The Difference Between a Book Coach and a Developmental Editor
Successful writers do not do this work on their own. Whether they have a writing group, a critique partner, a book coach, an editor, or someone else, writers who achieve their goals have help.
In fact, getting assistance with your book project can be one of the most effective ways to keep yourself accountable, to improve your craft, and to elevate your ideas. That’s because at a certain point, you can’t evaluate your work objectively and you need an outside perspective. This is true whether you’re writing a nonfiction proposal, drafting your memoir, or telling a fictitious story.
Once you’ve decided that you’d like to work with someone to further your writing project, the next challenge is determining the best support for you. If you want expert guidance, a book coach or developmental editor could be the right choice. But, there’s a lot of confusion about what distinguishes a book coach from a developmental editor and what either one does.
Here’s a high-level breakdown of the difference between a developmental editor and a book writing coach, as well as which one you should choose:
What does a book coach do?
A book coach could be considered an upstream partner–writers typically work with a coach at the beginning of the writing process or while drafting or revising. “Partner” is also an apt description of a book coach because this person works with the writer as well as the writing.
While there are coaches who specialize in certain genres or focus on specific parts of the process, in general, book coaches help writers:
Ideate and plan—This can be as simple as bouncing ideas and providing feedback on an outline or as involved as walking you through the Blueprint for a Book. This is an important step whether you’re at the very beginning of a new book project or starting on a revision.
Stick to regular writing deadlines—Most coaches, by working with you throughout the drafting or revising process, provide structure to a writing project. Typically, you turn in a set amount of pages to your coach every week or every other week. This accountability is a huge help for writers who struggle when they don’t have external deadlines.
Iterate as you go—Coaches help you see and solve holes in your story or your proposal as you write. This can save you from getting to the end of a draft and realizing there’s a glaring error or omission. In fact, many writers say that working with a coach allows them to produce a much better and more complete first draft or proposal.
Improve your craft—Not only do book coaches give you feedback on your story or argument when they review your pages, but they also help you sharpen your writing skills. They can supplement their feedback with additional resources or suggest writing exercises in addition to your pages to help you learn and improve.
Develop an effective mindset—One of the biggest challenges most, if not all, writers have to overcome is self-doubt. This is followed closely by procrastination and flagging motivation. Working with a coach can help you break through these mindset blocks because a coach will help you identify the thinking that’s holding you back and develop strategies to overcome it.
What does a developmental editor do?
If book coaches are upstream, developmental editors are downstream. They help writers who already have a completed draft–and most likely it’s a more polished draft, not the first one. Developmental editors are concerned with the big picture issues of the story, evaluating elements like structure and characterization, and they provide a more discrete service like one full manuscript evaluation and a follow-up consultation.
Rather than working alongside the writer, the developmental editor is focused on the writing, assessing a completed work to determine its strengths and areas for improvement.
Developmental editors help writers:
See what’s working well—Because it’s hard to be objective about your own work, it’s too easy for writers to miss the good stuff. Only focusing on the problems in your manuscript can defeat your confidence and your interest in your project. A developmental editor, by evaluating a full manuscript or proposal, can bolster you by highlighting the best parts of your idea or writing.
Pinpoint what’s not effective—The main benefit of a development edit is that you will walk away with a clear idea of where your manuscript is flagging and an expert opinion on why. Note that developmental editors do not comment on the line-level, and they won’t catch your typos. But those issues shouldn’t concern you until your story and structure are solid.
Determine fixes for the problems—Many developmental editors will follow up their feedback with recommendations on your idea, your story, your craft, your structure–all the big-picture elements. They may also offer a call or two to brainstorm additional solutions.
Neither of these lists is exhaustive. There can be plenty of crossover between book coaches and developmental editors. For example, there are book coaches that provide manuscript evaluations, and there are developmental editors that are willing to continue working with a writer as they execute changes.
What’s the best option for you?
Deciding whether you want to work with a book coach or a developmental editor depends on a few factors. The first consideration is what stage of the writing process you’re in. One of the most straightforward distinctions between developmental editors and book coaches is that the former works with completed–if not polished–manuscripts.
If you’re in the beginning stage of your book project and want help with planning, or even if you’ve completed a draft, but you want more guidance through the first round of revision, a book coach will probably be a better option for you. Alternatively, if you have a manuscript that you’ve revised on your own or with the help of critique partners and beta readers, and you want a professional assessment to take it to the next level, you should seek out a developmental editor.
Another deciding factor is how much assistance you want. You may feel that you need some expert direction on your book project, but you’re comfortable executing changes and managing your project yourself. In that case, a developmental editor will be the right choice. However, if you think you’d benefit from someone working with you and project managing your book for you while you write, hire a book coach. You’ll also want to work with a book coach if you want a lot of help developing and troubleshooting your ideas.
Finally, a book coach will be the right option for you if you have little to no experience writing or you want to improve your writing skills. For example, if you don’t consider yourself a writer, but you want to demonstrate your expertise in a nonfiction book, working with a book coach is the best option for you because they can lead you through the proposal process and help you sharpen your writing skills. Similarly, you may consider yourself a writer, but you still want to get better–a developmental editor might point out where you can improve, but a book coach will work with you to strengthen those skills.
If you’re ready to hire a book coach to help you tackle your project, consider our book coach matching service.
