3 Life-Changing Benefits of Hiring a Literary Coach

Though the word coach may prompt people to think immediately about sports, star athletes certainly are not the only people who benefit from professional coaching. Business leaders can hire executive coaches, suburban housewives can hire life coaches, and authors can hire literary coaches. 

As with every other type of coach, literary coaches offer distinct, industry-specific benefits.

While new authors may be wary, wondering if the investment will pay off, the sheer size and complexity of the current publishing market should be the first indication that you may want some guidance along the way.

Pollsters report more than 80 percent of Americans would like to be an author, and in 2011 statisticians counted 329,259 books published in the United States, and 2.2 million books published in the world. Google estimates 130 million books have been published in human history... it's become easier than ever to be "an author." And harder than ever to get attention to your work. ( HuffPost)

The good news is that even if you're new to the industry, the odds of your success increase greatly when you work with a literary coach.

Here's why.

3 Life-Changing Benefits of Hiring a Literary Coach

Expertise

While authors are already experts in many areas, including the topics of their books, they are often naive about how the publishing industry works. Most are convinced that simply writing a great book is all it takes to succeed in publishing, when in reality, there's much more to it than that. The upshot of this knowledge gap is that new authors spend a lot of time spinning their wheels during the submission phase, feeling increasingly frustrated and discouraged as door after door refuses to open.

With a literary coach to guide them, however, they're able to save time, dodge truckloads of angst, and avoid most of the rookie mistakes that tend to plague new authors. Depending on time-tested techniques learned through their own experiences, literary coaches provide expert guidance to smooth the path to publication.

Objectivity

It's nearly impossible for writers to be objective about their own work. Depending on the mood of the day, their book is either the best thing ever written or the worst collection of words ever to join forces in human history. The simple truth is that after years of investment and countless phases of writing and rewriting, even the best authors lose their objectivity (if indeed they ever had any).

One distinct benefit to working with a literary coach is having a fresh set of eyes on your manuscript. As experts who are also personally invested in seeing you succeed, coaches are uniquely suited to offer the sort of charitable critiques your manuscript needs to take it to the next level. 

Connections

As with most industries, publishing operates at the nexus of products and people. While there's no substitute for a great manuscript, literary coaches know that getting published is about more than just writing a great book. It's about knowing where to submit it and how to tailor your proposals to catch the eye of specific agents and editors. 

This is a key advantage to working with a literary coach. As industry insiders, they can offer you the advantage of key connections made over many years. In following their guidance in these matters, you can position yourself to succeed more quickly and effectively than if you go it alone.

I Can Help

To learn more about this and other matters related to publishing, you can consult my Write-A-Book Program or contact me at any time. I look forward to hearing from you, learning about your project, and working with you to make it the best it can be.