Episode Twenty: Why I’m Shifting From Editing to Coaching…
I did something big this week: I closed to sample edit requests for the first time since I started my business.
That decision was partially logistical, but only partially. It also represents a philosophical shift in my business. I’m transitioning away from an editing-focused model to a book coaching focused model.
Whether you’ve ever intended to work with me or not, I hope this episode helps you think through the options open to you as a writer so you can make an informed decision about what kind of help is right for you, no matter where you are in your writing journey.
Here are the resources and tools mentioned in this episode:
Want to be the first to know when I open to sample edits on June 9th AND get a head start on the first phase of the revision process? Grab my FREE Revision Kickstart Guide right here: https://olivia-helps-writers.kit.com/revision-kickstart-guide
Have a response to this episode? Hit me up on Instagram @oliviahelpswriters https://instagram.com/oliviahelpswriters
Learn more about working with a book coach here: https://www.authoraccelerator.com/
You can listen in your favorite podcast player here.
Thanks for listening, keep writing, and keep getting better one word at a time!
Transcript
Olivia Bedford (00:00)
For the first time since I started my editing business in 2022, I am closed to sample edit requests. Now, that doesn't mean I'm closing my business. It doesn't mean that I'm going anywhere, but it does mean that I am temporarily closed to new editing clients. And that is a major decision for me. I did not come to it lightly. I did not make this decision easily. And today I want to talk about why I closed, what that means, and why it actually represents a bigger shift in my work with writers and
Whether you ever want to work with me or not, I think this episode is going to be helpful to reframe what kind of feedback is best for writers at every stage in the journey. Because this decision isn't just about me and my business. It's actually about how writers learn and how they grow and how best to facilitate that when you are choosing who to work with as a writer.
Welcome to episode 20 of the better writer podcast. Today I'm talking about why I decided to close to new sample edit requests and what that means for you as a writer going forward. All right.
This decision was layered, but before I jump into why I decided to make this change, I just want to go over a couple of logistical questions that may have popped into your head, especially if you were thinking about working with me in the future. First off, I still have other services available. Outline critiques and revision strategy sessions can still be purchased through ThriveCart, and I am still planning to run the next cohort of reader-ready revisions, my course slash group coaching program for writers in June. Enrollment for that will start in late April or early May, so keep an eye out for that announcement coming soon. So, basically, the only thing that you cannot do right now if you want to work with me is book a manuscript evaluation or developmental edit as a new client. If you have already worked with me in any capacity,
You do not need to worry about the sample edit form because you can just email me, let me know when you want to get started, and I will get to it on the calendar. If you are already booked in for an edit, this does not affect you at all. You are still on my calendar. Nothing changes unless, of course, you need to reschedule. And then again, you can just email me if you were thinking about hiring me as an editor, you have been waiting to send in your sample edit request. Don't worry, I am going to reopen two sample edits. Right now, my plan is to reopen on June 9th for newsletter subscribers and then July 7th for everyone else. So if you are in that camp if you have been waiting to work with me and you want to know when those spots are available so you can fill out the form right away, join my newsletter. Make sure you are in that June 9th group, just in case things fill up. I don't know for sure that they will, but just so you are aware, I am going to open that form to subscribers first and then everyone else. All right, now that we've gotten all of those logistics, those questions out of the way, I wanna talk about why I made this decision. First off, this decision was just simply logistical.
I have been booked fairly far in advance for quite a while, and I think a lot of people missed that announcement as they were filling the sample edit form out. And then once they saw that they weren't actually going to get their edit done until late August or early September, they ghosted. Some ghosted before they did the sample edit, some ghosted after, which is honestly kind of frustrating. And to be clear,
If I do a sample edit for you, there are no strings, no obligations attached, but please email me and let me know that you have decided to go a different direction. Don't leave me hanging. It's the worst.
All I will do, if you say that you've decided to go with a different editor, is wish you the best. ⁓ But I just saw an uptick in people ghosting. That was something that happened in the past, but not at this rate. And the only thing that has really changed is the timeline. So I think that the lead time just got so far in the future that it just wasn't working for people. So I decided to close.
And then I don't have to worry about wasting my time on someone who's going to ghost me when they realize that they have to wait six months for editing. Which again, is not a big deal. If you don't want to wait that long, that's totally fine. You just need to find a different editor who is not booked in advance. Which I was not booked in advance for years as I started my business. I was still a great editor. So I don't want to suggest that I am magical or special because I am booked out. It is just simply I had a lot of new people come in all at once and I had a lot of returning clients book edits all at once and then suddenly we were looking at August and, you know, I've been booked for August until like since like February. So, yeah, wasn't expected, isn't usual, but it happened. And so now I'm closing the form. The other side is that I don't have a lot of time flexibility right now. My course is ramping up. I am getting those assignments from people and I'm giving feedback to them. And because sample edits are unpredictable, I cannot plan for them. It just became harder and harder to manage that side of the schedule. So it's just better for everyone. But this decision isn't just logistical. It's not just about time. It is not just about being ghosted.
It also represents a bigger philosophical shift in my business and that's why it was worthy of a podcast episode because I am not just closing the sample edit form temporarily. It will reopen, don't worry. I am also generally shifting away from editing to a more coaching focused business. that decision has been in the works for a long time. This didn't come out of nowhere. I became a certified fiction book coach back in September of 2025, and I started that certification program back in October of 2024. So again, this isn't something came out of nowhere. It has been a year and a half that I've been working toward building that coaching focused model.
I'm certified through Author Accelerator. You can go check them out. will link to them in the show notes and I'm not saying that I made this transition because I got the certification. I got the certification because I realized that coaching is a better way for me to serve writers. And I love editing. Developmental editing is great. A great developmental edit can really change someone's life, at least their writing life. I think it can be completely transformational if you know how to use the feedback. And that is a big if for beginning writers, for first time novelists.
It isn't easy to actually use a developmental editor's feedback because developmental editing hinges on you having the capacity to understand, interpret, and then implement the feedback that you're given. And you have to do that across hundreds and hundreds of pages. And that isn't an easy task. And I think sometimes in the editorial profession, we take for granted that everyone is just going to have the skills to do what we tell them to do, but the longer I spend doing this work, the more I realize that isn't the case. And just handing someone an editorial letter, no matter how beautifully written that editorial letter is, it's not going to help them if they don't know how to do the things I'm asking them to do in the editorial letter. And early on in my business, I think I would get frustrated when I had someone come back for revision evaluation because I have packages that include two rounds of editing.
So I'd have someone come back and I would see the same problems, the same issues were there again. And at first I thought they were just not listening, that they didn't want to make the change, that they just disagreed with me. I used to get in my head about, I'm not a good enough editor because they obviously didn't do XYZ. And then I realized that it wasn't about people not listening, it was about people not knowing how to make the change or not having the motivation to sustain all of the revisions as they rewrite their entire book. That maybe they liked the idea, but when it actually came time to execute that change on the page, they were exhausted and they just kind of shuffled things on to the next draft, even though they knew that making that change would make the book better. So, you know, it's not just that people don't have the skill. There are other aspects as well, but these are things that are not addressed in editing. Editing doesn't necessarily help with motivation and mindset and helping you sustain revisions over a long period of time, but those are all things that we can work on with a more coaching focused model.
And I want to be clear, I am not saying that those writers who didn't know how to use my feedback were bad writers or talentless or that they were doing something wrong. It is perfectly natural to not know how to do something when you are just starting off and learning a new skill. Writing a novel is hard. It is complicated. There are a lot of moving parts and a lot of skills to be mastered. And it takes time. It takes training. It takes feedback and coaching and support. And an edit can help. An edit is great.
But the edit is not a teacher. That editorial letter will have information. It will show you a pathway to revision, but it is not the thing that is going to guide you along that road. That is where a coach comes in. That's where a mentor comes in. That's why Gandalf didn't just write Frodo instructions. Gandalf led Frodo on that adventure. Obviously he got knocked off along the way, which again, as a coach, that's my goal. I want you to not need me forever as a writer. Eventually you are going to be able to do all of those things on your own.
That was true with developmental editing. I think it was true with book coaching. But on the way, when you're starting off, you need support. You need someone to show you the ropes and to help you execute on the feedback that you're getting on things you need to do to improve your story. And that's why I think coaching has so much potential to help writers in a an even more powerful way than editing. Because, editing is great. Editing is super helpful. That's why I great reviews from past clients. And I have loved working with all of my past editing clients.
But I'm also really excited about everything that can happen in coaching as well.
So ultimately, this change is about giving writers more of what they need. And I am opening up more space in my business for coaching for long-term partnerships with writers. And you know, that has already been true in my editing. I have many repeat clients who I have been delighted to work with. And the only thing that's really changing is that I am giving more feedback along the way, more support on the actual process of rewriting and making myself available for all of those questions and trouble spots that come up along the way instead of just coming alongside writers at a certain checkpoint. So instead of just sending me the draft when it is done, you are going to get my feedback on the concept behind your revision. You are gonna get my feedback on a reverse outline of your story. You are gonna get my feedback on a single scene before you go to revise the whole thing. So really trying to come alongside writers for the whole process. And the main way that I am doing that going forward is through my course, Reader Ready Revisions, which of course is not even really a strong enough word. It is more of a group coaching program where you will spend 14 weeks with me going through a four step process to prepare for revision and then start revising your novel. We will start by looking at the big picture. What are you trying to create? And you are going to get feedback from me on your genre, your subgenre, the genre expectations that you think you need to hit.
We are going to talk all about the experience you want to give your readers and really lock in on a vision for what you want readers to get out of your book and what you want that book to be for them once it is done and published. Once we have that vision locked in, we will move on to analyzing your draft. You are going to create a reverse outline of your story, which means you are going through and it's not one of those outlines you used to plan. It is an outline of what you've already done. What is there on the page?
We are going to use that as a tool of analysis. You are going to go through a step-by-step process to analyze your reverse outline, figure out where your story is working, where it's not. You are going to revise your reverse outline and then send it to me for feedback. I'm going to give you extensive comments on the outline itself. I'll send you a little write-up. ⁓ Everyone in the program also gets at least one individual call with me. That is something I'm adding. All tiers will now get at least one one-on-one call. You can decide to use that to talk about your outline, you can use it later. If you have multiple calls, depending on which tier you choose, you may decide to talk to me after that outline and after you feedback on your draft. It's kind of, you you have a lot of flexibility here. I really value flexibility and giving people options, but everyone is getting feedback on the reverse outline. So I am going to look at your story's arc, your character arcs, your conflicts, the plot as a whole. We'll look at structure and we'll make sure that your concept of the novel is working before you go to rewrite your draft and before I take a look at the draft as a whole. Then the next step is to take that revised reverse outline with my feedback, your edits, that becomes your revision plan as you start rewriting. Then we'll talk about how to actually bring that outline to life at the scene level. What do you need to do to revise each individual scene so it is working for your readers? I'm gonna look at a single scene to start. Again, this is another change from the first version of the program. I'm gonna look at a single scene.
I'm going to give you general feedback on these are the things you're doing really well as a writer, these are the places where you need work. You are then going to take that feedback as you go off and you start rewriting your entire novel. I'm going to support you beyond the 14 weeks because it is going to take you more than 14 weeks to completely rewrite your novel. The goal is for you to lock in your vision, complete that analysis, figure out what you're going to revise. Then you are going to start rewriting your novel that will continue after the 14 weeks.
I'm going to be in your inbox, emailing you to check in every week for a year after the 14 weeks of the program end. Yes, it's an entire year. That's probably excessive. And if my business coach were listening right now, she would probably tell me that I'm doing way too much. the goal of those emails is not for me to be throwing more information at you. I am not going to be sending you tips on revising. that point, I'm going to be checking in on what were your goals? Are you getting them done?
If you are not meeting your goals or if you have questions, things like that, you have me as a resource. It's a little bit of accountability. It is a little bit of ongoing support and a place for you to ask questions and troubleshoot with someone who already knows your story because I've seen your outline. I know your vision and what you're trying to accomplish. And I will be there to support you for an entire year as you work on rewriting your story. Once it is done, you are going to send more of your manuscript to me for feedback depending on which tier you choose, that's either 10,000 words, 40,000 words, or the entire story, I'm going to read and comment. I'm going to send you back an editorial letter with those comments. It's kind of like a developmental edit light. It's not exactly the same thing you would get, but you're essentially getting the edit at the end of the process, after we've worked together, after we've gotten your story as strong as it possibly can be. Then I give you another round of feedback to make it even stronger. And you will already have the knowledge, the know-how on what you're trying to accomplish to then implement that feedback. And once again, you can also reach out to me for help. If you have questions, we get to have a conversation about what you're going to do to revise your story instead of me just sending you the letter. And in the past, I have also done a follow-up Zoom call with all of my editing clients, but 60 minutes is not enough time to really hash out what you're going to do to edit your entire story.
It does not come close to 14 weeks of group coaching plus a year of emails, checking in, following up with you afterward. ⁓ And in addition to all of that feedback that you're getting from me on your work, Because this is a group coaching program, there are going to be group calls where I'm going to be doing a little bit of instruction, a little bit of supporting you through the exercise and activities of the course.
Plus you get to ask me questions live on the calls, which means we can talk through specific story issues that you are running into. For example, someone just this week was asking about how to put restrictions on the magic system. And we literally came up with ideas of how the magic system could be restricted right there on the call. And that's something that can't happen if it's just a DIY course, which is why I'm so excited that this is both a blend of the content, the teaching, plus that group coaching element where we are live together every week where you can ask questions, get help, and go deeper on the things you're learning in the course. Plus, there's also going to be a Slack community where you can interact with me, with your fellow students. I will be in there either Monday through Thursday or Tuesday through Friday. I haven't yet decided on the schedule, but I will be in there almost every day of the week answering your questions, giving you support, and you will be able to also meet with other writers.
Talk to them if you want to, it's optional. You don't actually have to interact with them if you don't want to, which for some people is a selling point. that, know, writer friends are great, but sometimes we just want to focus on ourselves and own writing, which is another selling point of this course. You don't have to do any group feedback as much as it can be helpful. It also takes a lot of time. And in this course, you get to focus on your writing. You get my feedback. You don't have to worry about giving feedback to anyone else. ⁓ But the main point is compared to an edit.
Which an edit is great. You get comments on your manuscript, you get that editorial letter, you do get to meet with me for an hour, but we can do so much more in those 14 weeks when I'm not just looking at a single snapshot of your story. I am really helping you think through every aspect of your novel in a deeper way. I am building your capacity as a writer to revise on your own so that when you come back with your second novel, you may not need my feedback at all. And I know there are a lot of editors out there who will tell you that you need a developmental edit every single time. It's not true. People grow out of the need for developmental editing.
I will say that is not as true for copy editing, for proofreading, because we are always going to have typos. But you can learn how to revise at the story level. I'm not saying that needs to happen with your first book, your second, or your third, but it is possible to outgrow the need for developmental editor. That is my dream for you to outgrow your need for me, because I have coached you and supported you and helped you as a writer to the extent that you can now see the problems in your story and fix them on your own without me coming alongside to point them out to you.
That is the goal of my program is for you to not need me or developmental editor in the future because I am not just pointing out the flaws in one book. I am not just helping you improve one book. I am teaching you how to revise in a strategic way. am helping you revise in a strategic way. I am alongside you working through problems with you for 14 weeks and then another 52 weeks over email. ⁓ So you get to grow as a writer. You get to make this one book the best it can be and you get to develop your writing skills for the future as well. And I have talked about this program way, way, way too much, but I just wanted to kind of go through the philosophical difference between what is happening in coaching versus what is happening in editing, because
I think that there is so much opportunity for coaching to really help people and I'm really excited about what I'm offering now. You can learn more at my website, oliviahelpswriters.com/services If this sounds like something you need,
If you are that person who has gotten a 25 page editorial letter that you did not know what to do with, or you have gotten feedback that you knew was great, but you just did not know how to execute it, I would love to invite you to Reader Ready Revisions to try something different, to try something new with me. And I think there's just so much potential for what we can do together, what we can do for your book, your writing. And yeah, I would just love to work with you. I would love to help. And...
I might not be the right fit for you, but if you're a writer out there who has felt that frustration with editing, if you write a genre that I don't work with or Reader Ready Revisions is not quite the right fit for you, there are so many amazing book coaches out there who can help you, who are going to walk with you through this entire journey. If you're someone who is still working on drafting, I love working with people in revision. I am not so much the person who's to help you draft your novel in the first place, but there are book coaches out there who do that and Author Accelerator is a great place to start. There's a directory of all Author Accelerator coaches. Because I might not be the right teacher for you. I might not be the right coach for you, but there probably is someone out there who can help you. And I will say, if you are someone who is further along in your writing journey, you're like, girl, I get the editorial letter. I know what to do with it. This is also amazing. Developmental editing is still wonderful and great, and I highly recommend it for people who are further along with it in that journey. It's just a matter of figuring out where you are right now, what you need as a writer and what is going to move the needle for you in your current stage of growth because every writer is unique, everyone's process is unique, and rather than treating developmental editing as the one-size-fits-all answer, I think there are different options. I now get to offer more options to writers, and that is my ultimate goal, to help writers, to help them achieve their dreams, and how that works, what it is going to look like will be different for each individual person and now I'm building a business that gives me more opportunities to help more people in different ways. And that to me is a beautiful thing. Even if closing the sample in a form has been a little bit painful, it is just a step in this process of me building a business that truly helps more people in more exciting ways. And I can't wait to keep doing that in the very near future. All right. I have spent way too much time ranting and getting way, way too excited talking to you about my new coaching program.
I truly am, I'm just so excited about it. It has been a lot of fun in this first round and I'm really excited for round two. Thank you so, so much for listening to another episode of the Better Writer podcast. If this episode resonated in any way, please reach out. I am at Olivia Helps Writers on Instagram, Facebook, anywhere else where you might be and just DM me. Let me know your thoughts. If you have questions or comments, hit me up,
And if you have a writer friend who needs to hear this message, please share it with them. I would love to have this podcast reach as many people as possible. So feel free to share it with your friends, your social media, whatever it is. Thank you again for listening to another episode. Have a wonderful week. Keep writing. Keep getting better. One word at a time. See ya.
