DIY Resources

Preparing to submit your novel to publishers or agents?

This workbook walks you through your story’s viability, your pitch, query, synopsis, opening pages, your author bio, as well as giving you tips for the submission process. 
Work at your own pace through each of these integral pieces to nailing your manuscript submission.

Jolene has been teaching the basics of submission since 2014 at numerous writing conferences and has over a year interning with literary agencies-as well as having twelve years of publishing experience with her own projects.

You can get your copy HERE.

5 Point Story Mapping: Set Your Story up for Success

Ready to set your story up to succeed? 

The Waypoint Method of mapping your story aims to get deep under the skin of your idea so you understand more than just what happens to your characters. Our 5 POINT STORY MAPPING workbook helps you understand your own motivations as well as your characters’, so you can use your time and creative energy in the best possible ways.

In this 21-page workbook, we’ll walk you through our five steps: 

Trailhead: Getting Your Story Bearings

• Trailhead: Getting Your Story Bearings
• Point One: Idea Meadows
• Point Two: Slope of Character Growth
• Point Three: Story Roots Lookout
• Point Four: Plot Point Pass
• Point Five: Story Goal Summit

When you finish, you’ll have a solid path forward that stays true to your vision of your fiction project.

Get your workbook HERE.

Three Author Foundations: For Authors Focusing on a Long-lasting Career

Feeling lost in your author career? Just getting started as a writer? Building a solid foundation will simplify your career, build momentum faster, and help you find readers who truly love you.

We’ll walk you through three steps to set you on a solid, sustainable track and keep you there:

1. RESET EXPECTATIONS: Sort out toxic beliefs and replace them with beliefs and expectations that nurture you and your goals as an author.
2. GET ALIGNED WITH YOUR CORE VALUES: Alignment with your values is the only way to create a sustainable career that truly resonates with you and YOUR readers.
3. PREPARE FOR THE HARD PARTS: Every career has downswings, but if you have backups in place, they become a manageable part of your long-term goals. 

Whether you’re starting your writing journey as an indie or traditional author, you’ve finished one book, or your backlist is filled with titles, THREE AUTHOR FOUNDATIONS will help you get unstuck. If you’re overwhelmed by the process, struggling with criticism or rejection, or just feeling burned out, this guide will help you get back on the right path to a thriving author career.

Download your guide HERE.

Pitch it to Write it: Know you have a solid, marketable idea before writing the first word.

You can create marketable story ideas that resonate with your readers, again and again. This is a workbook that guides authors of all stages and levels of experience through a proven process to create their next big idea.

You’ll start by exploring themes and the core of your story. Next, you’ll explore all the ideas bouncing around in your brain to help you focus on what story you want to work on next. Finally, you’ll take one or two of your brilliant ideas and create pitches for those.

This workbook is designed to help you build the cornerstone of a long-lasting publishing career: a novel that stays with your readers. AND to help both plotters and panthers get their mindset straight before jumping in.

Created by Jolene Perry, a published author with over ten years of experience in both traditional and independent publishing, PITCH IT TO WRITE IT is an effective method for narrowing down your next novel idea before you sit down to write.

You can download your workbook HERE.

Master Self Editor: Save yourself both time and money with essential tools to help you see your own writing objectively.

Want to get the most out of your edits and get your book noticed? The best way to make your book as strong as it can be is by learning how to edit your own words before your manuscript ever leaves your hands. 

No one knows your story the way you do, and no one can edit in a way that helps you stay as true to that idea as you can. This workbook will teach you how to look at your manuscript objectively, taking it through your own round of edits before querying agents or handing it over to your editor. Self-editing saves you time and money and helps you get the most out of your editing process, whatever publishing path you take. 

MASTER SELF-EDITOR was created by Jolene Perry, a published author and professional editor. After more than a decade of working with editors from five different publishing houses, reading for agents, and running her own editing company, Jolene has assembled the tools every author needs before handing their manuscript over to a professional.

Download your workbook HERE.

Write Better Stories Series

Allie and Jo are passionate about getting more quality stories out into the world. We created this series of workbooks to give intermediate authors a series of questions and checklists to to do the following:

• Write a Better Story
• Create a Better Character
• Construct Better Tension
• Build a Better Romance

We suggest doing the workbooks in the order above, but if you’re looking for DIY help in a specific area, please know that one workbook does not rely on the one that came before.

Write a Better Story walks you through the steps to create stories with the kind of depth that sticks with the reader long after they’ve finished.

Create a Better Character also focuses on depth of story-your plot points mean nothing without the right character to inhabit them.

Construct Better Tension gives you a checklist to work through as you plan your next writing project, or look over one you’ve completed to make sure you haven’t missed possible sources of tension.

Build a Better Romance isn’t just for romance writers! Whether romance is your main plot or a subplot - building a romance that readers connect with will always bring them back for more.

You can find these DIY Workbooks on our Etsy shop HERE.