Women in Publishing Presents: Business Bootcamp for Authors & Publishing Industry Professionals
On-Demand Replays | Virtual Get Immediate Access!Build a Stronger Author & Publishing Business—From the Inside Out
Replay access for the Women in Publishing Business Bootcamp—a 2-day virtual event for authors, indie publishers, freelancers, and publishing professionals ready to treat their work like a real business. This isn’t about writing or book marketing—it’s about what powers your business behind the scenes: LLCs and trademarks, finances and accounting, automation and systems, team-building and delegation. Learn from industry experts and walk away with the structure, clarity, and confidence to operate like a CEO.
The WIP Business Bootcamp is two full days of live training built around the parts of your author or publishing business that rarely get taught: your money, your contracts, your systems, and your long game. Two parallel tracks run alongside shared keynotes and networking, so you can sit in the room that fits where your business is right now and leave with real decisions made, not just a notebook full of “I should look into that.”
Authors Track
For the authors ready to run their writing like the business it actually is. Sessions cover the money and the mechanics: a financial framework built for women who create, the foundations of bookkeeping, licensing and IP, contracts you can actually understand, expanding internationally through translations, and finding the money to grow. You’ll leave knowing your numbers and protecting your work.
Publishing Industry Professionals Track
For the editors, coaches, publicists, designers, and service providers building bookish businesses that last. Sessions cover the systems behind a scalable business: expanding your editing and coaching offers, IP and contracts for pros, financial management and retirement planning, and the frameworks that turn a busy calendar into a stable, growing business. This is the operational backbone your creativity deserves.
This isn’t a passive bootcamp. It’s a learn-and-do event: sessions are paired with implementation hours and breakout rooms by project, so you actually apply what you learn while you’re still in the room. You’ll leave with numbers you understand, contracts you’re not afraid of, and a clear next step for your business, not a list of things to figure out later.
Structured networking makes sure you walk away with relationships, not just notes.
Bootcamp Schedule
Descriptions of each session and bios of each speaker available below.
Day One | Your Foundation, Your Money & Your Rights
- Opening Keynote (for both tracks): Welcome to the 2026 Business Bootcamp! with Alexa Bigwarfe
- Author Morning Track: How to Expand Your Business Internationally with Translations with Isabella Nanni
- Pro Morning Track: How to Expand Your Online Editing & Coaching Business with Isobelle Lans & Rachel Grosvenor
- Midday Keynote (for both tracks): The CEO of Your Life: A Financial Framework for Women Who Create with Chelsea Williams
- All-Attendee Session: Your Books, Your Business: A No-Nonsense Guide to Getting Financially Organized with Erin Pohan
- Author Afternoon Track: Licensing Lyrics for Your Books with Stacey Powells // Money Meets Mission: Finding the Money to Grow with Sharissa Bradley
- Pro Afternoon Track: The Legal Blind Spots in Your Publishing Journey: Business, IP, and Contracts From First Client to Final Invoice with Tia Hooper // The Publishing Pro Profit Map: Turn Your Expertise Into Premium Offers, Recurring Revenue, and Better Clients with Alesha R. Brown
- Close: Day One Networking for both tracks
Day Two | Do the Work: Implementation, Contracts & Long-Game Money
- Kickoff (for both tracks): Networking & Implementation Hour to set your goals for the day
- Author Morning Track: Building a Strong Business Foundation for Authors with Heather Roberts
- Pro Morning Track: Choose Your Own Action: Co-working, Networking, or Implementation Hour
- Author Afternoon Track: The Legal Blind Spots in Your Author Journey: Business, IP, and Contracts From First Draft to Signed Deal with Tia Hooper
- All-Attendee Session: Financial Management & Retirement Planning with LJ Dix
- Implementation (for both tracks): Breakout Rooms by Project to put the work into action
- Close: Day Two Final Networking for both tracks
Speakers
Everyone
Alexa Bigwarfe, Founder & CEO
Alexa Bigwarfe is a book marketing expert and creator of Book Launch in a Box, helping authors turn overwhelming marketing into clear, strategic action. She teaches proven systems for building visibility, leveraging partnerships, and creating consistent book sales beyond the launch.
Opening Keynote
Welcome to the 2026 Business Bootcamp!
Alexa Bigwarfe will open the 2026 Business Bootcamp with enthusiasm as she sets the stage for what attendees will experience and shares how to make the most out of the event.
Professionals & Authors
Justina "Tia" Hooper, Author & Attorney
Justina “Tia” Hooper is an author, entrepreneur, and Air Force officer with 15+ years advising through high-stakes situations—first as a military attorney, now as general counsel to corporate clients. As an author, she’s building a children’s book brand and writing a crime thriller series. She’s also the founder of Warranted Works, where she turns hard-won knowledge into plain-English tools for authors and publishing professionals.
The Legal Blind Spots in Your Publishing Journey: Business, IP, and Contracts From First Client to Final Invoice (Professionals)
You’ve been running a business since your first client—the paperwork just hasn’t caught up. This workshop is the legal foundation behind a creative practice that lasts: create the work and hold onto the assets you reuse, build the entity that shields you when a client dispute hits, and keep it all through the contracts behind every project—with a look at where AI now changes the rules. You’ll put it together live and walk out with a legal business framework you can actually use.
The Legal Blind Spots in Your Author Journey: Business, IP, and Contracts From First Draft to Signed Deal (Authors)
You started a business the moment you started writing—most authors just don’t know it yet. This workshop is the legal foundation that turns a manuscript into a business you own: create the work and the rights that come with it, build the entity that shields your royalties (and your house), and keep it all through the contracts behind every deal you sign—with a look at where AI now changes the rules. You’ll put it together live and walk out with a legal business framework you can actually use.
Authors
Isabella Nanni, Translator
Isabella graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature in Bologna, Italy, in 1994 and is listed as Expert Interpreter and Translator at the local Chamber of Commerce.
In 2019 she won the “Bottega deiTraduttori” (The Translators Workshop) literary translation contest. She is a native Italian speaker and her language pairs are English->Italian, Italian->English, Spanish->Italian and German->Italian She has worked for major international companies as well as publishers and specializes in literary translations and marketing materials.
Her translations often made it to the top 10 best-selling kindle romances on Amazon Italy, with Crystal Kaswell’s Italian edition of her “Dirty Rich” hitting no. 1 in the general kindle ranking. Isabella is a Top Reviewer on Netgalley since 2016 and is an active member in several online literary groups, both in her home-country as well as internationally. She is in contact with several book bloggers and is a passionate marketer of the books she translates.
How to Expand Your Business Internationally with Translations
Based on her direct experience, Isabella Nanni will illustrate the new trends in the consumption of books on the international markets and how indie authors and publishers can benefit from the new post-pandemic scenario when considering investing in translations.
Authors
Heather Roberts, Attorney & Publishing Professional
Heather Roberts is a licensed attorney and publishing professional who helps authors build strong business foundations for long-term success.
Through her company, 1852 Media, and The Publishing Store, she provides practical, actionable strategies for authors to establish their publishing careers as sustainable businesses. She also founded 1852 Literary, a full-service literary agency, combining her legal expertise with publishing insight to help authors maximize their opportunities.
Heather sits on two non-profit boards: The Green Mountain Book Festival, that brings the arts to Vermont; and After Action, which helps trauma survivors become entrepreneurs. Heather’s unique perspective empowers authors to think like CEOs—protecting their work, building efficient systems, and positioning themselves for growth.
Building a Strong Business Foundation for Authors
Heather Roberts will teach intermediate and advanced authors how to set up the legal, financial, and organizational foundations of their publishing careers so they can confidently run their own author business for long-term success.
Everyone
Erin Pohan, Bookkeeper
Erin Pohan is the founder of Upkeeping, a Seattle-based bookkeeping and payroll firm. She leads a team that handles the books for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs, and co-leads WAVE Seattle, a conference for women in accounting & finance. Erin got into bookkeeping because she likes helping people understand the story their financial data tells them. She believes good bookkeeping should be straightforward and useful, not a dreaded compliance chore.
Your Books, Your Business: A No-Nonsense Guide to Getting Financially Organized
Most authors and publishing professionals manage real money without a real system, and it’s costing them at tax time. This session breaks down how to set up your books so they actually reflect your business, not just whatever QuickBooks defaulted to.
Everyone
Sharissa Bradley, Author & Publisher
Sharissa Bradley is the creator of Project Seed Money, an educational platform that helps women authors and creatives secure funding to grow their books and businesses. Through live workshops, in-depth interviews, and a robust online resource hub, she connects writers with grants and practical strategies to sustain their work before and after publication. As an author and independent publisher herself, Sharissa brings firsthand experience in turning creative vision into fully funded projects.
Money Meets Mission: Finding the Money to Grow
Sharissa Bradley will show women authors and creative professionals how to find and secure grants to fund their books and creative projects and businesses, providing actionable strategies, tools, and resources to grow their work with confidence.
Professionals
Alesha R. Brown, Publishing Professional
Alesha Brown, CEO of Fruition Publishing Concierge Services®, Editor-in-Chief of Published! Magazine®, and Producer at Alesha Brown Production™, is an award-winning entrepreneur, publisher, and visibility strategist.
She specializes in helping authors transform books into sustainable businesses by creating multiple revenue streams, securing media features, and building long-term influence. Through her Profitable Author Association and Published! Magazine®, she equips authors and publishing professionals with the systems, strategies, and media readiness tools to thrive in today’s competitive and AI-driven landscape.
The Publishing Pro Profit Map: Turn Your Expertise Into Premium Offers, Recurring Revenue, and Better Clients
Attendees will leave with a simple profit map showing how to turn their publishing expertise into a premium service ladder, a recurring revenue opportunity, and one clear next offer they can sell.
Professionals
Isobelle Lans, Publishing Professional
Isobelle Lans is the owner of Inspired Creative Co., where she provides book editing, writing coaching, and website design for fiction writers seeking actionable and personalised support. She uses a decade of publishing, agenting, and freelance experience to empower her writers so they can write standout stories.
PANEL: How To Expand Your Online Editing & Coaching Business
Isobelle Lans and Rachel Grosvenor will share the exact steps freelancers need to expand their business online and increase paying clients.
Attendees will learn how to establish their business online by:
- Networking and expanding your reach
- Diversifying your services
- Finding your niche
- Getting seen online
Professionals
Dr. Rachel Grosvenor, Publishing Professional
Dr. Rachel Grosvenor is a writer, editor, and writing coach from the UK with a PhD, MA, and BA in Creative Writing. She is the author of ‘The Finery’ (spotlighted in The Guardian), ‘The Birth of Ida’, and the bestselling ‘Witchborne’.
With over a decade’s worth of experience in the industry and a background in lecturing, Rachel specialises in helping authors go from procrastination to print and helps writers polish their words into the novel they have always dreamed of. Her testimonials speak to her enthusiasm for stories and knowledge, and she maintains a thriving and committed international group of clients.
PANEL: How To Expand Your Online Editing & Coaching Business
Isobelle Lans and Rachel Grosvenor will share the exact steps freelancers need to expand their business online and increase paying clients.
Attendees will learn how to establish their business online by:
- Networking and expanding your reach
- Diversifying your services
- Finding your niche
- Getting seen online
Authors
Stacey Powells, Author & Music Licensing Professional
Stacey has been a published author since 1996 and a music clearance and licensing professional since 1984. Throughout her two careers, she has helped countless authors and screenwriters procure the necessary rights to use lyrics in the works of many writers. A faculty member of StorySummit.us, Stacey holds workshops on the detailed steps needed for an author to be able to use song lyrics that are copyright protected in their books.
Licensing Lyrics for Your Books
Authors will learn the basic steps necessary in order to legally obtain the rights to use song lyrics in their books.
Attendees will leave with:
- How to locate the owners of song lyrics
- What to include in their first query letter
- How to negotiate a fair fee from the music publisher/copyright owner to use lyrics in their writing projects.
Everyone
Chelsea Williams, Financial Architect
Chelsea Williams is a Financial Architect and the founder of Profit Kept and Money Kept. With nearly 20 years of experience working with women and their money, she serves as a fractional CFO for entrepreneurs while teaching women how to use money as a tool to design the life they actually want. Chelsea doesn’t teach theory—she teaches what works. Her framework has one equation: money made minus money spent equals money kept.
The CEO of Your Life: A Financial Framework for Women Who Create
Most women in publishing are exceptional at their craft and chronically underpaid for their business. In this workshop, financial architect Chelsea Williams bridges the gap between personal and business finance—showing authors and publishing professionals why the same system that runs a profitable company can (and should) run your personal financial life. You’ll leave with a clear framework, an honest look at your numbers, and the identity shift that makes all of it actually stick.
Everyone
LJ Dix, Author & Publishing Professional
LJ Dix is a hybrid author who was raised by a lover of books of all kinds. She had free access to her mother’s library as soon as she could read. Her mother also loved science fiction and encouraged LJ’s lifelong love of sci-fi and fantasy. LJ holds an MBA and a second Masters in International Commerce.
Her academic area of interest is global supply chains, specifically container shipping. Interplanetary trade appears in many of her sci-fi books as a fun way to bring together her two areas of interest. She also holds a 5th degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys working out and teaching regularly. As an animal lover, animals also appear in many of her books. Her three cats currently run the household.
Financial Management and Retirement Planning
Learn how to handle your business finances, from your business start to your retirement. The first portion of this session will discuss the benefits of opening a business and then move to a review of the various methods of tracking income and expenses. The second part will help attendees understand the various ways their business can assist them to plan for a successful future, both as a business and in retirement. This includes a short discussion of the various types of retirement accounts that a small business (even a sole proprietorship) can use to both decrease current tax liability and protect assets for the future.
Frequently Asked Questions
What time zones are the sessions in?
How does the conference work? How will I get access to join?
Do I need to have a published book to attend?
Nope—this event is for publishing industry professionals of all types who may or may not be published authors. You will be learning how to strategize the content your business puts out into the world and streamline the process of getting it there. This event is geared toward intermediate to advanced authors and publishing industry professionals.
How is this different from a writing or publishing conference?
The Business Bootcamp focuses specifically on the business side of being an author or publishing industry professional. Speakers will not only teach, they will guide attendees to implement the training on the spot, so you will leave with new systems and plans in place.
Can I pick and choose which sessions to attend?
Yes! You’re welcome to attend the sessions most relevant to your needs. Each topic stands on its own, so you can customize your experience. (But we promise, they’re all valuable.)
Will I get a workbook or resources?
Many sessions include worksheets, templates, or tools you can use right away in your business.
Can I ask questions during the sessions?
Absolutely. Most sessions include time for Q&A. If you’re watching the replay, you can submit questions afterward through our community or support channels (if applicable).
I work a full-time job or am not available all days the week of the event. Will it be recorded?
Good news! Everything is recorded, so if you can’t be there live, it’s okay! That being said, we strongly encourage you to take off time for the most pressing topics for what you need right now to take full advantage of live interactive feedback with our experts.
Will there be networking or implementation?
Yes! Networking and implementation are at the heart of every event we host.
What if I don't live in the U.S.?
Many of our attendees join us from other countries.
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