What does a book coach do?

I was at a big event recently where lots of people asked me what a book coach actually does - which made me realise that I’ve been floating around in my own little bubble where I think ‘everyone’ knows what book coaches do - and that’s just not true.

So, here’s a breakdown of what book coaches do - or at least, the things that I do that I call book coaching - YMMV.

I would say that there are roughly five areas that I cover in my book coaching:

1. Mindset work, on areas like procrastination, imposter complex, etc. If this isn’t tackled, your book might never get written, let alone published.

2. Breaking down the huge project of writing and publishing into a manageable plan. I see this as being a bit like how a running coach might help you make a holistic training and nutrition plan for your first marathon - what are all the moving pieces that you need to have in place? What are the milestones? Are you on track for success? And if not, what can we tweak?

3. Offering industry-insider knowledge to help make decisions around things like going for a book deal vs self-publishing; how to choose the right agent for you; etc. The books world can be cliquey, elitist and pretty much opaque to outsiders - it really helps to work with someone who can demystify it for you and help you to work out what’s in your best interest to do.

4. Nuts & bolts coaching - setting intentions, working with your values, staying accountable etc. I call this the nuts and bolts because it’s the same stuff that most coaches do with their clients whether they’re a life coach, a health coach, or a leadership coach. The reason this work is basic to coaching is because it’s so effective at making sure people get stuff done.

5. Little black book - pointing clients towards people and resources to help support their writing and publishing journey.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but most of what I do with clients under the banner of book coaching falls into one of those categories.

If I’m working with a client in a Business Book Mentorship, that’s a bit of a hybrid model where they also get me with my developmental editor hat on, giving them editorial feedback on their manuscript, synopsis and book proposal - but otherwise, when I’m doing a one-off book coaching call, I am unlikely to read their manuscript, let alone to get into the weeds of editorial feedback.

Some book coaches will focus only on working with writers who are hoping to get a traditional book deal and others with those wanting to self-publish, but I work with both (not least because this is exactly the kind of decision it helps to work with an experienced book coach to help you to tease out the real pros and cons of both options).

Other book coaches are more focused on marketing for writers rather than the writing and publishing process itself. I keep half an eye on building out your author platform and expanding your community of readers and supporters as part of our work together, but my main focus is on your writing and publishing journeys - so if you really want to go deep on the marketing side of things, I might not be the right coach for you.

Another question I get once I’ve explained all of the above is something along the lines of, but isn’t that what your literary agent or the editor at your publishers would do for you?

There are three parts to my answer to this:

1. First of all you have to get your agent or publisher - and that’s often the bit I’m helping with

2. These days, even if you do get an agent and a book deal, your agent and editor are both likely to be swamped with work and may not have the time to support you in-depth (and it may not be their focus either - some agents love doing this, others focus solely on negotiating the best possible contract for their clients)

3. If you’re self-publishing, you won’t have an agent or a publisher to support you

As to why I do it - I do it because I love it, because writers are such creative and interesting people to work with, because I want to see more good books in the world, and especially more books from people who are currently under-represented in publishing.