That's great! With private coaching, we touch base in some way every week to help you make progress toward publication. We review your written submissions—whether that's planning work, drafting pages, revisions, or submission/query package materials—one week and provide written feedback. You continue working on your next section, assignment, or draft pages as your project dictates. The next week, we meet on a 60-minute coaching call to bring you clarity and confidence in your direction and next steps. And repeat! So we meet on calls opposite weeks from your written submissions.

During our time together, you get access to whatever tools would be most helpful for wherever you're at in the process. That might include my highly praised workbooks, templates, or course materials. These tools help writers learn a tried-and-true process that they can follow not only for their current project, but on every project moving forward in their author career. They also benefit from the regular accountability and leveled-up craft knowledge.

Scroll to the button at the bottom of this page to book an introductory call to get started. We'll discuss your project and goals and see how coaching might best work for you.

Did you know that a book coach is also an editor—at least a story/content editor? But not all editors may be a book coaches. (Spoiler: This book coach is both!)

But these questions are exactly what we’ll help you figure out when you send us your manuscript based on how far it is in the process and your goals for it. Certainly a lot of industry terms exist, but even those designations may mean something different to individual editors, authors, and publishers. Editing types (and services) really break down into two categories: substantive edits and mechanical edits. Substantive edits are the earlier edits that work out issues in the content such as plot, character, timeline, and the like. These are the stages where the most rewriting and revision occur. Mechanical edits usually happen at the last stages. These edits focus on the copy (text) itself and fix errors in grammar and spelling.

Book coaching provides a more ongoing relationship to teach and guide you while also providing editorial support on your work. Coaching is generally the most beneficial at the content (substantive) edit stages. Once the content is final and set, then it probably makes more sense to move into a line/copy edit, such as after coaching over story content.

Book coaching is a great way to get support walking through the process of whatever stage of novel development you’re at. The Inky Bookwyrm offers coaching for novel planning, drafting, and revising. A hybrid coaching + course option is also available for query/submission coaching. The coaching model provides regular deadlines for drafting or revising, submitting a chapter or two at a time for feedback and discussing work on calls. Coaching holds you accountable with project management and keeps you on task with energy focused in the right areas to get you through planning, drafting, or revision.

Book coaching offers
—guidance through the process
—strong, foundational strategies and tools to use even after coaching
—individualized support for areas of writing, mechanics, or story craft
—an ongoing relationship and a creative soundboard
—confidence and validation to keep going in a way that’s not as possible with one-off edits
—monthly pricing
—resources and exercises along the way as they relate to your project
—two calls per month to discuss feedback, story trajectory, and any “assignments”
—brainstorming sessions for breakthrough solutions
—progress reviews

Coaching can be really beneficial for authors who want to learn more about how story works (and its effect on readers, which is our specialty!), gain clarity on priorities and project plans, or level up their craft. Book coaching is rather like a fast-track MFA or writing course tailored specifically to you while workshopping your project. Plus, we take the cognitive science approach by keeping in mind how story affects readers to make sure novels are doing what they need to at the right times to most highly impact readers.

Editing services are great for when your craft foundations are strong, and you're ready to dive into the details of shoring up your story content or text in one-off editorial rounds (you provide the whole manuscript at once and receive feedback on the whole manuscript at once). Editing can require multiple rounds (paid separately) to cover all areas.

The Inky Bookwyrm editing philosophy centers on enhancing your individual voice—not subduing it. We work primarily in Word through direct comments to you on the manuscript and in editorial letters that help you improve your structure, plot, characters, voice, and setting. Everything we provide in ideas and suggestions to best achieve your goals (along with advocacy for your readership) all come out of what you’ve written. A book dragon editor merely unburies and polishes the gems perceived in your work—and perhaps rewires a few synapses along the way. Some of those gems are more direct and others more indirect. For the less direct, our experience still helps us sense the effects you were hoping for, and we strive to find a way for you to make the impact clear through revision. However, you are still the author, and you decide which changes to make. We only advise that if we provide a suggestion to improve a piece of your work, there is likely some issue there that needs to be addressed, whether you choose to address it in the way we suggest or not.

With proofreads or other more mechanical edits, we follow the Chicago Manual of Style (the industry standard) and, in most cases, make direct changes to your text to correct inconsistencies, grammar, style, spelling, and formatting. Unless you request otherwise, we track all changes for you to view using Word’s “track changes” feature because we believe this allows authors to learn more about their writing in the process. However, note that a proofread is only done once the manuscript has been formatted and laid out for publishing. For proofreads, comments and changes are marked on a PDF copy.

Book coaching is a great way to get support walking through the process of whatever stage of novel development you’re at. The Inky Bookwyrm offers coaching for novel planning, drafting, and revising. Some authors prefer the coaching model for regular deadlines for drafting or revising, submitting a chapter or two at a time for feedback and discussing their work on calls. This model better holds them accountable with project management and keeps them on task with energy focused in the right areas to get them through drafting or revision.

Book coaching offers
—guidance through the process
—strong, foundational strategies and tools to use even after coaching
—individualized support for areas of writing, mechanics, or story craft
—an ongoing relationship and a creative soundboard
—confidence and validation to keep going in a way that’s not as possible with one-off edits
—monthly pricing
—resources and exercises along the way as they relate to your project
—two calls per month to discuss feedback, story trajectory, and any “assignments”
—brainstorming sessions for breakthrough solutions
—progress reviews

Coaching can be really beneficial for authors who want to learn more about how story works (and its effect on readers, which is our specialty!), gain clarity on priorities and project plans, or level up their craft. Book coaching is rather like a fast-track MFA or writing course tailored specifically to you while workshopping your project. Plus, we take the cognitive science approach by keeping in mind how story affects readers to make sure novels are doing what they need to at the right times to most highly impact readers.

However, single or multiple rounds of edits are great for assessing, developing, or copy editing completed manuscripts. If you have a manuscript in our niche that you’d like to publish or submit to agents or publishers, we can help you get it ready with respect to your readers. Simply stated, writing is hard! It takes a lot of courage to put your heart and soul on the page and show it to others. But writing is also a process and a craft that requires as much honing as any other.

All content edits (assessments and developmental edits) include a 60-minute follow-up call to clarify feedback and answer any questions. But if you'd prefer more ongoing support, consider coaching.

Private coaching is $700 per month. For group coaching, see the Science Fiction & Fantasy Masterclass, which is $300 per month with a three-month initial commitment.

A non-refundable retainer fee equal to one month of coaching is due up front to hold your spot (it also pays for the first month of coaching). 

We often book out three or more months in advance for edits, but coaching availability can be hard to predict. While book coaching is month-to-month, most authors require three months at minimum for any given stage and often continue for longer. However, it never hurts to check availability by reaching out. Bookings are only final after the initial deposit is received to hold the spot in our schedule. So until we have an accepted contract, any prospective project dates remain open. You can always get on a waitlist if all coaching slots are filled—you'll be one of the first to know when a spot opens up.

Yes. We believe contracts help to protect both parties and clarify expectations and boundaries. You can view your offer and sign your contract online. These documents will be saved in your unique client portal, which you may access at any time.

Nope! Coaching is paid monthly. A non-refundable retainer fee (payment for the first month of coaching) is due up front to hold your spot. 

We use a payment service called Stripe, which allows you to pay via credit card. My system also allows you to save a card on file for automatic payments for installments. It's all secure, clear, and easy to complete online.