Book Coaching
You want to write your own book. I coach you through the structure, strategy, and execution so you finish a manuscript that works, not one that stalls at chapter four.
Book coaching with The Writing King helps you write your own book with expert guidance, sold in ten-hour blocks at $200 to $300 per hour. Richard Lowe, a ghostwriter with 54+ books and 113+ authored, provides the structure, feedback, and accountability that get a manuscript finished instead of stalled.
Who is book coaching for?
You have the expertise and the motivation to write your own book. What you need is someone who has been through the process enough times to steer you around the problems you cannot see yet. Structure that falls apart in the middle. Chapters that repeat each other. An opening that buries the best material. A manuscript that drifts from the audience it is supposed to serve.
I have ghostwritten 54+ books and published 113+ under my own name. I have written dozens of novels, most of them drafted in concentrated sessions of 2,000 to 12,000 words per day. I know where manuscripts break because I have fixed those breaks in my own work and in client projects across every genre. That experience is what you get in coaching.
Pricing
$200, $300/hour
Sold in 10-hour blocks
Zoom sessions, flexible scheduling
Lower rate on subsequent blocks
Engagements start at one 10-hour block ($2,000, $3,000 depending on rate) and extend across multiple blocks as needed. Lower per-hour rate applies to subsequent blocks. We start with your book, your goals, and where you are right now.
What does book coaching cover?
Every coaching engagement is different because every book is different. But the problems writers run into are predictable. Here is what we typically work on:
Concept and Audience
Before you write a word, we define who the book is for and what it needs to accomplish. A book that tries to reach everyone reaches no one. We get specific about your audience, your positioning, and how the book serves your larger goals.
Structure and Outline
Most manuscripts that stall have a structure problem, not a motivation problem. We build an outline that gives you a clear path from chapter one to the end, with your strongest material placed where it has the most impact.
Drafting and Feedback
You write. I review chapters as you produce them and give you specific, actionable feedback on what is working, what is not, and how to fix it. No vague encouragement. Concrete direction on structure, pacing, voice, and clarity.
Revision Strategy
First drafts are supposed to be rough. I help you see the difference between problems that need rewriting and problems that need cutting. Revision is where a manuscript becomes a book, and knowing what to do with a messy first draft is half the skill.
Publishing Path
When the manuscript is ready, we discuss your options: traditional publishing, self-publishing, hybrid models. Each has trade-offs. I help you evaluate which path serves your goals and avoid the mistakes that cost authors time and money.
What’s the difference between coaching and ghostwriting?
In coaching, you write the book. I guide the process, solve structural problems, give feedback on drafts, and keep the project moving. Your voice, your effort, your manuscript.
In ghostwriting, I write the book based on interviews with you. You provide the thinking. I provide the writing. The manuscript is yours, but the drafting is mine.
Some clients start with coaching and realize they want ghostwriting. Some start with ghostwriting and realize they want to do more of the writing themselves. Either direction works. The first conversation helps us figure out which approach fits your situation. Learn about ghostwriting services →
Client Testimonials for Richard Lowe
Your Coach
Richard Lowe has ghostwritten 54+ books for executives, entrepreneurs, and public figures and authored 113+ under his own name, including dozens of novels and a 40+ handbook reference library on writing craft covering character development, dialogue, world building, point of view, pacing, and revision. His clients’ books have helped raise over $30 million in venture capital and generated a TEDx invitation and keynote speaking fees of $5,000 to $20,000. His own book, How to Manage a Consulting Project, was adopted at Purdue University’s Krannert School of Management by Professor Richard Makadok.
He spent 20 years as Director of Computer Operations at Trader Joe’s, managing technology for one of the largest privately held national grocery chains. That background in systematic problem-solving shapes how he coaches: structured, specific, and focused on getting the work done instead of talking about getting the work done.
More information:
Full Professional Background · Testimonials · Code of Ethics · Fiction Coaching at Master of Worlds
Case Studies
Real client projects, the goals, the work we did together, and the results that followed. Each one documented in detail.
Straight Answers to Real Hesitations
Coaching prospects bring a particular set of doubts. Straight answers:
“I’ve started my book three times and never finished.”
False starts are the debris of motivated people hitting structural obstacles, not discipline failures. Books stall from outlines that could not carry the material, perfectionism, or hours lost to the day job, and every cause is process-solvable. Read the full answer: I’ve Started My Book Three Times »
“Shouldn’t I be able to do this without a coach?”
The writers you admire mostly did not. Editors, writing groups, MFA workshops, and yes, coaches have always been the invisible scaffolding of finished books. Structure and accountability are not remedial; they are how books get done. Read more: Coaching vs Ghostwriting vs DIY »
“Is my story actually worth a book?”
The doubt measures against the wrong scale. The real criteria: experience specific enough that a stranger could not research it, a findable reader whose situation the book changes, and enough transformation to sustain an arc. Fame is not on the list. Read the full answer: Is My Story Actually Worth a Book? »
“That’s a lot of money for a book.”
It is, and I will not pretend otherwise. Professional ghostwriting runs $15,000 to $60,000 here, with budget options starting at $7,597. The honest frame: the 2024 Business Book ROI study found most business books return the investment through clients, speaking, and authority pricing, and my clients have used books to raise capital and land TEDx stages. If the book is a business asset, price it like one. And if you want certainty first, the Book Feasibility Intensive is $5,000 for the strategy, the plan, and a sample chapter, credited toward the engagement within sixty days. Read more: What Ghostwriting Costs and Why »
“What if I’d be better off just hiring a ghostwriter?”
Sometimes you would, and I will tell you so on the first call, because I offer both and have no incentive to steer you wrong. The dividing question: is the point that you wrote it, or that it exists? Coaching serves the first, ghostwriting the second. Read more: which path fits »
“How do I know you’re not one of the scams?”
You should not take my word for it; verify what cannot be faked. I have 113-plus books under my own name you can read tonight, a hundred-plus podcast appearances you can listen to, named case studies including a book adopted at Purdue, and reviews attached to a checkable identity. The mills cannot produce any of that. Read the full answer: How to Vet a Ghostwriter »
Go Deeper on Any of These
Ghostwriting vs Book Coaching vs DIY
Three paths lead to a finished book and they serve different goals: doing it yourself preserves full authorship at the highest failure rate, coaching keeps your hands on the keyboard with professional structure behind it, and ghostwriting delivers the asset with your time measured in interview hours. The full article compares cost, timeline, failure modes, and the single question that picks the right path: is the point that you wrote it, or that it exists? Read the full answer »
I’ve Started My Book Three Times
Three attempts feels like a verdict about you. It is not, and the evidence says the opposite: abandoned manuscripts are the debris of motivated people hitting structural obstacles, almost never discipline failures. The full article names the four mechanical reasons books stall, why attempt four run the same way would land in the same drawer, and the two professional routes from stalled to finished, along with what your existing drafts are actually worth to the process. Read the full answer »
What a Professional Book Coach Does
Coaching is not remedial help; it is the structure and accountability that finished books have always required. The full article covers what a professional coach actually does: the outline architecture that keeps a manuscript from collapsing at chapter three, the working cadence, and the on-call craft judgment for the moments where drafts usually die. Read the full answer »
How a Book Coach Saves You Money
Coaching looks like the budget option and often is, but the article explains the real economics: where coaching saves money against ghostwriting, where false starts and stalled drafts quietly cost more than professional help would have, and how to price the decision honestly. Read the full answer »
Is My Story Worth a Book?
Underneath the price and time objections sits the quiet one almost nobody voices: who am I to take up two hundred pages? The full article gives the honest evaluation criteria, none of which involve fame, explains why the people who ask this question overwhelmingly have book-worthy stories while the ones who never ask often do not, and covers the rare cases where the honest answer really is not yet, and what that diagnosis means. Read the full answer »
The Coach’s Book as Credential
For a coach, the book is the credential that scales: it demonstrates the methodology instead of describing it, and it works on prospects before the first call. The full article covers why coaching practices with books outgrow those without, and what the book must contain to convert readers into clients. Read the full answer »
Frequently Asked Questions
Book Coaching Library
For writers who want to write it themselves, with structure that finishes:
Start With a Conversation
Tell me about your book, where you are in the process, and what you need. We will figure out whether coaching is the right fit and what it looks like for your project.