About Amphorae

Submissions

We are currently acquiring manuscripts for the 2025 publishing schedule.

Amphorae is specifically seeking: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, Science Fiction, LGBTQ Fiction, and Mystery/Thrillers.

We are not accepting queries for Children’s books or Illustrated books.

We are only accepting agented submissions. 

Please have your agent contact our Acquisitions Editor at agent-query@amphoraepublishing.com.

We will review unrepresented manuscripts. This process takes between nine and fifteen months. Submissions must include:

  • The “pitch”
  • A synopsis
  • The full manuscript
  • A publicity plan

We will not review incomplete submissions.

Speaking Engagements

Lisa & Kristy have spoken at a variety of events and conferences. The subjects include:

  • The Business of Small Publishing
  • Working with Your Editor
  • Social Media Marketing Strategies
  • The Publishing Process

If you would like to have Lisa or Kristy speak at your next event, please contact them via email. Kristy’s email address is kbmakansi@amphoraepublishing.com. Lisa’s email address is lisa.miller@amphoraepublishing.com.

Amphorae Publishing is committed to protecting the author’s work and the creative process. To that end, we have included clauses in our publishing contract related to generative artificial intelligence, permissions for use of published materials, and other publishing rights. Amphorae will not provide any work for the purpose of training Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning Models (ML) nor will Amphorae use Generative Artificial Intelligence to develop a work of a similar type of a published work. In designing book covers and creating marketing materials for our authors, Amphorae reserves the right to make use of select Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator design tools (e.g., expanding an image) that make use of Generative AI processes, but will not create covers that are totally generated by artificial intelligence.

Amphorae Publishing Group is a woman- and veteran-owned business. Amphorae was created in 2014 with the merger of Blank Slate Press, Walrus Publishing, and Treehouse Publishing Group. In 2018, Amphorae acquired Goldminds Publishing. Through these imprints, Amphorae has worked with authors across the United States to publish titles over a wide range of genres. Amphorae authors have been reviewed in Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, New York Journal of Books, Historical Novels Review, Foreword Reviews, Midwest Book Review, and many others. Amphorae’s titles have also won many awards including multiple Benjamin Franklin awards from the Independent Book Publishers Association, multiple IPPYs from Independent Publisher magazine, multiple Foreword Indie awards, a Willa Award for Editing, and a DaVinci Eye award for cover design. Kristina Makansi and Lisa Miller are the founders and current publishing partners at Amphorae.

 

Lisa Miller is a Partner and the Business and Marketing Manager at Amphorae Publishing. Lisa has a certificate in Strategic Communications from Saint Louis University, an M.A. in English from the University of Missouri-Saint Louis, and B.A. in English for the University of Baltimore. She is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who served in Afghanistan in 2009. Lisa’s essay, “Still Falling Snow,” about her experience in Afghanistan was published in Proud to Be: Writing by American Warriors vol. 3 in 2014. Lisa has worked in corporate communications as a writer and editor for over 20 years.

Kristy Makansi is a Partner and Managing Editor at Amphorae Publishing. Kristina has a B.A. in Government from University of Texas at Austin and a M.A.T. from the College of New Jersey. She has worked as a copywriter, marketing coordinator, designer, and editor. Authors she has worked with on either the editorial or the design side have won numerous awards including Benjamin Franklin awards, IPPYs, Beverly Hills Book Awards, a da Vinci Eye award for FOLLY BEACH DANCES, the design category of the Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing. PAINTING FOR PEACE IN FERGUSON won a Gold Medal as one of the 2015 Outstanding Book of the Year from Independent Publishers in the Peacemakers category, and Kristina was recognized with a WILLA Literary Award for her editorial work on AGNES CANON’S WAR. She is the author of  ORACLES OF DELPHI and co-author of The Seeds Trilogy, including THE SOWING, THE REAPING, and THE HARVEST, with her two daughters. The Sowing and a The Prelude, a novella of the Seeds Trilogy, have been optioned for film by Big Picture Ranch, an independent film company whose films have won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for Best Documentary, selected as a New York Times Critics’ Pick, and shortlisted for an Academy Award. Kristina has served on the board of the Missouri Writers Guild and the Missouri Center for the Book.

Laura Robinson is a Partner and Production Manager and Author Liaison at Amphorae Publishing. Laura is an industry veteran with more than twenty years of experience. She brings expertise in wholesale and retail sales and distribution. Laura has previously worked for distributors like Publishers Group West, Perseus Books Group, and Midpoint Trade Books. She is a graduate of Bard College and the British American Drama Academy.

Stacey Walker is a Partner and Acquisitions Editor at Amphorae Publishing Group and a lecturer at University of Missouri-St. Louis. She has a B.A. from the University of Missouri-Columbia, an M.A. from Southeast Missouri State University, and an M.F.A. from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is a winner of the 2016 Boulevard Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets, the winner of the 2019 Lily Poetry Review Prize, and her work had been published in Proud to Be, Chaleur, Junto, Typishly, portside.org, Big Muddy, and All the Art St. Louis. She is a professional writer by trade, as well as a poet, essayist, blogger, and memoirist. Her personal interests include art (painting), outdoor exploring and hiking, exercising, and spending time with her son. Her professional interests include creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, gender studies, urban studies, popular culture, and rhetoric. She currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her son, husband, and four crazy cats. 

Jared Israel is a Production Assistant at Amphorae Publishing assisting with scheduling, promotions, and audio/video content. He is from St. Louis and graduated from the University of St Andrews with a B.A. in English Literature. He has previously worked as a lighting and sound technician and continues to pursue work in musical production. In 2020, his short story “Southbound Bison” was shortlisted in the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation Writing Prize and subsequently published with Worldreader. 

Allison Macdonald is a junior at Northwestern University studying English, linguistics, and Spanish. She enjoys biking and running, and her favorite post-workout activity is settling down with a good book–science fiction and fantasy are her favorites, but a realistic or historical novel is a good read as well. She currently lives in Chicago and dreams of one day finding an apartment that allows cats.