Interested in One-on-One support?

Check out the options below and then reach out for a 20-minute phone conference at no cost to discuss your project and your process with me

Book Coaching

Book coaching is for writers aiming to complete the first draft of a manuscript or a significant revision. I provide you with a reader who is invested in your vision, craft tools, support for your creative process, and deadlines. If you’re at the point where it would be helpful, I can also offer prose editing skill building assignments and/or an explanation of publishing options.
You send me each new chapter or section and then we meet via Zoom or phone to:

  • Discuss your characters, story, structure and other elements.
  • I answer questions that are coming up for you.
  • When useful, I can offer tools including freewriting prompts, outlining assignments, and readings from craft books.
  • I do minimal comments in your document to draw your attention to places I feel you can expand or deepen your story, or introduce a craft element.
  • We set a date for your next deadline!

Choose your speed:

6-Deadline Package:
6500 words per deadline with 45 min conferences = $1775

12- Deadline Packages:
6500 words/45 min conferences: $3350

Not the right format for you? Some folks want to meet after sending fewer (or more) words, especially at the beginning of a project or when a project has bogged down. Or they simply want the option to send a different type or volume of material, often during a rewrite. Or some writers prefer to meet for shorter or longer. For these writers, I use the retainer method of accounting, billing for my hours at 170/hr. I keep track of time spend on your project (reading, responding to your emails, conferencing) and send you a spreadsheet itemized in six-minute increments when I send you the next invoice.

Developmental Editing

I help writers who have completed a draft of a memoir or a novel (or developed it as far as they can on their own) take their books to the next level.
How it works: you send me your manuscript and I respond with a 3-6 page letter of suggestions around structure, character, point of view, etc., plus targeted advice for growing your prose-editing skills. This means that rather than line-editing the entire manuscript, I’ll edit pages at different points in order to teach the writer how to self-edit. Some topics I tend to focus on: plot shifts that energize a murky middle, making interior thought feel natural, changes that create more vivid and dramatic scenes and beginning and ending the story for maximum impact.
We’ll then have a 1-hour conference via Zoom or phone in order to get you set up with a clear plan for revision, with an optional “bonus conference” within 1-3 weeks included in the package to answer any questions that come up when you begin writing again.
Developmental editing is 4 cents per word.

A Five Things Fast Read

With thanks to June G. for inventing it, a Five Things Fast Read is a targeted reading of your manuscript to evaluate one aspect of it, or answer one or a few questions. I read your novel and suggest up to five things you can do to improve it, or places to go in and make changes to the plot or another aspect of the book. It's a finite, fast read without in-line comments (except to illustrate the five things). Questions that can be answered include: should I send my manuscript to agents now or do another revision? How can I improve my mystery or romance subplot? Should I start at the beginning with another point of view or with another structure? Does my ending work?
A novel or memoir read is $1550 for up to 75,000 words (with $225 for each additional 7500 words) and includes a 2-3 page response memo, a 1-hour conference via phone or Zoom, and a short "bonus call" 1-3 weeks later for any stray questions.