Crafting Your Scholarly Book
An 8-week online workshop to help you
identify a strong argument and structure for your book
and develop a writing practice
that will sustain you through your revision process
Workshop Runs May 19–July 11, 2025 and costs $1200*
*Sign up by Feb. 15 for a 20% discount or by Apr. 15 for a 10% discount
Enrollment Opens January 15, 2025
Many of my clients want some help solidifying their books’ foundations before they get deep into their revisions.
Whether you’re revising your dissertation or working on a second or third book, I’ve designed this 8-week online workshop to provide editorial guidance, a supportive community, and accountability to you as you focus intensively on your book’s argument and structure. Our primary curriculum for the book development component of the workshop will be the brilliant Dissertation-to-Book Workbook by Katelyn Knox and Allison Van Deventer. By the end of the workshop, you’ll have created a 2-page book narrative to guide your future revisions (which you’ll also be able to draw on when you write your book proposal). This narrative will be based on the careful thought you’ve put into your book’s evidence base, scope, organizing principle, narrative arc, argument, and claim to significance.
By the end of the workshop, you’ll also have refined and expanded your “toolbox” of strategies for making meaningful progress on your book revisions on a week-to-week basis. Through reflective exercises, coaching, and video lessons, the workshop will support you in developing a writing practice that works for your life and that will help keep you on track with your goals.
You’ll need to have drafted material corresponding to at least 50% of a rough draft to be able to work through the Dissertation-to-Book Workbook exercises effectively, so that you have a substantial body of concrete material to work with. This “draft” could be your dissertation; it could be a series of journal articles and conference papers; it could be a very messy preliminary manuscript draft; or it could be a fairly polished manuscript draft, if you aren’t yet confident about your book’s overarching argument, chapter arguments, or organization.
You can schedule a 20-minute call with Ellen to learn more about whether the workshop would be a good fit for your needs. And keep reading this page for information about the weekly meetings and course topics.
Each section of the workshop will be capped at 8 participants. The weekly Zoom meetings (except for the coaching and co-writing sessions) will be recorded and shared on a private forum, so you can watch the replay if you can’t attend live.
Sections
I am planning to hold two sections again. Section 1 will meet late morning/midday Eastern time (from 11:30 am to 12:45 pm EDT for the Monday and Thursday calls and from 10:00 am to 11:45 am EDT for the Tuesday cowriting session) and Section 2 will meet in the morning in East Asia (on Tuesdays and Thursdays from around 9:30 to 10:45 am in Japan and 8:30 to 9:45 am in China).
Weekly Zoom Meetings
Mondays (for section 1), Tuesdays (for section 2):
A 60-minute “intro call” in which 1) we share challenges and discoveries from the previous week, 2) I introduce both the “writing practice” and Dissertation-to-Book Workbook exercises for the week, and 3) I give a brief presentation on a topic related to book revisions or the publishing process (see the topics under the workshop outline below) and answer participant questions.
An optional 15-minute meeting support & accountability session (immediately following the intro call) for participants to set writing goals for the week & discuss their previous week’s goals.
Tuesdays (for section 1 only):
105-minute co-writing sessions (for both workshop participants and workshop alumni). I hold the weekly co-writing session on Tuesday mornings (10:00 to 11:45 Eastern).
Thursdays (for both sections):
Every other week, I’ll lead a 75-minute group coaching session focused on the “writing process” topics for that two-week period. On the weeks without the coaching session, I will hold a 60-minute Q&A session, followed by a 15-minute block for one-on-one consultations (participants can reserve this block in advance).
Video Lessons, Coaching Exercises, & Discussion Forum
Additionally, I’ll provide:
Video lessons each week with strategies, reflections, and resources pertinent to the week’s “writing process” topic. (Each lesson is 20–30 minutes in length.)
A workbook with exercises and reflective prompts for each of the video lessons as well as a curated list of additional resources for academic writers.
An online forum with discussion threads where you can check in, ask questions, or share thoughts about the Dissertation-to-Book exercises or the “writing process” topics. (You can also email me with questions if you prefer not to post in the forum.)
Please note: one reason I cap the total number of participants in the workshop is that I provide fairly extensive responses to participant questions.
Ideally you might devote at least 7 hours (and up to 14 hours) per week to this course (5–10 hours per week for the exercises and an additional 2–4 hours per week for workshop meetings, coaching sessions, Q&A, and participation in discussion threads). But you can always circle back to the lessons & workshop materials if things come up.
Outline for Workshop
Your core tasks each week (outside of the group meetings) will be to work through the assigned chapters in The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook and listen to my video lessons (20–30 minutes in length) on the writing process topics. If you’d like, you can also complete the optional exercises that I created for each of the video lessons.
WEEK 1
Book Development: “Considering Your Book on Its Own Terms” (workbook chapter 1) and “Reviewing Your Book’s Organizing Principle” (chapter 2)
Writing Process: Cultivating strong BASE writing habits (behavioral, artisanal, social, and emotional habits) and bringing pleasure into the writing process. Using easing-into-writing and end-of-session rituals to make it easier to get started each day.
Introductions: During the intro call during the first week, we will spend some time introducing ourselves and (time permitting) doing a brief writing exercise on what we each hope to learn or accomplish during the workshop.
WEEK 2
Book Development: “Drafting Your First Book Question” (chapter 3), “Drafting Your Remaining Book Questions” (chapter 4), and “Revising Your Book Questions” (chapter 5)
Writing Process: Managing your inner critic. Overcoming procrastination and easing any tension you feel about writing.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: Understanding the core differences between a book chapter and a journal article (and what you would need to do to adapt an article to work as a chapter or vice versa).
WEEK 3
Book Development: “Assessing Your Chapters on Their Own Terms” (chapter 6), “Checking Your Chapters for Parallelism” (chapter 7), and “Crafting Your Book’s Narrative Arc” (chapter 8)
Writing Process: Setting effective goals. Breaking your project into small tasks and setting up a system to manage those tasks. Realistically estimating how long various tasks will take so you can create a plan and timeline for your revisions.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: “Reverse planning” and understanding typical timelines for publishing a book.
WEEK 4
Book Development: Second week on “Assessing Your Chapters on Their Own Terms” (chapter 6), “Checking Your Chapters for Parallelism” (chapter 7), and “Crafting Your Book’s Narrative Arc” (chapter 8)
Writing Process: Figuring out a good structure and rhythm for your workweek. Maintaining motivation.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: Thinking about word counts for sections, chapters, and books and figuring out effective section headings, chapter titles, and book titles.
WEEK 5
Book Development: “Producing Your Chapter Answers” (chapter 9) and “Revising Your Chapter Answers as a Group and Refining Your Book Questions” (chapter 10)
Writing Process: Protecting writing time in your schedule and setting boundaries.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: Citing confidently (a preview of chapter 16 in the workbook).
WEEK 6
Book Development: Second week on “Producing Your Chapter Answers” (chapter 9) and “Revising Your Chapter Answers as a Group and Refining Your Book Questions” (chapter 10)
Writing Process: Protecting your focus. Managing your email efficiently and minimizing distraction in your workday.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: Understanding book proposals; drawing on the “big-picture” conceptual work you’ve done as you draft your proposal.
WEEK 7
Book Development: “Reviewing Your Book’s Changes and Tying Up Loose Ends” (chapter 11) and “Assembling Your Book Argument” (chapter 12)
Writing Process: Getting unstuck at various stages of the writing process.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: Making use of the “big-picture” conceptual work you’ve done on your book as you revise an individual chapter (a preview of chapters 14 and 15 in the workbook).
WEEK 8
Book Development: “Assembling Your Two-Page Book Narrative” (chapter 13). Drawing on your book narrative to revise your chapters or draft a book proposal. Making your book approachable for a broader audience.
Writing Process: Handling both constructive and less-than-constructive criticism. Asking for the feedback you need for the writing stage you are in.
Topic for Mini-Presentation during Intro Call: Working with an editor and understanding the different types of editing.
BONUS
Additionally, during the week following the end of the workshop (“week 9”), there will be a final Q&A session during the usual “intro session” times for anybody who wants to ask me any final questions.
Once each semester, I will offer an “editorial Q&A” call for workshop alumni (both at a time that works for people in the Americas and Europe and at a time that will work for people in East Asia) where I will answer broad questions about book manuscripts, the revision process, and publishing. (If there’s a question I can’t answer, I’ll tap into my network and do my best to get an answer for you!)