 For AJ Skelly, writing has never been just about the finished book. It began as a way to process a season when nothing felt within her control. What started as survival slowly became something deeper: a source of strength, creativity, unexpected healing, and so much more.
With thirty-one books behind her and both An Alliance of Ash and Jade and The Rat King heading to vertical film with Lumiview, AJ talks in this conversation about the long road, the joyful decision to keep writing, and the quiet wisdom she’s gathered along the way.  ABOUT THE AGENT:
John Blase is a literary agent with The Bindery Agency. John spent over a decade as an editor and ghostwriter in traditional publishing working with such names as Eugene Peterson, Ann Voskamp, and Brian Zahnd. During that time, he penned two books with his name on the spine—one of them a self-published poetry endeavor titled The Jubilee. At the end of the day, he tries to live by writer George Saunders’ advice: “Stop trying to teach the world something and instead refuse to be boring.” John and his wife, Meredith, lived in Colorado for almost twenty years but recently moved back to Arkansas. They have three children, all grown now and out living their one wild and precious lives.  (A guest column by literary agent (and author) Mike Nappa of Nappaland Literary.)
Dean Koontz pretty regularly kicks my butt. So does Sharon Carter Rogers. And Chuck Palahniuk. Even Rick Riordan and J.K. Rowling frequently leave me gasping on the mat, an adoring victim of their worded blows. These people know how to transform a simple fight description into a breathing, ragged conflict I experience deep in the emotion centers of my brain. In short, their fight-scene writing kicks butt. And yours can too—if you skillfully deliver the P.U.N.C.H.  ABOUT THE AGENT:
Amelia Theriault-Brown has been with the Laura Gross Literary Agency since 2023, first as a foreign rights director and, since 2026, as an agent. A lifelong Bostonian, Amelia studied psychology and worked in several research labs before pursuing an MFA in fiction at Bennington College and beginning her publishing career at Charlesbridge, an independent children’s publisher in Watertown, MA. If you're feeling gung-ho and motivated, consider one of our 2026 writers conferences. We are planning many around the country and also online (where anyone can join from anywhere). See the graphic in this post for our official list of events for 2026. Our events have over 170 success stories of writers who signed with agents following meeting them at an event. That's the best proof we can offer. Go to writingdayworkshops.com to sign up now.   I love pickleball! I love pickleball so much that I’ve started writing about it to celebrate that love. Let me share some of my books with you.
As of fall 2025, my new Pickleball books are out (and they make great gifts)! One is a picture book from Running Press Kids, the other a calendar from Sellers Publishing. Thank you for considering getting a copy for yourself or friends. Every sale and review truly helps. They make great holiday gifts. GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL got a buy from Target and is a USA Today best-selling book. Find GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL on Amazon here. Find GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL at Barnes & Noble here. You can buy it online from B&N, or use the “Find in Stores” button to see if it’s at a physical store around you. Find GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL at Target here. You can buy it online from Target, or click the “Pickup” button to investigate if it’s at a store around you. As of fall 2025, it’s in about 1/3 of Targets nationwide. Find GOODNIGHT, PICKLEBALL through Bookshop here (formerly called IndieBound) to support local independent bookstores, which is always an amazing thing to do.  ABOUT THE AGENT:
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Juliana began her publishing career in New York City at Random House in 2000. She spent a decade working with every in-house publisher and all client publishers in various sales and marketing roles, primarily focusing on national accounts. In 2010, she and her young family--husband and twin daughters—embarked on their second act in Northern California, producing and selling wine. However, Juliana never gave up her connection to the world of books, or her late-night reading habit. So, after another decade, she returned to publishing in 2021, this time on the agenting side, working at Rebecca Friedman Literary. After 5 years there, Juliana joined FinePrint Literary Management in 2026.  What are royalties and how do authors earn them?
Authors who pursue traditional publishing are usually paid an advance against earnings by their publisher when the publisher signs the work. Once a book earns enough money through sales to equal the amount of the advance, referred to as “earning out,” proceeds from the sales after the advance is earned out then get paid to the author in the form of royalties. Royalties are great because they’re basically free money for the author. Not every dollar a book makes after earning out the advance goes directly to the author, however, because publishers need to pay their expenses to stay in business. How much an author earns in royalties is spelled out in their contract. For print books, they usually earn 10-15% of the cover price, though this can vary by publisher, genre, and format. On e-books, the industry standard is 25% of net.  In this Q&A, Laurel Saville offers the kind of hard-won clarity that only comes from decades in the trenches. A novelist, memoirist, and longtime working writer, Saville offers the kind of hard-won clarity that only comes from decades in the trenches.
A novelist, memoirist, and longtime working writer, Saville talks about treating the page like a garden, the discipline of knowing when a book is “good enough,” and the resilience needed to keep going after twenty years of hurdles, setbacks, and second chances. These powerful reminders return us to a steadying truth: it is writing, not publishing, that makes you a writer. And it is in the writing itself that we find the chance for real joy and lasting connection.  Arthur Gee was born in Moldova and raised in a house where Russian literature and the early Soviet dissident movement shared the dinner table. He settled in Brooklyn in the 1980s and spent nearly forty years writing code instead of stories . . . until the quiet isolation of Covid reignited an old creative itch.
Now the author of two published poetry collections (with a third on the way) and a novel accepted for publication, Arthur is back at the page in earnest. In this conversation he talks candidly about the lessons of rejection and resilience, and what it means to keep going when the work still feels unfinished. His answers are honest, practical, and full of hard-won perspective, especially for anyone who has ever wondered whether it’s too late, or whether the years away from the page were somehow wasted. |