Book coaching and mentoring can be confusing to differentiate if you’ve never tried them before. Both are (usually) one-on-one services that focus specifically on you and your work, but the focus is subtly – yet importantly – different.
Mentoring is about the journey, coaching is about the destination.
Mentoring is the more holistic of the two. It’s about learning and building skills and confidence; figuring out your writing process. In order to make the process productive, we might still set some goals and focus on a specific project or manuscript, but mentoring is more about craft development and the internal process and understanding what writing and being an author means and looks like for you.
Coaching, on the other hand, is designed to help you meet a specific goal. You might want to complete a novel or get a manuscript ready for submissions; write a short story or master a particular writing skill; prepare for a competition or meet a publication deadline…it could be anything! While we would still work on craft and process, there’s a solid goal we’re aiming to hit.
If mentoring is about being a writer, coaching is about writing the book.
It’s important to note that neither mentoring nor coaching is editing!
Although both your mentor and your coach will give you regular feedback on your writing, and this may include teaching you editing techniques using your manuscript, or pointing out development opportunities in the story, neither approach will necessarily involve editing the whole manuscript and it doesn’t take the place of an edit.
If you think mentoring is the right fit for you, click here.
If coaching sounds more like what you need, find out more here.
Still not sure? Contact us and we’ll answer your questions!
