Mentoring and coaching for writers
I love working one-on-one with writers, helping them find the way from where they are now to where they want to be. Being a writing coach allows me to help others achieve the dream of being a published author.
And I've had some success in doing it, too.
Questions for a prospective writing coach
Coaches and mentors are essential for success in any field. Whether it's playing the piano, or competitive tennis (two of my favourite things), the champion players typically have coaches not far from their side.
These days lots of people are putting up a shingle online and calling themselves a writing coach.
When you're looking for a writing coach, my only advice is to make sure that your prospective coach actually has some skin in the same game you're attempting to play.
- Where has their work been published?
- What genre/s have they published in?
- Whose work have they edited or helped to develop?
- Who has edited their own work?
- What level of practical commercial understanding of the business of book publishing will they bring to your working relationship?
If a prospective writing coach does not have experience either working in-house at a trade publishing company, or as a traditionally published author, then I cannot see how they can add the sort of value you need at the point in your writing journey when you seek a mentor.
If you're looking for someone to keep you on track in terms of a monthly word count, then join a writers' group. It's much cheaper.
My ideal students for mentoring / writing coaching
Writers get the most from working with me when they have already been working on a manuscript for some time. It could be months. It could be, well, a lot longer than that.
My best mentoring students know, deep in themselves, that they need something else, something more, to develop their work to publishable level. That's when your work is ready for submission to a literary agent.
They just can't figure out what that something is.
Do you need a sounding board for your project?
Having assisted writers of fiction and nonfiction to land literary agents and book publishing deals, and having worked with a mentor on my own second book, I understand the value of a trusted reader for your work and creative goals.
And with experience as an editor and literary agent, I know a fair bit about how book publishing works, and what agents and editors think when assessing manuscripts.
Mentoring with me is a confidential relationship dedicated to your work in progress.
Mentoring/coaching is best for writers who are:
• finding their feet with a project that is underway
• new to working on a book-length project
• getting knocked back by literary agents/book publishers and don’t know why
• need some professional advice to know whether or not their work has the potential to get published
Read what some of my writing mentoring clients say about how I’ve helped them get a literary agent or to reach a publisher-ready standard with their work.
Interested?
Each author and project is different, so what works for one writer won’t work for another.
Why not contact me for a no-obligation 15-minute call with me to discuss your writing journey and publishing goals?
VIRGINIA LLOYD (*waves*)
I'm on a mission to help memoir writers and nonfiction experts maximize the appeal of their book proposals and submissions to literary agents and book publishers.
Too many writers send off their agent submissions without first seeking feedback—or more accurately, constructive insights based on industry experience—on their materials.
Then, when they don't hear back from agents, they get frustrated and disappointed.
As the traditionally published author of two books, as a structural editor, former in-house editor and a literary agent, I'll give your book proposal a level of personal commercial and constructive feedback you'll never get from a workshop or writers' group.
Working with me, clients develop and revise their book proposal or sample chapter/s to the standard expected across the book industry, having a stronger understanding of the publishing process and more confidence in the nature and quality of the project they're submitting for an agent's consideration.