Join Christopher and Gena Maselli in this special episode of the Writing Momentum Podcast as they give you an exclusive sneak preview of the upcoming 2024 Children’s Book Mastery Summit. Discover what this five-day free online event, hosted by Karin Ferreira, has to offer – with 25 sessions featuring top authors, illustrators, and industry experts. Learn invaluable insights into the craft, publishing, marketing, and business of children's books. Don't miss out on tips for using AI in writing, mastering 'Show, Don't Tell,' and much more! Mark your calendars for July 22nd to 26th and find out how to get your free ticket and playbook today. Together, we have writing momentum!

• 00:00 Introduction to the 2024 Children's Book Mastery Summit
• 00:35 Overview of the Summit and Its Benefits
• 01:34 Details on Summit Sessions and Speakers
• 03:50 Special Features and Premium Packages
• 04:43 Spotlight on Karin Ferreira and Her Contributions
• 06:49 Deep Dive into Summit Sessions
• 17:50 Final Thoughts and How to Join the Summit
• 27:38 Conclusion and Farewell

LINKS:

• Register today at https://wmdeal.com/2024cbm
• Liz Wilcox's Email Marketing Membership at http://wmdeal.com/liz
• Get your FREE Move the Needle goal-setting for authors ebook at https://www.writingmomentum.com
• Write with us! Join our writing membership and get your book DONE! https://www.writingmomentum.com/membership

What's that incoming?

Is it the 2024 Children's Book Mastery Summit?

It is, and we've got a sneak preview!

Hello and welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast, I'm Christopher

Maselli, here with my wife, Gena.

Hi there, we're so glad you're here.

Yeah, and we're excited and we have something a little bit

different we're going to do today.

Ok

Now normally on the podcast, we just talk about stuff.

We talk, we kind of share, we kind of teach, we kind of

do a little mini training.

This is different though.

This today, we have a sneak peek of one of our favorite

events that happens every year.

It's the 2024 Children's Book Mastery Summit.

This is put on by our friend Karin and she does a really great job.

She's bringing in 25 of some of the best authors and speakers and people who do

things in the children's book market.

And you can learn from them at this summit.

And, uh, Hey, we, we got a sneak peek into everything going on.

Yeah.

Well, not only that, but Karin Ferreira is a good friend of ours and

we have had the privilege of being part of the Children's Book Mastery

Summit for a couple of years now.

That's right.

And so we are going to be part of this, but you know what?

We're not just teaching at it or talking and training in it.

We are also, I've gotten my ticket, have you already gotten your ticket?

We are attending it as well.

We are attending it.

Yeah and so, this is really cool because she's

bringing 25 people, right?

So there's going to be 25 sessions.

What are the dates that it happens?

I'll tell you what, for those of you who are, listening, we're

going to tell you what we're seeing, uh, in this preview here.

But if you're viewing this on YouTube or on our website, you'll be able to

actually see what we're looking at.

So we're going to jump over here to the screen of the website that's

just dropped and you can see on here, it's a free five day summit.

Oh, that's right.

It's free.

It is free.

Wow.

Now we talked last week about how important it is to invest in your writing.

In this case, it doesn't even cost anything.

As long as you watch them in real time.

All it costs is your energy and your time to learn this,

which is important

which is important.

But I'll tell you this is one of those investments that is well worth it.

This is well worth it.

It's happening July 22nd through the 26th, and it's all online.

So you don't even have to go anywhere.

You don't have any travel expenses.

It's all online.

And Karin just does such a great job and she has brought together people.

And what I love about this summit is that we have said before, uh, many

times that writing is a business.

Your writing is a business, even if you just do it kind of for fun on the

side, there is a business element to it.

And at some point, if you publish, you have to think about all of that.

And Karin knows that, and so she is bringing together people who are going

to talk about the craft of writing, the publishing of children's books.

She's also talking about, um, the marketing and sales of children's books.

She's talking about, um, the productivity of how do you treat

your, your book writing as a business.

There's also some really good tech classes.

They're going to cover AI.

They're going to cover some apps that are really great to use.

Let's jump in.

Soo this as it says here, it's about a $1, 100 value.

I don't doubt that when you count all these people time they're putting together

their classes Well worth it again.

There's 25 people.

It's from July 22nd to 26th Now tell you this if you want to get

your ticket You can go to wmdeal.

com slash 2024cbm.

Okay.

I know that's a mouthful.

We'll have a link somewhere around this video.

Look around and we've got it there for you.

It's a direct link.

That'll make it so that you can go ahead and get a free

ticket to this entire summit.

It won't cost you a thing.

Now she does allow you to if you want to you can purchase

these at a premium package

There's a premium package,

and the premium package gives you this it gives you Not only the ability

to watch the videos later on your own time And, and again and again, if you want

to, but she's also putting in a bunch of really great items that are of full value.

So for instance, you'll get a full month of our, um, writing momentum

membership just by joining the summit and, uh, getting that premium package.

But.

If you just want to join the summit and that's it, you can do that too.

So let's check it out.

Let's check it out.

So here on the website again, that's WMDeal.

com slash 2024CBM.

What a mouthful.

All right.

So, uh, Karin is hosting it and you want to tell them a little bit about Karin?

Yeah, Karin is, she is the CEO of GetYourBookIllustrations.

com.

We've had Karin on our podcast before.

And she's talked about, uh, helping independent authors who want to,

uh, illustrate and publish their own children's picture books.

And so she has a company that she helps with that, but she also does training.

She has a membership herself that she does training, specifically

for the children's book market.

And it's kind of like a mentorship kind of training,

really, really good stuff.

And, um, uh, the illustrations that her book, the get your book

illustrations does are fabulous.

We've had some friends who've taken advantage of them.

We told them about it and they've said, okay, we'll go ahead and try it.

And wow, are they good?

Yeah, they are.

The thing about Karin's, um, company that she has, the Get Your Book

Illustrations, is that she works, from my understanding, she works

with illustrators all over the world.

And so there are all these different styles.

So if you're an independent, author.

And you're thinking, I want to publish my children's book, but I

don't know an, an artist or I know what style I want, but I don't know

anybody who does that exact style.

You can just kind of sift through all the different types of illustrations that

Karin has access to and the illustrators who do those different styles.

So it's really a lot of fun.

It's kind of like you can go on there and do a dream.

You know, you can do your dream wishlist right there of, one day I want a book that

looks like that, and you can work on it.

But let's get back to the children's book Mastery.

Yes.

So this, if you get your, um, uh, free ticket, you also get a free playbook.

What this playbook is, is a, is a short book that just has some of the

best tips from the sessions I believe, that are in this, uh, whole summit.

And so that's, it's a nice bonus that you get.

Again, that doesn't cost you anything.

It's going to start off with a kickoff party, which is kind

of fun that Karin's hosting.

And then, Oh, look, the first, Hey, I'm the first speaker this year.

I'm talking about writing by the numbers.

I'm going to show you how powerful numbers are when it comes to your writing.

Have you ever thought, man, I don't know how I'm going to finish

a book that's 40, 000 words.

That will take forever.

I'm going to show you how you can use those numbers to your advantage and break

it down to where you're going to find, man, I might be able to finish something

like that in just a month or two.

It's kind of crazy.

If you are someone who enjoys, um, systems.

Chris is definitely somebody who, um, works to crack the code

on systems and productivity.

So, um, you're, if you are that kind of person, or if you just want to be

inspired, I think that, that session that you give, you've talked about

this before with our membership site, with our memberships, and you've, um,

walked them through what does it mean?

How does A little bit writing a little every day really add up and

how can you make the most of that?

So yeah, that was beautiful.

Uh, then she's uh, let's see They've got uh, Daniel is i'm not i'm not

gonna say everyone's last names because I know i'm gonna butcher some of the names

So i'm just gonna say the first name.

Is that okay?

That's not cheating.

Is it?

It's kind of cheating.

I'm sorry.

I didn't say my first name.

Well, no, I think I did at the beginning of the podcast.

Let me help you out here.

Daniel David Wallace is going to be talking about character first writing,

which is going to be, um, discovering the power of character first writing to

create an emotionally resonant story.

That's good.

Yeah.

Uh, you know, I, I think so many times, I love plot, but so many times we can

get so wrapped up in just making sure the plot's correct that we forget that

our characters have to have a depth to them to make that story really live long.

So he's going to talk about that.

Sandra Beckwith.

Yes, she's talking about the three easiest ways to get

author and book publicity.

Okay, you guys who are looking for tips on marketing, you

definitely want to tune in to this.

Because publicity, PR, we, this is an area that Chris and I are

learning more and more about.

And it's just really powerful.

Yeah.

And she's an award winning publicist.

And so you want to hear what she has to say.

I think she's got some really interesting insights that you'll enjoy.

And she says that she's going to share shortcuts, shortcuts to success.

We all love those, right?

We like the shortcuts.

And then we have the business of being an author.

This is, you know, here's the thing, being an author today, It is a business.

You can't just think, Oh, we're just going to do our writing and that, that's it.

It is full on business.

And this is taught by Alexa Bigwarfe.

Is that right?

Yes.

Bigwarfe.

And while we could go on and on about why writing today is a business and

it is, regardless of whether you are traditionally or independently

published, you have to get in the game.

You can't just think, Oh, I'm going to go right out in my cabin in the

woods and send off my manuscript.

And.

It's gonna, you know, do whatever.

It's gonna sell.

You have to get in there even if you are being traditionally published.

You got to get out there and you got to work it.

This next session is also a marketing session.

This is interesting.

This is from Derek.

How do you say his last name?

Doepker

Doepker I think.

And he's talking about influencer marketing for authors.

Now, this is interesting.

It's not how you're being an influencer, but it's how to identify

the right influencers and get them to help promote your work, man.

I'll tell you there.

We get one of the biggest questions we get is, you know, how do I sell my book?

And there are some new ways to do that through things like influencer

marketing and getting insights into that.

Super valuable.

That, uh, that ought to be a good session.

All right.

That's, that's on the first day.

So that's, uh, that'll be next, uh, on Monday, the 22nd, are

those 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 sessions.

And then the next day on Tuesday, we start off with,

A session that you're kind of interested to hear

what he has to say, aren't you?

Yeah, I'm interested in this because we've had some people

ask us about AI when it comes to writing because there's AI is basically

getting into everything we use, right?

Every app that I use has an AI feature now.

We are not getting away from this.

This is, they are building this now into the operating

systems of our computers, right?

Just this last month, Apple, and then the month before that, Google announced,

and Microsoft, how they're building it into their operating systems.

This is just becoming a part of our lives.

So how can we use AI ethically, as writers, to help with our

productivity without crossing a line.

And so this, I think this will be a really good, um, uh, session.

And it's he's going to talk about how to enhance your writing process.

I look forward to that.

Yeah.

Well, and Marcy, uh, Pusey is plotting perfection, how to create

strong picture book stories.

Uh, you know, there's a lot of people who think that writing

children's picture books is easy.

Getting a story with a three act structure done in 32 pages with short

copy is not always as easy as it may seem and so This would be a good one.

Yeah, this, this ought to be good.

And then we have Krista Safarova.

She's talking about nine types of stories to build connection with readers.

So yeah, a lot of times, you know, we, we write off of our fancy and

not kind of really focusing on what will connect with readers.

What will draw them in?

And she's going to cover that.

That's, that's a good one.

Even if you've got a manuscript you started to run your manuscript

through that litmus test of, is it going to connect with readers?

Right.

And that emotional connection, especially when you're dealing with writing for

kids, because remember, you're not, you're not just writing to small adults.

You're, you're writing to children who are at different developmental stages.

And so you have to understand.

How to connect with them when you're writing picture books in a

way by understanding what really probably their, their wants, their

needs, what their expectations are, what their thought processes are.

There's a lot to that.

So definitely check that one out.

Next is Shelby Leigh.

She's got the Social Media Marketing for Authors.

Hey!

Gotta market.

Gotta use social media.

How do you do it?

What platform should you use?

How do you build your author brand?

How do you engage with your audience?

She's going to cover that.

That looks like it's probably going to be a good introductory session to that.

And a lot of us need that.

So that sounds like a really, really good one.

And then Bethany Barany.

This is the next day on day three.

Day three.

So crafting compelling characters and character transformation.

Another good character one.

Another good character one.

And remember, this is for children's books.

But now I do want to point out that when we talk about children's books, that's

not just picture books, is it, Chris?

No, no, no.

Children, children's books is everything from board books, right?

The kids like to chew on as they read it all the way up through young adult novels.

So if you are writing any kind of children's book, even young adult, right?

Something that you're like, Oh, teenagers will like this.

You want to have compelling characters and you want to have transformation.

And Beth is a wonderful teacher and I think you'll really like what

she's going to teach in this session.

Yeah.

And I also love to go do a shout out for children's nonfiction because,

Oh my gosh, children's nonfiction.

It is, it was like, Uh, cause you guys know I'm a homeschooling mom.

So I have worked with my kids.

My kids are, our kids are older now.

They're more teenagers.

But when I discovered nonfiction children's book, it was like the Holy

Grail of our elementary education because it was just so much fun to have them

bring Science, technology, history, math, just all of these different

things that bring them to life through these, um, Non fiction picture books.

And non fiction books use fiction techniques to

bring that non fiction to life.

So you'll want to learn from a session like this.

I think you'll like it.

Oh, Arielle.

Oh, I'm going to mess up her name.

Uh, Arielle Haughee.

I think so.

Um, how to work with an illustrator.

That's so important for those of you, not only for those of you who

do are doing picture books, but if you have any kind of illustration in

your book, you may be doing a chapter book, which has fewer illustrations.

You may be writing a YA novel, but you'd like to have some illustrations at the

end of the chapters or something that will, uh, be helpful to, to, to sit

there, to learn from someone exactly how to work with an illustrator.

Speaking of which the next session is, uh, Tamara Dever.

And now she's going to talk about book design, the ins and outs in terms of.

All the different type parts of design because when you get into

it, you start realizing, Oh, it's not just getting a picture.

It's thinking of about bleed and trim and gutter and typography

and layout techniques, right?

All of these things are important.

And even if you're not doing it yourself, you want to understand these terms and

How they work in book design so that you can work with that, uh, illustrator

as, uh, Ariel was talking about.

So I would attempt both those sessions if you're doing any kind

of book with illustrations with, uh, design to it, which is fine.

Pretty much any book.

Yeah, and Maria Dismondy, An Insider's Guide to Getting

Traditionally Published.

I know there are some of you out there who really have your heart set on

getting traditionally published, so you definitely want to check that out

because, uh, the traditional publishing market is really changing a lot.

A lot.

A lot.

There's a lot of kind of condensing and different houses that are

building, uh, or buying one another up.

And so you want to learn about that.

So definitely check that out if traditional publishing is on the horizon.

There's a lot of authors that don't want to self publish.

They want to try traditionally publishing.

And so this is good to find out where this is state of where it's at today.

And then, Oh, this, I know this next author real well.

Her name is Gena.

Hey, that's you.

And why don't you tell everyone what you're talking about?

Okay.

So I talked about how to develop an audience through email marketing.

You guys know, we've talked a lot about email marketing

on this podcast for authors.

And so I really go through some of the tips, why email marketing is so

important, how to make the most of it.

What are some ways that you can build your list?

So I go through a lot of those different answering those different questions on it.

And, um, just really hopefully helping people know, you guys know that, uh,

for us, we believe email marketing is where it is at for authors, because

you want to be able to develop a relationship with your readers.

And the way that you can do that is through just a regular email newsletter.

And so definitely check that out.

Be so good.

Now, if you've been listening to this and you're like, okay, okay, I'm sold.

I'm sold.

There's so many good here.

We're not selling you on anything.

This thing is free.

It's absolutely free.

It's called the Children's Book Mastery Summit.

Go to wmdeal.

com slash 2024 CBM.

And we'll have the link somewhere around this video and you'll be

able to get your free ticket.

You'll get your free bonus that has a bunch of tips for children's book

writers and you can also check out if you're interested in the premium package

where you can keep the videos, watch them at your convenience, it's got a

bunch of bonuses including a free month of the Writing Momentum Membership.

Whew, that's a lot.

We're not even done.

We've still got a couple days left here.

Yeah.

And, uh, Laura Backes is leading one of the sessions on

how to write classic children's books that stand the test of time.

And you guys know I have a stack of books that our kids had.

I am not letting them go.

She won't let them go.

We have bookshelves and we're like, no one's gonna read those books anymore.

They're on to other books, right?

Other newer, different old books for older kids.

And she's like, never getting rid of them.

We're never getting rid of them.

And I have a feeling that once our children have children, they

will probably be coming home to, um, wrestle me for them.

Yes, probably so.

All right.

Then we have, uh, Matthew Ziranek and he's going to talk about how to

design in a winning, author, website.

Hey, as an author, you've got to have a website.

You've got to have a website.

It's your, it's not just your calling card, but it can be a

way to connect with your readers.

We have found that our website is a way for people to find out about

us, but it's also a way to connect and watch this podcast to find

out about our membership, right?

To find out about our books.

And so, If you're wanting to design an award winning site,

check out Matthew's session.

Sounds like a good one.

Can I do a plug for you here?

Sure.

Do you think people realize that you do author website design?

We do.

We do author website design as part of Writing Momentum.

And I have done it, um, uh, just by myself for years.

I've now built a small team where we help authors with websites.

And so, yeah, if you need an author website, go ahead and, uh,

let me know at writingmomentum.

com.

Just go to the, Form there and you can you can send me an email would

love to help you help you build yours We try to make them very affordable.

We make them with the latest technology and that's not what this is about

But we're glad to let you know.

All right.

How about Lorna Bailey?

Lorna Bailey, uh, Simplifying your author business

with systems and processes.

I guarantee you I'm going to this session.

I know.

I told you guys systems and processes.

It's his love language.

Here's why.

I have learned that productivity often boils down to having systems.

If you just try to say, I'm going to be productive, be productive, be productive.

You're going to burn yourself out.

But if you can build systems and processes and use the right tools and apps, you

can, you can 10 times what you do with your writing and with your business.

I would attend this session as I would attend every session

because these are just really good.

All right, what's next?

And then Ray Brehm.

The tech side of being an author.

More good tech.

He's talking about websites, blogs, funnels.

Hey, if you've all been listening to our podcast any time, you know

we love the Marketing Funnel because it's a big part of helping you

start a relationship with people who want to know you and your writing.

And so, yes, get a good introduction to that there, um, as well as listen to the

podcast because we talk about that a lot.

It's good, good stuff.

And then, uh, Laurence O'Brien is talking about the art of

book presentation for promotion.

It says, Laurence shares expert insights on how to prepare your book for successful

promotion, and he's going to share how to optimize your presentations for sales.

That's kind of interesting.

Yeah.

You know, we have to pitch our books a lot of times at conferences

or to editors or to even people.

Right?

If you're, if you're going to present something somewhere, that

could be an interesting session.

Definitely.

I'm interested to see where he comes with that.

You know, there's a lot of people also who, uh, They are part of like

book, book events, like book promotion events where it's just kind of open to

the public and people can come through and see the different books that are out

there and what they are, what they are.

They can meet authors.

So I'm sure that this is probably going to give you some ideas and that's

what a lot of this is going to be.

You're just going to walk away more educated, but it also might on

the marketing side, give you some ideas for, okay, what is it that

I can do that feels right to me?

Uh, you're not going to want to do everything, but, you know, when it comes

to promotion, sometimes when we say promotion, it sounds scarier than it is.

And you, as you get into it, you realize, okay, maybe I'm not going

to be the headliner speaker yet of a big conference, but you know what?

I can go maybe promote at a small book lovers event or I can do something online

and so anyway this is just a way for you to get some ideas for book promotion.

That's the first 20 we have five more left so stick with us

five more that's the first 20 though you could so what what she's doing

Karin's doing five people a day so you could see how you could spend your

whole week and just immerse yourself in the children's book writing world.

I love that.

Love it.

Love it.

Love it.

All right.

What's Karin talking about on day five?

Karin's talking about mastering show, don't tell.

I think this is such a, it's a classic talk, but it is such a needed talk

because it's one of those things that, um, uh, sometimes I know for

me personally, I've had to go through a process of understanding when,

what, I thought sometimes that I was, showing when actually I was telling

and I actually worked with a coach on that and she was, she brought it to

light for me and she helped me see it.

And so now I have some more education on that.

We talked about that last week about investing.

I worked with a coach and she enlightened me to, to maybe

something that I could do better.

And so I know Karin's going to do that as well.

This is one of those craft sessions that you really

don't want to miss because even if you think, I don't do that.

Go to this session.

This will help build those synapses in your brain so that you will

see when you're doing this kind of thing every single time.

I love attending sessions like this and sharpening myself to this because

it always makes me a better writer.

It really does because I a lot of times when you go to sessions like

this it'll sit there in the back of your mind and there's even been times

when I've heard someone talk about something that I haven't it's like not

it hasn't completely clicked, and, but as my mind is working on it and working

on it, all of a sudden I'm like, oh.

It totally makes sense.

And that's what that person was talking about.

And so, uh, yeah, go and listen and absorb as much as you can, cause it'll come back.

All right.

Next is our friend CJ Anaya.

Now CJ is talking about how to use Plottr for children's book authors.

So, so Plottr is an app that CJ has built.

Uh, he's a real good guy.

He has a great company.

And, um, this helps you outline your book and plot it on your

computer, which is really nice.

And it uses a lot of, you can like pull in templates of some of the best book

plotting techniques and use them here.

If you're interested in Plottr, you can go to writing.

fyi slash Plottr, that's Plottr.

P L O T T R, and we have a link there to an exclusive lifetime deal on that app.

It's really great.

So C.

J.

Anaya, How to Use Plottr for Children's Book Authors, and then what?

April Cox is talking about the authorpreneur mindset.

So once again, we're talking about treating your writing like a

business and boy, start that early.

Start that, start doing that early.

I'm not saying that you need to get caught up in a whole bunch of business processes

when you're just writing your first book, but be laying that groundwork now so

that as your business grows, so does your processes and the way you approach it.

And then we have one more here.

This is Lisa Ferland.

She's talking about how to succeed at crowdfunding.

Let me say that again.

How to succeed at crowdfunding for children's book authors.

Do you know what crowdfunding is?

It's creating online campaigns so that you can have people who will fund your

book to be written, and then you've already got a built in audience who are

going to be purchasing the book then.

This is becoming, well it has been has been, for a little while now, a

very popular way for authors to get their books to take off and to get

them sold before they even write them.

I mean, think about that.

Would you like to have your book sold before you write it?

This could be a really interesting session to go to.

I encourage you to check that one out too.

And that is all 25 of the Children's Book Mastery Sessions that are

happening next week, July 22nd to 26th.

You can go to WMDeal.

com slash 2024CBM, find the link around this video, click on that, you'll get

your free ticket, you'll also get a free playbook that has a bunch of tips in

it, you can also check out the premium pass that lets you watch those videos

at any time you want, and it has a whole bunch of bonuses including a free month

of the Writing Momentum membership.

Yeah, we would love to see you there.

So definitely check this out.

We're so excited to be part of it.

So thankful to be part of it.

And we hope that this just, really encourage you in your writing and

in your writing business and in your publishing, just all of it.

And do I actually have to wait till next week for this thing?

I'm excited.

I want to watch it now.

We hope you've enjoyed this session episode of the Writing Momentum Podcast.

And just hopefully you will really enjoy that Children's Book Mastery Summit.

We really hope that you will take advantage of this free ticket and um, we

will see you there because together

we have writing momentum.

Bye bye.