As authors, we can and do pay for a lot. We pay for editors, book covers, and marketing assistance, among others. But increasingly, some authors are hiring book coaches, which is new to me. So when I asked myself should I hire a book coach—I decided to find out.
Why Hire a Book Coach?
According to well known author and speaker Jane Friedman, coaches are not editors in the classic sense. “It’s not about making sentences prettier and a story or argument stronger. Rather, coaches help clients complete a transformation.” This transformation is from a person who wants to write a book to someone who creates a book and is proud of the result. In essence, the moment you ask should I hire a book coach is the moment when you should seriously consider doing so.
Master Class fills in with more specifics about what a book coach can do for authors. They say that book coaches can help with outlining, setting writing goals, polishing & perfecting, and helping authors publish. They further say that book coaches help authors with accountability, critique, and with their knowledge of the industry.
But most of us won’t hire book coach because they’ll toe the line and keep us writing. Hey, I can use my little egg timer and a to-do list for that! What we want is someone who can help us make our books noticeably better, and help us with marketing. Book riot says that a “a book coach helps you move your novel along from the quicksand in which it is stuck or sinking” and also helps make the difference between never making it to the shelf to becoming a bestseller.
Find the Right Book Coach
Joanna Penn featured Jennie Nash on her Creative Penn website recently. Nash is a book coach who started her company—Author Accelerator—in 2014 and has trained more than fifty book coaches. Nash believes a few things are essential for book coaches. Two of her top ten are: their understanding of the marketplace and their ability to focus on both details and the big picture at the same time. As authors, we seldom do both of those things well and certainly not simultaneously. If a book coach can provide both of those skills for your writing, connect with them!
It’s Still on Us
As KnLiterary’s Kelly Notaras says that working with a book coach can make your writing better. For example, she lists the common “show, don’t tell” that we all know and forget at times, weeding out cliches, and identifying and using our unique voice are areas where book coaches can shine. But she also cautions that book coaches aren’t doing the work of writing. Even as book coaches help with accountability, it’s still the authors’ responsibility to write. Relying on a book coach to write doesn’t work. Maintaining the writing momentum remains the responsibility of us as writers.
