Creating a Book Coaching Offer on Reedsy

Working with an author as a writing coach can be a tricky proposition. The success of any collaboration depends as much on the writer as it does on the writing coach. While you can’t guarantee that you’ll help your client write an award-winning bestseller, you can set specific achievable goals that will give them the best shot at being satisfied with your services. And these expectations all start with your offer.

To help ensure clear communication with all prospective coaching clients, please download our offer template. We ask that all Reedsy coaches use this template as we trial our writing coaching service — this will help us ensure a consistent quality of service across all Reedsy professionals.

Download offer template!

Now, with your template in hand, let’s look at how best to create a writing coaching offer on the Reedsy Marketplace.

Respond to requests within 48 hours

The longer a writer waits for a response on Reedsy, the more their enthusiasm will wane. For this reason, you should respond to all requests within 48 hours, even if it’s a flat “no.”

With writing coaching requests, Reedsy will encourage writers to provide the information that will best help you set a ballpark offer. This will ideally include:

• Their history with writing and publishing
• Their goals and objectives with this book
• A short description of their book
• Their target audience or genre
• Where they are in the writing process (ideation, planning, drafting, revising)
• Any impending deadlines
• A writing sample (if available)

You can request any additional information by messaging the writer through Reedsy. But if you’re interested, you can send a provisional offer.

Note: all writing coaches on Reedsy must arrange a call with prospective clients before making any final offers. After the call, the initial offer can be revised and tailored to the project’s needs. More on this further below.

Be specific about what your client should expect

Your provisional offer should aim to be as specific as possible — painting a clear image of what your coaching will entail and what they can expect to have at the end.  

You must include the following details in your offer:

A suggested end goal

Based on what the client asks for in their request, simply suggest a suitable end goal for your writing coaching collaboration. If they want something outside your purview as a writing coach, feel free to suggest a more realistic goal.

A client might want you to work with them to write, edit and sell their book to a major publisher. Naturally, this is a lot to ask for. Instead, you might suggest an initial goal of “finishing a workable first draft” or even “create a detailed book proposal” (if they’re looking to publish nonfiction).

The writer may want to negotiate a different end goal, but for the sake of setting a baseline for your quote, use your best judgment.

A tentative schedule for the collaboration 

Again, the timings for the coaching arrangement might be determined by the writer’s request (for example, if they want to finish their book by Christmas). In the absence of any specific requirements, use your best judgment and suggest a timeline that will allow the average writer to achieve their goal. That might be anywhere from a few months for a short piece of work to over a year.

You can also suggest how regularly you wish to have your sessions, whether once a week, once a month, or whatever. 

These timings can be discussed on a call before you finalize your collaboration, but for now, just throw out a schedule that will let them achieve their end goal within a reasonable timeframe.

Expectations for each session

So, this is the exciting part — and the bit that will likely vary between coaches. Let the writer know how you will help them progress their project during and between your sessions. Details you’ll want to include are:

• How long will the sessions last? (One hour? More?)
• How will you conduct them? (e.g., Zoom, Google Meets, landline!)
• What will happen in a typical session?
• What will be expected of them between sessions? (They’ll need to write the damn thing!)
• How much direct feedback can they expect on their writing?

It bears repeating, but be as specific as you can to manage your client’s expectations.

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NOTE: Reedsy writing coaching does NOT include substantive editing 

Many editors offer coaching/editing packages to help writers develop their manuscripts through sustained collaboration. On Reedsy, however, writing coaching is its designated service and should not include editing. 

Of course, you are free to leave in-line comments on a client’s work or give a sample edit of a page to demonstrate how a scene might be simplified — but there should be no track-changes editing. Your offer should communicate that clients are not to expect an edited manuscript by the end of your collaboration. 

If your client is ready for a developmental or copy edit on a specific chapter (or the entire book!), we recommend setting up a separate collaboration.

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Additional support

As well as being a supportive/constructive/tyrannical teacher on Zoom, writers will want to know if they can reach out to you between sessions. Some coaches are happy to answer all their client's questions; others prefer to give them all their attention during the sessions. So let them know what your policy is. 

All written communication must take place on Reedsy’s platform, so you don’t have to worry about late-night WhatsApps. However, we do suggest you specify your standard response time in your offer (e.g., two working days) to — you guessed it — manage expectations.

Your quote

Having seen a sample of their writing, suggested a provisional timeline and established your collaboration's end goal, you can now set a quote. How much you charge is entirely up to you — though, seeing as Reedsy is careful with only selecting top professionals, you may wish to err on the higher side. Once you’ve given them a low quote, you’ll find it harder to negotiate a higher rate.

If you like, you can even share what your hourly rate is for your coaching services. And don’t forget to mention how much additional sessions will cost if they need to extend their contract — or get your help a few months after the collaboration has ended.

A termination clause

A successful coaching partnership will rely on many moving parts — and there will be occasions where a collaboration has to be ended early. To ensure that you’re compensated for your time and work (and that your client isn’t taken by surprise), be sure to include a short termination clause within your offer letter.

This is only a starting point

To ensure that all coaching collaborations have the best chance of success, Reedsy writing coaches must arrange a call with writers before finalizing their collaborations. This will allow you to suss them out as writers and clients — allowing you to see what they really need in a coach. On the back of this call, you can confirm your offer, amend it, or simply bow out of the race.

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If you have any questions about sending an offer to writing coaching clients, don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at Reedsy. And if you have any suggestions or feedback, we’d also love to hear from you.