PaperbackU · A Paperbacks & Pixels Program
The Author
Platform
Intensive
Six weeks. One cohort. Your focus, your book, your next move — with someone who's sat on every side of the publishing industry.
April 7 — May 12
Tuesdays at Noon ET
6 Weeks
Join the First Cohort
Standard
$497
Six weeks of lessons, live Q&A, community chat, and all four AI tools. You choose your focus. You do the work. You leave with a real platform plan — not a better to-do list.
Limited
VIP
$1,497
Everything in Standard, plus a 1:1 roadmap session with Julie, personal feedback on your materials, and extended coaching access throughout the six weeks. For the author who wants eyes on their work.
Starts
April 7, 2026
Live Sessions
Tuesdays, Noon ET
Ends
May 12, 2026
Format
Cohort + Community
What This Is
You know what you
should be doing.
So why isn't it working?
Most book marketing advice treats your book like a product and you like a marketing machine. This intensive starts somewhere different — with who you are as an author, where your book lives in the publishing ecosystem, and what kind of platform you can sustain without abandoning the creative work that started all of this.
Six weeks. Pre-recorded lessons with exercises you'll keep. Weekly live Q&A. Community chat between sessions. And a genuine framework — not a better checklist.
You choose your focus. Everyone gets all four AI tools.
Your Focus Areas
The 4 Ps of Author Platform
Each P is a complete system. They build on each other — but you come in wherever the foundation is weakest.
1
Positioning
Find Your Address
Who you are, where your book lives in the publishing ecosystem, what game you're actually playing — and who your reader is before marketing starts.
2
Platform
The Literary Citizen
Everywhere you show up — online and off. Court influence, not followers. Become someone worth knowing in the spaces where your readers already are.
3
Practice
The Long Game
Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly rhythms that sustain a career. A marketing practice that doesn't devour the creative work it's meant to serve.
4
Profitability
The Bottom Line
Time and money — what success looks like in your terms, how publishing economics actually work, and how to make smarter decisions with both.
The Structure
Six weeks. Real results.
Every week: one pre-recorded lesson, one live Q&A hour, ongoing community chat. Each lesson comes with an exercise. You leave with something in your hands, not just notes in your head.
01
Tuesday, April 7
Where You Are Now
Map your current platform, identify your focus area, and set a clear goal for the six weeks. The AI diagnostic tool walks you through it.
This Week's Tool
Your Positioning Blueprint — genre, market, hook, headline, and your one big next move.
02
Tuesday, April 14
Your Foundation
Dig into your chosen focus. Positioning starts with your book's address. Platform starts with your literary citizenship audit. Practice starts with your real rhythms. Profit starts with your definition of success.
This Week's Output
Your personal audit — where you are vs. where you want to be, with gaps named.
03
Tuesday, April 21
The Work
Move into the material of your focus. This is the messy middle — we work through the actual decisions, the stuck places, the "but what about my situation" moments.
Live Q&A Focus
Bring your real work. This session is for the specific, the complicated, the "nobody else teaches this."
04
Tuesday, April 28
Building It
Turn your foundation and clarity into a working plan. Specific, realistic, and built around your actual creative life — not the ideal version.
This Week's Output
A working document you can act on immediately — not a worksheet, a plan.
05
Tuesday, May 5
Making It Stick
Sustainability is the hard part. This session is about how to keep doing the work after the intensive ends — and what to do when you stop.
This Week's Focus
Your practice rhythm — what you'll do daily, weekly, monthly, and how you'll recover when you fall off.
06
Tuesday, May 12
What's Next
Celebrate what you built. Name your next milestone. Leave with a clear picture of where you are and what you're doing next. (Also Julie's birthday, so we're ending on time.)
You Leave With
A complete platform document, a practice plan, and a real next step — not homework.
What's Included
Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.
6 Pre-Recorded Lessons
Each one focused, each one with an exercise you'll actually finish. Yours to keep and revisit.
6 Live Q&A Sessions
Tuesdays at noon ET. Bring your real questions. This is where the actual work happens.
Community Chat
Async discussion between sessions. Other authors in the same messy middle, doing the same work.
All 4 AI Tools
Positioning Blueprint, Platform Audit, Practice Rhythm Builder, and Profit Calculator. Julie's expertise baked in.
Your Focus, Your Book
Everyone moves through the same container — positioning, platform, practice, or profit — around their specific situation.
VIP: 1:1 Time with Julie
Roadmap session, personal materials review, and extended coaching. For the authors who want eyes on their work.
Why Julie
She's sat on every side of the industry.
Most people who teach book marketing have one vantage point. Julie has all of them — and she'll tell you the truth about where the system serves authors and where it fails them.
- Traditional publishing editor at Wiley, Taunton, VNR, and Sterling — acquired approximately 70 books. She knows how books get made and sold, not the mythology of it.
- Founded and ran her own press — secured national distribution, survived the Borders bankruptcy, and sold the press to Fox Chapel. She's lived the risk.
- Director of Digital Rights at Writers House, one of the most powerful literary agencies in the world — ran the self-publishing program and helped authors build platforms from inside the traditional system.
- Was in the room at early Digital Book World and Tools of Change conferences — not watching the future of publishing arrive, but arguing about it in real time.
First Cohort · April 7 – May 12, 2026
Ready to stop circling the drain?
Six weeks. A real framework. An instructor who's been on every side of this industry and will tell you the truth about it.
Standard
$497
- 6 pre-recorded lessons + exercises
- 6 live Q&A sessions, Tuesdays noon ET
- Community chat throughout
- All 4 AI platform tools
- Choose your focus area
VIP
$1,497
- Everything in Standard
- 1:1 Roadmap session with Julie
- Personal materials review
- Extended coaching (group or 1:1)
- Limited spots available
Questions? Email julie@paperbacksandpixels.com