Please join us in person at La Hacienda!! There will be no speaker, but this is the first meeting of our new fiscal year. We’ll be announcing results of the vote for the official minutes as well as awarding our Yellow Rose Winner. We’ll discuss the upcoming year, take member questions, and enjoy one another’s company. We’ll start gathering at 11am as usual. Can’t wait to see you there.

Characters First, An Alternative to Outlining

Somewhere between plotters (those who outline their stories) and pansters (those who sit and type with no plan), there’s a middle ground for people like me—you want to start with an idea and/or structure, but you’ve never successfully followed an outline in your writing life. This class is for you. Instead of plotting out the story, I’ll show you how to jump inside your characters’ heads to create a solid foundation you can build your novel on. This class is perfect for writers of character-driven fiction (romance, women’s fiction, young adult), but will also help plot-driven novelists strengthen their characters for a deeper reader/character connection.

About Karin: Owner of Write Now Editing, Karin Beery is a published author and editor with experience in traditional and self-publishing, freelance editing, and editing for publishers. She is an active member of Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Christian Authors Network, the Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network, and the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors. When she’s not editing or teaching, she’s writing—her first nonfiction book, How to Self-Edit Your Novel: Find & Fix the Big-Picture Issues, releases October 2023.

Join Audra Lewandowski & Susie Sheehey as they share their journey in self-producing audio books.
Interested in turning your existing books into audio books?
Learn the lessons, tips and tricks Susie and Audra experienced that helped them launch 5 audio books to date (3 published, 2 almost completed).
You’ll learn:
–How to find out if audio books is the right avenue for you
–The equipment, software and programs they used (for as limited cost as possible)
–Where you can publish your audio books on various distributors
–Lessons learned (so you don’t learn them the hard way!)
–Q&A

Join us via ZOOM on May 20th at 11AM for

Erin Coughlin

presenting

Reignite Your Passion for Writing & Beat Writers Block

Looking to reignite your passion for writing and get rid of writers block? Want to jump start your writing skills and boost your creative confidence? Join us for this fun, interactive writing workshop! Get tips that you can use everyday to feel inspired, stay focused and organized. Learn simple, daily habits that will help you recapture your excitement to write.

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Erin Coughlin is an award nominated writer, producer and journalist. As a B.B.C. Guest Commentator she has appeared on several popular TV, radio and podcast programs including The Morning Show and The John Hazel Show. She was also featured on Newsweek’s 2016 “Ones To Watch” List.

Erin has created content featured on variety of popular print and media outlets including NBC, Entertainment Weekly, SyFy and The Surge. She is the founder of Verbiage Media and author of Pop & Fizz’s Double Feature Movie Night Guide (to Romance). She is also the host and moderator of the virtual Jane Austen Romance Book Club. In addition to her work as a Public Program Developer and Guest Speaker,  she enjoys providing both writing coach services and workshops to all storytellers and content creators.

Join us IN PERSON June17 at 11AM for

Betty Bolté

presenting

Recordkeeping for Writers

Whether you’re an unpublished or published author you’re running your own business. You’ll need to keep track of certain information for both your taxes and your personal reference. We’ll discuss what you’d need to have on hand for tax reporting as well as how to track the metadata and details of your business for future reference and analysis.

* * * * *

Award-winning author Betty Bolté is known for authentic and accurately researched historical fiction with heart and supernatural romance novels. A lifetime reader and writer, she’s worked as a secretary, freelance word processor, technical writer/editor, and author. She’s been published in essays, newspaper articles/columns, magazine articles, and nonfiction books but now enjoys crafting entertaining and informative fiction, especially stories that bring American history to life. She earned a Master’s Degree in English in 2008, emphasizing the study of literature and storytelling, and has judged numerous writing contests for both fiction and nonfiction. She lives in northern Alabama with her loving husband of more than 30 years. Get to know her at www.bettybolte.com. Be sure to check out materials for book club discussions at https://www.bettybolte.com/bookclub.

Author of Historical Fiction with Heart

Romance that won’t make you blush…

Check out my books, subscribe to my newsletter, and more at www.bettybolte.com

Recent releases include Hometown Heroines: True Stories of Bravery, Daring, and Adventure (3rd Edition) and Legends of Wrath and Homecoming (Fury Falls Inn #5 & #6)

JOIN US SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18 at 11AM

via ZOOM for

Secrets of a Bestselling

 

Amazon Book Page

Presented by Penny Sansevieri

Is your book not selling? It could be your Amazon book page. More and more Amazon book page conversion is a big issue, and it can also impact your Amazon relevancy score. What’s a “relevancy score”? This class will unpack that as well.

It’s one thing to have your book up on Amazon, it’s quite another to have a book page that actually sells your book. This session will go over tips and insider information on turning your Amazon book page into a sales machine.

We’ll discuss:

• Your book description: how to make it your #1 sales tool
• Understanding how Amazon “scans” your page for relevancy
• Understanding your Amazon relevancy score
• Running Amazon ads that aren’t converting? We’ll dig into that too and offer some quick remedies to help increase your ad conversion
• Your book’s tagline: how this helps to sell more books
• How to get more real estate on your Amazon book page
• Ways to use Author Central to enhance your book page
• Using video on your Amazon book page – yes you can
• Using Author Central to enhance your Amazon Book Page in super creative ways
• Creative ways to add Amazon keywords to your Amazon book page for better page visibility
• Amazon also-boughts – why they matter to your page visibility
• …and much more.

Zoom info available via the NTRW Facebook group or a mailing list communication. Contact our programs director (programs at ntrwa dot org) if you’re not on the FB group or on our mailing list.

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Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO of Author Marketing Experts, Inc., is a bestselling author and internationally recognized book marketing and media relations expert. She is an Adjunct Professor teaching Self-Publishing for NYU. She was named one of the top influencers of 2019 by New York Metropolitan Magazine.

Her company is one of the leaders in the publishing industry and has developed some of the most innovative Amazon visibility campaigns as well offering national media pitching, online book marketing, author events, and other strategies designed to build the author/book visibility.

She is the author of eighteen books, including “How to Sell Your Books by the Truckload on Amazon,” “Revise and Re-Release Your Book”, “5-Minute Book Marketing for Authors,” and the newly-released “From Book to Bestseller.”

AME has had dozens of books on top bestseller lists, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal.

To learn more about Penny’s books or her promotional services, visit www.amarketingexpert.com.

Join us SATURDAY MARCH 18 at 11AM

in person at La Hacienda Ranch Restaurant in Colleyville

as we celebrate 4o years as an organization.

Sure , the name has changed, but the people are the same.

Join us as members share their stories of how they came to us.

There will be treats, both the edible kinds as well as the take-home kind.

 

JOIN US SATURDAY

APRIL 22, 2023

for an all-day, in person

WRITERS RETREAT

0830A-4:30P

Information to be disseminated to attendees in April.

Sign-up Form

Join us January 21, 2023 at 11 in person for

Maria Grace

presenting

Writing by the Milestones

Traditionally, authors have divided themselves into two camps: those who outline and plan their works before they write, knowing exactly what is going to happen before they begin and those who sit down with joyful abandon and write without a plan–by the seat of their pants, as it were.

I’ve always admired the planners, aspired to be one. And I’ve tried, oh how I’ve tired. But somewhere along the way, some unruly character gets hold of my pen and runs amok. My outline in shambles, I spend the next 60 or 70K words chasing down that character and feeling very guilty about my lack of authorial discipline.

After chasing enough wayward characters, I had to find a middle ground between plotting and ‘pantsing’ (oh ow I hate that term! It was something the mean girls did to you in gym class…).

Blending an understanding of story structure, creating an in-real-time outline, and ‘cycling’ back through chapters as they were written, gave me a way to find the story milestones to navigate my way through a plot when the characters are dragging me along for the ride.

Join me for a chat about Writing by the Milestones, navigating your story while the characters lead the way.

About the Author

Six time BRAG Medallion Honoree, #1 Best-selling Historical Fantasy author Maria Grace has her PhD in Educational Psychology and is a 16-year veteran of the university classroom where she taught courses in human growth and development, learning, test development and counseling. None of which have anything to do with her undergraduate studies in economics/sociology/managerial studies/behavior sciences. She pretends to be a mild-mannered writer/cat-lady, but most of her vacations require helmets and waivers or historical costumes, usually not at the same time.

She writes gaslamp fantasy, historical romance and non-fiction to help justify her research addiction.

SEP 2023 ~ Fiscal Year Kickoff ~ in person

OCT 2023 ~ Penny C. Sansevieri ~ Zoom

NOV 2023 ~ TBA

DEC 2023 ~ Holiday Gathering ~ in person

JAN 2023 ~ TBA

FEB 2023 ~ TBA