What Is a Book Coach?
"I actually had to Google what a book coach is!"
I wish this response in a recent client intake questionnaire was the first time I'd heard something along these lines, but— alas!— it's quite common.
Since it can mean different things to different folks, I want to clarify what I mean when I call myself a "book coach" and what I do (and don't do) for the writers I work with.
Book Coach: A Working Definition
In the most general terms, a coach is someone who teaches and trains, as in an athlete or performer. In recent decades, the role of coaching has moved well beyond the bounds of sports to include areas like executive and leadership coaching, spiritual and meditation coaching, life coaching, and— you guessed it!— writing and book coaching.
So a book coach is someone who teaches and trains writers on how to write a book. Sounds simple, right? Sure, but...
What does that look like? What does a book coach actually do?
What Does Book Coaching Look Like?
Writing a book is a big, long-term project with a lot of moving pieces. It might take just a few months to wrangle and polish a book proposal, or it can take years to draft, revise, pitch, and publish a manuscript.
As a book coach, I can help guide a writer at each stage from several angles:
Shaping the Narrative
Often a writer begins a book project with either only a vague piece of an idea or a tangle of ideas vying for space in a single book. I help them refine and develop the initial idea and provide a framework for landing on a structure for their book that serves their goals and their readers.
Whether writing prescriptive nonfiction or an epic multi-generational novel, making sure the shape and framing of the book is clear allows the writer to build their manuscript on a solid foundation.
Accountability
Most of the writers I work with are juggling writing their book with full-time jobs, family and community commitments, home and self-care, and other competing priorities and demands on their time.
Again, writing a book is a long-term project. As such, sustainability is as important as self-discipline. If writing your book comes at too great a cost to your other personal and professional priorities, you'll burn out before you reach the finish line. That's no good.
Accountability is much more than merely the weekly deadlines and "homework" assignments that come with coaching. It's also having help tracking the vision as a whole, holding the container of your project for you so that you can pick it right back up when life gets in the way, and a gentle nudging past the places fear or other mindset issues are keeping you from diving into the work. It's inquiry into what is and isn't showing up on the page and directed questions that keep your work from losing focus. It's the support and partnership that make showing up for your book feel more do-able (and energizing!) in the context of your real day-to-day life.
"Whip-cracking" is not the sort of accountability I offer, nor is there much evidence that it contributes to long-term success. You are a full-grown adult with a multi-dimensional life, and there will be times where your book is simply not your highest priority on a given day. I trust you to make those decisions for yourself.
Success with your project comes from staying connected and not losing momentum over the life of the project and learning how not to get derailed when life's hiccups happen.
Identifying and Streamlining Process
One of the most challenging aspects of being a new writer is that you are simultaneously figuring out the book itself (structure, voice, etc) while also figuring out what kind of process works best for you as an individual writer.
I work with each writer one-on-one so that we can not only get to the heart of what their book needs to be sound and reach their reader, but what they need from their process in order to find the right rhythms of planning, drafting, and revision to keep their project moving forward in the most streamlined way possible.
This often means fewer drafts necessary to get to the final product, and a better chance at success getting that final product into the marketplace. It also leads to the understanding necessary to tackle future projects with confidence.
It is my goal that every writer I work with walks away from our time together with a deep confidence in themselves as writer and the ability to trust in a process that has been proven to serve them well.
Marketplace Guidance
Publishing is a highly subjective, quickly-evolving industry. Part of a book coach's role is keeping up with those changes and helping writers understand what they might mean for their projects and guiding them through the various paths to publishing.
I also offer strategic insight to the pitching process. This includes research and guidance about which agents to pitch when, whether the work is ready for pitching, how to polish the query and materials, as well as how to learn from and cope with the rejection that is an inevitable part of a long-term writing career.
I help the writers I work with determine the best way to navigate publishing for them and their particular project, and then I support them through each step of that process.
How is a book coach different from an editor?
There can be significant overlaps between the role of an editor and the role of a book coach. Some folks use those terms interchangeably, as a matter of fact.
Book coaching most closely resembles developmental editing in that a coach helps the writer shape the structure and flow of the book as a whole and makes sure key elements such as narrative drive, voice, stakes, etc are present on the page in a way that will connect with the reader and stay true to the bigger goals and vision.
Most often, the biggest difference between a book coach and an editor comes down to the scope and nature of the relationship. More often than not, an freelance editor (as opposed to one a writer will work with through a publishing house) works in a "one-off" capacity, much like I do when doing a manuscript evaluation or a proposal evaluation. The writer sends the manuscript to an editor, they provide notes/ edits/ suggestions generally in the form of inline comments and an editorial letter, might have a single call to talk about the feedback, and then the writer goes off to make the suggested changes (or not) on their own.
While I do, indeed, offer this kind of service, as a book coach, I specialize in offering continued support to most of the writers I work with throughout the drafting or revision process of their manuscript or proposal. That support looks like weekly feedback on pages and bi-monthly calls as well as big-picture planning, revision, and pitching.
So...
A book coach is part teacher, part editor, part stand-in-reader, part advisor, part cheerleader, part project manager, and part collaborator, just to name a few parts.
But like so many things in this world, the whole is greater than the sum of those parts.
Having one-on-one support and investment in your book project is, to many writers, priceless.
If you're curious about what this would look like for your book, let's hop on a call and talk about it. I love hearing about the books people are imagining bringing to life, and I'd really love to hear about yours.
