Sundays of Gentle Creativity: The Publication Editions

Let's publish!

To see the anthology, Water, created during The Anthology Edition, click here

Whether you want to publish your own work or are interested in the logistics of the publishing process, these courses will teach you how to put a publication out into the world in creative and experimental ways that relish the book as an aesthetic object, using a model considerably swifter than the traditional publishing route.

Along with creating a publication over the seven weeks of the course, each session will start with a writing exercise to add layers to the story you're working on, to keep us connected to our love for writing, and to draw on the synchronicity and alchemy that happens when we write together.

Virginia Woolf did it, Walt Whitman did it, Margaret Atwood did it. Anaïs Nin, too. They all self-published their work. In the past it was a costly undertaking. Today it's possible to publish a book on almost no budget at all. Both courses will guide you through each stage of the process to show you how it's possible.

By the end of The Anthology Edition course you will have a short story published in an anthology that we'll make during the course. Your story will receive detailed feedback and beta readers throughout the course to make sure it's the best it can be for publication. In The Self-Publishing Edition course you'll create your own publication. By being part of the entire process on both courses, you can be sure of a book to be proud of.

Each triumph is a conquest by the body, fingers, muscles. You live with your hands, in acts of physical deftness... You can touch the page you wrote. We exult in what we master and discover. Instead of using one’s energy in a void, against frustrations, in anger against publishers, I use it on the press, type, paper, a source of energy. Solving problems, technical, mechanical problems. Which can be solved. Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin

The two courses in The Publication Editions will teach you the entire process of putting together and publishing a collection of stories. In the first series, we'll focus on creating a multi-authored anthology from stories by all participating writers. In the second series, you'll acquire the tools to put together, design, and print your own book of up to three stories.

Although the process is similar for longer works, the courses will focus on smaller, manageable projects, both as meaningful in themselves but also as a way to study the publication process. During the course, participants will be each other's beta readers and partners on the publishing journey.

The whole struggle is to squeeze into the public record some tiny essence of the perpetual inner melody. Henry Miller, Plexus

In The Anthology Edition we'll create a collection of stories. All participating writers will contribute a story and receive editorial input on their story. You'll be part of the process of compiling, sequencing, designing, and proofreading the anthology, as well as seeing the book off to the printers. The anthology will have an ISBN and be available for general ordering. All participants will receive two copies of the printed anthology.

The Self-Publishing Edition will focus on putting together a zine, a chapbook, a comic, a photobook, or any side project that you'd like to turn into a publication. You'll learn about choosing a manageable project, setting a deadline, collaborating with other artists, being inspired by other self-publishing projects (like Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Two Stories), as well as layout, proofing, and finding an affordable way to publish. All participants will have the option of a 1-hour one-to-one session.

What we'll do:

The Anthology Edition (Feb – March)

• Week 1: Choosing the right story
• Week 2: Editing your story, feedback on other stories
  
• Week 3: Editing and cover
• Week 4: Sequencing and design
• Week 5: Proofreading and final changes
• Week 6: Front cover, title, and back blurb
• Week 7: Proofing, printing, and planning a launch

The Self-Publishing Edition (April – May)

• Week 1: What and why to self-publish
• Week 2: Choosing your story or stories
• Week 3: The book as an aesthetic object
  
• Week 4: Outsourcing, collaboration and illustration
  
• Week 5: Pseudonyms and pet projects
  
• Week 6: To the printers
  
• Week 7: Promotion

All writers are welcome, though writers with at least three stories at advanced stages of completion will probably find the courses most useful. Anyone interested in independent publishing and self publishing will gain deeper insight into the publishing process through both courses. Although the courses are in English, you're welcome to work in any language.

Join us to experience the demystified world of publishing. As with all gentle Sunday writing workshops, the focus will be on writing for the love it and letting that delight seep into all our writing projects.

Limited to 12 participants (courses full)

Place: Zoom

Dates and Times:

• The Anthology Edition: 4 February – 17 March
  
• The Self-Publishing Edition: 14 April – 26 May
  

6 - 8pm Central European Time. Click here for the corresponding time where you are.

Cost: €280 (Anthology Ed.) and €350 (Self-Publishing Ed.) / €560 for both Editions

About the tutor: Shaun Levin is a writer and artist based in Madrid. He is the author of Alone with a Man in a Room, Mark: A Novel, and Seven Sweet Things. He has edited the anthologies Things That Have Happened and Words Made Flesh, and appeared in over 50 journals and collections. He set up Treehouse Press and the literary and arts journals Chroma and The A3 Review, which he edited for ten years in total. His artists' books, zines and comics are held in the special collections of Harvard Library and the Universities of California at Irvine and at Santa Barbara, amongst others. He has participated in the London Art Book Fair at the Whitechapel Gallery and the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1. He has been teaching creative writing for over twenty years.