Zakiya Akerele, Ph.D.
I published my own book first. Now I do it for other people.
I take on non-fiction and self-help by people who know exactly what they want their book to do. My job is making sure it does it.
Education
- M.F.T., Mercer University School of Medicine, 2026
- Ph.D. in Religion, Fordham University, 2010
- Ed.M. in International Educational Development, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2006
- M.A. in Religion, Fordham University, 2004
- B.A. in Philosophy, Florida A&M University, 2003
Teaching
Sixteen years across university classrooms and international nonprofit work in education, health, and youth services.
Writing
Author of Dump Your Degree (CultuRealist Publishing, 2022).
I did this the hard way first.
I self-published my own book and learned every step of it by doing it wrong at least once — the formatting, the ISBNs, the distribution setup, the marketing nobody warns you about. What I kept running into was a choice that shouldn't be a choice: hand your rights to a publisher, or figure out an industry's worth of logistics alone.
CultuRealist exists to remove that trade-off. You keep 100% of your royalties and 100% of your rights. I handle the parts that took me a year to learn.
I take on a small number of books at a time, on purpose. This isn't a volume shop where your manuscript sits in a queue behind fifty others.
Tell me about your book.
Send a few lines about your manuscript and I'll reply within two business days.
Book a free consult