Purpose and promise
A clear reader, book purpose, central promise, hook, and working thesis.
5-Day Live Working Challenge
Write the Book Only You Can Write
Five days to turn your lived expertise into a documented, author-owned book foundation, with AI in the right seat.
September 1-5, 2026
11:00 a.m. MDT daily
Live in Skool Calls
100 paid seats total
One live run. Five working sessions. Choose General Admission or the expanded VIP path.
The finish line
Put the foundation on the table.
By the end of the challenge, you will have a working foundation for a nonfiction authority book you can continue drafting.
Structure and proof
A story and evidence inventory, chapter spine, and one representative section or opening.
Process and next move
A starter Author Provenance Packet, an honest AI-use path, and a 30-day decision for finishing.
Who belongs in the room
You earned the knowledge. Now give it a usable form.
- You answer the same questions and solve problems other people still struggle to see.
- Your best material is scattered across notes, talks, client work, research, job sites, and memory.
- You can explain your work clearly in conversation and stall when the blank page opens.
- You want a book that carries your voice, evidence, and judgment.
- You are ready to make decisions about the reader, promise, structure, and source material.
- You want practical structure, a daily finish line, and work you can keep.
The working principle
AI can accelerate the labor. You remain the author and final decision-maker.
Five-day roadmap
One decision stack, built in order.
Each live session ends with a practical assignment inside Skool. Bring one working Google Doc and the source material already sitting around your work.
What is this book here to do?
Choose the reader, hook, purpose, central promise, and working thesis.
Name the promise.
Build working title and subtitle directions, then test the promise against the reader.
Put the work on the page.
Choose a story or example that proves the book's point and mark what needs sourcing, privacy care, or fact-checking.
Build the chapter spine.
Turn the promise into a reader-centered chapter sequence and identify the evidence still missing.
Show how the book was made.
Complete a representative section, start the Author Provenance Packet, choose your process path, and decide the next 30 days.
Your process choice
Use the same program. Keep an honest record.
Human-Authored
You write the substantive prose. AI may support bounded tasks such as questioning, organizing, feedback, grammar, research assistance, or error-checking.
AI-Collaborative
AI generates some substantive prose. You direct, evaluate, fact-check, select, reject, and substantially revise the material while recording its contribution.
Both paths include the same challenge, worksheets, live support, provenance starter, and final author review.
Included with your ticket
Practical tools for the decisions in front of you.
Hook worksheet
10 Tips to Hook Your Reader supports the Day 1 reader and promise work.
Storytelling worksheet
Choose a story or example that carries evidence, stakes, and a clear point.
Chapter structure
Turn the promise into an ordered reader journey you can draft from.
Provenance starter
Start recording source material, tool use, author decisions, and fact-check needs.
Founding Four Bonus
The first four paid registrations receive one complimentary month of paid Author(ity) Unleashed Substack access.
Your host
Sean Short
29 days
Sean began the Thinking Outside The Soil manuscript in June 2022 and completed it in 29 days.
Writing first helped Sean recover his voice during incarceration. Other men asked him to organize letters, requests, and preliminary legal arguments. He became the jailhouse scribe.
That work taught him a pattern he still sees today: practical people often have the facts and lived experience. Structure helps them turn those raw materials into something another person can use.
The standard is simple: Could 500 other people have written this? If yes, the work needs more of your experience, evidence, and judgment.
Choose your ticket
Five working days. Two levels of support.
Both tickets include the complete live challenge. VIP adds four decision tools and a structured onboarding path.
General Admission
The complete live challenge
$7
- Five live working sessions.
- Skool classroom, homework, community check-ins, and replays.
- 10 Tips to Hook Your Reader worksheet.
- Storytelling worksheet.
- Chapter Structure worksheet.
- Starter Author Provenance Packet.
VIP
The expanded decision path
$91
- Everything in General Admission.
- Book Foundation Sprint Planner.
- Blank Page Start Scripts.
- Reader Promise Positioning Map.
- Author Provenance Packet Checklist.
- Structured VIP onboarding path.
September 1-5, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. MDT. Capacity is capped at 100 paid participants total across both ticket types.
Questions
Know what you are joining.
Who is this challenge for?
Practical owner-operators, founders, speakers, and subject-matter experts with earned or lived knowledge that belongs in a nonfiction authority book.
What are the dates and time?
The single live run is September 1 through September 5, 2026. Each session begins at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time.
Where does the challenge happen?
Live sessions use Skool Calls. The classroom, homework, worksheets, community check-ins, and replays live inside Skool.
How long are the live sessions?
Plan for approximately 45 minutes each day, followed by a short written action task.
Do I have to use AI?
You choose the Human-Authored or AI-Collaborative path inside the same program. You remain responsible for every claim and final passage.
What will I finish in five days?
You will finish a working book foundation: reader, purpose, promise, thesis, story and evidence inventory, chapter spine, representative section, and starter Author Provenance Packet. A complete manuscript, professional editing, formatting, and publishing sit beyond this five-day scope.
Will there be replays?
Yes. Each recording is downloaded, verified, and posted with the related lesson inside the Skool classroom.
Will there be an offer on Day 5?
Yes. Day 5 includes an invitation to IP to Print for participants who want a guided 30-day implementation path. You can use your challenge foundation on your own or consider that next step.
What does VIP add?
VIP includes everything in General Admission, plus the Book Foundation Sprint Planner, Blank Page Start Scripts, Reader Promise Positioning Map, Author Provenance Packet Checklist, and structured VIP onboarding.
Starts September 1
Your expertise is already in the work.
Use five live working sessions to name the book, shape the reader journey, put a representative section on the page, and preserve the decisions that make it yours.
General Admission $7. VIP $91. 100 paid participants total across both ticket types.