"Writers need supports on how to go from conceiving their idea to selling it to agents, publishers, and to readers across the world." - Neil Seeman, SCS instructor
One of SCS’s new courses being offered this spring is The Writer as Entrepreneur. We asked course instructor Neil Seeman to share a bit about the inspiration behind the course, and some of the benefits he feels it will bring to our learners.
SCS: “You’ve been an entrepreneur in different fields and an author. What inspired you to meld these different identities to teach a new course in the Creative Writing Program?”
Neil Seeman: “I saw that writers work harder and are more entrepreneurial than most start-up entrepreneurs I know. But writers need supports on how to go from conceiving their idea to selling it to agents, publishers, and to readers across the world. Writers face far tougher market tests than business entrepreneurs. It’s harder to secure a decent publishing deal than to secure venture capital. You have more high highs and low lows in any day as a writer. Rejection meets you at every turn. Steve Jobs said an entrepreneur seeks to dent the universe. That sounds like every writer I’ve known. It’s also Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Solzhenitsyn, Toni Morrison, and George Orwell.”
SCS: “What differentiates this course from others like it across the world?”
Neil Seeman: “First, I’m inviting students to reconsider authors like Mary Shelley and Dickens as struggling “ideas entrepreneurs”. Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities were vehicles for Dickens to advocate for social policy reform. Shelley rebuked prevailing social and scientific assumptions through the power of storytelling. Taking learners through the prickly path that the great authors before us took will humanize and make possible what may, at first, seem impossible. Second, I distill the work of great business strategists and entrepreneurs – like the late Clayton Christensen – into how to mould what I call a “baby-steps strategy” to meet an author’s personal goals. These goals will be different for each author. That may be landing an amazing agent or publisher, or amplifying one’s voice for a new, bigger stage across the world. A strategy will dictate how to allocate your scarce time and resources. Third, our intimate classroom will insist that we listen to one another, offering shareable insights into self-care amid periods of solitude and self-critique.”
SCS: “What other things can people learn from this course that they cannot learn from artificial intelligence or other existing courses?”
Neil Seeman: “Writing a book of meaning is a high-touch experience. A successful author needs to be vulnerable, to lie on an operating table under the gaze of agents, publicists, editors, publishers, distributors, reviewers, fans, and critics. You’ll learn to love the critics. Writing is the opposite of an anodyne interaction with an AI. Learners will have their individual strategic plans for their writing projects poked at by peers in class. Learners will emerge emboldened. I will hold learners accountable, just like a board of directors would hold any entrepreneur to account. That means ensuring that we design short- and long-term goals that are measurable and meaningful.”
Neil Seeman is teaching a new course at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies called “The Writer as Entrepreneur” — drawing on his work as a serial entrepreneur, writer, publisher, and mental health advocate. Learners will apply entrepreneurship, business strategy, and self-care principles to conceive, plan, and publish their book. The course runs May 7, 2024 - July 9, 202, in-class, Tuesdays, St. George Campus, 6:30 PM - 9:00 PM.