So You Want to Write a Book?
Epilogue Editing Book Writing Workshop
May 2024-May 2025.
I Have Questions!
How do I apply? (You won’t pay/owe any money now!)
Can I write a book in a year?
That depends! Scholarly books are around 80,000-100,000 words, which means you need to write between 6,000-8,500 words a month to write a book in a year. (If you wrote 350 words a day, you could write 100,000 words in 285 days). But not all words are created equal, revision is hard, it depends on data collection, etc. I can tell you that I can give you all of the tools you need to write a book, and I’ll be around as long as the process takes.
Isn’t a year a LONG time for a workshop?
Go to your shelf, pick up the last book you enjoyed, and read the acknowledgements page. Chances are, the author thanks people who gave feedback many years before the book was published. The truth is, writing a book takes a really long time. This program provides both the structure and skill set to write a book, and then the space to actually do the writing.
Is May a weird time to start this?
My reason for starting in May is to give people the tools they need to make real progress over the summer, a time when academics often have more freedom. You may find that August is a better time for you to start, in which case a quarterly plan might work better!
When will these workshops meet?
Once a critical mass of people have applied, we’ll find a time to meet that works with everyone’s teaching commitments/time zones. Once a quarter we’ll reassess the time to make sure it continues to match everyone’s schedule.
Why would I choose this instead of coaching or editing?
This program is designed for people who want formative structure, feedback, and assistance on writing their book along the way, who enjoy writing in community, and are looking for an affordable balance between personal attention, accountability, and feedback.
If you don’t feel like you need a writing community, then maybe one-on-one coaching is better—let’s talk! If you don’t feel like you need formative feedback, writing strategies, or a community, then maybe you just need an editor—we can talk about that too! But if you feel like you need some structure along the way, accountability to keep you on going, and feedback to make sure you’re headed in the right direction, this program is for you.
What if I’m in the middle of writing already? Is this still useful?
Probably! If you have an entire draft of the book written, maybe waiting until August or even January might be helpful. But the program is designed to be equally useful to people who haven’t written a word yet and to people who have a good working outline or a dissertation they are revising. The program is designed to help you in both the writing and revision stages, which means that you should find it helpful even if you have a lot done. Feel free to set up a time to chat so we can see where your manuscript is and what kind of support you’d benefit from.
Okay, so I’m not writing this summer, but want to join in August/January/April. How will I catch up?
You should be fine! We can also schedule consulting sessions ahead of time to make sure you feel ready for the workshop.
Ugh do academics really need to think about marketing? Won’t our books sell themselves? And won’t the publisher do all of it for me?
Most authors do at least some marketing/promotion of their books (you wrote something cool! Cool people should know about it so they can read it!). Some people love it, some hate it. I’ll give you a toolbox you can choose from to figure out what feels right for connecting your book with your people.
What if I don’t have an idea for a book? Should I take this class?
You should probably want to write a book to take the class. But if you’re like me, and enjoy taking classes because you want to learn all the things that you don’t know, then you’re very welcome to join us.
How will I pay you?
When you apply for the class, no money is due up front because I want to make sure we have a meeting time that fits everyone’s schedules. Once you are accepted, we agree on a time, and you choose which tier you are interested in, I can either work with your university for payment, or we can work out a payment plan where you pay on a quarterly or monthly basis.
We’re already working together in a coaching/editing capacity, but this seems great! Let’s chat and we’ll figure something out!
I have more questions! Let’s chat—email epilogueediting@gmail.com, and I’m happy to answer questions via email or Zoom.