The Pro Series is IP’s developmental program of workshops and mentoring designed to assist authors of promise to produce publishable work.

In its initial stages during 2007, Dr David Reiter, Director, and Lauren Daniels, Prose Editor, IP, will offer several workshops in Brisbane at Red Hill TAFE and in regional Queensland based on popular courses they have run elsewhere. By early 2008, a full program will be launched, including physical and virtual courses, podcasts and mentorships. Physical courses will be run by experts resident in South-east Queensland or visiting here; virtual courses can and will be handled by experts anywhere.

We decided to mount the Pro Series after years of experience showed us that writers weren’t getting what they needed from conventional workshops, assessment services, mentoring programs, or even university courses. Authors need professional advice geared specifically to getting their work published by commercially oriented publishers like IP.

Pro Series workshops will provide authors with the tools necessary to refine their work to the marketplace rather than being oriented to the tastes of a specific lecturer or tutor. Pro Series workshop leaders and mentors are chosen not only for their ability to teach but also the essentials of lifting a manuscript into a work that demands publication.

The Pro Series difference is that we determine where authors are in their writing development then design an integrated program of courses to ensure they achieve their objectives as quickly as possible.

The Pro Series will run in physical mode via workshops, one-to-one mentorships or in virtual mode via online short courses (text and/or podcasts) and email. Thus it will be ideal for people who by virtue of work commitments or where they live find it difficult to attend physical workshops.

Authors will have their writing readiness assessed at the outset before being referred to courses and activities they need to achieve their writing goals. Once you’ve completed your program, we’ll send you a Certificate of Completion.

Here’s the way the Pro Series works.

The Inside Track. If you’re thinking of taking our workshops you should sign up for an Inside Track consultation. This can be in person or by email. Typically, an Inside Track session runs for an hour, and you bring a synopsis of the work you intend to write, a sample for us to discuss, and any questions you might have about the writing and publishing process.

We follow up the meeting with a snapshot assessment of your project’s readiness for publication and a recommendation of where you should go from here. This could include: getting the work formally assessed via our IP Assess program; a list of recommended Pro Series workshops or online courses you should take; inviting you to sign up for a mentorship.

Quick-start courses. These are entry level workshops that cover the fundamentals of writing. They focus on problem areas experienced by many emerging authors and dispelling myths about the writing process, for example, the view that an author only has one voice.

Intermediate courses. These are for authors who have the basic skills but need advanced work on the technical aspects of working in a particular genre or with a particular element in story or poetic design. For example, how to adapt “real speech” into credible fictional dialogue. Or how to select events from a subject’s life that will make them suitable for treatment in a biography.

Master Classes. Authors bring advanced drafts of work for workshopping in no-holds barred small group sessions led by veteran authors.

Mentorships. Authors work with specialists on a specific project that we judge to be promising but not quite ready for publication. A mentorship contract will be for an initial period of 10 hours but it can be extended by mutual agreement of the mentor and mentee. When the mentorship is finished, the mentor reports to IP on the mentee’s progress, commenting on the project’s readiness for publication.

Read reviews of recent Pro Series workshops.

Interested in becoming a Pro Series Author? Click here.

Interested in leading a workshop or acting as a mentor? Click here.

Find out what’s on!