7 Reasons You Should Hire a Book Coach - and 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
Since I have new email subscribers and others who are being introduced to me on Substack, I decided to revisit an old post that answers the questions: Why would I hire a book coach? What does a book coach do, anyway? How is it different from hiring an editor?
Excellent questions! People often come to book coaching for one of these reasons:
They have gone as far as they can on their own, cobbling together information from books, courses, websites, podcasts, workshops, conferences, etc. They are ready to work intensively and strategically on their craft and writing career.
They are at the beginning of their writing journey, and they want help to fast-track their learning.
They don’t want a group experience. They want individualized attention, focused on their specific needs, and they are willing to pay for it.
They’ve started submitting their work to agents but keep getting rejected and can’t figure out why; or they think they’re ready to submit or publish but want to make sure their books is as great as it can possibly be.
But what can a book coach do for you that an MFA program or freelance editor, or course, workshop, conference, or writing group can’t?
Individualized attention – A book coach starts where you are, and focuses on what you need to learn to be a stronger writer. They might offer exercises, workbooks, frameworks, etc. based on what they know has worked for many writers, but they also understand that everyone is different. You can go at your pace, whatever that is. And unlike in many courses, workshops, or MFA programs, you are not in competition with other writers, nor are you spending a ton of precious writing time critiquing other people’s work. That can be valuable, but it’s not always in the writer’s best interest.
Accountability – It's easy to let life sidetrack your writing. With a coach, you have deadlines – a writer’s best friend! And money is also a great motivator. It’s a signal to your brain that you’re taking this writing thing seriously. It’s an investment in you and your creative dreams.
Understanding of story and narrative design – What this looks like will depend on whether the coach specializes in fiction or some form of nonfiction, or writing for young people, but the idea is the same: How do you structure your book for maximum impact? How do you design it so it leads the reader on the journey you want them to go on?
Big-picture developmental editing of an entire book – In tandem with understanding of narrative design, working with a coach allows you to get feedback on more than just one or a few chapters. Whether you’re working through a first draft or a tenth, your coach will be keeping the big picture in mind, helping you produce a book that works, in many cases in half the time it would take to do it on your own.
Project Management – Writing a book is a massive project. You need to keep many things in mind. From drafting to revising; to pitching and querying or self-publishing, your coach can help you strategically manage the process. (Note that not all coaches coach all parts of the process, but they can certainly refer you to coaches who are appropriate for your needs at the time.)
Understanding of the marketplace and various publishing paths – This is hard to cobble together by yourself. There is a ton of information out there, and it can be confusing to know who to trust. If you want readers, you will need knowledge of how best to get your work to them. A coach can help you understand the realities of traditional publishing, or guide you in understanding the possibilities of hybrid and self-publishing.
Coaching the writer, not just the work – Book coaches offer encouragement, cheerleading, understanding, and sometimes tough love. Writing a book is a huge commitment of time and energy, sustained over a long haul. We help manage the psychological aspects of the creative process. We offer support when it gets tough. Sometimes we’re a writer’s only source of such support for their writing.
A book coach can help you make leaps in your writing that would take ten times as long on your own. Having someone in your corner, guiding you and encouraging you and strategizing with you, can be life-changing for a writer.
A few considerations to keep in mind:
It’s all about fit. You can learn a lot about a coach’s style and approach from their website or social media, but if the coach offers a free or inexpensive discovery session, take them up on it. A conversation can be the best way to get a feel for how you will work together.
Make sure the coach works on the type of book you want to write. Some coaches specialize in particular genres, or in different stages of the book writing process (new draft, revision, pitching/preparing for publication), or other specialties.
Understand that a coach (at least an ethical one) cannot guarantee any particular publishing outcome. They cannot guarantee you will get an agent, or be traditionally published. They cannot guarantee you will get a spot on any bestseller list, or a particular number of readers.
What a book coach can help you do, in short, is write the best book you are capable of writing at this time. They can share methods, knowledge, and support for you to achieve your writing dream.
There are a few reasons you shouldn’t hire a Book Coach:
You just want praise for your work. Some coaches are more gentle with their feedback, others take more of a tough-love approach, but you do need to be ready to hear the honest truth about what is working and what isn’t. Yes, to a certain extent all opinions ar subjective, but book coaches worth their salt have put a lot of time and energy into studying the art and craft of writing a book. You can disagree with them, but you should be ready to take critique and work with it.
You want someone else to write it for you. Book coaches can guide you, but they’re not ghostwriters.
You really can’t afford it. Book coaches need to make a living, but there are a range of prices available. Some coaches offer small-group packages which may be more affordable. But I would never encourage any writer to go into debt they can’t afford to take on. The stress will affect your relationship with your coach – and even your relationship with your writing. You don’t want it to be all about ROI. Art doesn’t play neatly by those rules.
That said, In getting such personalized support, I:
Finally finished the novel I’d been trying to write forever, but kept getting stuck and giving up.
Leapfrogged over years of cobbling together pieces of craft, by getting feedback that focused directly on the areas I needed to improve.
Learned methods and frameworks that helped me complete my next novel in half the time.
Worked on overcoming self-doubt and imposter syndrome. Yes, this is a work in progress! But having another person who believed in me and my writing was critical.
Established a regular writing practice, finally learning to take my writing seriously enough to invest the time and money it needed.
If any of this sounds good to you, why not check out book coaching? Author Accelerator has a coach matching service with a wide variety of coaches available. If you’d like to learn more specifically about what I do, check out my website.
(This post is updated from an earlier post published on 8/16/23.)
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