Workshop: Book proposals

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>>UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

3 week course - 1 day a week, 2 hours sessions, one post workshop 1x1

Time and Format: 7-9 pm EST, VIRTUAL Zoom

Cost: $1750 per participant 

Description: This is a signature course of Book House, Inc.  Six students will join a celebrated trade author for this intensive three day workshop on the business of trade writing and non-fiction/memoir proposals.  Before enrolling students will have envisioned a book project in non-fiction, creative non-fiction, or memoir, and come ready to turn their ideas into successful proposals. The workshop is a 3 day, 6 hour intensive, virtual (zoom) with three assignments, and one post workshop review.The six hours of class time will be structured in the following way: (Three week intensive, virtual)

Day 1

1. Getting to Know the Project and the Anatomy of a Great Proposal
2. How to Write a Hook and Successful Overview 
3. “Who Cares?” Audience and the Publishing Landscape
4. Placing Yourself in the Publishing Landscape

Assignment: Write an Overview, submitted before Day 2 for instructor to review Day 2

1. Workshop Overviews
2. Writing a Proposal is Different Than Writing a Book--How?
3. How to Write Compelling Annotated Table of Contents
4. The Role of Narrative in Proposal Writing
5. How Popular Does a Popular Book Have to Be?

Assignment: Write an Annotated Table of Contents before Day 3 for instructor to review Day 3

1. Workshop Table of Contents
2. Evaluating Comparables and Accessing a Market
3. Creating a Network--Getting an Agent or Editor
4. Writing Successful Sample Chapters
5. Bank It--Why an Advance?

Assignment: Write a Sample Chapter to Submit to instructor in the Future

>>UPCOMING WORKSHOPS

3 week course - 1 day a week, 2 hours sessions, one post workshop 1x1

Time and Format: 7-9 pm EST, VIRTUAL Zoom

Cost: $1000 per participant 

Description:  This three-week boot-camp workshop is designed for University  instructors and professors who want to make the transition to trade or  cross-over writing.  Many professors go unpaid for their writing, and  that publish books that are read by a very small portion of the  population.  This is fine.  But maybe you want to reach a broader  audience than your classroom or disciplinary conference circuit.  Book  House Inc. is here to help.  How?  Your instructor has written  extensively for small academic presses, large academic presses,  crossover arms of academic houses, and the most reputable trade houses.  They have made a career of turning academic topics into popular books  and believes that you can too.   Many of the students enrolled in this  course will have experience in academic writing, but that is not a  prerequisite.  What is a requirement is that you are an active scholar  with a desire to craft a cross-over proposal (that speaks to both an  academic and popular audience) or a strict trade proposal.  You want to  make your thoughts and your scholarship matter.   

Day 1

1. What is your expertise?  And Why Should (Lots Of) People Care?
2. Academic vs. Trade Writing--Anatomy of Proposal
3. How to Crack Into Trade Writing From the Ivory Tower
4. How Not to Write A Trade Proposal--The Cardinal Sins of Academic Writing
5. Motivating an Overview of the Project

Assignment: Write an Overview, submitted before Day 2 for instructor to review

Day 2

1. Structure of Trade Books--Chapter and Verse
2. Trade Proposals--Successful Annotated Table of Contents
3. Building a Trade Portfolio--How to Prove You Aren’t Boring
4. What to Cut?  A Crash Course on Concision and Jargon
5. Re-introducing the Value of Personal Writing (in the Proposal)

Assignment: Write an Annotated Table of Contents before Day 3 for instructor to review

Day 3

1. What to Include in My Sample Chapter?
2. How to Think About Motivation
3. How to Think About Audience and Market
4. Writing Hooks, Transitions, and Signposts 
5. How to Pick “Comparable Titles”

Assignment: Write Sample Chapter and Submit to instructor for Review