Begins Sunday, December 6, 2026

Live Seminar via Zoom from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET

🌍 Class Times by Time Zone: Los Angeles (PST): 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM / Chicago (CST): 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM / New York (EST): 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM / London (GMT): 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM / Berlin (CET): 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Now Enrolling! Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button to talk with us.

Instructor Elise LeSage is a writer and educator based in North Carolina, where she earned her MFA in fiction from UNC Greensboro. She is an alum of the Tin House Summer Workshop, the Kenyon Summer Workshop, and Clarion UCSD. Her fiction has appeared in or is forthcoming in EPOCH, Hypertext Magazine, Flash Frog, PseudoPod, and elsewhere. Her craft essays have been featured in The Writers' Chronicle and Author's Publish Magazine. Elise has over three years of experience teaching creative writing. She also brings a working knowledge of the publishing industry from the inside: she has served as a submission reader for Forest Avenue Press, a marketing intern at Duke University Press, and a publishing intern at Brandylane Press, and she works as a book marketing freelancer for independently and traditionally published authors. Her work as a fiction educator emphasizes publication-readiness. She loves to help her students find their place in the literary ecosystem.

Who is this class for?

This online writing class is for fiction and creative nonfiction writers seeking traditional publication for their manuscripts. Open to all levels, this seminar serves both writers actively querying and writers with manuscripts still in progress. If you are tired of wading through the query trenches, this class will show you the routes you may not have considered.

What to expect:

Most publishing courses begin and end with the literary agent. But the agented route is only one of several paths to traditional publication, and for many manuscripts it is not the best fit. This online publishing seminar offers a behind-the-scenes look at all three major paths — literary agents, independent and small presses, and university presses — with sustained attention to the latter two, where the doors are more often open to unagented writers.

Over three hours, you will learn the working vocabulary and mechanics of the book industry: acquisitions, contracts, catalog positioning, distribution, publicity, lead time, advances and royalties, and where a book actually lives on a list. We will look closely at the different types of small presses and at the university presses that publish trade and crossover titles, walking each model from pitch through production to post-launch life. You will learn the green flags that signal a healthy press and the red flags worth pausing over — and how to read the terms of any publishing offer with clear eyes before you sign.

This creative writing course draws on the instructor's experience across academic, independent, and hybrid publishing, and on original interviews she conducted for this class with editors and publishers at Running Wild Press, the University of Minnesota Press, Bull City Press, and Scuppernong Editions. Their answers to the question most writers want to ask — what should authors know before pitching to you? — are built directly into the seminar. As a live Zoom writing class, there is also room for the questions you can only ask in real time: whether a clause is standard, whether a press is the right home for your particular book. You will leave with three things you keep: a masterlist of small and university presses open to unagented submissions, a one-page worksheet for evaluating any press you encounter later, and a clear articulation of your own publishing priorities.

What are the writing goals?

This is a non-generative seminar; there is no manuscript submission and no instructor feedback on student writing. Instead, students will complete an in-class exercise defining their own publishing priorities — the questions of editorial attention, marketing reach, production quality, and press values that determine which publisher is genuinely right for a given book. Every student leaves with three take-home resources: a curated masterlist of small and university presses open to unagented submissions, organized by genre and niche; a one-page press evaluation worksheet built from the red and green flags covered in class, including the questions to ask a publisher before signing; and their completed publishing priorities worksheet.

Readings

There is no required reading. Students may be interested in Laura Stanfill's "Imagine a Door" and Joe Biel's "A People's Guide to Publishing."

COURSE OUTLINE

Publishing Key Terms: The vocabulary you will encounter in contracts, catalogs, and conversations with editors — distribution, front/back/mid-list, advances and royalties, ARCs, lead time, and more.

Paths to Publishing, an Introduction: An overview of the publishing landscape, including agented and Big Five publication, small presses, university presses, and hybrid models, with the advantages and limitations of each.

University Press Publication: A detailed look at the types of university presses, how they acquire, and their production cycle — from pitch tips through post-launch life, including how to position trade and crossover manuscripts for academic outlets.

Small Press Publication: A detailed look at the types of small presses, how they acquire, and their production cycle — from pitch tips through post-launch life.

Small Presses: Red and Green Flags: How to evaluate a press before you approach it and how to read an offer before you accept it, including the questions every writer should ask a publisher prior to signing.

Building Your Publishing Network: How to meet and stay in contact with publishers, at conferences and conventions and online.

In-Class Exercise: Your Publishing Priorities: Define what you actually need from a publisher before you begin approaching them.

Take-Home Worksheet and Masterlist: Your press evaluation one-pager and a curated list of small and university presses open to unagented submissions.

COURSE TAKEAWAYS:

• A working knowledge of the publishing landscape and the vocabulary to navigate it, from acquisitions and contracts to distribution and sales
• A curated masterlist of small and university presses open to unagented submissions, organized by genre and niche
• A one-page press evaluation worksheet you can apply to any publisher you encounter, long after the class ends
• The red flags and green flags to look for when researching presses, and the questions to ask a publisher before signing
• Insight from working editors and publishers at Running Wild Press, the University of Minnesota Press, Bull City Press, and Scuppernong Editions on what they want to see from writers who pitch them
• A clear sense of your own publishing priorities and which path best supports your long-term writing career

PAYMENT OPTIONS:

Tuition is $99 USD. You can pay for the course in full or use Shop Pay or Affirm to pay over time with equal Monthly Payments. Both options are available at checkout.

ONLINE COURSE STRUCTURE:

• Instructor: Elise LeSage
• Begins Sunday, December 6, 2026
• Class will meet for one live session via Zoom on Sunday, December 6, from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM ET
• Tuition is $99 USD.