Story coaching is an intrinsically collaborative process between the editor and the author. The goal is to revise the complete manuscript chapter by chapter and prepare your novel for publishing.

First stage: story

·      The first step to this stage is to set up a 90-minute phone call between the author and the editor to discuss the author’s publishing goals, the project or projects which will be the focus of the collaboration. After this phone call, the editor will begin the initial read through of the manuscript.

·      Upon reading through the manuscript, the editor will develop a plan for revisions by drafting an outline of the story as written as well as an outline of suggested changes. A call will be scheduled to review and discuss these suggestions.

·      Based on the discussion of suggested story revisions, the author will begin making story-level changes in a shared word document. Based on the discussion of goals and publishing schedule, the editor will review changes made by the author and give feedback.

Second stage: writing

·      This stage will resemble a collaborative line edit. To begin, the editor will review the manuscript and take note of common errors. After this list has been compiled, the author will review and begin making sentence-level changes to the document.

·      The editor will review changes made by the author and give feedback.

·      At the completion of these collaborative changes, the author will have an opportunity to make revisions before the editor (or another member of the editing team) completes a copy edit.