A workshop to help you do the work.
NOTE: This workshop is full. To get advance notice of the next workshop, email christie@nasw.org.
This eight-week workshop takes place virtually, via Zoom. The workshop is aimed at people who either have a book idea that needs more development or who have a defined book idea and are seeking support and accountability to get the work of drafting a book proposal done. This workshop focuses on nonfiction book proposals. Past attendees have largely worked on books relating to science, but all nonfiction topics are welcome.
The group will be capped at 12 people and carefully curated to ensure a mix of attendees who will be a good fit for supporting one another. The first six weeks will have two 90 minute sessions (Mondays and Thursdays). One weekly session will be an informal instruction seminar featuring discussions and Q&As with guest speakers. You will have an assignment for the other session of each week, during which you will discuss and workshop the homework. Depending on your objectives and where you’re starting from, you can either use each week’s assignment as an opportunity to hone your ideas or to actually complete a draft of that part of the proposal. The meetings will include discussion with the whole group, and you’ll also work in smaller breakout groups to share feedback and support on the assignments. During the final two weeks of the class we will meet once per week to workshop homework assignments.
In addition to the two 90 minute Zoom meetings each week, plan to spend at least one to two hours (but potentially much, much more) on the homework, depending on what stage you’re in with your idea. Also expect to spend some time each week reading work from your colleagues. Each week we’ll go through a different section of the proposal. What you get out of the workshop and the discussion sessions will be highly dependent on the time and effort you put into the homework.
Although the instruction and feedback you’ll get in this workshop are front and center, you’ll also become part of a community of peers for support and commiseration during and after the workshop has concluded.
This will be the fourth iteration of this workshop. Testimonials from previous attendees:
“Christie’s workshop taught me everything I needed to know to write a book proposal and get a book deal. I went in to the workshop with an inkling of an idea that I wasn’t sure what to do with. By the end of the class, I had a viable draft and a firm understanding of how to finish the process and get an agent—plus a great community of colleagues and friends. I’m deep in the book-writing process now, and would never have reached this point without the workshop. Highly recommended!” -Emily Sohn, author of “The New Wilderness: How life finds a way in the most unexpected places,” forthcoming from Sourcebooks.
“Christie’s book proposal workshop was a turning point for me. She broke the process down in a way that felt approachable and doable, and her feedback was sharp, thoughtful, and tailored for science writers. I came in with an idea — and walked away with a clearer vision, a stronger pitch, and the confidence to take the next steps. I credit her workshop for helping me land an agent and a book deal.” —Kevin Gepford, author of “Tortoise!,” forthcoming from W.W. Norton.
“I started the Book Proposal Factory with mere seeds of an idea. Those seeds germinated into a real plan for a book thanks to support and feedback from Christie and my fellow writers as well as the perspectives of inspiring guest speakers. The workshop helped me understand what I needed to do to evolve an idea into a proposal and, eventually, a book.” – Lisa S. Gardiner, author of Reefs of Time: What Fossils Reveal about Coral Survival, coming soon from Princeton University Press.
Speakers:
Christie Aschwanden is author of the New York Times bestseller, Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn From the Strange Science of Recovery, co-host of Emerging Form, a podcast about the creative process, and host and producer of Uncertain, a podcast from Scientific American. She’s the former lead science writer at FiveThirtyEight and was previously a health columnist for The Washington Post. Her work has appeared in dozens of publications, including the New York Times, Wired, Smithsonian, Slate, Popular Science, Discover, Science and Nature. She’s received fellowships from the Santa Fe Institute, the Carter Center and the Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting. She lives on a small farm in Western Colorado.
Rebecca Boyle, freelance journalist. Rebecca is the author of OUR MOON: How Earth’s Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are (Random House, 2024), a new history of humanity’s relationship with the Moon. She is a contributing editor at Scientific American, a contributing writer at Quanta Magazine and The Atlantic, and a columnist at Atlas Obscura. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Smithsonian Air & Space, and Popular Science. Her work has appeared in Wired, MIT Technology Review, Nature, Science, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist, Audubon, Distillations, and many other publications.
Farley Chase, Founder and owner Chase Literary. Farley has worked in publishing for nearly 30 years. He became a literary agent in 2002 and founded Chase Literary Agency in 2012. He has had magazine experience at both The New Yorker and Talk Magazine. And he’s worked at The New Press and later became an editor at Talk Miramax Books. He lives in NYC with his wife and dog and is a graduate of Macalester College. He has served on the Board of the Association of American Literary Agents and the Board of Literary Agents of Change.
Thomas (TJ) Kelleher, VP & Editorial Director at Basic Books. Full bio coming soon.
Alice Martell, the Martell Agency. Alice is agent to such writers as Gail Collins, David Haskell, Linda Marsa, Domingo Martinez, Gretchen Soren, Chelsea Wald and Christie Aschwanden.
Betsy Mason, freelance science journalist and 2022 Alicia Patterson Foundation fellow. Her work has appeared in publications including National Geographic, The New York Times, Science, Nature, WIRED, Science News, Scientific American, Outside, Discover, and Knowable. She is coauthor with Greg Miller of All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey, an illustrated book about maps and cartography for National Geographic. Betsy was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT in 2015-2016. Previously she was senior editor at WIRED, and science reporter at the Contra Costa Times. She has a master’s degree in geology from Stanford University and is a graduate of the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. She serves as secretary of the board of the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
Matt Weiland, vice president and senior editor at W.W. Norton & Company. A former editor at Granta and The Paris Review, he is also the co-editor, with Sean Wilsey, of State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.
Dates & Times
The workshop begins March 31 and meets every Monday and Thursday for the first six weeks, and on Mondays only for the last two weeks.
Time: 11am Pacific/noon MDT/1pm CDT/2pm EDT
Each session is 90 minutes
Dates
March 31
April 3, 7, 10,14, 17, 21, 24, 28
May 1, 5, 8, 12, 19
(14 sessions total)
Cost: $1000 (payment plans available)
This workshop is now full. To get advance notice of the next workshop, email christie@nasw.org.
Applications will be assessed and accepted on a rolling basis until the workshop is full. First notifications will begin no later than March 3.
Christie Aschwanden 