The Academy Offers Rolling Admissions
Created from neuroscientific research at Stanford University, Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health, the Academy uses a cutting-edge method to grow your writing to unprecedented heights. Drawing out your singular genius and innate talent, you will create incredibly unique work that takes risks and makes the world take notice. This program believes in full access to little-known craft tools, agents’ names, publishing resources, and the truth about how to write proposals and queries that win you the book deal. Our authors have more book deals per capita than any other writing program in the world.
Spend a year immersed in a program that can take your book from the bloom of that first idea all the way to the finished draft. In this one-of-a-kind, transformative online experience, you will finally find the accountability, the connections and the guidance you need to move you to the point of publication and beyond. With mentorship from New York’s top agents, critically-acclaimed authors and publicity experts, this ten-month-long program will guide you in creating a book that’s ready to sell big on the world stage.
Writers who have graduated from the Gateless Academy have been repped by literary agencies such as Park and Fine, Writer’s House, Inkwell, William Morris, Aevitas Creative, DeFiore & Company, and Carol Mann. Academy writers have signed book deals with HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House, St. Martin’s Press and more. They have been profiled in top media outlets, including The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Business Insider, O Magazine, the Today Show and Rolling Stone Magazine, and appear year after year on best-of lists profiling books that change the world.
Built by creatives for creatives, the Academy offers a cross-section of online and live programming that includes incredible curricula and live conference calls that give you access to award-winning luminaries, a community with which to discuss your work-in-progress, and to Suzanne, one of the top developmental editors in the country. The curricula includes 100+ hours of private seminars detailing how to build your book, the map to revision, how to get an agent and publisher, and how to build the elusive author platform.
The Academy accepts non-fiction and fiction writers looking to build thriving writing careers. Writers enter at any stage of the writing journey and include novelists, memoirists, journalists, content creators, corporate olympians, healing arts therapists and more. You will be amongst a community of alumni who are media favorites, best-selling writers, branding consultants, award-winning screenwriters and Grammy-nominated songwriters. They are here to encourage you during the entirety of your writing career.
~ Deepa Purushothaman, critically-acclaimed author of The First, the Few, the Only: How Women of Color Can Redefine Power in Corporate America
Built from some of the highest literary minds in the world, the Academy’s core craft seminars include 100+ hours. They have moved writers from first drafts to six-figure offers from Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Henry Holt, Little Brown, St. Martin’s Press and more. These seminars are with you throughout the year to build the book from the bottom up, including never-before-heard intel on critical blocks, platform-building, the query, the proposal and the book deal. Established writers who are Academy alums have said the seminars remain critical touchpoints throughout their lives as authors.
During your ten-month journey, you will meet with luminaries from both the creative and the business side of publishing, who will help massage your journey to the completed manuscript. Previous luminaries include multi-genre authors who have hit best-seller lists, comedic writers who have graced the nation’s largest stages, talented film script advisors, literary agents, and media favorites. Many of the faculty have been through the Academy themselves and found success on the other side. Available exclusively for Academy writers, they meet with us for intensives throughout the year to explain how to create the platform and proposal, and land the agent of your dreams.
Enter the Academy by applying below. Acceptance gives you access to the Gateless Writing Academy portal. Here is your extensive library of luminary calls, craft sessions, access to over 100+ hours of in-depth craft seminars with Suzanne. Meet the writers in your literary community, find answers to how to move forward with the first draft, the query, the proposal and the sale. Here is where you will find up-to-date intel on the schedule, live sessions with Suzanne and time with bestselling writers, agents, publishers. All live sessions are recorded and you may send questions ahead of time. We can’t wait to meet you there!
View Syllabus HERE.
View Luminaries HERE.
View Alumni HERE.
~ Kate Gray, Pushcart Prize nominee and author of the critically acclaimed novel, Carry the Sky
A membership in the New Rules Studio, offering live Gateless Writing salons, founded by award-winning writer and speaker Terri Trespicio, is included in your Academy experience. Three times a week you will have the opportunity to write, live, with Gateless-trained teachers. This globally-recognized writing room is led by award-winning novelists and inspiring non-fiction writers. Once you are accepted into the Academy, you can decide when you want to come to the Studio and how often. It is always there for you. Supporting, inspiring, and reenergizing, these focused, prompted writing sessions help you get an incredible amount done in a condensed amount of time.
During the ninth month of the Academy, as you move out into the world, you will have a month’s free access to our media darling, Amber Petty. Amber is fast becoming THE guide to getting your work placed with celebrated media including The New York Times, WIRED, Forbes, Bustle, CNN, Greatist and more. This membership gives you access to pitching and platform-building that really works. This is available to all accepted Academy students during the month of June.
~ Bren McClain, winner of the William Faulkner – William Wisdom Writing Prize and author of the critically acclaimed, One Good Mama Bone
After working for over twenty-four years in the publishing industry, first as a bestselling writer and then as an industry insider, it became clear to me: Writers need an oasis.
We need our own literary home.
A decade ago, I created the Gateless Academy for writers with a unique story to tell. Now, we are one of the most comprehensive book-building programs in the world with writers from all over the globe represented by the best literary agents and published by Henry Holt, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hatchette and more.
You don’t have to feel overwhelmed as you birth your book. Here is a portal of unbridled support, industry intel, network connections, and the craft and revision tools to bring you from the raw draft, to the very best agent for your book.
You were born to write. And this can be one of the most exciting experiences of your life. Together we will demystify the process and let rise the incredible genius you hold inside.
Can’t wait to meet you!!!
~ Melanie Maure, expert counsellor, coach and author of Sisters of Belfast,
repped by Aevitas Creative and published by HarperCollins
The Academy is built by writers for writers, entrepreneurs, doctors, moms, anyone who has a life and also wants to write fantastic content (books, essays, stories etc…). It is elastic and flexible and still offers you something every week, so that you can dip in. We offer intimate calls with luminaries each month and sessions with Suzanne so that you can talk about your work. The times of the sessions vary (the schedule will come to you once you are accepted) so that all are able to attend at some point. These calls are also recorded and sent right to your inbox.
The craft seminars are in the Academy portal and are recorded. Built from the highest literary minds in the country, these seminars are all-inclusive and presented like a podcast, so you can listen at any time when you want and need them. Written summaries remind you of the key points. These are released monthly and you have access to them for the entire ten months of the program.
We provide live, virtual Gateless Writing salons in the New Rules Studio; salons are offered three times a week so that you can find a time that works for your schedule. Amber Petty has live programming and records everything as well.
You will find the craft seminars in the portal along with the entire archive and library of the Gateless Academy. New seminars are released each month. These hold your hand through the process of creating incredibly high-end writing that moves a crowd. You will be able to listen to the sessions at your leisure, as they are set up like a podcast. Written summaries show you the key points so you can review anytime you like while you are writing and revising. These craft seminars take you through critical blocks, the rough draft, how to begin, end, handle description, timing, scene, chapter, the book proposal, the agent, the sale and the platform. You will find absolutely everything you need. View our syllabus HERE.
From top agents, to world-renowned authors and experts on breaking the cycle of the inner-critic, the Academy luminaries are generous, mission-driven writers who have surpassed all odds to find themselves on the world-stage with books that change lives. As an Academy writer, you will be introduced to literary luminaries from the genres of memoir, fiction, how-to and short-form publishing once a month in live calls throughout the year. During these in-depth, hour-long sessions you will gain an expanded and comprehensive understanding of craft, the creative process, the industry and the inner critic, including what it takes to write an internationally recognized title. We shift luminaries each year to meet the demands and needs of our current Academy writers. See a sample of past luminaries HERE.
It’s alright if you can’t come. Everything is recorded: seminars, luminary calls and sessions with Suzanne; dip in anytime. Just enter the Academy portal with the password you are given after acceptance and you will find all the content there.
DATES
The Academy portal officially opens October 23 with rolling admission continuing until December 15. Because the Academy tends to fill early, please apply HERE as early as you can.
PAYMENT
The Gateless Academy is underwritten by an anonymous angel investor who is part of the Gateless teachers community and supports libraries and literary arts organizations across New England. This helps Gateless offer the full Academy program for less than 50 percent of what the program would normally cost with the option of payment plans for every writer.
The Academy payment includes:
The cost is $6,500 for the academic year (a long payment plan is available). An initial deposit of $1,500 holds your space. The remaining $5,000 can be paid after the first seminars are released.
Alternatively, after the initial $1,500 deposit is made, the writer can pay $500 a month for ten months.
If you choose the second option of paying monthly, there will be a small processing fee each month. Payments may be made by check, Venmo or PayPal. The Academy cost is tax deductible.
~ Daintry Jensen, MA, author of the critically acclaimed, The Hidden Forest
