program tiers

Authors may choose one of three tiers for the Breakthrough Writers’ Boot Camp.

All tiers include the workshops, webinars, and access to the author community. Authors may sign up for one tier and later shift to another as needed. New members can start their program the 1st of any month and may leave the program whenever they like— no minimum length of time is required.

  • $75 per month. In this tier, you and Kate will develop a career plan based on your goals and skills. Whether you want to improve your craft, gain an agent, change what you’re hearing on submission, gear up to write a new WIP, study how to revise, find balance between your writing and the rest of life, learn the industry, cultivate your creativity, or stop freezing when you sit down to write, we will create a custom plan for you. Each month during a 30-minute one-on-one consult, we will tackle the next step of it, troubleshoot, and adjust as needed.

    This tier also includes all of the group program events—webinars, workshops, and guest speakers, as well as access to the resource center and the author community on Slack.

    Additionally, you’ll have access to the library of recorded classes from previous months, stretching back three years. They cover everything from author branding to advanced prose, from publishing contracts to state of the market discussions.

    Private coaching over email or video may be purchased as needed.

    Need guidance and love tuning in on your own schedule for as much real talk, industry data, and craft education as you can handle? This is your tier.

  • $275 per month. This includes the live webinars and workshops, access to the private author community, and the library of past classes from the career development tier.

    It also adds concepting, structuring, and plotting your manuscript–or revising a completed one. Each month, Kate will tackle one element of your personal book development plan with you, including a 6-layer premise evaluation, plot arc evaluations for main and secondary characters, focusing on the major dramatic question, deepening the heart of the story, creating/revising a 6-stage plot arc, voice analysis, and more. As you work, Kate will meet with you once per month over video for an hour to discuss your progress and her notes so you have ongoing editorial support.

    We will be taking your MS to the next level, addressing issues and missing potential from the ground up, but we’ll also be doing this from a craft-building perspective. Kate will provide targeted, custom exercises and techniques to you that she’ll give feedback on in your monthly session. Readings on craft and from published fiction may be assigned as well as curriculum from Kate’s webinar library. This way, not only will your book become stronger, but you’ll become a stronger writer, too.

    Wherever your skills are now, this tier focuses on identifying weaknesses and strengths in your craft and building up both– with a keen eye on your particular career goals, personal writing style, and your genre’s conventions. This is intended to be masters-level instruction, not 101, but it will be accessible and achievable even if you are a beginner.

    Additional sessions to progress faster can be added at $110 per session for any month that you like.

  • $450 per month.

    This tier is brand-new and the best of what Kate offers.

    During a set of initial private sessions, we’ll set out your progress plan and scaffold achievable creative, marketing, writing, or platform-building goals for you just like we do in the career development tier, but more aggressively and with additional support.

    We’ll also tackle book development for your MS and building up your craft with a custom curriculum designed for you as we do in the advanced writing craft tier, with additional support and intensity.

    Additionally, unique to this masterclass tier, you’ll be given private invitations to network over video calls with remarkable authors, agents, editors, publicists, and marketers. You will also receive double the coaching time from the advanced craft tier: two hours per month that you can book either together as one long session or throughout the month for more frequent accountability, and with one coach or multiple. Finally, you’ll be invited to private sessions with Kate’s other masterclass students where we critique each other’s work, build relationships, and learn from each other.

    Writers may join this tier on an open-ended basis, or for a set number of months.

    Additional sessions to progress faster can be added at $110 per session for any month that you like.

    Kate can only work with a few authors at a time for this tier, so please note there may be a waiting list. Apply as soon as you know you’re interested to be enrolled as early as possible.

Program Intensives

If you’re on deadline or fast-drafting, if you want to reset or level up your career right now, or you just want to make huge progress as quickly as possible, the intensives are for you. You may enroll in either a tier or an intensive, or both.

Authors may sign up for one tier and/or an intensive to start, and then later shift to another as needed. Authors may start their program the 1st of any month and may leave the program whenever they like— no minimum length of time is required.

  • $3400. For this intensive, we will set aside a weekend (or three week days) as a virtual writing retreat. Kate will guide you through a fast-paced, aggressive workshop that will overhaul your entire manuscript or help you dig into a new manuscript. This is a custom program tailored to your book and how you work best. Prior to the intensive, Kate will meet with you to discuss your goals, where you are with the manuscript, and how you work. She will then prepare the custom materials for your personal program and guide you through the retreat. For example, most retreat days involve a session with Kate to brainstorm and goal-set, then independent work time for you, then another session with Kate to analyze and troubleshoot, then independent writing/revision time for you, then rejoining Kate for another session. This revolving process continues throughout the three days. Payment plans are available.

  • $2900. For this intensive, we will set aside a weekend (or three week days) as a virtual career retreat. Kate will guide you through a fast-paced, aggressive workshop that will overhaul your entire career. This is a custom program tailored to your career goals, your definition of success, and how you work best. We will address publishing paths, author branding, publicity, building your platform, identifying your audience, finding and working with your publishing team, developing your craft, and more. Prior to the intensive, Kate will meet with you to discuss your goals, where you are with your career, and how you prefer to work. She will then prepare the custom materials for your personal program and guide you through the retreat. For example, most retreat days involve a session with Kate to brainstorm and goal-set, then independent work time for you, then another session with Kate to analyze and troubleshoot, then independent work time for you, then rejoining Kate for another session. This revolving process continues throughout the three days. Payment plans are available.

A note from Kate:

The book development materials in the craft and masterclass tiers are something unique.

Not too long ago, I edited a novel where so much was wonderful and transportive—the character, the voice, the pacing. The author had nailed it. Except the concept of the book was exactly like three others I’d read that year, and I could have told her that from the synopsis and a good discussion. And all three of those books lacked the originality and imaginative hook necessary to have a good chance of selling to a publishing house. I started to wish more authors were able to work with an editor before their book was done to catch these things early, before they’ve done all that work to write it and paid for expensive developmental edits.

Through editing books for clients, I’ve noticed that many of them are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars for edits when the stakes are broken, or their character is passive, or the concept isn’t original enough, or all the interesting things happen in the last third of the story, or the main character’s arc has no meaningful growth. Sometimes it’s more complex — three wonderful POVs tell three amazing intersecting stories, but there’s no central major dramatic question holding them together. Or the story and plot are amazing, but that concept is burned out right now and the author needs to find a way to bring originality and imagination. Writing stories and shaping them into powerful books is time-consuming and demanding. Few of us have extra time, energy, or money to spend on after-the-fact problem solving.

What if those things could be fixed or avoided all together in the developmental stages, and expensive edits left for when the book’s foundational ingredients are working smoothly? Then the editor you’re hiring could dig in even deeper, and your book could command more attention on submission or as you query or with your readers. You could minimize your chances of having to scrap a draft and start over, and you could maximize the marketability and appeal of your story.

I created the book development bible I use in this program specifically to help authors find a less expensive way to solve these issues earlier in the process. Other industries practice project development as a vital stage—authors can, too, right? This doesn’t replace comprehensive edits with a great editor, but it should help authors ensure that the foundation of their story is solid—that the premise is compelling and unique, the plot has a strong structure, the character arcs show insightful transformation, the plot and character arcs drive each other, the focus and purpose of the story is clear through the major dramatic question, the voice is vibrant and memorable, and the opening chapters and querying or submission materials are strong.

A few words from authors who have worked with me in this tier:

“Thank you to Kate for all you've done to help me get THE NOH FAMILY in shape for querying so quickly!! You have been so instrumental in making sure I had all my plot holes covered before I started writing so I wouldn't run into the same problems I had with my last MS. It also helped me write this MS out so quickly (wrote it in 3 months and revised in 1!!). So THANK YOU a million and one times!!! I 100% believe that you’ve helped me identify a plot problem from the beginning which instrumentally helped me speed up the process to write this ms that got me agented. I am so grateful to you and your program!” - Grace Shim, author of The Noh Family, sold in a 6-figure preempt to Kokila. Represented by Andrea Morrison at Writers House.

“The book development tier of the Breakthrough Writers’ Boot Camp with Kate has been amazing—some of the most productive money I have spent learning to write.” - Sara Read, Pushcart-nominated author of women’s fiction, including Johanna the Third from Graydon House Books (HarperCollins/HQN).

"Kate's Breakthrough Writers gave me the tools I didn't realize I needed to tighten the screws in my storytelling. It's no coincidence I landed my dream agent with the manuscript she helped me with." - Mark Benson, YA author represented by Sara Megibow