ABOUT US
Aimee and Mickey here, and we just wanted to casually introduce ourselves as the new publishers and owners of Top Shelf Magazine. Aimee Ravichandran, the owner of Abundantly Social, and Mickey Mikkelson, the owner of Creative Edge Publicity, ironically never envisioned working within a magazine, much less owning one, and yet, here we are!!
With over 20 years combined working within the book and publishing industry, we are both excited and passionate about what Top Shelf means to us. We both know that the magazine was built as a forum dedicated to authors and was a huge influencer in the book publishing and promotion market. When discussions started about us adopting the magazine from the previous owners, Keith and Becky, we were both incredibly honored and extremely touched that they would even consider us, and we want to publicly issue a Thank You to both of them for not only believing in us but also trusting us with an entity that they worked so hard to build and preserve!
Our dedication and support to them is to ensure that Top Shelf Magazine’s legacy continues by releasing professional mainstream content that focuses on the book industry as a whole. We want Top Shelf to be known as the Book Community magazine, and we want to cover all areas of focus, including independent publishing, traditional publishing, and leveraging and creating content for libraries, bookstores, and reader festivals, and ensure every genre is represented.
Finally, and this is probably the most important part of this is that we want to hear from you! The readers, writers, and really the book community as a whole. Because without any of you, we don’t have a magazine, and we are hopeful that each of you will join us on this book-related journey together! We can be reached at Amtopshelf@yahoo.com, and if interested, please drop us a line. Tell us what you do like and even tell us what you don’t like (we can’t improve if we don’t know)! We are both looking forward to continuing the legacy of Top Shelf Magazine and getting to know its readers and its fanbase!
We hope you enjoy!
Aimee and Mickey,
The Top Shelf Publishing Team
OUR TEAM
At Top Shelf Magazine, our team of reporting and editorial professionals work behind the scenes to ensure that our readers have the best possible experience interacting with our magazine. Our talented writers and editors have their hands on the media pulse, and are here to bring you breaking news and in-depth reporting on a wide range of topics. Get to know a few of them below.
Danielle Urban
Interviewer
Danielle Urban lives in North Central Arkansas with her family. She started by blogging about her favorite books, short stories, and writing prompts. Soon her blog became something more than just that. Writers needed more than just reviews. That's how Urban Lit Magazine came to be. It features reviews, interviews, news of new literary agents and more. Her goal was to help readers connect with writers from all over the world.
Danielle has worked as an article writer, editor, journalist, and interned as a senior publisher for romance novels. In addition to that, she started the journalism club at ASUMH and it's very first digital and print publications. From there, she continued her studies in Arkansas and graduated with an M.A. in English. Today, Danielle continues to inspire writers and encourage readers to try something new. When she's not subbing at school, she is busy writing.
Deena Rae
Design
Deena Rae was born and raised in Texas – home of bluebonnets, boots, beef and big hair – into a family that was in the printing and publishing industries. Her father was a computer programmer for major newspapers when the equipment took up whole rooms and mother has been a publisher for almost 40 years – trying, unsuccessfully, to bring her into the family business.
Finally relenting in 2010, she officially joined her mother’s publishing and packaging company as the Digital Director, to create the epublishing division. Quickly deciding she wanted to offer her services to more authors than just the ones her mother represented, she branched out on her own, opening E-BookBuilders January of 2011. Her computer skills, willingness to help authors, love of literature, no-nonsense attitude and quick wit has helped shepherd many authors through the maze of digital and indie publishing. The rest is history.