Quote of the Month
"One child, one teacher,
one book, one pen
can change the world."
- Malala Yousafzai
*Optional alteration - "One child OR child at heart..."
Last two weeks, we've seen photos of kids going back to school. And college kids moving in.
Have to say, we're a little bit jealous...
So, we created a "Back to School" curriculum of our own. A handful of creative writing classes designed to help people start, continue, restart, or finish writing their "long overdue" book.
For people who loved creative writing classes growing up, this is a return to that space. For people who didn't love those classes, our hope is to bring back a childlike love for telling stories.
Without further ado, here's a look at each class. For more info, email chris@longoverduebooks.com
Who's it for - Anyone with a big idea for a book, who hasn't started writing it yet.
End Goal - To write either the first page of the manuscript OR a 1-page outline for the book.
How it works - Three phone calls/Zoom calls over the course of 3-4 days.
Call 1 - Talk about your idea, brainstorm, decide if you'll pursue an outline or write a page.
Call 2 - Check-in. Go over any obstacles. Brainstorm some more if you're feeling stuck.
Call 3 - Review your finished page. Celebrate! Develop a plan for what to do next.
Cost - $99
Who's it for - Anyone who wants to record noteworthy stories from their life, or have a loved one record their stories, or record stories about a loved one who's no longer here.
End Goal - To go from, "We should really write these stories down," to having audio files and written transcripts. The goal for this class isn't to have a book ready by the end of it. It's to start that journey, whether that leads to a book, a shorter work, or an audio library of family stories.
How it works - We book an hour of time with you (or your loved one. Or it can be a group call) and hold an interview. Afterward, we send you the audio file and a written transcript.
Cost - $150 - $399. The $150 option is the interview + audio file. The $399 is for the interview, audio file, and edited transcript.
Who's it for - Anyone who has written a few chapters (or an outline) and now wants to finish a first draft, but not at the rapid pace of a 30-day challenge.
End Goal - Finish the first draft of your book.
How it works - These are 1-on-1 coaching sessions (virtual) rather than a whole class setting. Each call reviews a chapter you wrote the week before. This generally takes 8-12 meetings held over a 2-3 month period.
Cost - $600 - $1500. The price range comes down to page count. For example, a 10-page children's book is a much different lift than a 500-page novel.
This class has a pay-as-you-go model and, if your schedule changes and you need to step away, you can rejoin and pick up right where you left off. No need to order another class.
Who's it for - Anyone who has completed their first draft, but not working with an editor yet.
End Goal - To receive helpful, honest, and encouraging feedback from your peers (+ the Long Overdue team) that gives clear direction as you head into the revision process.
How it works - You pick 3-5 people to read your book. Optional: Pick someone from the Long Overdue team as well. We work with you to create a set of questions and send that to your readers to gather their feedback. From there, we make the feedback anonymous, organize it, and give you both big-picture and specific notes for your revisions/rewrites.
Cost - $600 - $1500. Similar to First Draft, the price range depends on page count. Also if you're adding a reader from the Long Overdue team into your Feedback Circle vs. only your peers.
Who's it for - If you've written a children's book manuscript but don't have any professional illustrators on speed dial.
End Goal - Work with a professional illustrator to bring your illustration ideas to life.
How it works - You work with the illustrator 1-on-1.
Cost - This one is the hardest to give a ballpark price. It all depends on number of illustrations, which illustrator you work with, their project load, and delivery time. But, generally speaking, if you want more than 10 illustrations, you're looking at the $5,000 range for this class/service.
We've worked with three incredible illustrators so far and would love to make an intro!
Author Deep Dive - Ted Lasso (Season 1)
Who's it for - People who love Ted Lasso, or have a friend who loves the show and keeps saying, "Seriously, you have to watch this right now," and/or people who just want to study great writing.
End Goal - Kind of a book club meets film class. The biggest goal is to take some lessons from the show's writing and bring it back into your own writing projects.
How it works - Every Tuesday night at 8 pm (starting October 11th) we'll meet at Barrel in Lakeview East, watch 2 episodes, discuss, and send ya off with a writing exercise. Six total meetups.
Cost - $99. (+ any drinks at Barrel)
Again, if you have any questions or you're interested in signing up for a class, email chris@longoverduebooks.com. If you do sign up, we'll kick things off with that first day of school photo. That's when you know it's official!
"Only took ya 31 newsletters to put me on the cover,
but hey, who's counting..."
- Crash, Team Dog
Keeping up with Long Overdue
Best place to keep up with all things Long Overdue is a tie between our monthly newsletter and our Instagram page (shoutout to Annie Cerovich!). If you enjoy this newsletter and know someone who might enjoy it as well, let us know, we'll make sure to add them to our subscriber list. We also got back on Facebook recently, you can follow us here.
And check out our website - Long Overdue Books. Long Overdue Books is a community for creating books. It's a place for authors, readers, editors, artists, and designers to come together and move their stories from ideas to finished books.
Next newsletter - Aiming for mid to late September. In the meantime if you have any questions, ideas, stories to tell, you can reach Cal the Librarian at - library@longoverduestories.com
