by AnnSheybani | Sep 21, 2024 | Homepage highlight, Writing
A lot of manuscripts slide across my desk each week, which shouldn’t surprise anyone seeing as I run a publishing house. After all these years in the business, I can identify why a particular book draws me in and where another immediately goes off the rails. I...
by AnnSheybani | Sep 2, 2024 | Writing
Maybe I’ve told this story before, maybe not. During grad school, I wrote a series of personal essays and short stories about my experience living in Iran and the demise of my marriage. After graduating, I built out this body of work and decided to pitch it as a...
by AnnSheybani | Aug 11, 2024 | Writing
I broke my ankle a number of years ago. I ended up in the gym after six weeks of going crazy at home, which is precisely what happens when I don’t run. I don’t tend to watch TV or music videos, but I happened to be on the stair-master one morning when this video...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 29, 2024 | Writing
If you want to write a book but hesitate because you don’t consider yourself a gifted writer, you may be suffering under The Curse Of The Natural. You assume that if you’re not great at something straight out of the gate, you should set it aside because...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 21, 2024 | Reading, Writing
In 2016, Steven Pressfield published his book Nobody one Wants to Read Your Sh*t. It scared a lot of would-be authors who want to contribute to the world, not burden it with garbage. What must you do to create a book worth reading? Let me answer that from the...
by AnnSheybani | Jul 6, 2024 | Reading, Writing, writing lessons
Given my profession, I’m often asked about my favorite books on writing. Before I answer, I tend to want to know WHY someone wants this information, mostly because I’ve noticed the tendency to read extensively on the topic, as opposed to doing the...
