The practical stuff to know before we start.

Book Coaching offers insight, direction, and a plan to help you revise more strategically, to make better decisions on the page, and build a manuscript with greater shape, coherence, and emotional resonance.

Book Coaching means I help you see your story more clearly, from the places where the structure is holding to the moments where the emotional arc is thinning, the pacing is dragging, or the story wants greater precision, force, and depth. As your Book Coach, my approach is clear-eyed, practical, and fully invested in making your book stronger.

No. If you’re publishing traditionally, your publisher will handle that; if you’re self-publishing, I’d be happy to provide a referral for copyediting.

That said, within your manuscript evaluation markup, I will point out any observed errors so you can fix them during your next revision.

Most manuscripts require, at minimum, two rounds of revision:

• The first major revision focuses on the big-picture story.
• The next major revision focuses on your story’s details and prose (not to be confused with wordsmithing).

If you’ve been working on your story alone (or with a critique group), and you’ve come to the point where you’re only wordsmithing, STOP. This is the perfect time to get your manuscript evaluation.

If you’ve gone round and round in your manuscript and you know something’s wrong but can’t figure out what, STOP. This is another perfect time to get your manuscript evaluation.

If you’ve queried and gotten partial and/or full requests, but no offers of agent representation, it’s possible something inside your story isn’t working, but you’re too close to the words to see it. This is another excellent time to get your manuscript evaluation.

I offer four ways for you to work with me:

• BluePrinting:

  Whether you’re a pantser, plotter, or planster, the Blueprint & Inside/Outline can be the fastest route to discovering how to strengthen your story. Based on Jennie Nash’s “Blueprint for a Book”, this in-depth process will bring you closer to why you’re writing this story, how to best position it, and how to plan it out so you can get it written. (Bonus: when you’re finished BluePrinting, you’ll have the bones of a query & a skeleton of a synopsis.)

• Butt-in-Chair Monthly Coaching

  Butt-in-Chair is designed to give you structure, accountability & unstoppable momentum. This is not “write, just write”; you’ll be working on story details and prose based on your BluePrint, our conversations about your work, and possibly additional resources.

  Monthly coaching requires a four-month commitment, after which you’ll have about 200 structured pages, with a solid plan for moving forward. Clients who complete four months have the option to continue month-by-month at their discretion.

• Manuscript Evaluation

  Your manuscript is complete. You might have had it critiqued, beta-read, and/or edited. You’ve possibly started querying. Or maybe not…because you suspect your manuscript still needs work, but you don’t know what or how to fix it.

  A manuscript evaluation is a big-picture assessment of your novel’s overall strengths and weaknesses, taking into account applicable genre conventions, as well as its plot, structure, cast, character arcs, and pacing. With your manuscript eval, you’ll receive an 8-10 page editorial letter that includes Action Steps for guidance, and a 50-minute follow-up call to help you develop a plan for revision. I offer this service for any fiction genre, or memoir on a case-by-case basis.

• Wordsmithing

  By now, you’ve weeded out the obvious pests and you’re dying to query it. But wait! Now it needs fine-tuning. This is where we get down to the line level, to word choice, appropriate similes, etc. For some writers, wordsmithing is their favorite step, for others it’s a slog. But this is the fine-tuning you may need to stand out in an agent’s slush-pile. You’ll also want this if you plan to hybrid or self-publish. Think of this as an elevated one-on-one craft class focused specifically on your story, on making your line-level writing sing.

I also offer Query Package Analyses to writers who have worked with me on any of the above programs. Query Package Analysis includes: query letter, your opening five pages, synopsis, log-line, and flap copy.

Book Coaching includes detailed markup on submissions of up to 25 pages each, submitted via bi-weekly deadlines. Then I’ll send you big-picture feedback on each submission via email, and you’ll have personalized support via coaching calls. Additionally, it may involve writing assignments, craft exercises, and recommended reading to help you become the writer you want to be.

Simplest calculations are:

25 pages x every 2 weeks = 300 pages completed in 24 weeks (roughly 5.5 months).

This timeline depends on you meeting your own deadlines.

There also may be weeks in which life prevents you from completing a full 25 pages, so we’ll work with the completed pages you have.

Or there may be a week here or there that require a pause in the manuscript-writing because you find the need to dive into craft or revise your outline or myriad other interruptions. We will work through these together.

No. Generally speaking, early drafts…aren’t great. The best indicator of whether you have promise as a writer is not the quality of your early drafts, but whether you’re able to make good use of editorial feedback in improving your manuscript in revision.

Yes. I offer a Query Package Analysis for writers who’ve already worked with me in some capacity on the book they want to pitch.

I can work with memoir, as it has similarities to fiction (in structure, character arc, general storytelling mechanisms). On memoir, I accept manuscripts on a case-by-case basis. We would have a discovery call to determine if we’re a fit. If your story is outside my wheelhouse, I’m happy to refer you to a trusted colleague who specializes in memoir like yours.

I do not work with other nonfiction genres (i.e. prescriptive, etc.) but I am happy to refer you to an exceptional nonfiction coach I know and trust.

I’m happy to do evaluations of novellas and short stories with a minimum of five pages.

I do not work on stories that try to put a positive spin on white nationalism, religion, MAGA, or America’s racist history. I do not work on any stories that include graphic torture, trauma porn, sexual abuse of children, or animal abuse.

Please do not send me A.I. generated stories. I work on human creations only. If you use A.I. for research, that’s fine, so do I! But write your own story, please.

I’m typically booked out for this service 1–3 months in advance. So when you think you’re about one month out from completing your current revision, book your free Discovery Call.

I am not a sensitivity reader (though I will point out any glaring issues on your Eval). For a full sensitivity read, I can recommend experts in this area.

I follow my own Book Coach’s lead here: “As long as you’re actively seeking to avoid harm to historically marginalized groups in your work—and are willing to do the work to avoid that, if necessary, in revision,” I would consider working with you and your story.