The Guild is pleased to offer a new online training course for our members. To book on, visit our e-store.
How to get your beer book published: Getting from a completed first draft to a published book
Tuesday, June 8th [*NEW DATE*]
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm BST
Venue: Online via Zoom
Cost: £15.95 pp
Presented by Guild Chair Pete Brown
For many beer writers, a book represents an enduring ambition and a pinnacle of achievement. A work of 40,000 – 100,000 words is a big challenge for any writer who has not done it before (and remains pretty daunting for those who have.) But once it’s written, there’s still a huge amount of work to do to get that book to publication.
Starting with a finished draft, Pete Brown takes you through the process of editing and polishing the manuscript, exploring different routes to publication, and how to launch and promote a book.
While the course focuses mainly on longform narratives about beer and pubs (e.g. history, travel, memoir, in-depth discussion/argument), it also covers coffee table/illustrated books (e.g. structured lists of beers to drink/pubs to visit.)
Learning Outcomes
There’s no “magic fix” to becoming a published author. But this course will unveil the secrets, of the publishing industry and help you decide which is the best route to follow to publication for our particular book. You will:
- Know how to finish and edit a manuscript
- Be able to decide which publishing approach is right for your particular book
- Have a clear idea how to go about self-publishing, and/or approaching publishers
- Have ideas for how to promote and publicise your book
Outline
- Editing
- Why you definitely need an editor, no matter how good you think you are
- Structural edit, line edit, copy edit
- Different types of publishers – pros and cons
- Mainstream – big and small
- Vanity publishing
- Self-publishing
- Unbound
- Approaching publishers
- Choosing the right rote for your book
- Writing the proposal
- Do you need an agent?
- A brief look at self-publishing
- Overview of mechanics and routes to market
- Launching the book
- Pre-launch publicity and selling in
- The launch event
- Reviews
- Promotional activity
Interactive elements
As this course is about broad scope rather than specific writing skills, there will be no practical exercises. But attendees will be encouraged to share and talk about their own projects if they are happy to do so. There will also be ample time for Q&A.
Supporting materials
The course will be delivered as a talk aided by PowerPoint slides, which will be made available to attendees after the course. As the proposal to publishers is such a key aspect of getting published, Pete will also share two proposals for books that have now been published. Attendees will also be given a discount code for Pete’s new book, on which this course is based.
Course moderator
Pete Brown has written twelve books, mostly on the subject of beer and pubs. Eight of these have been shortlisted for awards, and five won those awards. Two books have been adapted for transmission as BBC Radio 4’s Book of the Week. While Pete’s books have mainly been published by large, mainstream publishers, he also has experience of small publishers, crowdfunded and self-published books.
Course attendees
Attendees should already be confident in their writing ability and ideally have produced a body of work such as feature articles or blog posts, which demonstrate a grasp of the fundamental writing skills. The people who will find this course most useful are those who have completed or almost completed a manuscript of a book the wish to publish, especially those who have not been published before. But there is something useful for anyone wishing to write a book.
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To reserve your place, visit our e-store. (Non-members must contact secretary@beerguild.co.uk to book on.)
Contact secretary@beerguild.co.uk with any questions.
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Cancellation policy: the course fee is non-refundable if notice of cancellation is received fewer than 5 working days before the course