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Writing’s Hard Commiserate!

The journey to publishing is a long a twisty road that can be hard to navigate your first time. Advice on the internet is often contradictory and confusing. You can spend hours of time online searching through nonsense just to get to a few nuggets of informational gold.

There are many reasons both for and against hiring a book coach and I’m going to try and go over them and explain why I finally decided to spend the money and in the future I’ll share how it worked out.

Cost $$$

Googles says $30-$300 hr.

My research is $100-$500 per 1 hr call (They usually read over your stuff for at least an hour so I would guess you are paying for at least 2 hours of time.)

Depending on your budget this could be a game stopper. However if you change how you think about the cost you are actually getting a pretty good value. How much would you pay for a writing class? Now make that a private writing class on exactly what you need to work on. Add in that if you did your research and found someone familiar with what you write and the type of publishing you want to do with your book they should be an experience professional and the cost doesn’t look so unreasonable.

Accountability

Now I don’t know about you but I personally find that my goals are much more likely to be met if someone other than me knows about them.

I have set goals for myself more times than I can count. They are usually realistic but difficult. I also tend to the moment I miss a goal say screw it and give up on all the goals. I keep moving forward but without a real destination in mind. Having a book coach helps even if I don’t make my goals to get as close as I can so that when I report in I have something to show. It also helps when I’m setting the goals to have someone remind me that I’m human and should probably account for life not going perfectly.

What’s next?

This for me was the most important reason for getting a book coach. I mean I think I’m a good writer and my books are awesome but are they?

There are so many options out there for books that knowing the market and your options are critical to doing the right thing for both you and your book. Is your story/writing strong enough and in the right genre/subject to go traditional? Is it your query letter or your first pages strong enough to grab an agents attention?

For self publishing what type of editing do you need? What do good book covers look like for your genre? How much marketing should you do? How much is this all going to cost and where can you cut corners?

All of these questions and more were something I wanted to talk to someone in the industry who has experience with people who have published. Get their incite and resources to let me know if I’m walking the right path for what I want to accomplish.

Cheerleader

Last but certainly not least having someone cheering you on the long lonely road to publishing is a definite bonus.

My family and friends are supportive but don’t understand just how tiring the whole process of writing a book can be. I wanted someone who has been there with others and knows the possible roadblocks to help me finish the last steps of the race.

For me the right person was Katie McCoach and our first few sessions have been amazing. She probably thinks I’m crazy since I bounce between questions and objectives like a toddler trying to take in Disney Land but she has been a steady and supportive resource that I won’t want to give up anytime soon. Do your research and if you think that having a book coach is a path you want to go down find the right person for the job.