Some people need a ghostwriter. They have the expertise, the stories, and the ideas but not the time or the interest in writing the book themselves. I ghostwrite those books. Other people want to write the book themselves. They want the experience of producing their own manuscript, developing their own craft, and seeing their own words on the page. Those people need a book coach.
I’ve published 113+ books. I have ghostwritten 54. I write fiction, nonfiction, and memoir. I’ve built a library of 45 writing handbooks covering everything from character development to dialogue to world building to pacing. When I coach a writer, I’m not working from theory. I’m working from decades of doing the thing they’re trying to learn.
Book coaching isn’t editing. An editor works on a finished manuscript. A coach works with you while you’re writing it. The difference matters because the problems that kill most books happen long before the manuscript is finished. They happen in the planning, the structure, the early chapters where the foundation gets laid wrong and everything built on top of it wobbles. A coach catches those problems while they can still be fixed without tearing the book apart.
What Happens in a Book Coaching Session?
The structure will not come together, the voice is not right, the middle sags no matter what you try.Share on X
Every writer is different. Every book is different. Coaching sessions do whatever the client needs them to do. For more, see book coaching.
Some clients show up with a complete draft that’s not working and they cannot figure out why. We read through it together and I identify the structural problems, the pacing issues, the places where the narrative loses momentum. Then we build a revision plan that fixes the foundation instead of just patching surface problems. For more, see Why Cursing at ChatGPT Actually Works.
Some clients show up with an idea and nothing else. We spend the first sessions figuring out what the book actually is. Who’s it for. What’s the core message or story. What structure will serve it best. By the time we finish those conversations, the client has a roadmap they can follow instead of staring at a blank page wondering where to start.
Some clients are mid-draft and stuck. They wrote strong opening chapters and now the middle is collapsing. We diagnose why the momentum stalled and figure out how to get it moving again. Usually the problem is structural, something that went wrong earlier that didn’t become visible until the book hit the midpoint.
Some clients need craft instruction. Their ideas are strong but their prose isn’t there yet. We work on sentence-level skills, dialogue, scene construction, point of view, whatever the specific weakness is. I assign targeted work between sessions and we review it together.
Some clients need accountability more than instruction. They know how to write. They have the skills. They cannot make themselves sit down and do it consistently. Regular coaching sessions with deadlines and assignments create the external structure that keeps the project moving.
Some clients need help navigating publishing. Traditional versus self-publishing, how to find an agent, how to evaluate a publishing contract, how Amazon’s platform works, how to think about marketing before the book exists. I’ve been through every version of this process across 113+ books and can explain the territory without the agenda that agents and publishers bring to those conversations.
Most coaching engagements involve some combination of all of this. The mix shifts as the project progresses.
Who Is Book Coaching For?
From the podcast
Doris Walsh coaches high achievers and finds the same gap before any plan can be made, on Leaders and Their Stories:
People haven’t taken a time out to really go inside themselves and figure out what it’s that they want. Not what their boss says they want, not what their wife or husband says they want.A book written to satisfy someone else’s expectation reads exactly like one, so the first coaching question is whose book this is.
Book coaching works for writers who want to write their own book but need expert guidance to do it well. That covers many people.
First-time authors who have never written a book and don’t know where to begin. The gap between wanting to write a book and knowing how to execute one is enormous. Coaching bridges that gap with structured guidance tailored to the specific project instead of generic advice from writing books that may or may not apply.
Experienced writers who are stuck on a specific project. Sometimes a book resists you. The structure won’t come together, the voice isn’t right, the middle sags no matter what you try. An outside perspective from someone who has solved these problems across dozens of books can break the logjam in a single session.
Professionals writing their first book to establish authority in their field. These clients have deep expertise but no experience translating expertise into book form. Coaching helps them understand how a book works differently from an article, a presentation, or a blog post, and how to structure their knowledge for a reader who’s encountering it for the first time.
Fiction writers developing craft. Character, dialogue, pacing, point of view, world building, plot structure, all of these are learnable skills. Coaching provides personalized instruction focused on the specific areas where each writer needs development instead of the one-size-fits-all approach of writing classes.
Writers who tried and stopped. Abandoned manuscripts are common. Most of the time the writer stopped because they hit a problem they couldn’t solve alone. Coaching can diagnose what went wrong and determine whether the project is worth reviving and how to approach it differently.
How Does Book Coaching Differ From Ghostwriting?
In ghostwriting, I write the book. The client provides expertise, stories, and ideas through interviews. I build the structure, write the manuscript, and deliver a finished book in the client’s voice. The client’s time commitment is primarily in the interview and review phases.
In coaching, the client writes the book. I provide guidance, feedback, instruction, and accountability. The client’s time commitment is significantly larger because they’re doing the writing. The tradeoff is that the client develops their own skills, produces work in their own authentic voice without translation, and gains capabilities they can apply to future projects.
Neither approach is better than the other. They serve different needs. Some people want a finished book with minimal time investment. Ghostwriting serves them. Some people want to write the book themselves and become better writers in the process. Coaching serves them. Some people start with coaching and realize they’d rather have the book ghostwritten. Some start with ghostwriting and decide they want to write the next one themselves with coaching support. Both paths lead to a published book.
What to Expect
Coaching engagements range from a single session to over a hundred hours depending on the project and the client’s needs. Some writers need one conversation to get unstuck. Some need sustained support across an entire manuscript from concept to completion.
Sessions are scheduled based on the client’s pace and availability. There’s no fixed program or predetermined number of sessions. We work together as long as the work requires it and stop when the client has what they need.
Between sessions, the client writes. Coaching only works if the client is doing the work between meetings. My book coaching exists for exactly this. I provide direction, assignments, and feedback. The client provides the effort, the voice, and the commitment to finish.
The goal of every coaching engagement is a finished manuscript the client is proud of, written in their own voice, structurally sound, and ready for whatever publishing path they choose. If you have a book you want to write and need expert guidance to make it happen, start with a conversation. You can also explore the AI-Enhanced Writer’s Library for self-directed craft development between sessions.
