Do book coaches need a certification?

Anyone can call themselves a book coach. Some coaches have completed training or certification programs, and some come from editing, publishing or teaching. A certificate tells you they studied coaching; it does not tell you they are right for your book. Their past clients' books and your sample feedback tell you more.

How many coaches should I talk to?

Two or three is usually enough to see the differences. Use the same questions with each, and compare their answers side by side afterward rather than going on how the call felt.

Should my coach have written a book?

It helps, because they know the long middle from the inside. But it matters less than whether they have helped other people finish books like yours. Some excellent coaches are former editors who have shaped hundreds of books without writing their own.

Is a free first call normal?

Yes, a short free consultation is common, and it is how you should judge fit. Some coaches also offer a paid trial session or a small first project, such as an outline review, which is a good low-risk way to test working together.

How to choose a book coach: 24 questions, red flags, references

Know what you need first

Before you look at a single coach's website, write down three things. They make every conversation sharper and every comparison fairer.

The main thing that is stuck. The idea and structure, your momentum, the quality of your writing, or knowing what to do after the draft. These need different kinds of coach.
Your real weekly hours. Coaching cannot make time; it can only use it well.
Your budget, and how you want to pay it. Per session, monthly, or one package. See what book coaching costs.

If you are not sure a coach is even the right kind of help, take the coach, editor or ghostwriter tool first. It is better to find out now that you need an editor than three months into coaching.

What to look for

Relevant experience, not just general experience

A coach who has helped novelists for twenty years may be wrong for a business book, and the reverse. Look for coaches who have worked on books with your kind of reader and your kind of structure: a practical how-to, a leadership book, a memoir, an argument-driven idea book. Ask them to name some.

Finished books

Plenty of coaching relationships produce good conversations and no book. Ask how many clients have finished a draft with them, and which books you can look up. Be realistic: not every client finishes, for reasons that have nothing to do with the coach. What you want is a coach who answers that question openly.

Feedback you can use

The best single test is to see how they respond to your own pages. Send a few pages or your outline and ask for feedback, paid if necessary. Good feedback names specific problems and suggests a way forward. Weak feedback is either all praise or a list of style preferences.

A process they can explain

You should come away from a first call knowing what the first month would look like: how often you meet, what you send before each call, how long they take to read it, and what the first milestone is. If they cannot describe it, they probably make it up as they go.

Fit

You will tell this person about your failures to write, sometimes weekly. You need to trust them and be able to disagree with them. Notice whether they listened on the first call or mostly talked.

24 questions to ask on a first call

You will not get through all of these on one short call. Pick the ones that matter most for your book and send the rest by email.

About their experience

What kinds of books do you usually coach, and what kinds do you turn down?
Which books like mine have you worked on? Can I look them up?
Roughly how many of the clients you have coached through a full draft finished it?
What is your background: editing, publishing, writing, teaching?
What kind of client do you work best with, and what kind struggles with you?

About how they work

What does the first month look like, step by step?
How often do we meet, for how long, and by phone or video?
How many pages a week or month will you read, and how long do you take to return feedback?
What does your feedback look like? Comments in the document, a written summary, only on calls?
Can I contact you between sessions, and how quickly do you usually reply?
What will you ask of me each week?
What do you do when a client misses deadlines several weeks in a row?
Will you ever write or rewrite passages for me? If so, how is that handled and priced?

About my book

From what I have told you, what do you think the biggest risk to this book is?
What would you want to settle first?
Is coaching the right help for me, or would you suggest an editor or something else?
What do you expect I will have at the end: a plan, part of a draft, a full draft?
How will we know, a month in, whether this is working?

About money, terms and what comes after

How do you price: per session, monthly, package or project? What is included and what is extra?
What is the minimum commitment, and how do I end the engagement if it is not working?
What is your policy on rescheduling, pausing and refunds?
Do you claim any rights to my outline, pages or ideas?
Do you sell, or receive commissions on, editing or publishing services? Will you tell me if you do?
Can I speak with two or three past clients at a similar stage to me?

Question 16 is the most revealing. A coach who sometimes tells people they need something else is a coach you can believe when they say you need them.

Red flags

Any one of these is a reason to slow down. Two or more is a reason to walk away.

Guarantees. A publishing deal, an agent, a bestseller list, a number of copies sold. Nobody controls these.
Pressure to decide now. Discounts that expire at the end of the call, "only two spots left."
No specifics on process. They cannot tell you what week one or month one looks like.
No references, or only testimonials. Website quotes are not references. You want to talk to a real past client.
Feedback that is all praise. If their notes on your sample pages contain nothing you need to change, they will not be much help later either.
Scope that is not written down. "We will figure it out as we go" is fine for the book, not for the agreement.
Rights grabs. Any claim on your material, or a requirement to publish through them.
Undisclosed upsells. Steering you to a publishing or editing package early, without saying they profit from it.
They talk more than they listen. On a first call about your book, you should do most of the talking.
Speed promises. "A finished book in a few weeks" says more about their sales process than about your book.

How to check references

Ask the coach for two or three past clients, ideally ones who started at a similar stage to you, and at least one whose book did not go perfectly. Then actually call them. Fifteen minutes is enough. Ask:

Where was your book when you started, and where was it when you finished coaching?
What did the coach do that you could not have done yourself?
What did you wish they had done differently?
How did they handle weeks when you did not deliver?
Was the feedback specific? Can you give an example?
Did the cost match what you expected? Any surprises?
Would you hire them again for your next book?

Also do your own checking. Look up the books the coach has named. Read the acknowledgments: authors often thank their coach. If a coach says they worked on a book and the author has never heard of them, that tells you something.

Contracts and scope

Coaching agreements are often short and informal. Yours should still put these in writing:

Deliverables. What you will have at the end (for example a table of contents and a chapter outline, or feedback on a set number of chapters).
Sessions. How many, how long, how often, over what period.
Reading. How many pages per week or month the coach will read, and the turnaround for feedback.
Contact between sessions. Email, messages, response times.
Price and payment schedule. Total cost, what each payment covers, and what is extra.
Rescheduling and missed sessions. Notice required and what happens to a missed session.
Pausing and ending. Whether you can pause for a busy season, and how either side can end the agreement and what is refunded.
Ownership. A plain statement that all your material is yours and the coach claims no rights to it.
Confidentiality. Especially for memoir, or business books that touch on clients and colleagues.
Other services. Whether the coach will recommend editors or publishers they are paid by, and a commitment to tell you when they are.

If you are hiring a coach for a short outlining project, the contract can be one page. If you are committing to many months, it is reasonable to ask for a trial month or a break clause after the first milestone.

Where Scribe fits

Scribe Media, which makes this site, offers coaching of its own, described with prices on the cost page. An independent coach is a very good choice for many people, often at a lower price and with more choice of specialist. If you talk to Scribe, use the same 24 questions you would use with anyone else, and expect straight answers.

This page is general guidance from Scribe Media and contains no statistics. Published by Scribe Media.

How to choose a book coach