advances and royalties received from foreign publications makes up about a third of our overall income. So you can imagine that for an author, foreign rights, or books in translation, might also make up about the same overall income on any given book title of theirs. Well, that's certainly nothing to scoff at! That's just one of the reasons why we make every effort we can on behalf of the authors at Trident Media Group to retain foreign rights, such that foreign rights can be properly exploited to an author's benefit. In this article I explore the benefits of working with a literary agency in the foreign publishing markets, as well as the downside of allowing American publishers to handle foreign rights for authors.

Honoring National Women's History Month with Historical Fiction Research

In 1987, the United States Congress designated March as National Women’s History Month. When my literary agent, Mark Gottlieb, asked me to write a guest post for his publishing blog, I thought it might be appropriate to write about a woman publisher.

powerHouse Books Founder/Publisher & NY Photo Fest Co-Founder Daniel Power

Daniel Power is the CEO of powerHouse Books, POW! Kids Books, powerHouse Packaging & Supply. He is the proprietor of The POWERHOUSE Arena & POWERHOUSE on 8th. Daniel Power is also the director & co-founder The New York Photo Festival.