From Manuscript to Book
You’ve written a book, or you’re close to finishing. But the path from manuscript to publication can be opaque, isolating, and often discouraging.
From Manuscript to Book is a small cohort designed to help serious writers prepare their work for agents, editors, and real publication opportunities.
Chelsea Hodson will mentor participants through instruction and editorial feedback, while private meetings with literary agents Alexandra Franklin and Danielle Bukowski wll provide real-world publishing perspective.
Each participant will receive:
A 15-minute one-on-one meeting with literary agent Danielle Bukowski (of Sterling Lord Literistic), including review and discussion of your query letter
A 15-minute one-on-one meeting with literary agent Alexandra Franklin (of Curtis Brown, Ltd.), including review and discussion of your query letter
Line edits on the first 50 pages of your manuscript from Chelsea Hodson
Detailed feedback on your query letter from Chelsea Hodson
A 2-hour lecture and discussion on query letters and the submission process taught by Chelsea Hodson
A 45-minute one-on-one meeting with Chelsea Hodson to discuss your submission strategy
All sessions take place over Zoom. Cohort is limited to 12 writers.
This course is best suited for writers who:
Have completed (or nearly completed) a manuscript
Are preparing to query (or are already querying) literary agents
Want professional feedback from both an editor and two literary agents
Want more resources and advice on the submission process
Writers who have not completed a manuscript are also welcome to join if you’re ready to write a query letter and discuss your book with agents.
Feel free to email chelseahodsoneditorial@gmail.com with any questions about if this cohort is right for you.
About your instructor:
Chelsea Hodson is the author of Tonight I’m Someone Else, published by Henry Holt, and she also runs the independent press Rose Books, so she’s familiar with multiple different paths to publication. She is the founder of Morning Writing Club, a global writing community where she has hosted over 100 individual agent meetings.
Through her work as a writer, editor, and publisher, she has edited dozens of books that went on to secure agents and book deals.
About the visiting literary agents:
Alexandra Franklin joined Curtis Brown in 2023 as an associate in the dramatic rights department and as an associate agent in the books department. She was previously an assistant at Writers House and then an associate agent at Vicky Bijur Literary Agency. She holds an MFA in poetry from The New School. Alexandra is particularly interested in upmarket and literary fiction, narrative nonfiction and memoir, and select literary YA.
Danielle Bukowski (Sterling Lord Literistic) represents critically acclaimed, award-winning fiction and nonfiction. She is particularly looking for narratives from writers traditionally excluded from the publishing industry. For fiction, she likes books that balance plot with voice, have a strong sense of place, a unique hook, and are stylistically bold; for nonfiction, she’s looking for work grounded in the author’s personal interest, rigorously reported and researched, and will expand the reader’s view of the world. Recent and forthcoming books Voyagers by Meg Charlton (Harper), the Lambda Literary Award Finalist Alligator Tears: A Memoir in Essays by Edgar Gomez (Crown), the horror novel Observer by Nicholas Russell (Ecco), and I Leave it Up to You by Jinwoo Chong (Ballantine).
Each participant will meet individually with both Alexandra and Diane to receive feedback on their query letter and ask questions.
About the timing of this course:
The 2-hour lecture by Chelsea Hodson will be held on Saturday, May 16 from 10AM-12PM Pacific / 1-3PM Eastern and will be recorded for anyone that can’t attend live.
The one-on-one meetings with Chelsea Hodson, Danielle Bukowski, and Alexandra Franklin will be scheduled throughout late May and all of June 2026. So, each participant will schedule three separate meetings to align with their personal availability.
By the end of this program you will:
Have a professionally edited first 50 pages
Have a polished query letter ready to send
Understand the agent landscape and submission strategy
Have met directly with two literary agents
Know your next concrete steps toward publication
Any questions?
Write to Chelsea Hodson directly at chelseahodsoneditorial@gmail.com with any questions about this course.
