Workshop 1 – Option 1

Craft: Finish the book – tips and techniques to get you over the hurdles and past the finish line

Experience Level: unpublished authors

Heat Level: 

Writing a novel is a marathon and there are hurdles at every stage that can trip you up, slow you down or break your writing spirit. Opening chapters, saggy middles and complex endings can stall your writing – so can domestic life, family dramas and the day job.

Bestselling Australian authors Jaye Ford and Fiona McArthur have written more than 55 novels over thirty years of storytelling. In this workshop, they share tips and techniques for writing and the writing life that will help get your book past the finish line.

Presenters

Jaye Ford and Fiona McArthur are successful authors who are also mothers, wives and (occasionally) employees, and have negotiated the often tricky path of writing and domestic life. They are experienced presenters who love sharing their passion for words and storytelling. In 2019, they teamed up to present writing masterclasses to inspire new and experienced writers.

Jaye Ford is an award-winning author of five thrillers. Writing as Janette Paul, she has also penned two bestselling romantic comedies. Jaye’s five chilling crime novels have been translated into nine languages. Her first novel, Beyond Fear, won the Best Debut and Readers’ Choice at the 2012 Davitt Awards for Australian Women Crime Writers.

Fiona McArthur has written 49 romance and contemporary women’s fiction novels in 19 years as an author. Her books have sold more than two million copies worldwide and are translated into twelve languages.

Workshop 1 – Option 2

Career: Publishing with Harlequin

Experience Level: unpublished authors

Heat Level: 

Harlequin will be presenting a workshop to help aspiring authors polish their pitches and get their dream contract with Harlequin.

Presenter

TBA

Workshop 1 – Option 3

Genre: Kicking ass with paranormal romance

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

In conversation with Steff Green, Jaymin Eve spills the dirt on everything paranormal romance, from writing reverse harem and collaborating with other authors to building a successful brand and getting a series picked up by a production company. Bring your questions!

Presenter

Jaymin Eve is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and sci-fi novels filled with epic love stories, great adventure, and plenty of laughs. She lives in Australia with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and a couple of crazy pets. To date, she has sold close to two million ebooks, and still can’t believe that she gets to create fantasy worlds as a job.

Jaymin’s ‘Supernatural Academy’ books are being adapted as an animated series by 41 Entertainment. Alongside fellow author Tate James, Jaymin is genius behind Ballgowns and Books Event, a unique fantasy book signing experience in Sydney, Australia.

Workshop 1 – Option 4

Business: The write frame of mind – mindset for writers

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

Being an author is more than just telling the story of your heart—it’s a journey that can sometimes include self-doubt, fear of failure, and imposter syndrome, with a side of ‘What the heck am I doing?’

In this workshop, fiction editor and coach Lauren Clarke shares strategies and techniques to cultivate an author mindset that attracts success and keeps you paddling forward even when it feels like you’re going against the tide.

Presenter

Lauren Clarke is an editor specialising in the romance genre. She works with a host of traditionally and independently published authors, some USA Today, NY Times, and RITA award-winning bestsellers amongst them. With more than fifteen years’ experience in the publishing industry, she is passionate about helping writers create the perfect story.

Lauren also hosts workshops and courses for authors and writers’ groups both digitally and in person. She privately coaches a select group of writers to help them achieve their goals, and is also the creator of a range of tools to help writers create the perfect story.

Workshop 2 – Option 1

Craft: Crafting compelling characters

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

Do your characters leap off the page and burrow their way into your readers’ hearts? If they don’t, come along and learn how to craft characters your readers will love with award-winning author Lizzi Tremayne, who writes historical and contemporary suspense, women’s, YA, and veterinary fiction.

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn and practice skills which will enable them to create lifelike, “real” characters in this hands-on, active workshop. Essential to bring your pens and paper or laptop! The workshop will be aimed at new and emerging writers, but established writers will likely find tips to help them sharpen their characterisation skills.

Presenter

Lizzi Tremayne grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and practiced in the Gold and Pony Express Country of California before emigrating to New Zealand. She is the proud mother of two boys in this sea of green. When she’s not writing, she’s swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding or driving a carriage, playing in the garden on her hobby farm, singing, cooking, or being an equine veterinarian. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

With her debut novel, A Long Trail Rolling, she was Winner of the True West Magazine’s Best Western Romance 2016, Romance Writers of New Zealand: 2014 Pacific Hearts Award and 2015 Koru Award, and finalist in the 2015 Best Indie Book Award.

Workshop 2 – Option 2

Career: Fall in Love with Podcasting

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

Hundreds of millions of people around the world listen to podcasts, and that figure grows dramatically every year. There are numerous dynamic ways that authors can be utilizing podcasts to find and connect with readers in a medium that is far more engaging than traditional newsletters or social media, but it can seem daunting to experiment with something that may be unfamiliar. This discussion provides authors with the following actionable takeaways:

1. Clear understanding of what a podcast is and how it can be useful to authors.
2. Knowledge of how to begin a podcast of their own.
3. Understanding of the time and resources required to start a podcast.
4. Ways to fit a podcast (as a host or guest) into a marketing/publicity plan and how to pitch yourself as a guest. 

Presenter

Jenny Nordbak earned a B.A in Archaeology from the University of Southern California. After graduating, she spent two years leading a double life, working in healthcare construction by day, while secretly working as a dominatrix at a dungeon in LA by night. Her memoir, The Scarlett Letters: My Secret Year of Men in an LA Dungeon (St. Martin’s Press, 2017), is a candid look into that time in her life.

Jenny’s popular weekly podcast – The Wicked Wallflowers Club – focuses on the romance genre but engages with broader topics that impact women. The show was described by Entertainment Weekly as “a compelling reminder of why the oft dismissed genre is such a force in cultural conversations”, and its thousands of listeners are some of the most hardcore readers on the planet.

Workshop 2 – Option 3

Genre: Rainbow Romance MM, FF, and beyond

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

Queer fiction, in particular, MM (Men loving Men) romances are a booming industry spanning all conceivable genres. From historical to shifters, from contemporary Christmas fluff to scenarios so dark it pushes the definition of what romance can be.

In this workshop, Jamie (and special guests) will outline what you need to know to get started in this wonderfully supportive and inclusive community. How is it different to writing traditional male/female romance? How is it the same? And how do you do it right?

Presenter

Jamie (they/them pronouns) Sands grew up in Wellington and was a library devotee and constant reader of fiction from a very early age. Their fiction covers Romantic Comedy, Horror, Young Adult, Urban Fantasy and Cosy Mysteries. They live in Auckland with their wonderful wife and a cat called Mochi.

Workshop 2 – Option 4

Business: AMA: Ask Jim McCarthy Anything about agenting, business, and the publishing marketplace

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

In conversation, Jim will take part in an animated discussion about what publishers are looking for right now, what’s working, what’s not, whether the market is stable, and how to be treated with respect as an aspiring author. A fun, frank, compassionately brusque discussion of the ups and downs of the publishing industry in flux.

Presenter

Jim McCarthy is an agent and vice president at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, where he’s been for 20 years. He represents adult, young adult, and middle grade, both literary and commercial, and is particularly interested in literary fiction, underrepresented voices, fantasy, mysteries, romance, anything unusual or unexpected, and any book that makes him cry or laugh out loud.

Workshop 3 – Option 1

Craft: Open Big to Hook Them: Hollywood Ending To Sell More

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

How do you grab the reader in the first 5 pages? Why should readers invest in your story? Ways to ensure you have the best opening you can. Then, the importance of that Hollywood Ending? How to ensure an automatic next buy. Make the reader feel so much joy, love, bliss that they race off to buy the next book!

Great beginnings are what ensures the reader keeps reading your book (very important for KU where you get paid by page read only.) What are the most important elements of your opening scene and a checklist to ensure you have it in spades? Then how to ensure a big Hollywood ending and the power of epilogues. What do you need in the ending to ensure the next sale?

Presenter

USA Today bestselling author, Bronwen Evans grew up loving books. She writes both historical and contemporary sexy romances for the modern woman who likes intelligent, spirited heroines, and compassionate alpha heroes. Evans is a three-time winner of the RomCon Readers’ Crown and has been nominated for an RT Reviewers’ Choice Award. She lives in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand with her dogs Brandy and Duke.

Workshop 3 – Option 2

Career: Engaging your readers online and off

Experience Level: Published authors

Heat Level: 

Jaymin Eve talks about how she turns readers into super fans. She offers practical advice on how to engage online, create reader buzz, and build reader relationships in person with signings and events.

Presenter

Jaymin Eve is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and sci-fi novels filled with epic love stories, great adventure, and plenty of laughs. She lives in Australia with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and a couple of crazy pets. To date, she has sold close to two million ebooks, and still can’t believe that she gets to create fantasy worlds as a job.

Jaymin’s ‘Supernatural Academy’ books are being adapted as an animated series by 41 Entertainment. Alongside fellow author Tate James, Jaymin is genius behind Ballgowns and Books Event, a unique fantasy book signing experience in Sydney, Australia.

Workshop 3 – Option 3

Genre: Modern Love; Toys and Consent with a Certified Sex Coach

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

BDSM, toys, and enthusiastic consent are in the mainstream – sex in 2020 is both exciting and complex. Learn about toy basics like toxic materials, lube, anal safety, gspot & pspot play, basic anatomy tips and explore the latest ideas in pleasure technology with product demos. Not sure what #metoo means for rough sex? Learn how to integrate ethical sexual etiquette into your scenes while keeping it steamy. Pick the brain of a sex expert with an open Q&A session after the main talk.

Presenter

Teddy Curle is a Certified Sex Coach and Sex Expert, a graduate of Dr Patti Britton’s world class sexology program and a registered member of the World Association of Sex Coaches. With a background in adult retail, Teddy has a rich knowledge of contemporary toys and is a passionate blogger and sex positivity advocate.

Workshop 3 – Option 4

Business: Voices in your head: Audiobooks for authors

Experience Level: Published authors

Heat Level: 

Everything you ever wanted to know about audiobook production, how to create and market your audiobook.

Want to reach a wider audience with audiobooks? Whether you have a short story or a series of books you want to turn into audio, bestselling author, Sarah Williams will start right at the beginning and take you step-by-step through the process from casting, producing and marketing.

Presenter

Bestselling author Sarah Williams spent her childhood chasing sheep, riding horses and picking kiwifruit on the family orchard in rural New Zealand. After a decade travelling, Sarah moved to Queensland to raise a family and follow her passion for writing. She currently resides in Maleny on the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, Australia.

In 2019, after a fateful meeting, Sarah spent time working alongside Australian screen and voice actor, Myles Pollard, to independently produce her first three audiobooks. They each rocketed to bestseller status and earned substantial press coverage including being featured on Australia’s Today Show and The Daily Edition.

Workshop 4 – Option 1

Craft: No man or woman is an island – writing secondary characters

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

Unless you are going to set your story on a desert island (or Mars), your main protagonists do not exist in a vacuum. They live in a real world where they interact with other people every day and it is that world that you build for them that adds depth and interest to your story. The people they interact with will become an important reflection of your protagonists' characters. In this workshop we will look at the importance of these secondary characters. Topics covered will include: identifying your secondary characters; building your secondary characters; setting as character; use of the secondary character; and the life and death of the secondary character.

At the conclusion of this workshop, the participants should have an understanding of the importance of secondary characters to their stories and the tools necessary to develop and incorporate strong reflection characters into their work.

Presenter

Alison Stuart began her writing career half way up a tree in the school playground where she wrote her first (as yet unpublished) historical romance. She writes historical romance for Harlequin MIRA, Escape Publishing and also publishes independently. She has ten published novels as well as a number of shorter works. She also writes historical mysteries as A.M. Stuart and is published by Berkley Publishing (Penguin New York).

In her life outside writing, she enjoyed a varied career as a lawyer in a wide number of fields including the military and as a senior executive in the fire services.

Workshop 4 – Option 2

Career: Building a successful career with Harlequin

Experience Level: Published authors

Heat Level: 

Harlequin will be presenting a workshop for published authors about how to build their career. More information will be coming soon.

Presenter

TBA

Workshop 4 – Option 3

Genre: Everything you ever wanted to know about publishing with Amazon – Q&A with Sammia Hamir

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

In conversation with Soraya Lane, Sammia Hamer will give us a peek behind the curtain of publishing with Amazon. Sammia and Soraya will talk about their author/editor relationship, discuss what Sammia is looking for and what books and trends she’s excited about, and then will take questions from the audience.

Presenter

Sammia Hamer is a fiction editor for the Lake Union Publishing and Montlake Romance imprints in the UK, where she has brought to the list exciting authors such as Amanda Prowse and Janet MacLeod Trotter. She also looks after bestselling authors such as Eliza Graham and Nick Spalding. Sammia started her publishing career with a scholarship sponsored by the Arts Council England that led to her MA in publishing and roles at a number of different publishing houses. She then moved on to become an editor at HarperCollins in the UK, where she worked at commercial imprint Avon for six years. In her spare time, Sammia can normally be found hanging out with her husband and one-year-old son.

Interviewer

Soraya is the Amazon Charts & #1 Kindle bestselling author of Wives of War & The Spitfire Girls. Writing as Soraya M. Lane, she writes historical women’s fiction for Lake Union (Amazon Publishing). Soraya also writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction as Soraya Lane for St. Martins Press.

Workshop 4 – Option 4

Business: Facebook Ads Basics

Experience Level: All levels

Heat Level: 

Ever wish you could figure out Facebook Ads? Overwhelmed at the idea of even setting up an account? Perhaps you think Facebook Ads just won’t work for you?

Then this is the workshop for you.

We’ll break down the basics of Facebook Ads – how to set up an account, what it looks like on the inside of the ads platform, and what makes up an ad. We’ll break down the various elements such as creating an audience, how to find and test images, and creating compelling ad copy. By the end of the session you’ll be able to go home and set up your very first Facebook Ad!

Presenters

The SPA Girls have been self-publishing since 2013 and podcasting about self publishing since 2015. Between us we’ve self-published more than 60 books, we’ve interviewed all the big names in self-publishing on the podcast, we’ve attended conferences both in New Zealand and overseas, and basically filled our heads with a whole load of self-publishing knowledge – and now we’re going to pass some of that knowledge on to you.

We like to say that we make the mistakes so you don’t have to…