Take your book idea from imagined to real.

Author Coaching Services

You have a story to tell. It’s there in the back of your head, whispering to you while you go about your daily life. In all likelihood, you’ve found your way to this page because you can’t ignore your story any longer. Or perhaps you’ve completed a first draft, and you know it needs editing. Maybe there are areas where you feel stuck.

I help writers get unstuck.

I’ll be your sounding board, observant reader, and incisive writing analyst, leading you to think in new ways about your story and how you’re telling it.

I have an ear for the music of language and—to paraphrase one of my client testimonials—I’ll make your words sing. Together, we’ll take your writing to a level you never dreamed possible. You will not only write a better book than you thought you could; you’ll come out of our work together a better writer, ready to tackle your next project with greater skill and confidence.

How it works:

The services I provide are tailored to the individual project. The number of hours of editing and discussion each week or month depends upon the demands of the project coupled with the breadth of your budget, which we set up in advance, based on my hourly rate. Most of my clients take advantage of all or most of the services I offer. I invite you to browse through the offerings below and take a look at the videos on my home page to get a better feel for my personality and approach.

If you think I might be the right person for your project, dash off an email on my contact page telling me a bit about your project and what you’re looking for, and we’ll take it from there.

I look forward to hearing from you!

 

TESTIMONIALS

BOOK PLANNING & OUTLINING

We’ll work together to plan your book’s overall structure so that it’s well-paced and  effectively sequenced.

MOTIVATIONAL SCHEDULING

Together, we’ll create a schedule to keep you motivated and on-task, so that you meet your personal book completion deadline, no matter how busy your life is.

CONTENT EDITING

As you complete chapters or sections, I review them and identify areas in need of transitions, development, clarification, or streamlining. You can accept changes, reject them, or save them to discuss later.

GRAMMAR & STYLE

Grammatical corrections and refinements ensure a high quality, professional manuscript. I’ll identify inconsistencies in tone, tense, parallel structure, and point of view and make sure your writing is clear, powerful, persuasive, and engaging.

SOUNDING BOARD SESSIONS

In collaborative phone discussions we’ll review manuscript edits, comments, and questions, develop thin areas, and plan the next chapter in real-time using Google Drive. If you choose, call recording allows us to capture our discussion and have it transcribed within hours, making it easy to apply any ideas generated to your next writing session, sometimes with simple copy and paste.

PROPOSAL WRITING & PUBLICATION ADVICE

I’ll help you examine your goals and decide whether to publish traditionally or self-publish with an on-demand and/or e-book platform. If you’re going the traditional route, I’ll help you create a compelling book proposal and query letter for submission to agents and/or publishers.

Brenda Ueland

I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like a child stringing beads in kindergarten--happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another.

Tell me about your project!