I am taking a RIDICULOUS number of online classes right now related to publishing and advertising, and they’re going well. A bit further down I’ll break down which ones I’m taking.
I mean, they’re a huge time sink, but I’m liking them so far. Which is kind of funny because I hated college. I love learning but hated how inflexible the scheduling and grading in college was. How arbitrary it could be. How my professors couldn’t accept that I was disabled and would be sick some of the time.
I was SO happy to graduate and be DONE.
But I still take classes because 1. I love learning and 2. I need to learn these skills for publishing.
It’s entirely on MY schedule, and there is no grading, so I’m enjoying it immensely. The only person I hurt by not putting my best in is me. There’s no grade affecting my financial aid or whatever.
I’m motivated to learn it well because this is all about publishing, and that’s important to me!
Before I continue, NO, I am NOT an affiliate of any of these courses mentioned.
Previously, I have taken nearly all of Holly Lisle’s courses, but right now I’m expanding out, especially because while Holly is amazing at craft, her marketing and publishing classes were not as helpful for what I want to do as they could be. But craft? Go to her first, do not pass go, do not collect $200. Even motivation/inspiration classes of hers are amazing.
But, here’s what I’m up to:
The biggest one right now is Sarra Cannon’s Publish and Thrive on the nitty gritty of publishing.
She’s very encouraging, and the class is information dense. A lot of the opening module I knew already from my own efforts, but there was still a TON to learn, and I’ve only finished one of five modules. It was about 4 hours of videos for the first one, and the next one, that starts next week, will be long.
If you want to self publish as an Indie author… THIS is the course I recommend. She covers it ALL in a practical way that will allow you, at the end of the course, to navigate publishing without the level of headache I had when I did it on my own!
I just finished the 5-Day Author Ad Profit Challenge by Bryan Cohen.
This is a free, teaser course for his Author Ad school class, and this is DENSE. There is SO MUCH about Amazon Ads that I couldn’t figure out, and he breaks it down nicely. He did such a good job of it, actually, that I bought his Author Ad School course and am starting on that!
So, if you’re looking into Amazon Ads or advertising through ads, I’d suggest trying the free course. I suspect you’ll move onto the full course after, and there IS a discount if you sit through one of his live Q&A sessions at the end.
I haven’t gotten far enough into Author Ad School yet to have much to say, but it’s very similar to the free session, only more in depth.
I’m taking Mark Dawson’s How to Write a Bestseller after going through his free materials and finding them useful and knowledgeable.
This class is taught by Suzy K. Quinn, and I’ve found her really knowledgeable as well. This is a course where the base level information I already know, but the additional input and experience she puts in is entirely worth the cost. She doesn’t write anything I read, but she is incredibly familiar with the market and how to write a book that will resonate with her chosen audience.
And finally, I’m waiting to enter Mark Dawson’s Advertising for Authors when it opens on Wednesday.
His course is VERY well regarded in some of the serious writing groups I’m in, and it’s not cheap. I’m going to be splitting it out into multiple payments because *gulp* that’s some money.
But I will definitely let you all know what I think of it!
Courses I have that I haven’t gone through yet are:
- The Art and Science of Kindle Keywords by Kindlepreneur (paid course)
- Starting from Zero by David Gaughran (free course)
I think I have enough on my plate for right now though, so those will have to wait!
What courses have you taken recently?
