Who's a Good Fit for Hybrid Publishing? Part 2 (Coaching)

So you’ve written a book. Fabulous! You now have four choices. You can:

1.) shop your manuscript around to agents who might be able to sell it to a traditional publisher;

2.) take it to Staples and slap a spiral spine on it to send to friends and relatives;

3.) self-publish, potentially driving yourself crazy learning how to format and then upload your book files onto Amazon so you can start selling it (or not selling it) online; or

4.) work with a hybrid publisher to publish a fully edited, proofread, and professionally designed version of your book that will be immediately available in print and/or e-book, worldwide, through the magic of print on demand technology.

Okay, we might be a little biased! We are a hybrid publisher after all. But we’re also on a mission to help every person, regardless of background, skill level, or writing experience, publish the best possible version of their book.

Our editors believe in the mission and will do whatever it takes to help you bring out a book that you and we can be very proud of. We’ll make sure it looks and reads well enough to go out under our name. And, who knows…it might even scoop up an indie book award.

Hybrid publishing can be an excellent option for a wide variety of reasons, all having to do with your needs and goals as an author or the scope and potential audience for your book.

So what types of authors and projects are best-suited to the hybrid model, and why?

This series explores ten different scenarios where hybrid publishing makes good sense. Part 1 looked at time, and explained how hybrid presses help authors publish books quickly. In Part 2, we explore some ways new authors, or those coming to writing from other fields, can benefit from working with a hybrid.

Not every new writer should jump straight into hybrid publishing. If you’re not in a hurry and you think you have a chance of being picked up by a traditional publisher, we’ll advise you to try that first.

But if you don’t want to wait years to fulfill your goal of publishing a book, or if you're coming to writing from another career and just want to speed up the learning process, working with a hybrid can be transformative. The same goes for non-writers who have a story to tell and need help figuring out how to structure it or make the language sing.

Reputable hybrid publishers make editing a top priority and usually offer prospective authors a variety of ways to improve their manuscript. These can include manuscript evaluations, coaching, heavy edits with a bit of writing thrown in, or a custom blend of coaching and editing. Any of these approaches can help improve an inexperienced writer’s work in a short time, taking the novice author to an intermediate or even advanced level.

Coaching can be an excellent remedy for perfectionism or procrastination. With the built-in accountability that comes from working with a coach and receiving regular feedback, many authors find that they learn more, finish sooner, and achieve more polished results than if they try to go it alone.

Most coaching contracts last anywhere from about three months to a year. The cost of working with a writing coach tends to run about $50 to $60 per hour, with wide variations depending on the provider.

To kick things off, you'll meet with an editor to discuss your book and develop a plan for completing it and/or polishing it for publication. You can stay on track by consulting your coach every time you finish a section of your manuscript, or economize by arranging to meet only after you’ve completed a draft.

Your coach will help you figure out when things are working or when you might need to change course, and work with you on a plan for getting your book out into the world.

Many hybrids offer developmental editing and coaching options that allow authors to come in with a partially completed manuscript. The author then works closely with an editor to sort through the strengths and weaknesses of the work in progress. A good coach who has worked as a developmental editor can help the writer complete an unfinished manuscript or reorganize one that needs a new structure.

Once the manuscript is as good as it can be, the author then has the option of publishing with the hybrid, self-publishing, or trying to find an agent and a traditional publisher.

To get a sense of how the coaching and editing process can work in tandem, watch this interview with one of our recent clients, Sunita Alves.

Sunita came to us with a manuscript for a memoir that deals with issues of mental health and mindfulness in Big Tech. She began by studying writing at the Humber School for Writers in Toronto, then brought her partial manuscript to us for further coaching and a stylistic edit in 2021. She has been working on the revisions for about six months now, and her book is about to enter the copy editing stage. In this video, she talks about what it was like to work with various coaches, teachers, beta readers and editors. She also discusses strategies for bringing mindfulness —a key concern in her book — into the writing and editing process.

Want to find out more about working with an Iguana Books writing coach? Look around on our website or reach out to us at info@iguanabooks.ca for a free consult to discuss your needs.

—Lee Parpart