8 Great Things and 5 Tough Things About Working With a Book Coach

I am working with book coach Barbara Boyd on my forthcoming book, Blueprint for a Memoir and on another book that I keep referring to as the book book, even though it has a working title. I’m just reluctant to share it yet because I feel superstitious about it—like if I utter it, someone will steal it. This is truly silly, I know, but it’s what I feel. I am very attached to my working title, and there is a lot that hangs on it, so it shall be known here as the book book—a book about books. I spoke here about my decision to work with a book coach after thinking that I didn’t need one and quickly learning how very wrong I was. I was smarter this time around.

I wanted to share what I am loving about the experience—and also the things that book coaching can’t make better.

First, the things I love.

1. I love the accountability.

   No way am I going to miss a deadline. I know Barbara has this time set aside for me, and I know how irritating it is when clients make me wait. I set time aside for my clients and Barbara has set time aside for me. I want to honor myself and honor her by honoring that deadline.

2. I love the trust.

   I know that Barbara is not going to lie to me. It is not in her best interest to make me feel good about my work if my work is not good. She is going to call it like she sees it, and I am counting on that. I don’t have to agree with her, but I know I can believe her. 

3. I love having another brain thinking about my work.

   I am holding a lot in my mind while I write, as all writers do. Barbara is a book coach but she is also a human and a reader and a global citizen (she lives in Italy) and a grandmother and she brings all of that to bear in her comments…She has sent me articles related to my idea, and other books related to it. I love that someone else is thinking about my work (almost!) as much as I am.

4. I love the specific editorial feedback.

   It’s evidence-based, it points to where things are not working, it gives me a clue for how to move forward. There was a lot wrong with the batch of pages I turned in (which I did a video on here) but that’s okay; better to know now rather than later. 

   The Blueprint, by the way, is the evidence-giver. We can measure what I have done on the page against what I said I wanted to do and see if I am pulling it off.

5. I love the praise.

   Barbara shows me where I am doing things well, and she shows me why they are working well. This helps me improve and helps my confidence.

6. I love having skin in the game.

   Barbara is not cheap – I hope because Author Accelerator has trained her to value her talents and her time! It’s something I am constantly talking to our book coaches about and when it came time to step up and pay for coaching myself, I was happy to pay the price. It makes me take the work seriously. It is a way of valuing myself.  It has nothing to do with making my money back; it has to do with my intention.

   I recently listened to a Brooke Castillo podcast, from the Life Coaching School, and Castillo was talking about how when we see the magnificence in other people, we are seeing it in ourselves. If we seek to tear them down or diminish them, we diminish ourselves. I feel this when it comes to money. I think a lot of what is wrong with writing education and publishing in general is that people don’t want to pay for things. I mean – readers paying 99 cents for a book that it took an author years to create? Publishing companies paying their newest employees too little to actually live in New York City? It makes so little sense when we value books so much.

   We should expect to pay for the services and the experiences we value.

7. I love having a strategic collaborator.

   I will be self-publishing the Blueprint for a Memoir book because I self-published the other Blueprint books (fiction and nonfiction),  and they are selling quite well. But the book book may be better suited to a different publishing path. I’m not sure—and part of it depends on how the book unfolds. I like having someone to sort out those publishing decisions with me.

8. I love having someone help me prioritize what to work on next.

   Running a busy business means that I end most days with decision fatigue. Trying to decide what to have for dinner is often the last straw. So when it comes to getting these books done, I often secretly think, “If someone would just tell me what to do, I will do it.” I crave direction, and Barbara gives it to me. We discuss the project and the goals that make the most sense, but I know that she is guiding the project and can see the finish line and is holding the tape out there for me. She says, “Work on those two chapters,” or “Sort out that idea,” or “See if you can get ten pages done every week.” I love that.

So what does having a book coach NOT solve?

1. I have to put my butt in the chair and write.

   No one can do that for me. It’s hard physically – on my neck, on my wrists, on my eyes. And it’s hard from the sheer number of hours it takes out of my day. When I am writing, I am not working on my business, I am not helping clients, I am not going on beach walks with my husband or playing pickleball with my friends or volunteering to help kids with their college applications. I am choosing the writing, again and again.

2. I have to figure out what I want to say.

   There are so many excellent books about memoir (I’ll be talking about some of my favorites in the coming months) and I am trying to do something different in the Blueprint than any of them do. My focus is on story fundamentals, structure, and form — which are the things I see most people getting wrong, glossing over, and not paying enough attention to. I have to keep finding my way every time I sit down to write, so that I don’t slip into doing something different than I set out to do.

3. I have to trust my gut.

   I have to make the thousands and thousands of decisions that go into writing a book. I am the god of the story. I have to think and I have to choose.

4. I have to wrestle with content.

   I am sharing examples in the Blueprint of real people’s real stories, and it’s often a delicate matter. Finding the right examples to teach what I want to teach and show what I want to show is tricky. If there is anything that causes me despair in this project, it’s this.

5. I still have to deal with doubt.

   I have to muster the courage or the resolve or whatever it is that is going to help me deal with the doubt that inevitably creeps in when you are making anything you care about. People can boost you up and cheer you on and feel your pain (which Barbara absolutely does), but they can’t take the tiny actions that are needed to carry on. Only I can do that.

   Working with a book coach is not like getting a fairy godmother who waves a magic wand and makes it all easy and effortless. It’s not like getting a free pass to the front of the line. 

   But working with a book coach makes it all so much less painful. I feel less alone. I feel less confused. I feel safe to strive for my big goals.

The Blueprint for Memoir is coming!

My plan is to publish this book in July. I will be doing some fun launch things leading up to it, and look forward to sharing those with you soon-ish. You can sign up for the interest list here.

And if you would like to work on your own Blueprint for a Memoir with coaches I have trained in my method – including Barbara – you can do so starting in August.

Barbara is hosting a Blueprint workshop called Mainely Memoir with two other amazing Author Accelerator certified book coaches, Susanne Dunlap and Suzette Mullen, at an in-person retreat in Biddeford, Maine in September. This Blueprint retreat includes pre-work with your coach, which begins a month before the retreat, so all of this starts in just five months. 

This is an incredible chance to take the time to get your idea right before you start to write or to give you the confidence that you are on track before you start to revise. These three women worked with me in an intensive Nonfiction Incubator in 2022. They are wise, compassionate, experienced, soulful book coaches; and they’re really good together.

Working through the Blueprint in-person with a group of other serious writers  under the tutelage of excellent book coaching will be a wonderful experience.

And Maine is gorgeous in September! Check out details here or by clicking the button below.