2024 Continuing Education

Good or bad, AI is all over the news and authors are wondering if they should use it and if so, how. Authors need not be afraid of AI, but instead embrace the many benefits it can offer. In this hands on Continuing Education class, authors will learn to use AI tools without sacrificing creativity or ethics in the areas of marketing, productivity, writing, editing, outlining, and basic book cover illustrations.

For the first half of our class, authors will learn how to use AI to brainstorm and outline a book in about 10 minutes using my template. I’ll teach the basics of prompt engineering—don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds—and show how we can use AI to output a detailed outline for a genre specific book.We’ll dig deeper into prompt engineering (a technique for refining the output) so that authors can create their own templates.

In the second half of the class, we’ll use our new skills to systemize content creation to generate up to 50 social media posts in about 15 minutes using free tools. I’ll teach the basics of generating content ideas and turning those ideas into reels and/or graphics through a live demonstration. Once we’ve seen how it works, we’ll refine the output so authors can create their own styles and templates. We’ll also discuss the pros and cons of this type of content creation as well as pitfalls to avoid.

Whether you’re traditionally published, Indie, hybrid, or still planning to launch your first book, the bottom line is you want to get your Christian fiction out to the world! This continuing education session is sure to get you excited, motivated, and equipped to do just that. Creston Mapes was an agented author whose first six Christian thrillers were traditionally published (Multnomah, David C Cook). Creston eventually got his rights back, went Indie, and now has 14 Christian suspense novels on the market, with more to come.

Creston’s workshop will provide step-by-step insights and resources on:
• Creating ebook, paperback, and audiobook covers
• Formatting ebooks and paperbacks for publication and sale
• Making your books available to libraries via IngramSpark
• Working with narrators to produce and market audiobooks
• Creating Amazon and Facebook ads to get your books noticed
• Working with Bookbub and others to broaden your audience
• Building your readership by growing your newsletter audience

We’ve all seen those movies where a writer types “THE END” on a manuscript and celebrates the completion of his novel. But real writers know that’s truly make-believe. Writing a novel doesn’t end with the first draft; some would say that’s when the art of story crafting actually begins. How do you fill in the gaps of your story, strengthen character, insert symbolism, cure on-the-nose dialogue, write in mood music, eliminate those weasel words, and check all that punctuation? You do it through rewriting/revision, and Angela Hunt is here to share her revision secrets with you! After this class, you’ll be able to give your work the spit-shine polish it needs to pass an editor’s inspection. Will include a demonstration of Autocrit.

A novel is more than a series of events. At its best, it’s an emotional journey you willingly take with a group of characters who become like friends. The challenge for the novelist is to create the “emotion” part of the story. How do you show, not tell, what people are thinking? How do you craft original ways to write emotion? Learn about lying, deception, body language, emotional reaction, and how you can move your writing into page-turning novels readers can’t put down. Hands-on examples let participants apply the information to their own work.

In this session, Tricia will present various options for publishing these days.