Publishing Matters: Going from “Idea” to “Book” | Humanities North Dakota

Publishing Matters: Going from “Idea” to “Book”

You’ve written a poem, a story, an article, a memoir, a novel.  Your family seems to like it.  Your teachers and mentors tell you that your work is good.  So, what now?  As makers of art, we must constantly keep our focus on craft and process, on improving and perfecting our art.  However, at certain points in the creative process, it’s helpful to think about product—about revising, polishing, packaging, proposing, and submitting—in order to get what we’ve created into a published form.

In this two-hour interactive session, we will cover various approaches to taking your creative work public including the following: finding journals to publish your work; shaping a book from stand-alone pieces; finding and querying agents; identifying publishers appropriate to your work; and finding and submitting proposals to fellowship and grant opportunities. We will also discuss how to nurture and sustain your creative life by attending conferences, joining writing groups, and applying for artist residencies.