Athena Dixon: Getting Your Poetry and Prose Published

In This Episode:

Athena Dixon is a poet, essayist, and editor. She is the author of The Incredible Shrinking Woman and No God in This Room. Her work also appears in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 2: Black Girl Magic.

Athena’s work has appeared in various publications including GAY Magazine and Narratively. She is founder of Linden Avenue Literary Journal, which she launched in 2012, and the co-host of the New Books in Poetry Podcast. She lives in Philadelphia.

When she’s not publishing her own work, Athena helps businesses and authors edit their work – both for quality, and by providing “sensitivity reading” which helps them hone their marketing in a way that promotes equality, and fights discrimination and stereotypes.

In this episode, we cover a wide range of valuable topics like getting your prose published, what to do FIRST if you’re just launching your writing career, and the raw truth about what it takes to make it as a professional writer.

Episode Highlights

• The step-by-step process Athena used to find and land her publisher
• Demystifying the “romantic writer’s life” with the truth about a professional writer’s day to day
• How Athena supports her “ideal writer’s life” financially
• Why she recommends NOT writing every single day
• What to do FIRST if you want to build a career in editing or professional prose
• The biggest mistakes new writers make when pricing their services
• How to package up editing services so they’re a “no brainer” for clients to say yes to
• Athena’s advice for helping business owners market with equality and inclusion in mind
• How the publishing industry can make more room for smaller presses and authors

And plenty more along the way. Get the resources mentioned in this episode below.