Reach Your Readers, Keep Your Soul

8 Weeks to Author Platform

March 1-April 19, 2021 | Workshops & Small-Group Coaching

Sorry, SOLD OUT

Please contact us for the waitlist or to get advance notice of the next course (probably autumn 2021)!

Reach your readers, build literary community, get published & sell books—without selling your soul to social media.

Not a short-term followers boost.
Not mindless clicks.
Not sacrificing your writing time.

Channel the work you're already doing—and want to do!
Find joy in sharing your work and building publishing opportunities.
Write more, write better, be read.

Build a bridge to the readers who need your words in their lives.

REGISTER NOW

The Course

Reach Your Readers, Keep Your Soul

  • 8 Weeks to Author Platform

Each week includes a group Zoom class focused on one platform topic & small-group coaching calls.

You'll discover your particular literary or commercial platform for your topics & personal enjoyment; then dive into mailing lists, publication, pitching, social aesthetics, public speaking, and what the heck to actually write. You'll hone your writing craft with short-form content.

We'll help you plan and sustain platform-building in your writing life to reach readers, get published & sell books.

And yes...you'll kick ass at social media.

  • Weekly challenges & downloadable worksheets get you moving
  • Small-group coaching calls support your progress
  • Personal feedback helps you focus on the right combination of publishing & social media
  • Expert guidance teaches you where to spend your energy—and your precious writing time

    • The Writers

  • Writers with rejections saying "more platform" or "I don't know how to sell this book"
  • Literary authors building platform with their actual writing
  • Memoirists shy about publishing or worried about privacy

  • Writers planning a strong launch for a forthcoming book
  • Issue-driven writers seeking the readers who need their words
  • Commercial authors discovering their "beat"
  • Self-publishers building a market for their next book

  • Writers who want to publish in mass media & literary journals
  • Writers who want to improve their craft through short forms

    • The Details

  • Zoom classes Mondays at 12Noon Eastern Time
  • Small-group coaching sessions on Thursdays and Sundays both day & evening (you choose 1 session per week)
  • A private Facebook group for socializing, questions & sharing posts for feedback
  • All classes and coaching sessions are recorded for you to catch up or review
  • Total enrollment limited to 24
  • To ensure personal attention to YOUR platform, coaching includes 6 participants per session
  • Tuition is $875

    • Week 1

    What's Your Platform?

    • MONDAY Mar 01, 2021
    • 12:00 PM EST
    • You're a writer, not an influencer.

    Your platform content must feed your work as well as reaching readers.

  • Literary or Commercial? How that determines where you publish & post
  • How "content buckets" help you write for social media & publication
  • Building relationships with your comp authors—and their readers!
  • Meeting your ideal readers where they already hang out
  • Platform-building as part of your writing routine

    • Week 2

    Get your mailing list going from zero—or accelerate growth for the list you already have.

  • Setting up your mailing list
  • Getting subscribers
  • Content and frequency
  • Mailing list tips & tricks

    • Week 3

    Attract readers with quality content, get things DONE with resharing

  • What content goes where?
  • Broaden your audience by repackaging your content
  • Making shareable content, and sharing what you already have
  • Automate, automate, automate!

    • Week 4

    Looking at the world with a writer's eye & improving your skill in sharing what you see.

  • Basic graphic design principles for writers
  • Author websites
  • Photo editing that doesn't take all day
  • Using templates
  • Where's your privacy limit?

    • Week 5

    Techniques & tools to improve your writing & feel "good to go" faster.

  • Honing your craft by writing for social media
  • Finding out what your readers desperately want to know
  • Hot essays & how to write them
  • Knowing when you're "good enough" for a journal
  • How strong beginnings & endings sell your writing—and how to write them

    • Week 6

    Finding the newsworthy angle in your work & interesting fellow professionals.

  • Making your PR list—who wants to write about you?
  • Guesting on podcasts
  • Writing press releases & onesheets
  • Looking & sounding great when you share yourself & your work with the world

    • Week 7

    Talking confidently & coherently about your work, with anyone.

  • Pitching to agents & editors
  • Making the most of your published work
  • Literary & mass-media pitches
  • Establishing yourself as a public speaker

    • Week 8

    Asking for support without feeling like a huckster or a mooch.

  • Getting friends invested in your success
  • Leveraging your platform to sell your book to an agent, publisher, or your readers
  • How to build & deploy a launch team
  • Connecting with other authors on joint projects

    • Structure

    Weekly Group Coaching

    • 6 writers share a 90-minute call

    Allison or Ashleigh will support your follow-through on the week's platform challenges. We'll evaluate your upcoming posts, check in on your goals, and help each writer apply the week's lessons to their personal platform.

    4 call times will be available: Thursday afternoon & evening and Sunday afternoon & evening.

    Support

    Coaching sessions include time for each writer to share their challenges and hear advice, and a rotating 20-minute "hot seat" each week to give one writer special attention.

    Sustain

    Each week's lesson includes downloadable worksheets and actions for each writer to take. In group coaching, we'll talk about how those tasks went, and give extra support and resources to accomplish your goals.

    A private Facebook group will also be available for socializing, sharing posts for feedback, and asking questions as you go.

    Fit

    Please join us if:
  • You want your platform to focus on your writing & your topic, not just clicks
  • You're eager to improve your technical social media skills & learn ways to streamline posting
  • You want to write better & more often
  • You want to publish your work more widely, or pitch to media outlets

    • Please don't enroll if you're not ready to focus on reaching your readers as an active process, if you're still struggling with how authors must publicize their own books, or if you're pursuing short-term followers growth.






    Focus, focus, focus!

  • Only 24 writers in the course; coaching in groups of 6
  • Specific exercises, accountability & individual attention
  • Continuity—each week builds on the week before
  • Platform-building systems & practices that work with your writing life
  • Learn to write better at the sentence level
  • Make platform-building (including publishing) a priority for the duration
  • Personal attention & feedback on your posts, ideas & platform-building actions

    • The Writers' Bridge biweekly Zoom Q&A will keep going as a free, large-group platform chat!







  • Beginners will get a solid grounding in apps & tech; extra help will be available through the private Facebook group.
  • More experienced social-media users learn extra tips & accelerated techniques.
  • If you're already publishing, we'll help you strategize submissions to your dream publications.
  • In group coaching, we'll address individual challenges & help you raise your level—wherever you start.

    • Goals

    We wish!

    Fortunately, as a writer rather than an influencer, 10K followers is not your actual goal. You need engaged followers who are interested in your writing & invested in your success.

    What we can promise:
  • you will understand who your readers are
  • you will have a specific plan to reach them
  • you will have learned to write better, take better photos & share your work with confidence & joy.


    • The course is tailored to the needs of the writers. We'll tweak lesson plans, do extra research & bring our collective experience to sharing your work.

    In group-coaching calls, you'll get direct, specific feedback and suggestions for the platform you want to build.

    Meetings

    All classes & coaching sessions will be recorded. You can catch up with a missed class, review information you want to hear again, or watch any screen-sharing tutorials.







    Each week includes:
  • A 70-90 minute class (about 60 minutes of teaching, followed by discussion)
  • A 70-90 minute coaching session
  • Plan to spend 2-3 hours/week on platform, including pitching, submitting, blogging/writing & social media
  • Total commitment about 5-6 hours/week

    • Payment

    How Can I Pay?

    • Is there a payment plan?
    We've got you covered! When you register, you'll have the option to pay by credit card/Paypal, Venmo, eTransfer/Interac, UAE or USA bank transfer, paper check or a payment plan.

    (We do not accept livestock or small children at this time)

    Payment plan:
  • $295 deposit
  • $295 Feb 15
  • $295 March 15

    • Access

    All teaching sessions will be closed-captioned, and we'll be teaching the proper use of alt-text for screen readers. If you have accessibility concerns, let us know. We'll work with whatever technology you need to make the course work for you.

    Cancel

    If you are unable to attend and we can fill your place from the waitlist, we will refund your tuition minus a $25 administrative fee.

    If we can’t fill your place from the waitlist, you may apply 50% of any payments made to a future live or virtual Writers' Bridge event or private coaching.

    Refunds will be sent within 30 days of receipt of notice of cancellation.

    The Writers' Bridge reserves the right to cancel the course in the event of civil unrest, natural disaster or Act of God. In the event of cancellation of the course in its entirety, you will receive a full refund of any fees paid. You agree to release The Writers' Bridge and its agents and/or representatives from any liability, including consequential expenses you may have incurred in planning to attend.


    REGISTER NOW

    Your Coaches

    Ashleigh Renard headshot

    Ashleigh Renard

    @ashleighrenard

    Allison K Williams headshot

    Allison K Williams

    @guerillamemoir

    What Writers Think

    Amy Rogers

    Writers Bridge Attendee

    “This was SUPERB. I've taken several workshops on this topic. Yours was the first one that not only didn't exhaust me—it energized me!
    Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!"

    Samuel Autman

    Writers Bridge Attendee

    “Your session was so freaking helpful I can't count the ways. It has already influenced how I'm engaging with social media. I learned so much. Thank you. Incredible."

    Annie Crawford

    Writers Bridge Attendee

    “It really is invigorating to learn how to use social media as a writer in a way that feels genuine to writing. I'm still in the nascent stages of putting your suggestions into action but it IS HAPPENING!
    What a miracle."

    Marilyn Bousquin

    Writers Bridge Attendee

    “THANK YOU for the fun, smart, and “doable" spin you put on creating a platform. My intention for 2021 is to be of service to women memoirists by showing up, being myself, and sharing generously and authentically what I know about writing past silence and by extension living and writing out loud. The Writers’ Bridge and your generous giving of your time, experience, and expertise is providing me with a model for how I might actually do this and, gulp, enjoy myself in the process! For a chronic “hider” who tries damn hard to look like she’s not hiding,
    this is nothing short of transformative and healing."

    Dawn Lybarger

    Webinar Attendee

    “Allison's the best presenter I've seen in quite a while: efficient, clearly knowledgeable, pleasant to listen to, and provided
    great value."

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