Guest: NAIWE’s Executive Director April Michelle Davis When publishers pick up your manuscript what do they look at? April Michelle Davis will show you why your opening lines (and even your first pages) are paramount to getting your manuscript published and the four main goals for your opening lines. She will provide guidance to aid you to reach these goals as they not only lead to the publishing of your manuscript

Guest: NAIWE’s Executive Director April Michelle Davis Writing is no longer a lucrative career. The most recent study by the Authors Guild, a professional organization for book writers, shows that it may not even be a livable career. In this webinar, we will discuss the theme of NAIWE membership: developing multiple streams of income. And we will discuss how to leverage your book to succeed in a career in writing!

Guests: NAIWE’s Editorial Expert Barbara McNichol and colleague Andrea Beaulieu As an author, put yourself in your book through story. Both authors and speakers can open with a story; it adds interest from the start as to why you wrote the book or presentation. Your story is the emotion behind your book or presentation; it touches your audience and is the connection to making a point that you want to be remembered.

Guest: NAIWE’s Ghostwriting Expert Claudia Suzanne Ghostwriting began in times where storytellers used scribes to write down their stories. Today, ghostwriters take the first draft of the manuscript to the second draft grade. This profession is lucrative and in demand. Thus, ghostwriting is a way to be paid well to learn a new subject matter and command a strong flat fee from authors who want to share their stories.

Guest: NAIWE’s Headline Expert Dana Sitar A single headline is not sufficient for most content in digital publishing. Readers access your content in a variety of contexts, and the headline that’s effective in one context is often less effective in another. This training shows you how to craft headlines that catch readers’ attention across platforms, including websites, social media, email, and search.

Guest: NAIWE's Benefit Partner Fictionary The editing industry is full of secrets. And one of them is “All writers should perform their own story edit.” We’re talking about a structural edit of fiction. Kristina Stanley will share why story editing is essential and the top 5 steps in a structural edit of a novel, and you’ll leave this session with actionable advice you can immediately apply to your book.

Guest: NAIWE’s Benefit Partner Fictionary Are you a fiction editor who wants to elevate your editing skills? Perhaps you’re a copyeditor looking to expand your business into story editing. Or are you looking for a method to edit consistently and quickly every time? Editing a novel is a complex, cognitive task. This webinar shows you the critical story elements to evaluate when performing a story edit.

Guest: NAIWE’s Benefit Partner Fictionary Writers know the excitement of typing “The End” on their first draft. Before you share your story with others, you owe it to yourself to tell the best possible story. Learn how to story edit to refine a story readers will enjoy reading from beginning to end! Maybe you’re a structural editor for fiction and are worried that you’re overly influencing a client’s manuscript.

Guest: NAIWE’s Novel Writing Expert Greg Smith Storytelling is as old as the human race. Over the ages we’ve come to expect a pattern to storytelling. In this webinar, Greg Smith lays out this time-proven pattern. Based on Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey, mythology, psychology, and screenwriting techniques, this webinar will help you plot your story before you put pen to paper.

Guest: NAIWE’s Novel Writing Expert Greg Smith You’ve probably heard of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey.” This is the time-worn pattern of stories that dates to antiquity. But as every story must have a hero (or protagonist), there must also be a villain (or antagonist). In this hour-long webinar, Greg Smith (The Agile Writer) will review the Hero’s Journey, then lay out the Villain’s Journey.

Guest: NAIWE’s Novel Writing Expert Greg Smith Write your first draft in just six months using the Agile Writer Method! This method combines the lessons of myth, storytelling, psychology, and a little project management. The Agile Writer Method has been used to successfully complete over 50 first drafts. Yours could be next!

Guest: NAIWE’s Creative Nonfiction Jennia D’Lima Apart from bringing credibility to your topic, historical details have the benefit of helping your reader better understand the context surrounding your subject. This session shows how to sift through research and facts to find what will have the most impact and meaning as well as how to identify which areas of your manuscript would most benefit from these additions.

Guest: NAIWE’s Copyright and Permissions Expert MJ Courchesne Join us for this round-up of current issues surrounding artificial intelligence and the world of creative content. We’ll review pending cases, as well as what the Copyright Office, publishers, creators, and some major associations representing creators and publishers have to say about generative AI. We’ll explore some language you might see in contracts.

Guest: NAIWE’s Copyright and Permission Expert MJ Courchesne As a writer, you know the value of your work, and have a keen interest in protecting it. You also may know that your work is copyrighted as soon as you put thoughts into a fixed medium, so why should you bother registering your copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office? This webinar will review the basics of copyright law in the United States.

Guest: NAIWE’s Copyright and Permissions Expert MJ Courchesne Learn about what the newly established Copyright Claims Board means for individual creators in this town hall style webinar. We’ll also talk about the implications of a shared copyright between two or more authors.

Guest: NAIWE’s Copyright and Permissions Expert MJ Courchesne Learn the ins and outs of what publishers require when they ask you to "clear" permission for third-party materials you are incorporating into your work. What things do you need to have in a permission agreement, how do you go about getting permission anyway, and how long will this process take?

Guest: NAIWE’s Copyright & Permissions Expert MJ Courchesne This webinar will feature some sample agreements and sources for templates that the writer may find useful. What does a work-for-hire look like? What should you expect in a trade publishing contract? How common are NDAs in the publishing world? How do you format a simple permission request? Who can you reach out to for help when reviewing a contract?

Guest: NAIWE’s Public Relations and Book Marketing Expert Marcia Rosen The audiobook market is one of the fastest growing segments of the publishing industry. According to the Audio Publishers Association, it grew an estimated 24.5% from 2017 to 2018. This included self-published authors and small publishers who accessed numerous marketing actions and opportunities to create an awareness and enhance sales.

Guest: NAIWE’s Public Relations and Book Marketing Expert Marcia Rosen From staying on track to not giving up or giving in, from not listening to negative voices, including your own, this webinar is to encourage you to stay determined, confident, courageous, hopeful, inspired, and motivated with respect to your writing. We’ll talk about what can inhibit and interfere with writing goals and how to improve them.

Guest: NAIWE’s Public Relations and Book Marketing Expert Marcia Rosen Crime is the number one genre people read. Dozens of published authors have created stories hearing the voices of past famous detectives. Many of us mystery writers have the ambition and desire to create thrilling crime fiction with clever detectives. I certainly have been impacted and influenced by these past crime-solvers. Have you?

Guest: NAIWE’s Public Relations and Book Marketing Expert Marcia Rosen A good mystery story includes an intriguing plot, interesting characters, descriptive places and locations that set a mood, interesting and controversial dialogue, clues (real and false) leading to the bad guys, and a bit of humor. This webinar provides insight on writing a mystery, building suspense, and presenting the essential elements.

Guest: Conference Speaker Nicole Evelina Learn how to know if your book idea is likely to appeal to traditional publishers and whether your self-published book is likely to reach readers. Topics will include gatekeepers in traditional publishing, genre trends, perennial bestselling topics, the importance of platform, and how to find an idea that not only appeals to you but fills a gap in the marketplace.

Guest: NAIWE’s Novel Writing Expert Nicole Evelina They say everyone has a book in them, or maybe some short stories. As a corporate communicator, you may have the ability to write but may not feel creative enough to break out of your business-minded mold. A veteran of business communication and a USA Today bestselling author, Nicole Evelina will show you how to tap into ideas and talents you didn’t know you had.

Guest: NAIWE’s Book-to-Blog Expert Nina Amir Writing an entire book can seem overwhelming, while writing a daily post for a blog may be manageable. Having a blog gives you a platform and a fanbase, and the opportunity to blog your ideas for a book among its potential readers. Learn how having a blog and regularly posting to it can increase your likelihood of being accepted by a publisher.

Guest: NAIWE’s Book-to-Blog Expert Nina Amir Writing a book is a creative process, but once the book has been published, a different type of creativity is needed to successfully market and sell the book. This webinar will help you develop a business plan to include defining your readers and your market. This business plan will aid you with creating a marketing plan and a promotion plan to ultimately build sales.

Guest: NAIWE’s Booklets Expert Paulette Ensign All writers can benefit from publishing tips booklets. Even speakers can benefit from having booklets! Listening to this teleconference, you will hear in Paulette’s voice her excitement for this subject matter as she explains how to select the best topic and the ideal word count for a tips booklet, and she will even share her sales and marketing considerations.

Guest: NAIWE’s Benefit Partner ProWritingAid As writers we often spend too much time focusing on what our ideas are instead of how to communicate those ideas most effectively. If we don’t sharpen our sentences with our readers in mind, then our ideas will get lost and our writing will be less engaging. In this presentation, ProWritingAid will walk you through five key ways to improve the craft of your writing.

Guest: NAIWE’s Benefit Partner ProWritingAid As nice as it would be, writing your novel isn’t over when you type “The End.” In fact, the actual work is just beginning. During the editing process, your novel will go from rough first draft to thrilling final manuscript. In this workshop, a ProWritingAid rep will walk you through the most important edits you should make to your manuscript to ensure it’s publish-ready.

Guest: NAIWE’s Professionalism Expert Robert Moskowitz Almost everyone can write. Nearly every high school graduate can cobble together some words. Some people can even earn a few bucks as a writer. But if you really want to pursue the writing life, you’ll find you need to succeed at becoming a professional. Many years ago, I had a dream of writing professionally. I even had a job as a writer. But it was just a job.

Guest: NAIWE’s Writing Goals Expert Rochelle Melander Life is busy, and even though writers have a passion for writing, many feel like they have no time to do so. Like other things in life, writing needs to be made a priority to become a habit for those with this passion. In this webinar, Rochelle Melander will discuss ways to fit in writing, even if it is only a few minutes each day—those few minutes can add up.

Guest: NAIWE’s Networking Expert Ruth Thaler-Carter You may have information worth sharing with colleagues (and maybe even clients). You’ve developed experience, knowledge, and a strong skill set in your niche. It might be time to add to that skill set by becoming a presenter of conference speeches, workshops, or classes. This webinar will provide tips on why and how to develop a public speaking persona and service.

Guest: NAIWE’s Networking Expert Ruth Thaler-Carter Starting a writing business is exciting and challenging. Get some practical, effective tips from a long-time, award-winning freelance writer/editor in this session. Learn about types of writing that can be the basis of a business; getting experience; finding outlets, audiences, readers and clients; avoiding scams; and more.

Guest: NAIWE’s Media Interviews Expert Suzanne Lynn Cheesman Your work is not done when you finish writing a book. Now you need to let the world know about it, but how? Forbes endorses video as an author’s go-to strategy for marketing: “Video will be the primary marketing format for years to come.” You are in the business of selling books, so let’s talk about the why’s and how’s of video marketing as an author tool!

Guest: NAIWE’s Journaling Expert Tina Games Journaling is a safe place to eliminate overwhelm and give order to your life. It allows you to become aware of patterns and focus your mind. Because you are continuing to write, journaling helps you become a better writer, and these thoughts may even turn into a book! Tina will share some benefits of journaling and even types of journals that are best suited for writers.

Guest: NAIWE’s Book Promotions Expert Tina Glasneck Are you struggling with what you can do to make your books a success? Join USA Today bestselling author Tina Glasneck as she gives practical advice on what you can apply to your career to find readers and gain success. This webinar will dig into the basics and provide practical tips that you can implement right away to start you on your successful author journey.