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HomeCalendarOnce Upon a Writing Life: Book Marketing that Meets You Where You Are with Kathleen Shoop

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Once Upon a Writing Life: Book Marketing that Meets You Where You Are with Kathleen Shoop

When:
Tuesday, January 3, 2023, 7:00 PM until 8:00 PM
Additional Info:
Event Contact(s):
Dan E Arndt
Category:
Online Classes
Registration is required
Payment In Full In Advance Only
Capacity:
25
Available Slots:
8
$100.00
$75.00

All Pennwriters Courses are conducted in a “live” presentation format utilizing the Zoom platform. If a conflict arises based on the required meeting times, please contact the instructor and Online Courses Coordinator to find a possible solution.

ALL sessions will be recorded. This Course will meet on Tuesdays in January:  January 3, 10, 17, & 24, from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM



Course Information:

A course for fiction and nonfiction writers who are published or who want to publish. It’s never too early or late to start your marketing plan!

Protagonist/Princess/Prince:  You! You’re the main character, the author of your books, your career, and the way the world sees you. Every author comes to their marketing plan at a different spot and from a unique perspective. Making a plan that fits your personality, obligations, manuscripts, and writing life is key.

Goal:  Getting your work in the hands of readers

 

Villain: Marketing and Sales
Whether authoring fiction or nonfiction, nothing puts a damper on your writing life like the reality of sales. Well, that’s not totally true because healthy sales can provide highs that inspire and motivate when times are hard. So how do you increase your chances of achieving the sales numbers you want? How do you push past writing a fabulous book to strengthening your chances of selling enough to pay your rent or to guarantee your next contract? (The best move? Write your next book. But you already knew that one.)

Slaying villains requires ongoing battles of varying intensity. Marketing that converts to sales is the embodiment of that notion. For some authors telling anyone they’ve published a beloved book is too much. Yes, you read that right—there are authors who hesitate to even announce they have a book to sell. Others are comfortable telling people they’ve published a book, but the idea of an ongoing, robust marketing plan terrifies them and obstructs them from getting anywhere near their happily ever after.

Surprise: Marketing is your friend
Every good story—even articles and essays—have surprises, and twists, revealing alliances made and broken. This course will teach you how marketing can enrich your writing life through concrete plans and actionable steps.

Happily Ever After: Most authors can visualize their happily ever after even if they won’t say it out loud. A healthy marketing plan makes room for reaching for the big goals while celebrating smaller happy-for-now achievements. Modest benchmarks are key to a robust writing life and provide the building blocks that epic successes are built on.

Once Upon a Writing Life: Book Marketing that Meets You Where You Are will help writers distill what their book is about and what each author wants readers to know about them (don’t worry—this does NOT mean spilling the family secrets!) down to a couple meaningful seeds. Then with the essence of the story and the author identified, participants will begin to expand on that to create a plan that fits their personality, limitations, and phase of publishing. They will craft a skeleton plan that resonates with their audience in powerful ways and feels as natural as possible to implement.


Author Benefits/Takeaways
Participants will:

Receive printed materials sent right to their mailbox. These will be used during and after the course ends to offer initial and continued support.

Identify the layers of their current writing life. Some layers include immediate and long-term goals, where they are in terms of launched books, current writings, career highlights and problems, and life skills that support book marketing (Yes, even you have them!).

Identify various marketing strategies that convert awareness to sales.

Identify perceived and real marketing strengths and weaknesses.

Create a skeleton plan that addresses goals for a particular book/books/series/articles and/or career.

Create a skeleton plan that capitalizes on author strengths and comfort level with engaging with readers. Immediate steps and long-term career strategy will address weaknesses as well.

Learn and engage with Kathleen and other students during the four one hour zoom sessions. 

Have access to private email and phone/zoom support during the four-week course.

Finish the personalized, collaborative course understanding that although sales sometimes involve luck, sales don’t normally happen TO writers. Marketing is a tool that encourages reader engagement and helps convert engagement to sales.


Instructor Bio:

Bestselling author, Kathleen Shoop, PhD, writes historical fiction, women’s fiction and romance. Shoop’s novels have garnered various awards in the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY), Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and Readers’ Favorite. Kathleen has been featured in USA Today and the Writer’s Guide. Her work has been used in university courses and appeared in Writer’s Digest, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Chicken Soup for the Soul and Pittsburgh Parent magazine. Kathleen is co-coordinator of 22 Mindful Writers Retreats, Pennwriters Conference 2023, and is a regular presenter at conferences and in classrooms.

E-Mail:            kathleenshoop@gmail.com

Website:          www.kshoop.com

Facebook:       Kathleen Shoop

Instagram:      @kathleenshoop

Twitter:           @kathieshoop

TikTok:           kathleenshoopauthor

Amazon:          Kathleen Shoop