People have come to know me as “Knower of Stuff, Doer of Things”. I am truly a Jack of All Trades in the context of the original saying: A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one. Knowing many things about many subjects helps me direct people to the things they need. You know what? That’s what I like to do! Guide, consult, and assist.

Right now, I have three brand new anthologies out. They all have different goals and they all involve authors with different levels of experience. One is from a traditional based publisher where the story had to be accepted. That’s a totally new adventure for me. Another one is a USA Today list run with authors who are already award winning, middle road, and newer authors. The last one I have a story in is with my local writer’s group. We hope to raise funds to have book sales.

The one thing I have learned from being in these anthology sets is not everyone knows the ins and outs of publishing. In one group, I throw out ideas other authors have never about. In another group, we are all on the same page and seem to know a lot of the lingo. And yet in my third group all my online shenanigans seem shiny and new.

I started publishing my own books way back in the dark ages of 2005. That’s like 14 years of me learning and doing. Things have changed so much since I released my first book. There didn’t used to be all these services geared towards the independent author. I had to learn how to do my own covers, format, and market. Oh and I had to write the content.

These days there are like seven billion people to help you. Every night I watch TV there are at least 75 ads for lawyers wanting to sue someone followed by 6 ads for “publish your book with us” pitches. However, the one thing that hasn’t changed over time is the fact there are people out there waiting to take advantage of you and your naivete. I don’t want you to get took by a crook!

How do you find the good things? What advice should you listen to? Who’s advice is sub-par? How much is too much for a service? These are all very good questions. In fact, I started my little “Author Talk” and “Techie Talk” series after I found a lot of people couldn’t get straight answers for these questions.

The internet is great, but it comes with a lot of pitfalls because now just about anyone can be an “expert” in something. I’m not going to lie, I tried a LOT of things in my career. So when one of my author friends started talking up these courses and this group a few years ago…I was skeptical. I had already been beaten up in a few Facebook groups, been used by some authors, and gotten enough crappy advice…I didn’t want anymore of that and I sure as hell didn’t want to pay someone for junk. The truth is most “free” or “low cost” how to courses, webinars, and books are trash. They only give you a tiny sliver of this information. They then want you to pay another five or six hundred dollars for the “course to teach you”. Uhm. No.

I don’t know how many times I sat through a “webinar” to be thoroughly disappointed. It was all one big infomercial. I don’t know how many books I bought on “marketing” that turned out to be just some cheap lead magnet for an overpriced course.

I am happy to tell you these courses my friend talked about are nothing like that. Even the FREE ones were useful. It may not be the end all and be all…and the teacher tells you that…but it IS actionable. You can start making money on your books with this free info.

Today I am going to give you a run down of some of my favorite courses: If you visit Author Grow you will be greeted with MANY low cost courses. My FAVORITE is How To Write A Novella in 14 Days. I HAVE written a book in 18 calendar days, with a few days off, using the guidance from this class. Which is pretty good for a girl who can’t seem to find time to write. After I took that class I wrote 4 books and added 25K words to another book…all in less than six months.

My second favorite is a new one Amplify Your Craft. This is an ultimate guide to tuning up your writing. Not to replace your editor, but to make your editor’s job easier! Heather’s writing tips are just awesome. I wish my seventh grade English class had her as a teacher. I would have been an even better writer!

Now, if you look at all the offerings on the Author Grow page, I am sure you would be overwhelmed by the choices. You know what? You don’t have to be. I’m here to guide you. You could go over to the Six Figure Author Coach store and find the more comprehensive courses: https://www.sixfigureauthorcoach.com/store

If you take The Publishing Mastermind Course, you get almost all those courses on the other site. The other site has the modules split in case you want only certain things.

Look, I know the price tag looks huge for PMC, but this course is literally the only one you will need for your entire author career. I’ve had access to the class for almost 2 years now and Rebecca, the teacher, is constantly adding things. This stuff doesn’t “expire” like some of the other things available in the world either.

I was skeptical at first, but I took some of the free classes Rebecca had. I took some of the more economical ones as well. I finally bit the bullet and took the larger course. I was very happy to find all of the information was actionable in every level of her courses from free to not so free. What I love the most though is she isn’t trying to sell you something else. You have all the stuff…plus there are book plans for every budget and timeline in her PMC class. It really does teach you how to go from idea to finished book. How to set up things on the web, your social media, etc. You name it, it’s in there.

I encourage you to check the classes out and try the free ones. Rebecca’s webinar, when it’s available, doesn’t suck. Her newsletter tips are great as well.

Come back next time for another post on some other things I find helpful.

*some links in my article are affiliate links. They won’t cost you anything to click, but if you buy something I may receive a small payment from the course site. All the courses I suggest are ones I have personally paid for and taken though.