Today we’d like to introduce you to Patricia Florio.
Patricia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started this journey after receiving my MFA in Creative Writing, with a concentration in Publishing. (see americanwritersreview.com)
American Writers Review is a print literary review that I had founded in 2011. This year’s, Summer of 2018 is our Eighth print version. (see Amazon.com) In order for a writer to be published by AWR, we open up a contest link somewhere in the fall, usually September, run the contest some many words in short story fiction, poetry, essay, nonfiction, which is then read by judges that have been assigned the task of reading.
The highest quality, edited by D Ferrara, after our judges have assigned the writing a numerical order, five being the highest, the best-written story, one being the lowest, meaning it probably won’t be published by us at this time, suggesting the prose or poetry needs more work.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not smooth at all. There are only two of us as far as a staff goes: Donna and me (Patricia).
We haven’t killed one another yet, so that’s a good thing. But we have had arguments. We have differences of opinions. The struggles are many: finding new readers of our literary review; advertising is costly and we’ve spent a lot of money and we are still in the red.
But it’s a love of art, of writing, of writers, seeing how these flowers bloom in our garden, the garden that we are tilling and watering and watching grow.
A general statement: any business is going to take time to expand. I’m in charge of marketing., Donna is in charge of editing, laying out the book. 2018 is super beautiful in cover and content. We have gotten — I’m sure by the ads we paid for — and by word of mouth — many award-winning writers to enter our contest. We have also asked for submissions from seasoned writers and emerging writers are the contest ended.
We have reached across the United States, the UK and Australia and have attracted talented writers. And it’s my job to keep us that movement, to keep AWR in the public’s eye. Entice readers to read some of the finest literature, humor, moving stories and poems.
We both love what we’re doing and hope we can continue this dream, without expending any more funds.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about San Fedele Press – what should we know?
Our Amazon.com reviews have been all five-star reviews. That sets us apart from the competition, And there is a lot of competition. Lit reviews based on college campuses have a large staff, funds, maybe they’ve been in the game a lot longer than we have. But I’m not known to give up easily. I am tenacious. And if I have to go the extra mile on any given day, I’m going to go an extra two miles.
I love the attractiveness of our 2018 cover. Actually, all of our front covers have been special. But the front cover of 2018 features a beach in Rhodes, Greece. It’s a picture I had taken when I was there last year for my son’s wedding. When Donna said it was going to be our front cover, I was thrilled. I got to share it with the world.
We also had a flash fiction contest about the front cover a few days after the regular contest ended. The person who won the contest touched my soul with her thoughts about the front cover of American Writers Review, Summer 2018.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Old says Elbow Greece. It’s a lot of work. It’s love of the work, It’s a love of writing and wanting to share those writers with our readership.
Pricing:
- The price of our journal is $14.99 on Amazon and B&N. We can also sell books from our website
- We have had a sale of $1.99 on the Kindle version in the month of July.
- We have also attracted a few local bookstores, selling the book for $10 a copy.
Contact Info:
- Website: americanwritersreview.com
- Phone: 7328596243
- Email: patriciaflorio6@gmail.com
- Instagram: floriopatricia
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patricia.florio
D Ferarra, Patricia A. Florio, Jewels of San Fedele, Anthology of Jewels of San Fedele
Image Credit:
Wendy Decker
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