friday workshops

workshop summaries

12 Months to Quit
Steffanie Holmes

Are you writing and publishing like mad but feel like you aren’t making progress? Are you struggling to find ways to market your books? Do you do ALL THE THINGS but aren’t seeing the success you crave?

Join romance author Steff Holmes as she shows you how to create the plan, the tools, and the mindset to rock your writing dreams. 

In the morning, Steff will take you on a journey through the current world of publishing, showing you the strategies she uses and teaches to help authors sell more books, turn readers into superfans, and have fun doing it. We’ll cover 7 key areas:

Part 1: What does success look like to you?
Part 2: Tropes, trends, reader expectations.
Part 3: Writing for your future superfans.
Part 4: Packaging your words to sell.
Part 5: Growing your readership.
Part 6: Leveling up your career.
Part 7: Looking after yourself. 

In the afternoon, we’ll take everything we’ve just talked about and apply it to creating your own personal 12-month author strategy. 

This document will guide you over the next twelve months – it covers your writing, research, publishing, and marketing plan. Steff will share with you her own strategy documents and give you tons of examples and guidance to create a document that will not on. 

In the afternoon session, I will walk you through creating your own strategy for the next twelve months – with the goal of quitting your day job or levelling up your career. This will build on the techniques and concepts you learned in the morning sessions. We'll define your goals, look at what assets and strengths you already have, assess your biggest hurdles and the areas where you feel overwhelmed or uncertain, and build a plan you can get excited about. You’ll leave this session with a solid plan and buzzing with all the possibilities!

Anatomy of a Character 
Rachel Bailey

We’ll deep dive into character creation and change the way you approach writing your characters. From basics like backstory, dreams, fears, and voice, right through to advanced content, like character systems and an easy to apply reader engagement model, this workshop will take your characters to the next level. Rachel will provide a framework that will have readers cheering for your characters - and lining up for your next book.

Revisions: How to tackle them without the tears and tantrums
Pippa Roscoe

Though revisions are integral to the writing process they can often cause the most upset. But it doesn’t have to be that way! In this workshop we’ll explore what they are, why we find them so hard and offer practical ways of how to get them done. You’ll leave ready to tackle your revisions with a confidence and excitement that will not only make your manuscripts better but also your working relationship with your editor/publisher.

Romancing the media: how to score free publicity for your book
Penny Carroll & Maya Linnell

This lively workshop will demystify the world of media outreach for authors, both indie and trad-pubbed. We'll get you set up with the basics, such as preparing a media release; the dos and don'ts of reaching out to editors/journos; targeting the right outlets for your book and finding multiple angles in your story; and essentials for your media toolbox (good headphones, Zoom backdrop etc). Then we'll delve into the interview process (for print, radio and TV) - what to expect and how to manage nerves; how to deal with sticky questions and key points for encouraging romance-positive messaging; plus how to be your publicist's best wingman (for trad-pubbed authors). The presentation will include pre-recorded tips from industry insiders, including book publicists and media professionals. There will also be an opportunity for one or two willing participants to engage in a mock media interview to sharpen their skills, and we can ask a couple of participants to submit their media release ahead of the workshop to show them a practical before-and-after polish to create an attention-grabbing release. 

 Participants will leave with a cheat sheet for answering questions about the romance genre to ensure they have the tools to positively portray romance stories in the media.

workshop registrations

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