how a book coach helped me.

In spring 2024, I participated in the online auction, KidLit4Ceasefire, which was created to help the kidlit and publishing community call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The funds went toward helping people in Gaza, Sudan, and Congo, with some of the funding going to the Little Miss Flint water national fundraiser. Julie Artz, a book coach, was auctioning a pitch package audit that included review of a query letter and the first 50 pages of a manuscript. I bid on the package and won, and it was the best thing I could've done for my manuscript.

First of all, Julie knows her stuff. She's read piles of queries and pitch packages during her role in PitchWars and can spot areas in a manuscript that need attention, just by reading a fraction of the work.

I'd been working on this manuscript since November 2022 when I challenged myself to finish a draft in one month (and did), and spent the next two years revising. I was kind of ready to send this baby out. But I also know that in the signature line of Julie's newsletter it says, "95% of writers think they're ready to query - but they’re not."

Spoiler alert: I was not in that 5% like I'd hoped.

Here's the interesting thing. In the early drafts of my story, I'd written it a certain way, and I liked it. Then I began to doubt myself. What if what if. That voice that whispers, what if this isn't the right way. What if it's wrong. Okay, fine. I'll listen to those doubt demons. I changed it, and then it didn't read right. I kept working at it, trying to figure out what the problem was, but there was something that wasn't clicking.

What did I say to Julie when I handed over my summary and 50 pages? Something isn't right, and I have no idea what it is.

Either that's music to a book coach's ears, or it's fingernails being dragged over a chalkboard. I didn't know, but I had to be honest.

Julie, undaunted (because she's Julie), came back with a solution, and it was something I never expected. After she sent over my work with comments and suggestions, we got on a call and she explained what was working, and what wasn't. And the thing that wasn't? Well, basically the first half of my manuscript. It was hard to hear at first, but I knew exactly what it was: the original way I'd written the story.

I spent several months getting that first half revised. And then, because the first half basically mirrors the second half, I had to tweak a lot from the middle of act 2 to the end.

But then after all that, I read it. And it fixed that "something" that wasn't right, the thing I'd hadn't been able to identify. I won't go into all the details, but it was along the lines of what the reader knows vs. what the characters know and engineering the interplay between those things to create tension and stakes.

Have you ever had the experience of working with a book coach or editor who helped you in a big way? I'd love to hear about it!