Most writing retreats give you a beautiful place and no time to work in it. You come home with a tan and three sentences.

We built ours the other way round. Mornings are for the craft. Afternoons are yours. And the island doing the inspiring is Amorgos — one of the quietest, most beautiful in the Cyclades, and the one we call home.

Here’s what a week at our writing retreat in Amorgos actually involves — the island, the work, who teaches it, and what’s included — so you can decide if it’s for you before you book.

Where you’ll be: Amorgos

Amorgos sits at the far edge of the Cyclades, past the crowds. No airport, which is exactly why it stays the way it is. You reach it by ferry, and the moment you do, the pace drops.

You stay six nights at Lakki Village, a family-run hotel in the Aegiali bay in the island’s green north end. We know it well — it’s run by family — so you’re looked after in a way a big resort can’t manage. Breakfast and dinner are included. A van handles the transfers on the island, so once you’re off the ferry, you don’t think about logistics again.

This is not a party island or a resort strip. It’s whitewashed villages, a monastery built into a cliff, mountain paths down to the sea, and the kind of quiet that gets writing done.

The writing comes first

Every genre of fiction is welcome. Thriller, crime, romance, fantasy, literary, historical — whatever you write, even memoirs. The masterclass is built around how stories work, so it meets you wherever you are.

You don’t need a finished manuscript. You don’t need a published one either. Come with a first draft, a stuck middle, or an idea you haven’t started. That’s fine.

Here’s how a day runs:

– Breakfast, 8 to 9:30. A proper Greek buffet.

– Writing session, 10 to 1. Craft, worked through with real examples and time to try it on your own pages.

– Afternoon, yours. Write, walk, swim, sleep, or book a one-on-one about your work and your career.

– Dinner around 8, then evenings on the craft — readings, honest feedback, publishing stories, how to find readers without spending a fortune.

Across the week we work through the things that actually move a manuscript: finding the core of your novel, pacing, cutting the filler, writing tension into any genre, self-editing so you save money before an editor ever sees it, and the publishing side — querying agents, self-publishing, cover design, and how to promote a book without shouting “buy my book” at everyone you know.

Who teaches it

Jonas Saul runs the craft and publishing sessions. He’s written more than 60 thrillers, sold over two million copies, and had his Sarah Roberts series optioned for screen by MadRiver Pictures. He also edits, so he reads pages the way an editor does — for structure, pace, and where a reader’s attention slips. The one-on-ones are an hour of that attention on your own work.

Rania Stone leads the marketing side. She co-runs Imagine Greece Retreats and Imagine Press, and she takes you through Promotion 101: social media without the burnout, landing pages, funnels, and the website basics every author needs. The part most writers avoid, made plain.

It’s not only writing

You’re on one of the most beautiful islands in Greece. We’d be mad to keep you indoors all week.

Built into the retreat:

– The village of Chora, with its old windmills still standing along the ridge.

– The 11th-century Hozoviotissa monastery, built into a sheer cliff above the sea — one of the oldest in Greece, and a genuine wonder.

– A guided walk on the mountain path from Tholaria to Lagada, two old villages with some of the best sea views on the island.

What it costs, and what’s in it

The writing retreat in Amorgos is €1,999. That covers all six nights at Lakki Village, daily breakfast and dinner, every session and one-on-one, the Chora and monastery visits, the village hike, your transfers on the island, and a gift bag.

It doesn’t cover your flights to Greece, your ferry to Amorgos, lunches, drinks, travel insurance, or the small hotel tax the Greek government charges on checkout. We keep that list honest, so there are no surprises when you arrive.

After the retreat, you don’t disappear on us. We stay in touch with video calls about your writing goals, and when your book comes out, we help push it across our platforms.

Is this you?

Come if you want a week that respects your time — real writing hours, real feedback, and an island worth the ferry. Come if you’ve been circling a novel for a year and need a room that makes you finish it.

Don’t come if you want a holiday with a bit of writing sprinkled on top. This is a working week in one of the quietest, most beautiful places we know.

The writing retreat in Amorgos runs **May 4–10, 2027**. We keep the group small on purpose, so spaces are limited.

Full details and booking are on our retreat page — [see dates and availability here]

Have a question first? Come find us in our Facebook community, Thriller Book Retreat / Solo Travel To Greece — we’ll answer it there.