IS THE INCUBATOR IN THE ROOM WITH US?
on being leery of the coaching industry in publishing
I’m skeptical of writing coaches. I said it. I feel so free!
I know there are good writing coaches out there (and coaches in general), but my skepticism of incubators, coaching, consulting, the onslaught of language around all of these things, is greater than my belief in the process for 85% of the industry.
Walking with a friend (shouts to Maggie Cooper!) she said something like, “I think it’s a good all-encompassing word for something that has a lot of meanings,” and I agree, but meanings and tangible “success” are often lost or muddied within the label. There are so many coaches for so many things, wonderful for us—a buffet of becoming better, but I worry in this industry that the “I wrote a book” to “I can coach someone to write a book and through the publishing process” pipeline—as if it’s all one size fits all, or as if writing one book with one publisher and one experience is expert-defining—is what’s mostly happening.
I sold eight books before I quit agenting and shelved several too, plus edited many through proposal writing and/or full manuscript overhauls with intentions to sell, and I was in no place to call myself an editor. I, in fact, don’t love editing at all—nor would I want to charge to edit people’s manuscripts. Can I edit a proposal until it’s ready for submission? Probably. Can I help authors write a spectacular query letter? Yes, I read so very many. Do I edit essays for clients all the time, or make suggestions on pitches, or spend a lot of time at work editing (across all phases)? Yes. But I am not an editor, I recommend other people for that—people who have made that their area. And the truth is, an editor has quite a hand in a manuscript—a different editor is going to sometimes produce (particularly at the developmental phase) a very different manuscript than another.
I am not talking here about coaches that are offering tangible work, whether it’s brainstorming, editing, workshops, like coaching someone through book proposal ideation and creation, which is a skill that can be learned and taught (because it’s kind of formulaic), but I am talking about coaching in the sense that there’s an infiltration in publishing particularly of people who are offering accountability which they have labeled collaboration. People who are overseeing all steps of the publishing process, perhaps, without working in any of them beyond “writer” or one stage in a book. And maybe coaching IS project management and that’s the part I’m missing—you’re paying for someone to guide you through several different processes, but I guess I worry that I’m lost on how someone gets to the point where they’re ready to be that guide.
Part of this is an industry-wide problem, in that publishing is an entity that exists without real benchmarks (authors don’t ever have access to real, complete sales data, reporting can be iffy, returns are unpredictable, advances are based on hypotheticals—what I’m saying is there’s a lot of betting going on that isn’t true for other industries) and so “good” or “knowledgeable” or “expert” is almost solely based on time-spent. While I do respect put-in-time as a level of expertise, looking at only that as a factor of success can be so limiting to new ideas, fresh takes—think: the intern who created Spotify-wrapped, which is maybe now being managed by AI.
An expert in one facet of publishing—conglomerate, for example, does not make you knowledgable about how small presses work, poetry contests work, Submittable works, how Book of the Month works etc, etc. Do you know how often a publicist in our Slack will say, “anyone worked with Tertulia?” Because truly, what are those people doing?
You don’t have to know all of that, but I wonder how much carving out the big label of “coach” is doing, where I see a lot of folks offering very similar things often targeted towards writers of a certain genre, but working mostly with retirees who want to write books now that they have the time to write.
If I’m climbing Everest, I have no idea what I’m doing and I need a guide whose resourceful, quick under pressure, objective, logistically understands the many angles and predicaments that could befall us, has a good idea of gear-needed (like I know exactly when during a campaign an author will start to feel like—is ANYONE going to cover my book?), has an understanding of each stage of the project enough to give reliable advice. Now on Everest, I could very well die, and that’s not the outcome in publishing (hopefully!)—but on a project you worked years on, where should we take our bets?
My fear of the rampant expansion of the “coaching” industry is that I’ve seen authors and coaches (on this very platform) get so much wrong about publicity because they’re speaking from a singular experience, or a gossip-channel of other authors (debut writers slack while so good for community and encouragement, sometimes not great for real advice), or from a place of experience that is five years old, ten years old, back in 2016 (that’s eight years ago!).
I’ve also seen folks (again, Substack) who are able to market themselves really well, but who aren’t actually doing much work in their area of expertise, or the work they did do in the past wasn’t that great—but they have this robust audience following because of their ability to “brand.” Again, does branding for me, work for thee? Can the formula be regurgitated across the board, or do we need to start having conversations about how particular each different book is, and how particular the needs of each author, each project? That the marketing plan for each author cannot just be the title and name changed and handed to the next. I’m of the mind that the nooks and crannies specific to a writer and a book is where the best publicity lives. Sure, get your cover in People Magazine, and then let’s reach your people.
It simply scares me a little when we’re in an industry that already lacks so much transparency. Coaching feels like a place to capitalize on vulnerable clientele that want so badly to get somewhere that is purposefully locked away from understanding. I think we all know great coaches, or people who have revealed throughout time that they have the propensity to really move the needle on someone’s career, but I wonder how authors navigate the amphibious (looking for a word that’s like amalgam and ambiguous and transforming and veiled—landed here…ponded here?) coaching environment—who is worth it?
There’s also the interesting little tidbit I see so often ignored in publicity, and I’m going to say it with my full chest—it’s harder to publicize our indie books than it is the book of that fabulous podcast host who wrote a new nonfiction book that left editors very bitter for months after auction, that celebrity, that big-idea driven nonfiction tome. And it’s curious to look at the projects coaches are taking on with that in mind.
They’re not dumb, they know who is going to be successful, which will then make them look good. Us too, we only take on books we love, yes, and books we think we can break out. Two VERY different things. For instance, there’s a novel that recently got a lot of good publicity and the coach behind it (and the media) referenced the author’s great Tiktok platform. They failed to mention that the author is an agent. It was easy for me to build a following on Twitter five years ago because my bio said “literary agent.” Writers are in a desperate situation, and anyone who has the information they need will likely get a follow. The book could be great, and the author did put in the work on a new platform, but they also had an advantage to building an audience going in. That coach is one of the good ones, partly due to choosing wins from the start.
For the record, I have the same feelings about determining whether publicists are worth it—how do you really know who is doing the work?
I guess what I’m saying is that a good coach AND a good publicist needs a bit of both. They can’t be stuck in their ways old guard, and they also can’t be fresh off one debut book charging hundreds of dollars for a consultation. We can’t continue to confuse access with merit—access is valuable, and gives you behind the curtain details to how things work, but it doesn’t make you a teacher. (Don’t get me started on the disrespect towards the teaching profession—just because you went to high school in 2002 does not make you an expert on education, especially today).
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So, who gets to say what publishing is if it’s all mostly a big bet? How do I get to write this newsletter about coaches thinking I’m in the position to do so? If it’s all mostly a handful of people saying “this is the book of the season” those are the people we’re going to continue to put stock (literally) in again and again? This is why I love a book that surprises. Like everything, I think it’s that magic combination of word of mouth and proven track record across the board. Whose good? Ask.
When I become a coach in five years, I’ll have this newsletter to haunt me. JK, That’s not in my little life plan. What is in my life plan that I worry might impact my career is getting some hand tattoos. Zoe and I talk about it all the time, she just sent me photos of a grandma’s hand and said, “grandmas with hand tattoos is so metal.” I’ll probably do it, betting on myself to keep working in a career I’m mostly making up as I go—trust me yet?
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This is such a good question. I am a writer who has invested heavily in writing coaches, but I guess I think of writing coaches as helping with the *writing* distinct from the *publishing.* I worked for years with writing coaches whose writing I LOVED, so their advice was helpful to me because the goal was to improve my writing. When they gave me advice about agents and selling a book, I took it with a grain of salt. That wasn't the expertise I was looking for from them. When I wanted to sell my book, I did consults with coaches who knew more about getting book deals. Once my book sold, I started working with people who knew more about book publishing: I hired an outside PR firm, and I found a new coach - Courtney Maum - to help with book publishing because that IS her expertise (and she has been INVALUABLE). Improving your writing, selling a book and having a successful book launch are three very distinct projects, so it makes sense to me that you'd hire three different people for that. The question is, are those coaches willing to say, "I'm not the person for this phase you're in" Everyone I've hired has been clear with me where their expertise begins and ends, and that's the key.
I’ve always been skeptical of anything with the word coach after it, unless the word preceding it was a sport. Life Coach. Business Coach. Spiritual Coach. Book Coach.
So when I found out about book coaching I was super skeptical, but I was stuck on a manuscript and didn’t want to pay for a program where I had to read other people’s work. I wanted 1:1 attention. I used Author Accelerator’s matching service and was surprised when I was matched with someone who specialized in academic writing.
I was writing a literary manuscript. It didn’t make any sense. We had an intro call and it was clear right away she was not the right fit.
Then I heard a coach on The Shit No One Tells You About Writing and read reviews she had written about different literary novels where she broke down what was happening in each one and really split it all apart like a diagram.
I ended up working with her for a series of time to get unstuck and edit my draft. Because as you said, I needed accountability.
The thing is, the coach I worked with is an incredible writer and she is my ideal audience. She loves books that would be considered comps to what I was writing so she knew how I wanted to project to go and pushed me to finish it. Perhaps it’s uncommon but we became really good friends and cheer each other on now and share resources.
So I agree, I’m weary that all these coaches can actually offer what they say they can, but as for the one I worked with, she’s the real deal and I’d recommend her highly.