What’s Planned for Courses into 2021?

NOTE: This post was updated April 15, 2021 to reflect changes in the calendar based on changing demographics and a first quarter survey of student needs. It also reflects updates on courses that have been removed from future offerings.

Our Live courses have been filling quickly in September and October. I’m so happy that people are loving the small class size of only seven participants. Based on the first three classes I offered, I think it’s the perfect size. Large enough to have a variety of experiences to share, and small enough that every student gets the answers they need and the one-on-one help to implement what they learn.

I’ve finalized the course schedule for November 2020 through April 2021. Check it out and see how they line up with what you have planned for your release schedule and what you need to learn.

Remaining Courses in 2020

The course on Building Your Email List and Engaging with Loyal Fans is something every author needs. Because of the crazy year we’ve all had I’ve decided to discount the course beginning November 5, 2020 course by $25. Now this course is only $50. Sign up quickly, as I suspect this will fill quickly. We will be skipping Thanksgiving week, Christmas Week, and New Years Day, so this seven-week course will complete in early January and you will be ready to go to build your list and get ready for your 2021 launches.

November 9, 2020 This is the perfect time to plan and set up your Book Launch Campaign for books you plan to release in the first half of 2021. Because it is only a four week course, you my even be able to launch a mid-December to New Years mini campaign for an early launch in January.

November 21, 2020 Communicating to Readers through Branding. This five-week course is one of the few I’m offering on a Saturday for those who can’t attend courses during the week. This course will help you create your brand and leverage it across four primary communication portals: text, visual, multi-media, and in-person. NOTE: This course has been removed from future scheduling and incorporated into the Foundations Bundle

2021 Winter Schedule

JANUARY
In the usually cold January I’m offering two courses for those authors who have more than a couple books. Both are courses I often hear mid-list authors requesting. These are the first time I’m offering these new options.

January 6, 2021 Start the new year off delving into how to choose, setup, run and evaluate Paid Advertising campaigns. This course is about starting small, learning the ropes, and limiting your ad spend to less than $1,500 per year while still getting good ROI. It includes Facebook, Amazon, and BookBub ads.

January 14, 2021 What better time than a new year to be thinking about Reviving Your Backlist. All mid-list authors have those books they wrote two, three, or more years ago. They are good books, often a series that sold well at that time, but have been abandoned or fallen off in sales as you’ve continued to create new products. This five-week course will guide you through reviving your backlist books to not only shine and sell again; but to work hard for your front list books as well.

FEBRUARY AND MARCH

As winter starts reaching for spring, I’m focusing on the foundation courses for those just starting out with their first one or two books. Three foundational courses are critical for most new writers–whether independent or traditionally published. Because these are foundational, I’m also offering them in a package deal that gives you 40% off when you bundle them all together. These courses are:

February 6, 2021 Learn about the concept of your Book “Value” and how that impacts your ability to market it more effectively.  This includes capitalizing on what is unique about you as a writer, including: “reader cookies;” your core story; and your writer voice.

February 27, 2021 Now that you know what your book has to offer that is unique, you can better Define Your Reader Audience. This course will help you determine who are the most likely people to buy your book and how you can reach them, so they know you exist and have the books they crave.

March 20, 2021 With your book value and reader audience clear, you’ve been already building expectations. So, the final course in this package is the one where you put it all together and distribute your book in print, ebook, and maybe even audiobook. The Book Distribution Secrets course takes that knowledge and translates it into capitalizing on competitive retail pricing in different markets, using effective metadata to draw more readers to your book buy pages on various vendors (Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Google), and exploiting vendor platform nuances to distribute in the best way possible for your book(s).

NOTE: All three above courses have been removed from the schedule and incorporated into the Foundations Bundle

2021 Spring Schedule

With spring comes higher expectations and one of the most productive times of the sales calendar year. That is why I’ve scheduled more nuanced marketing and new product courses during this time of year.

April 8, 2021 The Foundations Course. This course combines several courses into one to make for a more continuous package. I learned that students would rather take one comprehensive course and schedule the time than take three separate courses. This course incorporates: defining your brand and your voice; finding your audience based on your brand and voice; creating copy and artwork to express your offerings; the steps for publishing and distributing your book effectively; and an introduction to the importance of SEO and metadata required at all distributors that impacts the visibility of your books in the marketplace.

June 9, 2021  SEO for Authors has become a very popular course. SEO is all about discoverability of you as an author, your books, your website, and your brand. This course is specific to the type of SEO that is important for authors and their books and goes into depth about how it works and specific steps to make it work for you. Learn how to deliver new readers to your buy pages, your social media pages, and your author pages on every platform, establishing important backlinks to all you have to offer.

2021 Summer Schedule

June 17, 2021 The one free resource for marketing is social media. It is also the type of marketing many authors hate. This Effective Social Media course shows you how to set up and use social media to benefit your brand, your marketing, and reader loyalty throughout your author career. Though we cover the usual suspects (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). We also look at platforms with ads for reader engagement that may fit your brand better.

Aug 5 – Sept 9 – Build Your Reader Email List  Your email list is the most important asset you can wield as an author. It has the ability to increases sales, buzz, and word of mouth. It can create loyal fans who will not only tell their friends about your books, but some can become trusted advanced readers and reviewers. It can give you insight into your competition by surveying what your audience reads besides your books. Your reader email list should begin building before you even launch your first book and should continue to grow with every subsequent book and year.

2021 Fall Schedule

Sept 16, 2021 Audiobooks are the fastest growing segment of the digital book marketplace. However, less than 20% of authors bother to create an audiobook. The Audiobook Creation and Sales course steps you through the choices you have in how to create and distribute audiobooks, the steps to implement your choices, and where to put your marketing efforts for the best ROI.

Oct 14, 2021 Revive Your Backlist Too often once a book launches and the author moves on to write the next book, they ignore their past books (known as the backlist). It is important to create new work, but you are leaving money on the table if you ignore the older books. This course guides you through reviving your backlist books to not only shine and sell again, but to work hard for your front list books as well.

There will likely be additional short courses offered as needs arise. Have something you are interested in learning and can’t find a course anywhere? Let me know and I’ll see how many other people may be interested as well. Any questions, feel free to contact me directly by filling out the contact page form.