January Online Class: Take Control of Your Career as an Indie Author
Instructor: James Rada
Find all the details here:
Take Control of Your Career as an Indie Author with James Rada - 1/7/2025
Course Details:
This class begins with a look at the advantages of becoming an indie author, and how you can make money. We will then look at getting your manuscript ready. This is your product. You have to put it together. This not only means getting it professionally edited but formatted with a cover. We’ll talk about how to get all these done and whether it’s worth it to do yourself or hire someone.
Once the manuscript is ready, we look at choosing your printer. Do you go offset or POD? Hardback, paperback, and/or ebook? How do you compare the pricing? With a product and a way to get it to market, we’ll look at the basics of selling your book. However, marketing can be a class on its own. This will get you started down the right path for you.
Finally, we’ll go over the business basics you need to run your business, and yes, being an indie author is being a business owner. By the time the class is done, you will have a good overview of what you need to do to start maximizing your income as an author.
February Online Class: The Idea Factory: A Genre-Hopping Writing Workshop
Instructor: Diana Botsford
Read all the details and register at this link:
The Idea Factory: A Genre-Hopping Writing Workshop w/Diana Botsford - 2/4/2025
Course Details
This four-week online course explores the expectations and anticipations of three major fiction genres: speculative (science fiction/fantasy/horror), romance, and mystery/thriller. Participants will engage in on-demand lectures, in-class exercises, and live workshop sessions. The course begins with an introductory week focused on general writing principles and genre exploration with in-class writing exercises, followed by three weeks of genre-specific workshops. Each participant will craft two original premises and provide critiques for two others, resulting in a collaborative and intensive learning experience.
March Online Class: Using Serials to Build Your Audience and Increase Sales
Instructor: James Rada
Read all the details and register at this link:
Using Serials to Build Your Audience and Increase Sales w/James Rada - 3/6/2025
Course Details
E-books did more than create an additional stream of revenue for authors, they revitalized certain forms of writing and made them profitable in a way they weren’t with traditional published. One of those revitalized forms of writing was the serial or publishing a story in installments that connected form one larger story.
Serials have a rich history with some classic novels having first been discovered by readers as a serial. They fell out of favor, primarily because of economics, but with the rise of e-books, they have been rediscovered. In fact, Kindle Vella is an entire publishing arm of the industry leader in e-books dedicated to serials.
However, serials, like other forms of writing, have their own set of best practices. These aren’t necessarily rules, they are things an author can do to create a story readers will enjoy and keep coming back to for new installments.
Besides having some different writing techniques, serials also have different ways they can be marketed to increase sales.
This course will explore both how to write engaging serials through interesting characters and gripping cliffhangers. Then it will move on to how to publish the serials and market in a way continue bringing in royalties for years to come.
April Online Class: Those First Few Lines - A Workshop on Openings
Instructor: Timons Esaias
Read all the details and register at this link:
Those First Few Lines - A Workshop on Openings w/Timons Esaias - 4/1/2025
Course Details
You already know how a story starts, you've seen hundreds of them. Still, it can be intimidating, so we'll review four key methods. We'll actually try them out on your current project, so you'll leave with more possibilities than you can use.
The four methods we'll use are Begin at the End, Drop the Reader in the Middle, The Dramatic Line, and Nailing Down the Premise. Some field recons will be suggested, and personal feedback will be provided.
All genres of fiction, from Literary to Horror, are welcome. Except stories about the sport of competitive anemone painting. Nobody needs that.