CW 28 — From Writer to Author: Navigating the Twisty Path to Publication
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Malena Watrous
Date(s): May 2—Jun 6
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Class Meeting Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Tuition: $290
Refund Deadline: May 4
Unit(s): 0
Status: Open
Quarter: Spring
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 12:00—1:15 pm (PT)
Date(s): May 2—Jun 6
Unit(s): 0
Tuition: $290
Refund Deadline: May 4
Instructor(s): Malena Watrous
Grade Restriction: NGR only; no credit/letter grade
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
The difference between a writer and an author is that the latter has published a book. But the path to publication is seldom straightforward. After finishing a manuscript, many aspiring authors are uncertain how to proceed. Do you need an agent, and how do you go about finding one? Is it important to hire a developmental editor, and how do you know who's going to be a good fit? If you choose to self-publish, what steps are involved? How do you make the public aware that your book exists? This course gives beginning writers exposure to published authors who will talk to them about the steps they took toward (and after) publication, demystifying the process. In this six-week course, we will begin with an introduction to the basics of publishing, then discuss five books (one each week) by five successfully published authors, who will each come to our class via a live online session, together with an instrumental member of the team that helped them on the path to publication. These sessions will serve as part book group, part information session about how publishing works. You will be able to ask these authors and their “teammates” questions about their books and their working relationships and become better able to navigate the path to publication on your own.
For students who have previously taken this course, the structure is the same but the books and guests are new. Students will have access to supplemental discussion threads to discuss the books and the course. There will be no writing assignments.
MALENA WATROUS
Author; Former Stegner Fellow, Stanford; Writing Certificate Lead & Creative Writing Coordinator, Stanford Continuing Studies
Malena Watrous is the author of the novel If You Follow Me and co-author of the novel Sparked and the cookbooks My Mexico City Kitchen and Scandinavian from Scratch. She has contributed to The New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. She received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow, and a Stegner Fellowship. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Johnny Mack, The Pinned Butterfly (ISBN 979-8861718875)
(Required) Jacinda Townsend, Mother Country (ISBN 978-1644450871 )
(Required) Simi Monheit , The Goldie Standard (ISBN 978-1960573971 )
(Required) Greg Wrenn, Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis (ISBN 979-8888452141)
(Required) Nicholas L. Syrett , The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime (ISBN 978-1620977453 )
(Required) Jacinda Townsend, Mother Country (ISBN 978-1644450871 )
(Required) Simi Monheit , The Goldie Standard (ISBN 978-1960573971 )
(Required) Greg Wrenn, Mothership: A Memoir of Wonder and Crisis (ISBN 979-8888452141)
(Required) Nicholas L. Syrett , The Trials of Madame Restell: Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime (ISBN 978-1620977453 )