On one of the online writers’ communities I read, someone asked what exactly a writing coach was, because, to her, it sounded like a scam artist. Some others of you may be wondering the same thing. So with this thought, I wanted to bring you the difference between a writing coach and an editor.
A writing coach helps you improve your writing. This can be a general skill-development project, or related to a specific piece of writing you’re working on. For this example, let’s say you’ve decided you’d like to write and self-publish “How to Market Widgets for Fun and Profit”. You’ve never written a book before. If you “just” decide to hire an editor and you didn’t really know how to write a book, you might get a very high editing quote because so much of your book needs to be re-worked and “fixed”. If you hire a writing coach, you are paying as you go. So you may pay an hourly rate or a monthly rate for a set number of phone calls or an “unlimited phone and email support” monthly rate. You can bounce your ideas off your coach, plan out the book, get feedback from the chapters as you go, and improve your writing over the course of completing the book. If your book wasn’t fine-tune edited during the coaching process, then when you move to the editing stage, your editor is working with a book that is in good shape. It won’t take him or her as long to fix it, and your fees should be less.
If you’re already written your book, you need an editor. If you’re about to start or have already started your book, you may want to consider a writing coach. If you’re a repeat successful author, you probably just need an editor. They are different services that work to achieve the same goal–a well-written book. In a writing coaching relationship though, you learn “how” to write a book, which is a skill you’ll be able to use as often as you want!
The Hidden Helpers provide writing coaching services. Please contact us for more information.
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