So What Exactly is Book Coaching Anyway?

In this brief pre-Thanksgiving podcast, I talk a little about book coaching—my other life outside of being a historical novelist. I promised links to my coaching Web site: https://susannedunlapedits.com, and the Author Accelerator book coach training Web site: https://bookcoaches.com. Excuse the self-promo, but I'm a huge ambassador for this really fun, fruitful relationship between writer and coach. You'll see when you listen. :)

Transcript

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Good morning. It's a beautiful. But cold November morning here in North Hampton, Massachusetts, where I live. instead of an interview today, I'm doing another one of my info podcasts, so to speak. And, it's about book coaching. Some of you have heard me mention here and there on this podcast that I'm a book coach. I'm actually an author accelerator, advanced certified book coach. Or qualification that I trained very hard to achieve. I did it because when I attended a webinar, With the program's founder, Jenny Nash. I was blown away by her approach and her vision. I literally signed up for the course, the full course minutes after the webinar ended. And maybe even before, I don't exactly remember because it was over a year ago. And I have to tell you, the course did not disappoint. The content, the way it was structured, the depth, the intelligence. I'd never experienced an online course, quite like it. It took me four months to do the over 100 lessons in the course. And then after that, I had to submit practicums, which would be reviewed. In order to get certified and that included recordings of coaching calls with my practicum clients. Editorial letters I'd written for them. And marked up client work. Well, I did get certified, which was awesome. And since then I've been bringing the skills I learned about how to work with writers. And help them write the best book they can. I've been bringing those skills to my clients who I've just have to say I've been a joy to work with. And along the way, I've also learned so much that has helped my own writing, which was a kind of an unexpected bonus. But I still haven't answered the question concerning what book coaching actually is. First of all, if you don't know off the bat, don't worry. It's a fairly new way of working with writers. Jennie Nash, who the founder. Has been doing it for over 10 years and she has managed to shepherd many novels and non-fiction books into publication. With mainstream and hybrid publishers. She developed the author accelerator program in response to what she saw as misleading and harmful practices by many out there in the book world who. Jumped into capitalize on the demand created by changes in the publishing industry. everybody could get a book published for instance. And Some rather unscrupulous people jumped in and promised that they could help writers write a best-selling book in 30 days or sell methods and formulas that were guaranteed to make your book a page turning read, and. Get you thousands upon thousands of readers. Well, There is no guarantee that any of that will happen. As both a published author and a book coach, Jenny learned through her own experience. The fundamental aspects of what makes a book length project work, whether it's fiction, memoir or nonfiction. And more importantly for me. And for many writers out there. Learned and refined how to teach that to writers. Okay, I've digressed again. I still haven't told you what a book coach is. So here we go. A book coach is a combination editor, cheerleader, taskmaster, and hand-holder. Someone who's by your side, every step of the way as you. Conceive and write your book. A certified book. Coach is someone who can expertly guide you at any stage. You can start from the very beginning when you just have an idea. Or you've written part of it and you're not sure where to go or you're about to revise an entire manuscript. Or you think you're ready to query? And you want a review. And help crafting a query letter. Those are all things book, coach can help you with. Because a book coach is a one-on-one relationship that transpires over time. This last fact is what makes it very different from hiring an editor. An editor will read your manuscript, make line edits or developmental edits and write an editorial letter. And then it's up to you to incorporate their comments or not. There are don't get me. Wrong. There are many good editors out there who can do this very well. And often this is exactly what a writer needs at a certain point in the process. But a book coach works differently. When you work with a book coach, you get deadlines with assignments tailored to your specific project. You do the work, the coach assigns for each deadline. Then the coach reviews, what you've done makes inline comments and writes an editorial letter or note each time about general observations. And then the two of you meet up over zoom. of course at the moment, that's all we can do, but it can be an in-person thing. You meet up over zoom. And you talk about the comments, ask and answer questions, and then decide where to go from there. And these deadlines occur every two weeks. Give or take. For as long as you've contracted with the coach to work with you. But coaching is a personal relationship. One on one. therefore not all coaches are a good fit for all writers. And many of us specialize in different areas. We choose to work with certain kinds of writers, writers with certain goals. Or writers who work in certain genres. Coaches also make no guarantees. The only guarantee is that they can help you craft the best book or nonfiction book proposal. You're capable of. Empty promises are no good to anyone. Even the best manuscript can be ignored by agents or publishers. That's just a fact of life in this very competitive publishing market. What matters is honesty, integrity, clarity, and respect. These are the most important elements in a book, coaching relationship, honesty with kindness, showing respect for the hard work all writers do. If they're serious about getting a book written. As a book coach, I absolutely love seeing my clients make progress, get their books written and know that they're good. Jenny's tools are brilliant at helping writers understand the importance of book structure. Of making sure you're thinking of what the reader needs as you, right. And seeing where the plot goes off the rails or where you've lost the thread of your argument and a memoir or nonfiction. And more importantly, Helping you identify exactly how to fix what goes wrong. Coaching strategies for pitching and helping writers with their query letters can be another aspect of coaching. Although not all coaches do that. So. What kind of a coach am I? And what do I coach? Of course. I love coaching historical fiction. For adults, teens. Middle-grade love it all. I think my background as an author in the shower is very helpful, but in most ways it's the same as coaching. Any other fiction genre? The only genres, I don't coach our horror. Because. I don't read horror, Christian. Because I can't put my whole heart into it. And erotica. It's just not for me. And I'm probably not the right coach for hard-boiled police procedurals, because that's also not as genre. I read. I've coached for instance, cozy mystery, speculative fiction, historical fiction. Literary fiction women's fiction and more. I also coach memoir, which is a sort of a hybrid, depending on what kind of memoir you're writing. Last, but not least I coached nonfiction book proposals. Nonfiction is sold in a very different way from fiction. Having a kick-butt proposal is arguably more important. Then having a really good finished manuscript, in fact, Anyway. Basically I enjoy and learn from every coaching client. Perhaps. That's because for me, Writing historical fiction came in the first place. In part, out of frustration at not being in a position to get a job, teaching music history at the college level. After having spent 11 years in graduate school and getting an ma and a PhD. Yes, it was very frustrating. But anyway, book, coaching, melds, those two passions of mine, teaching and writing. But there's actually much more. To being a book, coach and author accelerator. Advanced certified book coach. What Jenny has done with her vision. Is not just train new book coaches. She's also created an incredible community of coaches. Who share insight and inspiration. Even before I was certified, I was part of that community and we have zoom calls every month with Jenny. For an hour or more to talk about coaching and get our questions answered. And then we have more informal calls amongst the coaches just to check in and see how everything's going. In any case, Jenny is amazingly generous with her time and resources. Her mission is to raise the bar on book coaching. And judging by the coaches I've met through that network. She's succeeding. That community also means that if someone approaches me to coach something, that's not a good fit for me, which definitely happens. I can probably refer them to another coach who would be perfect. I've gotten to know coaches from all over the world. But it's still a relatively small community. I think there are probably fewer than a hundred of us coaches certified through author accelerator. But that number is definitely growing as Jenny and her team. Get their message out to more and more writers and editors about this rewarding and important work. Honestly. I have never felt so much at home, in a profession before. Okay. So now here are some important links, which I will also put in the show notes. First of all. If you want to have a conversation with me about book coaching and those conversations come with no obligation at all. You can email me at Suzanne that's S U S a N N E at. Suzanne Dunlap edits.com. That's all one word. And it's Suzanne with an S and Dunlap with an a. If you just want to browse around my website and see the packages I offer. Go to Suzanne Dunlap edits.com. And if this book coaching gig sounds like something you'd be interested in pursuing, I highly recommend it. You can find out more about the courses that lead to certification that book coaches.com. Exactly spelled exactly how it sounds. I think there's a series of free videos about it that you can watch to see if it's a direction you'd like to go. And no. I don't get a kickback for referring you. I just see this as a worthwhile way to overall raise the quality of writing out there. So. End of lecture. I'm taking a week off with podcasting because Thanksgiving. But I hope to be back with another new interview on December 3rd. December. I can't believe it's going to be December any minute. In any case. Have a great Thanksgiving. In spite of all the problems. Limitations. Please don't take risks. Just enjoy being with your close family and those, you know, you can associate with. And goodbye for now.