49 - The Art and Science of Writing with AI with Coral Hart from Plot Prose

In this episode of Brave New Bookshelf, we sit down with Coral Hart, an accomplished author with over 15 years in the publishing industry, to explore the transformative power of AI in authorship. Coral shares her journey from traditional publishing to embracing AI tools, highlighting her strategic approach to writing and publishing with AI assistance. She offers valuable insights into creating a strong author brand, leveraging AI for efficiency, and building a supportive community for continuous learning. Discover how Coral's innovative methods are shaping the future of writing and publishing. Visit our website https://bravenewbookshelf.com to view the full episode notes, links and apps mentioned in the episode, and the full transcript.

Speaker 2: [00:00:00] Welcome to Brave New Bookshelf, a podcast that explores the fascinating intersection of AI and authorship. Join hosts Steph Pajonas and Danica Favorite as they dive into thought provoking discussions, debunk myths, and highlight the transformative role of AI in the publishing industry.
 

Steph Pajonas: Hello everyone and welcome back to the Brave New Bookshelf. I'm one of your co-hosts, Steph Pajonas, CTO of the Future Fiction Academy, where we teach authors how to use AI in any part of their process. We are doing lots of cool and fun stuff at the Future Fiction Academy and the Future Fiction Press.
 

The Future Fiction Press is really rolling along. We're publishing books every month. We just published a really great nonfiction book yesterday called Seasons of Writing with AI, and it's under my co-founder's name Stacy Anderson. And it's really great. It's got tons of prompts in it, tons of help. It will show you how to make a mega prompt, how to do scene briefs, how to [00:01:00] do lots of different kinds of stuff.
 

So if you're looking to really pick up some prompting tips, you might wanna go check that out too. So that's Seasons of Writing with AI and that's by Stacy Anderson. And... 
 

Danica Favorite: i'm excited for that. I 
 

Steph Pajonas: Yeah... 
 

Danica Favorite: I saw it and I was like, I need to get it. I need to get it. And I have to remember, seriously, I leave for Costa Rica tomorrow morning and so I'm like, okay, I need to remember to download this book so I can read it on the plane.
 

Steph Pajonas: Definitely do that. It's great. I really enjoyed...I did the editing on it...so I wanted... When I went through it, I was thinking, "Oh, this has got such great information," and I'm really pleased that we're gonna be able to put that out there for people to pick it up. 
 

Danica Favorite: I love that, because I know that we haven't had Stacy on, I always think we should have Stacy on and then we don't.
 

But she's also shy. But she is I'm telling you guys, Stacy Anderson is one of the most brilliant minds out there in terms of AI and writing. So that is my little plug for her. Just get the book. 'cause she's amazing. 
 

Steph Pajonas: She is, she's amazing. So we're [00:02:00] doing lots of cool stuff between Future Fiction Academy and Future Fiction Press and making software and doing all that.
 

So it's a never ending stream of good times around here. 
 

Danica Favorite: Yes. 
 

Steph Pajonas: And I'm glad I get to share them with Danica Favorite, my awesome co-host. So how are you doing?
 

Danica Favorite: For those of you who don't know me, I'm Danica favorite.
 

I'm the community manager at Publish Drive where we help authors at every stage of their publishing journey. And we help you get your book distributed, split your royalties, and help you craft metadata and descriptions using AI for your books. That is who I am and what I do. As I mentioned, I leave for Costa Rica tomorrow. Which by the time you all listen to this, I will be back and refreshed.
 

But my power is out. I was sitting there trying to do all the stuff getting ready, and the power went out. There's something weird going on, because we're losing power in my neighborhood, and I live in the city, at least once a week. So I [00:03:00] quickly jumped on my phone and booked a room at the library.
 

Hopefully my sound is okay and everything looks good. But if things seem weird on my end today, that is because I am in a new space, and hopefully by the time I get done with this and go home, I'll have power again. Because literally the clothes that I'm wearing to Costa Rica were in the laundry, in the washer going when the power went out.
 

I love technology when it's working, and sometimes there's just basic things like electricity you just can't count on. So you know it's life and you learn how to pivot. And I think that's one of the things that a lot of us in the AI space over the summer have been doing, is a lot of pivoting, because, as we've seen in the AI group, AI is changing a lot.
 

The models are changing and, prompts that used to work, aren't working. And so you're gonna have to play and tweak a little bit. But that's what we've been doing since the advent of [00:04:00] AI. So this isn't new to any of us. I think, everything is really just about testing those skills of being able to pivot and change and learn something new,. Which again, another plug for Stacy, like this woman does this fantastically.
 

She really does give you things that I think are really easily pivotable, but speaking of learning from great teachers and giving things that are really helpful to authors. Today we have Coral Hart with us, and Coral is in the AI for Authors group. She's been very helpful, and when I put out the call and said, "Hey, who do you guys wanna have as guests?"
 

Everyone kept saying, "Ooh, we need Coral, because she teaches some fantastic stuff." And really excited that she said yes when I invited her, because I think what's great about what Coral is doing is she's making AI and AI authorship accessible for a lot of the beginners. Like [00:05:00] I really appreciate that about what she's teaching.
 

And so if you are new at writing with AI and you are uncertain and maybe you do know a few things, but you're just not very confident in what you're doing, Coral is here to help you. So without further ado you all get to meet Coral Hart.
 

Coral Hart: Hi, I'm Coral Hart. I became Coral Hart by accident. It's a pen name. I've been in the publishing industry for 15 years, this year. Actually next month on 10th is my 15 year anniversary from the first time I published anything, but I have done it all. I have read the slush pile at a big six publisher.
 

I have worked as an editor, proofreader, blogger, cover designer. I have done every part of this. I have been hybrid. I have been Trad, I have been Indie. I have done every part of it with AI before Kindle, [00:06:00] before eBooks killed the bookstore. And now we're living through this whole AI revolution.
 

And when eBooks came, people were dying on that hill and saying they weren't gonna do eBooks, I was like, I'm not gonna die on the hill. I'm gonna learn the new thing. Again, not dying on any hills, embracing the change. But I have a real passion for teaching new authors about the industry in a holistic approach.
 

From writing, from craft, to marketing, to looking after your readers afterwards, to looking after yourself as an author as well. We just did author Mental Health in our class this week. Like water your own potted plants as well. So that's my history. I have been everything from a $2 author to a six figure author and everything in between.
 

I have had a number one on Amazon. I've had a number 1 million on Amazon. I've been through the ringers, and I still love this industry, somehow 15 years [00:07:00] later. I still love writing, I love publishing. I love teaching other author about it as well, particularly new authors who really wanna get going from the beginning.
 

Danica Favorite: I love that. I love that knowledge and being able to understand all the different stages. 'cause like you, I've had many hats in the publishing industry and, I think it's really good to be able to share that knowledge with people. And I love your heart for the newer authors. So tell us about what your approach to AI in publishing has been.
 

How are you approaching AI? 
 

Coral Hart: When AI came out and everyone was like, AI's like, no, no, no. Smack your hand. You can't do that. You're an author. I just, very quickly, I work in ghost writing space as well, and I very quickly saw, this is gonna disrupt our industry. And either I'm going to learn and I'm gonna move with it and embrace it.
 

It's not going back in the box. Let's just be honest. It is out there. Nobody's gonna put it [00:08:00] away now. Everybody's gotta learn. So I took some time off. I set myself a very lofty goal of six figures from AI pen names in a year with no advertising, no paid ads. Six figures, one year, was my goal, and that's how I started.
 

But I first took three months to learn. I learned a whole heap from Steph, from the people in the group, from reading books, learning, trying stuff, shouting at Claude, raging at Chat. Learning which ones I loved, which ones I hated, which ones understood me, which ones didn't. They're not all the same.
 

Some of them are great, some of them have good days and bad days. They really are like toddlers. They really are. So my approach to it was, it's here, it's not going anywhere. And I can either move with it and embrace it and use it to grow massively or I can fight against it and stagnate.
 

So I opted for grow. [00:09:00] I'm halfway through my one year experiment. We have had two five-figure months. We are on 11 of the 20 goal pen names. When I say we, it's just me and those personalities of pen names, right? Okay. My AI pen names are run just by me. That was part of the experiment. See if I could substitute volume of publishing as opposed to throwing ad money into something.
 

So far the answer is yes. I'm still putting out quality books. I just learned how to do it fast and stack and juggle a lot. 
 

Steph Pajonas: That's awesome. I am super excited about this idea of doing a huge shift. You had this great career like, Indie, Trad pub. You've done it all right. You've seen the whole shebang, but then you get this new technology that comes, pretty much...it feels like it came outta nowhere.
 

I, I realized that it wasn't, it was very [00:10:00] underground for while before it really blossomed up to the surface. But this new technology comes around and there are just, there's a certain segment of people who looked at it and saw the opportunity and what to do with it and where to go with it, and...
 

We need more people like that, like you, me, and Danica who are looking for the opportunities, excited about those things, and then willing to help others and teach others how to do those things. We do that here at Brave New Bookshelf. That is our goal is to teach people and help them understand the kinds of options that they have going forward with their career.
 

And w e can't obviously do it all. We'd love to. 
 

Coral Hart: Yes, you can. Try. 
 

Steph Pajonas: So it's great. It's great that there are more people who are willing to come forward and do these things in a public space and teach people how to do it, because I feel like that is seriously where we're lacking right now.
 

There are just too many [00:11:00] people who are afraid because, like you said, when AI came on the scene, they were slapping hands and saying, no, don't use it. Don't use it. You are, you're a terrible person for using it, et cetera. And so it made it really hard for people to come forward and say, "I do use this. And I found it helpful, and I think that you'll find it helpful too." So thank you from all of us for stepping up and showing people how to do these things. I really appreciate the fact that we're getting more people here who are doing these kinds of things. 
 

Coral Hart: Yeah, I think like it's that fear.
 

I think there was such a fear of being labeled in AI. I have got that I don't care. I 'm an I-don't-care person in life. I've done it all. I have kept my AI pen names and my original pen names separate. Even though, even now, my original pen names have transitioned over. I have moved over.
 

All of those are moving over to AI. Why would I not? If I said to you, laundry takes two hours to do, but if I give you this magic laundry [00:12:00] machine, it's gonna take two minutes. You would buy the magic laundry machine, right? 
 

Steph Pajonas: I would absolutely... 
 

Danica Favorite: Right now, like seriously, I'm sitting here...
 

Coral Hart:  Why is that not an AI, like I, that is my fail in life.
 

I wash the same load of laundry like six times because, it never gets from there to the dryer somehow. Like I need an AI for that. But I've embraced AI in my entire process I'm not quite at automations yet because, tech actually isn't my thing. I'm the most un tech person ever.
 

It's not even funny. So just learning this for me was a learning curve, learning to understand why it is like it is. But I am at a point where I'm outputting about seven books a week j ust using basic systems, basic prompts, basic understanding, and then using AI to do all our marketing and nonsense that like we don't wanna do, let's be honest.
 

Ad copy and that kind of stuff. Use it, it's there everything I don't wanna do. I'm like, can you do this thing Chat? Yes or [00:13:00] no? Can you do it Claude? 
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah. I love that. I think this is really great because , for me as an author, I was just talking with someone the other day where I was saying, "Okay, these are the pain points. These are things I hate doing." And all of them are things that AI can take up for you. So you were talking about how you're doing seven books a week, which like, oh my gosh, how do you do that? I wanna know how to do seven books a week. So can you walk us through what your workflow and your process of let's just do one book.
 

Let's just talk about what one book a week looks like. 
 

Coral Hart: My Launch Pad program is one book a week. So essentially I learned long ago to trope map, to write to market, to outline to market, and to outline very minimalistically.
 

I have never been one of those people that outline every little step of the whole book. I'm like, I'm bored before I start. I went on a big mentorship quite early in my career, and the first thing they told us was, details don't go in the [00:14:00] outline. Details are for writing. Your outline is just the bones.
 

So I still stick to a bones outline. I work with my AI. I normally give it the seed 'cause I have got so many ideas. Everybody's always aren't you worried you run out of ideas? As an author, I'm like, no, I'm worried I die before I write all the ideas down. Okay. That's more of a worry for me than running out of ideas.
 

So I will sit with Claude and my trope map for a five book series. I normally plan five books or seven books a week. Plan a whole series right at the beginning of the week, set up the trope map, create the story feeds and outlines. I've tweaked my prompts such that it probably takes me about 20 minutes to outline a book.
 

I write in the romance niche. I write everything from clean romance, Coral Hart, to the filthiest, dirtiest, darkest, twisted, mafia romance, dark romance. I write erotic thrillers, so I have the whole spectrum under my pen names. So I've got Claude doing all the things that it doesn't really wanna do, but I've [00:15:00] taught it to.
 

So I outline first. I normally outline a full series altogether, and then I open as many tabs as Claude will allow me to open at a time, and I start writing my chapters, chapter by chapter. I learned very quickly asking Claude to match my voice is just going to frustrate the living out of me. I let it make its own voice, we start with, this is the pen name. This is what we're writing. Come up with a voice for it. That's what we're doing. Go with that. If it has its own voice, it's less likely to irritate you. And I teach my students as well not to get stuck in this death loop of editing every chapter 400 times in Claude.
 

I use Claude to get a first draft. I maybe edit each chapter once or twice as we are writing. I don't even look for the big mistakes initially. I just let it write the first draft. Get to the end of the book, ask Claude, "Hey, where did you mess up? How do I fix your mess-ups? Write your own prompt to fix your mess-ups."
 

Copy and paste the [00:16:00] prompt and fix the mess up. Work smart. Not hard. So what I've noticed with my students, especially those who come in to our teaching that have a publishing history, is that they have a perfection problem. We all have a perfection problem. Danica is nodding at me.
 

Perfection is a problem. It is a huge problem. So a really good published book is better than a perfect book that is stuck on your desktop in an editing death loop for six months. 
 

Steph Pajonas: Hundred percent.
 

Coral Hart: Okay. 
 

Steph Pajonas: I'm chiming in to say that a hundred percent on this one. 
 

Coral Hart: So, there is no such thing as a perfect book, because books are art, not science, so they cannot be perfect.
 

No matter how hard you try, you cannot write a perfect book. 
 

Danica Favorite: I love this. 
 

Coral Hart: You do not like. 
 

Danica Favorite: I have to chime in here on this, because you just said books are art, not science. And I know a lot of people are out [00:17:00] there saying, "AI is not art. AI is not art." And it is, because the story is still an art, and it's still really beautiful.
 

Coral Hart: You still have to... 
 

Danica Favorite: You just get to throw some science in and look at Leonardo da Vinci. He was like this beautiful combo of art and science. And yes, thank you for saying that. 
 

Coral Hart: I still... 
 

Danica Favorite: Thank you. 
 

Coral Hart: I still have to have a story. I still have to understand beats. I still have to understand craft. I still have to understand what the reader down the line wants.
 

I still have to understand the art of making a story. I don't go, "Hey Chad, write me a book," and get magic. I wish, but not yet. Okay. One day, maybe, not yet, but I think a lot of what I've taught over the last two months is embracing that imperfection, giving yourself permission to be imperfect and to try, and to rather get your book published than spend six months reediting the same chapter and getting upset with Claude 'cause it keeps putting 300 slightlys and [00:18:00] slowlys back into it. Just put it in ProWritingAid and take the slowlys out yourself. It takes an hour. 
 

Steph Pajonas: So many adverbs. 
 

Coral Hart: All of them. 
 

Steph Pajonas: All of them. 
 

Coral Hart: Slightly, slowly, exactly like it should have been.
 

Steph Pajonas: So true. 
 

Coral Hart: I really have embraced speed. I was fast before AI, so I am one of those authors who could write 10 to 12,000 words a day every single day nonstop. And did, I was already a prolific author, and really rapid releasing a book or more a month. AI has just let me upscale that like I'm seven essentially.
 

That's what it's given me. It's given me speed. The stories are still mine, they're still my ideas, they're still my characters. I'm still taking the time to come up with stuff and the twists and things like that. I'm just using the AI to do the part that I really didn't like, which was purging that first draft.
 

Let's be honest. Getting a first draft out is the hardest part of [00:19:00] writing, right? Getting a first draft finished without going back and re-editing the same sentence 47,000 times, which you shouldn't be doing. Purge the first draft. And I've always purged my first draft, even as a natural writer. So I would purge a first draft and then edit the hell out of it.
 

So now I will purge my first draft in a day and I'll take a day to edit it. I have cut my process down. I've taken a week's work out of it already. I'm using editing tools like ProWritingAid. I've used ProWritingAid for many years. It's come on in leaps and bounds and if you're looking to take the AI out of the writing, for me, it's the best.
 

It's theirs, because if you tell it to look for style, it will highlight every single one of those slowlys and show you it's there. It's great for picking up repeats. You don't have to be like, didn't they say that already? No, they did say that already. It's right there in the report. So I've embraced tools and their AI is great as well.
 

The suggestions, the beta reading [00:20:00] and stuff like that I've been using that. The other AI I love, it's been around for a while, the lovely Alessandra Torre's Marlowe is probably the best developmental editor in the world. I don't need a human developmental editor because that dev edit report can tell me who my comparative authors are.
 

Do I actually hit the Amazon algorithm, bestselling algorithm for what should be in my book as far as emotion, character. That AI is phenomenal. It's expensive, but I love it. If I'm really investing in a book, I run a Marlowe report to have a look if it's really good. Does what a dev editor does in six weeks, in 10 minutes.
 

Danica Favorite: That's really great. I'm glad you recommend that, because I think people have asked about dev editing and... 
 

Coral Hart: Marlo, he I really like Marlo. So for me, in life time has always been my most rare, precious resource, right? We all only get the same number of hours in the day.
 

I have small humans, I have real life, [00:21:00] but I, everyone has stuff like, there's only so many doable hours every day. So if AI can give me more doing in my hours of the day, I'm gonna do it. My nose up, but any other time saving thing, like really. So for me I've really embraced it and taken a lot of time and effort into learning it as well.
 

I am relatively old, so I was learning quite a lot of new tricks. I will not forget when TikTok first came out, right? And author and book talk, and everyone was like, you have to have a TikTok. And I said to my kids, I have to have a TikTok. And they were like, you're too old for TikTok, was the first response.
 

The second response was my youngest daughter hustled me and charged me to teach me to use TikTok. And then my other daughter was like, you can pay me and I'll do the TikTok. That's the one. 
 

Danica Favorite: Oh, that's nice. 
 

Steph Pajonas: That's the one. 
 

Danica Favorite: My children literally looked me in the eye and [00:22:00] said, mom, you are too old for TikTok.
 

And when I started one anyway, they were like, "Mom, you are an embarrassment." And they proceeded to block me. So... 
 

Coral Hart: Love them. Love them. So I have a teenage daughter, right? I write romance and all her friends have started discovering spicy books in the bookstores and stuff. And I'm like, oh, no. It's only a matter of time.
 

Steph Pajonas: It's only a matter of time before they find you as well. 
 

Coral Hart: Oh yes. I know. 
 

Danica Favorite: But let's be fair, what we read at that age, like I'm like, oh my gosh, how did our parents let us read...
 

Coral Hart: No. So, my mom would not let me read the Sweet Valley books. You remember Sweet Valley High? I wasn't allowed to read those 'cause those were romance books and then I'd want a boyfriend or whatever.
 

So cool. I used to go to the library. I wasn't allowed to take out Sweet Valley High. So I started reading Jeffrey Deaver and ' is so much better than Sweet Valley. 
 

Steph Pajonas: We all did that. We all snuck books outta the library.
 

Coral Hart: I didn't even have to sneak them out. I was just wasn't allowed the romance ones. So I just [00:23:00] read like the really twisted ones. 
 

Danica Favorite: I would just be like, oh, I'm gonna go to the library.
 

And then I'd spend all day at the library reading the book and then just put it back on the shelf. No one knew. 
 

Coral Hart: Yeah. You didn't take it home, you took something else home. 
 

Danica Favorite: Exactly. So I love like all this writing stuff, but you take everybody through the full process. So tell us what happens, once you finished writing the book, you've put it through Marlowe. You've put it through ProWritingAid, what comes next?
 

Coral Hart: Publish it. What are you gonna do? Look at it. 
 

Danica Favorite: No. Oh, okay. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough, But, no, I, I'm just thinking in terms of you've got your covers and your marketing and I know you teach about that, so I wanted to give you the chance to talk about that. 
 

Coral Hart: My big teaching mentorships are called Launch Pad.
 

We just finished the August one is finishing this week. I have one starting at the beginning of October for anybody who wants to do that three books in a month. We start with the very basics how to choose a pen name, how your pen name reflects your brand, how it fits in, how it's free marketing, if you [00:24:00] choose it how it can ride the Amazon algorithm if you choose it right.
 

We then spend that first day doing homework, creating our brand, creating our logo. Their homework is to come back on day two with their author name, with their brand, with their niche chosen. Day two, I take what they've learned and what's the plot, which is my outlining course Outline to Market, and they create their series outlines and prepare for their first week of writing.
 

So in my Launch Pad program, the goal is three books in a month published. So their first book is their lead magnet. I teach them about lead magnets. I teach them to use book funnel. They get to use newsletter marketing to build a mailing list for that brand new pen name that has no readers. We've laughed in launchpad this week.
 

Everyone refers to their subscribers as their game level. They're like level 200 reach, level the top reach. Building that audience where to find an audience. The hardest thing for a new author to learn is where to find a reader. You [00:25:00] could write the world's best book, but if only six people want to read that book, you're not going to sell 6 million books.
 

You have to learn to write the book that 6 million people wanna read. So a lot of it is teaching them to write to market or take their writing passion and pulling it into a space where it is marketable, bringing them into a much easier, more marketable space. Week one of Launch Pad is write their lead magnet, get their lead magnet up, start swapping it, start getting it out there, start building a mailing list, have a pre-order for their second book for the second week already up. I teach them how to use pre-orders, how to stack pre-orders, understanding a pre-order system, why it is great for writing the algorithm on Amazon.
 

Get them going with that. Week two is a huge week in Launch Pad. They learn marketing and they're writing a book and they're promoting a book, and they're planning a third book. By week three, they have three books ready, if not already published on pre-order. [00:26:00] They then stop their scale up process. We start looking at translations, we start looking at audio.
 

We start looking at paperbacks, hardbacks, every sort of income stream, so that pen name and that series can scale up in the month. And then I teach them to plan ahead to perpetuate that cycle and keep their momentum rolling, keep their pen name publishing, keep the rapid fire publishing going so that they can have the goal of a sustainable income.
 

That's what I'm trying to build a foundation with them for. So Launch Pad is for new authors or authors who just need a butt kick. I've had quite a lot of seasoned authors sign up to Launch Pad just because they need the kick to start doing. So I tell them on day one, it's very much about doing stuff, not thinking about it, not thinking too hard about it, not trying to be perfect with it, but actually doing the process.
 

Once you've done this process once, you actually only fall in love with it and can't stop yourself, let's be honest, [00:27:00] writers are hard we don't stop easily once we start.
 

Danica Favorite: It's addictive. Once you start getting that taste of success, you just want more and more.
 

So that's a great way to do it. 
 

Coral Hart: So that's something I teach them. That is, if you write to market, you are more likely to finish a book. Why? 'cause you know there's a market waiting to read the book. You're not hoping that somebody might read it. There's a hungry market already waiting for it. And I think that's a big first time author mistake is just oh, I'm gonna write a book and hopefully somebody will read it or the readers will find me.
 

And I ask them. I'm like, how's that going for you? How many have found you? If you're not writing to a market or you don't understand the market you're writing to? I've paid 15 years of school fees, to learn the market and understand it. And I think new authors, they don't have that understanding.
 

And it's also one of those things in the industry I found is very gate keep behind the gates. People don't talk about markets. They don't talk about understanding that market, about looking for the [00:28:00] readers, about finding them in the right places. And I teach a lot of that in my Launch Pad Program. In my, What's the News Program, which is newsletter marketing , I teach them how to harness the free marketing of a newsletter, it's really cool. Like I don't love social media. It's not my favorite thing at all. I do a lot of newsletter marketing and I have built two of my AI pen names went from zero to 7,000 subscribers in two weeks because I know how to hack the system to work the system, to put in the work to get it out.
 

And I do teach a lot of those sort of behind the scenes secrets that I've spent 15 years accumulating. 
 

Steph Pajonas: I love the newsletter tips, especially because that is also my favorite place to talk to my readers, to find readers, to get them on my list. I really don't like social media either.
 

So I want to stress to all the new [00:29:00] authors out there that are listening that this is something, you're getting some good tips here because like between learning the process of, getting your books ready, getting series ready to publish and everything, understanding how to get those readers to actually read those books, that's really important.
 

And you're teaching that in that Launch Pad course, which is really great too because we don't have a lot of those courses out there that are going to give all of the details from soup to nuts about how to get this done. 
 

Coral Hart: Yeah so Launch Pad is zero to published in a month and they leave with a plan.
 

So they leave with the next six months planned out sorted out for them and ready then. In September I'm taking 30 of them into a multi pen name workshop where they're gonna add two pen names, or three pen names to their Launch Pad plan and scale up from pen name to publisher. So I'm not an author anymore, I'm a publishing house, and the pen names, even though they're all me, work for me, you have to keep them in [00:30:00] line and get them to do the job. So we're gonna teach that process in September. In October, I'm running a second Launch Pad 'cause lots of people missed the August one and I had to make space open. In November, I have whip your author business into shape.
 

I have three bootcamps, three one week bootcamps. One is for craft, one is for marketing, and one is for multiple income streams where we'll have two hours every day in the week where you'll whip one part of your business into shape, like in depth classes done with new stuff, actual exercises, physical, there's homework.
 

I give everyone homework. Like when I started Launch Pad the first day, I'm like, there will be homework. And by week two I see their faces when I bring up the homework page. They're like bracing themselves for whatever's gonna be on the list. But I teach to them more informal way. I think, I'm not like standing in front of a whiteboard or anything.
 

I show them the process. We do the things together, we talk about it. Every one of my Launch Pad groups has their own Facebook group. So everyone in the Launch [00:31:00] Pad is in a group together where they can cry, laugh, scream about homework, compare covers, give each other feedback, help each other out. So we created a space where if you're great at covers, you can help with covers.
 

You've got formatting software. I don't, I can't afford it right now. You'll format. I talked to them a bit about building a tribe. I, you still need a tribe, even if you're writing with AI. Like none of us do this alone. And I think that is being quite lost recently in the author world is. Is that tribe of people around you?
 

Author, friends, or real friends. 
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right. I think that tribe is really important, and I know that's something that Steph and I really try to cultivate, and so I really appreciate that you're doing that as well. Tell me you've got all these cool things.
 

Do you have a number one tip that you would give to one of these newer authors? Right now I'm like, okay, just sign up for Launch Pad. But for someone who's I'm still playing around trying to figure [00:32:00] out things what tips would you give some authors, some newer authors.
 

Coral Hart: So the biggest game changers for me were don't write everything under one pen name. That's stupid. I made that mistake. Every different genre needs its own little pen name. Don't try and make one work. Cost me a lot of time, money, effort . But also don't think about doing stuff. Do stuff. Spend a whole lot less time thinking about doing it and just do it.
 

You know what the cool thing about independent publishing is? If my blurb sucks, I can go and change it. If my keywords are wrong, I can go and change it. If my cover isn't cool, I can go and change it. You know what I can't change, a book that's not published. You know what I can't edit, a blank page.
 

You know what I can't fix, a book that's not written. Get the first draft out, no matter how rubbish it is, whatever AI you using, get the first draft out. A first draft needs to exist. [00:33:00] Am I allowed to cuss? The first draft of everything is shit. 
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah, I agree. I, and like I'm sitting here... 
 

Coral Hart: And that's its whole job.
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah. And but I'm sitting here thinking even for the authors who are sitting here going, okay, I don't know that I wanna use AI to write all of this advice. It still applies. And some of the stuff I need to think about, okay, I need to do, because I spend a lot of time sitting around thinking about writing.
 

But what am I doing? I am thinking instead of doing, and there's a time and place for that. But I think we all need Coral out there kicking us in the butt to say, just do it. 
 

Steph Pajonas: Just do it. 
 

Coral Hart: Do the things. Do the things. Don't think about doing the things, just do them. If I was still thinking about publishing, that, that would've taken a really long time to get anything done o n my real name, pen names, I had a book. At the time, I had just finished a really popular series. I'd got a trad deal for it, and I wrote these two books in two and a half [00:34:00] weeks. I loved them. I was in love with them. I took them to my agents and she was like, "Are you trying to commit career suicide? Put that shit back in the drawer and go and write something else." Dark Romance was in its early days, we were still pushing boundaries. People were afraid of it. It was like, go put him in the drawer, right? And I was like, look, if you don't want it, I'm really passionate about this.
 

I'm going to indie publish this book out the gates. Sorry for you. You've missed your opportunity. So my career suicide book spent six weeks at number one on Amazon. So did the sequel. She was very sorry she said no.
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah. I love that. 
 

That is such a good story. 
 

Coral Hart: If I hadn't done the thing, that would never have happened if I hadn't just been like, whatever I'm just gonna publish it. And I published it, not with a plan, right? There was no plan. There was like, I've got a cool cover, I've got a book. I have one blog that will share it because it's quite controversial. I'm gonna publish it [00:35:00] today. No advance copies, no pre-market game, no long game.
 

Just oh, whatever. Put it on Amazon. They said it's career suicide anyway. It was my best selling book ever. It still has a cult following 10 years down the line. If I didn't just be like, willy nilly, okay, I'm gonna do the thing if I'd waited for it to be perfect. So I'd waited for the perfect time in the market, I'd still be waiting.
 

It would still be in the drawer. 
 

Danica Favorite: I think that's awesome. I think that is probably the best advice that anyone can hear today. 
 

Steph Pajonas: I agree. Just get it out there. Get it outta your brain. Get it on the page. It doesn't matter if it's crappy, your first draft,
 

Coral Hart: You can fix it. 
 

Steph Pajonas: You'll fix it, whatever.
 

I think that a lot of people get stuck in that perfectionist loop. They just keep getting stuck in it. 
 

Coral Hart: I think a l ot of people are afraid of editing. They have been made afraid of editing. They feel like editing is this bad word. Oh, I have to edit it. It should have been perfect [00:36:00] right out the gate.
 

Like editing is the most transformative part of the journey. Like you can make shit shine
 

Steph Pajonas: mm-hmm 
 

Coral Hart: when you edit a book. And a lot of what I'm teaching my cohort of Launch Pad and pen name students is to love editing. To take the mindset away from I'm just the writer. With AI, I am the creative director.
 

I am the publisher, I am the editor, I'm the boss. 
 

Danica Favorite: That's beautiful. I love that. As we wrap up today I wanna ask our last question which is gonna be a hard one probably, because I know we've talked a lot about AI tools. Do you have a favorite AI tool or maybe there's a favorite AI tool for a particular job?
 

Coral Hart: Claude is my favorite. So me and Claude, like we are good. I do Chat for his personality. Okay. The funny part of that is when we first got Chat and I was first learning ChaGPT belonged to my partner. He used it for business stuff, [00:37:00] right? So I hopped on his Chat and started writing my kissy books, Chat's got memory right. So it started slipping weird stuff into his emails and things. So I've got chat now and he has Gemini. I have chat and Claude, I love Chat and Claude for writing. I love AuthorScale for creating tiktoks. 'Cause I don't wanna do that. Nobody else does either.
 

Let's just be real. There's a tool for it. Use the tool for it. ProWritingAid is my favorite editor out there in the whole world. Marlowe for Dev edits. And I like to faff around in Ideogram and make pictures and covers and things. I like to just go and play. For fun, I do make my own covers, but I did study cover design.
 

I did a course. I learned how to do it. So I can do it in AI and I can do it in Photoshop and I can do it in PicMonkey and Canva. I choose to do it in PicMonkey, 'cause Photoshop makes me wanna stab at people. Ideogram gives me nice pictures. I like to play. They, I love to go and scroll and see what people are making and the other day I scrolled and it was like rubber ducks.
 

Every [00:38:00] picture was of like a little rubber bath duck. I'm like, what is going on? Which rubber ducks, like, why are there rubber ducks? And my kids just rolled their eyes like I should know. What's going on?
 

Steph Pajonas: With rubber ducks? 
 

It's a good thing. Nobody can see my midjourney. I have the top tier mid journey with the private thing because otherwise they would be like, why is this person so obsessed with dinosaurs?
 

Danica Favorite: Your dinosaur obsession, you haven't shared one in a while. 
 

Coral Hart: It used to be as authors, like if anybody looks at my search history, now it's do not let them open my AI, the pictures, the anything. Don't let them go in there. 
 

Delete. Claude. 
 

Steph Pajonas: I make so many dinosaur images for the Future Ficture Academy because we decided dinosaurs were our thing... 
 

Coral Hart: that's so trippy... 
 

Steph Pajonas: and they're all doing like the most random things like the, this dinosaur.
 

I had one, it was about marketing, right? It was a blog post about marketing. So I was like, what do authors do? Like they, for marketing, I'm like they sell their books at [00:39:00] farmer's markets and so I have a dinosaur selling its books at farmer's markets. I was like, this is the most random image I have ever made.
 

Coral Hart: I think there's a, I think there's a tool for everything. So I think my favorites for writing and my favorites for images are all different. But I do think I, I'm very much a tool person. You would not ask your gardener to cut the lawn with nail scissors, so don't try and do your job without the tools.
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah, I love that. Don't cut your lawn, nail scissors, get the right tool for the job. 
 

Steph Pajonas: Get the right tool for the job. 
 

Coral Hart: And there is one. There is one for everything. That's what I love. It's like AI, every time I think I wish there was an AI for that. And then there is, they just need to make one that takes all the stuff from book clicker and book funnel and puts it in my newsletter without me having to do it.
 

And then I'll be happy. There's gotta be a way. 
 

Steph Pajonas: We'll have to...we'll have to brainstorm on that at some point. 
 

Coral Hart: I've had the techy techies here trying for months. They were like, why? I hate admin. Anything that is [00:40:00] repetitive needs to be done by somebody else.
 

'cause I get bored and he is this would drive me nuts. I'm like, it does drive me nuts. He's like, why does it not work? Like why? Fix it. Yeah. 
 

Steph Pajonas: Yeah, for sure. Someday it will. Someday it will. 
 

Coral Hart: Someday. Someday. Soonish would be nice. 
 

Steph Pajonas: It would. 
 

Danica Favorite: Alright. Thank you. This was great. 
 

Coral Hart: Thank you for having me.
 

Steph Pajonas: Yeah. We're so pleased that you were able to join us. I want to make sure that now that we're wrapping up the conversation that our listeners can find you online, especially if they're not watching the video because on the video, so all the people who are just listening, you can't see that she has her business logo behind her.
 

So why don't we give them some URLs to go to and they can find all of your courses, your launch pads, all that good stuff. 
 

Coral Hart: All of my courses, thanks to my amazing tech partner are on my website. plotprose.com. That is my business website. Plot prose, super easy. plotprose.com We are the first one that comes up.
 

Nobody had [00:41:00] used the name before me. Yay. plotprose.com or Coral Hart on Facebook. You can find me on either one. You can hit me up on those. The website is super easy. Click book your course dates. There are courses available until May next year. 
 

Steph Pajonas: Wow. Great. 
 

Coral Hart: All different things. 
 

Steph Pajonas: You're booked way 
 

out into the future.
 

Excellent. 
 

Coral Hart: Yeah, so there's everything coming up from Author Graphics to a cover design intensive to style sheets. Style sheets I'm doing with an editor so that they can understand where style sheets came from and how you can make it work with your LLM now. 
 

Steph Pajonas: That's so cool. 
 

Coral Hart: All different stuff.
 

Steph Pajonas: All different stuff. 
 

Coral Hart: It's all there.
 

Steph Pajonas: Excellent. 
 

Coral Hart: Plotprose.com 
 

Steph Pajonas: Excellent. Excellent. Okay. I'm gonna make sure that all of that is in the show notes for people who come and listen and them wanna check out your stuff. If you're listening to us now, you're gonna wanna go to bravenewbookshelf.com and check out the show notes for this particular episode.
 

Click on the links and you'll find Plot Prose and Coral [00:42:00] Hart online so that she can teach you how to do all of these really cool things that we've been talking about today. Danica, you wanna remind people about how to find us and all that good stuff. 
 

Danica Favorite: Yeah, please check us out brave new bookshelf.com.
 

We also have a Facebook page at Brave New Bookshelf as well as our YouTube channel, Brave New Bookshelf. So please make sure you're going and liking and subscribing us everywhere as well as for Future Fiction Academy and all of their social channels and Publish Drive social channels as well. So thank you all and I look forward to talking with you all next time.
 

Steph Pajonas: Agree, agree. Thank you again for coming, Coral. And we will talk. 
 

Coral Hart: Thank you for having me. 
 

Steph Pajonas: Thank you. And we're gonna say goodbye now and we will see everybody in the next ep okay. Bye. Bye.
 

Speaker: Thanks for joining us on The Brave New Bookshelf. Be sure to like and subscribe to us on YouTube and your favorite podcast app. You can also visit us at bravenewbookshelf.com. Sign up for our newsletter and get all the show [00:43:00] notes.