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FAQs

  • I like to say a book coach as one part editor, one part project manager, one part industry guide, and one part cheerleader.

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    • Editor: A book coach focuses on developmental editing—the structure of your story including big picture things like narrative drive, character development, emotional context, pacing, conflict and other story elements that determine whether your story makes sense and will compel a reader to keep turning pages.
       

    • Project manager: A good book coach doesn’t just give editorial feedback. They provide detailed action steps for how you should tackle that feedback. They also set deadlines and hold you to those.
       

    • Industry guide: A book coach has industry experience and expertise beyond writing and can help guide you through the various stages of your publishing journey. Many (like me!) have worked in various roles in publishing and can help you take the right steps to reach your goals.
       

    • Cheerleader: Writing is emotional work. It’s important that a book coach respects that and can support you as a writer as you navigate the difficult task of unearthing your story from your imagination and heart. I pride myself on creating a space in which writers feel safe exploring tough emotions, sometimes some from personal experiences. It’s also important to me to provide a space where writers can confide their fears and hopes about writing. And I’m thrilled that many of my writing clients continue to stay in touch and share their milestones with me so I can continue to cheer them on.

  • As a book coach and developmental editor, my goal is to provide feedback for how the reader experiences your story, so you can ensure your story vision translates to the page. It’s not my purpose to architect your story, but rather to help you find your own storytelling voice, reflect to you the experience of the reader, and provide guidance for tackling writing missteps. I also believe it’s part of my job to not only tell you something isn’t working, but to show you how or why by using examples in the text, so that my feedback is evidence-based rather than merely personal bias. Unfortunately even with professional editors, there can be unintentionally harmful editorial feedback. I wrote about this recently and you can read more about it here.
     
    That said, I do always offer clear action steps for tackling the revision process, but any examples I give are designed to highlight one possible direction. My aim is to show you one possibility…you may take this idea and run with it, or you may decide it doesn’t resonate with you, but you have another idea that will work even better.

  • Sure, many aspiring novelists do. Some have success. Most do not. I believe every writer has the ability to learn the craft of novel writing if they’re open to it. But as with anything you’re learning from scratch, it takes a lot longer on your own. In 2025 agent Carly Watters shared the stat that debut authors work an average of three years on their manuscript before they find an agent or publisher.
     
    Think of it like any skill …learning to paint, training at the gym, taking up a musical instrument. These days you can find a wealth of info online for doing any of those…so much info, in fact, you’re likely to be overwhelmed and have difficulty discerning what works best for you. It’s the same with writing. You’ll get better faster with a trained teacher and likely have more success. I’ve even worked with published and agented authors who are on their follow-up novels because they recognize how helpful it is to have the support of a book coach.

  • Some aspiring novelists assume that a book coach or editor should have written a book. But writing a book and editing a book are two very different skill sets. Some people can do both, but not everyone. I have seen many talented authors who do not know how to evaluate a manuscript properly nor deliver editorial feedback in a way that’s constructive nor possess the ability to teach their skills to a writer.
     
    Personally, I’ve always known I wanted to be an editor. When I was in undergrad, my literature degree offered the choice of a literary analysis or creative writing track, and I chose the former with a career as an editor in mind. Next I attended the University of Denver Publishing Institute grad program again with the goal of working as an editor in the publishing industry.
     
    There is also a difference between a developmental editor and a book coach. A certified book coach has been trained in developmental editing (and many, like me, already have many years of experience as an editor), but an editor has not necessarily been trained in the skill of book coaching. As a developmental editor, I always provided in-line editorial feedback as well as an editorial letter to authors. As a book coach, I now provide those things but I also provide a detailed Action Plan so writers aren’t overwhelmed and know exactly what they need to do next. I also use a tool I call the Novel at a Glance to help writers get a high-level perspective of their manuscript.
     
    That said, I have always written as part of my career, and I may one day work on that side of the manuscript. I have been approached to write two different nonfiction books in the past but in both cases the circumstances weren’t ideal for me and I passed. I won’t rule it out, but I really love working with writers. I find it particularly gratifying to help women writers rediscover their writing voices and claim their stories on the page.

  • I firmly believe it is always kindest to be completely straightforward with writers. I approach all of my evaluations with gentle candor, and provide you feedback and an action plan that’s designed to help you craft the best version of the story you hope to tell. As you may know, you only get one chance to pitch a literary agent your manuscript—sometimes even only one chance with the entire agency—so I never want to send a writer out into the querying trenches with a story that’s not yet ready to pitch. It’s always your choice to pitch your story, of course, but I will never tell a writer I think their story is good to go before I believe it is.

  • The term “editor” is so confusing because there are so many different types of editors. Editor Louise Harnby offers an excellent detailed breakdown here. But essentially a developmental editor works on the big-picture, structural issues that are foundational to your novel: narrative trajectory, character development, emotional context and all of the elements that fall under this. This is what I focus on. If we work together longer, and you strengthen those well, we may also focus on these elements on individual scene levels as well. However, what I don’t focus on is grammar and typos.

  • My work product is the property of my clients, and, understandably, they wouldn’t want that shared. But I can point you to my testimonials to see my client’s satisfaction, and I can point you to my Substack where I share a lot of writing tactics and  industry guidance, so you can get a sense of my knowledge and working style. I can also share client references.

  • You may have heard that editors sometimes offer sample edits. This is usually copyeditors rather than developmental editors, which means a different type of editing. As a book coach, developmental editing is one part of what I do, but I’m not only a developmental editor. As I say above…as a book coach, I’m one part editor, one part project manager, one part industry guide, and one part cheerleader.
     
    Before I begin working with a client, I hold a discovery call, which functions similarly to an interview so we can check that we have a good rapport because that is a strong indicator of how well we can work together. At this time I also share more about my signature methodology and how I use this with writing clients. On these discovery calls, I am also able to provide a little "mini coaching" if you share sample pages of your work. I do this by giving verbal feedback on some of the things I'm seeing or that I suspect we would focus on based on what I’m reading in your sample pages, so this call functions as a "sample" of my work.
     
    That said, I can’t really provide a sample of a developmental edit because this is an analysis of how the entire story structure is holding together. It doesn't really work to do a small sample because you can't accurately tell what’s working or not without looking at the whole story. However, I can determine some issues or patterns I see or suspect from your sample pages and intake form. If you’re wondering how, here’s one way I do this.

  • No, definitely not. No one can do that. And if someone tells you they can, you should run far away fast because it’s simply not true. I’m connected to and have good relationships with literary agents and acquiring editors, but that doesn’t mean I can just send my clients their way. The industry doesn’t work like that.

  • I share a ton of helpful info for writers on my Substack. Here are a few of my most popular and (I think!) helpful posts: 
     

     
    You can also find my work on Jane Friedman’s website here: Plot, Character, or Situation: Your Story’s Entry Point Determines Next Steps 

     

    “Following publication of this article, book coach Heather Garbo has now written an analysis of debut women’s fiction deals via Publishers Marketplace and what BISAC codes are being applied to them. A great evidence-based article that every women’s fiction author (or women’s fiction author by another name) should read.”

  • Once you submit an inquiry, I will send you an intake form. If it seems like we’re a good fit and I think I can help you, I’ll also send you a link to schedule a free discovery call so we can meet for a rapport check, and I’ll share more about my methodology on that call.
     
    But here’s a quick overview: no matter if you’re in the story planning, drafting or revision stage, we’re looking at the three primary prongs of storytelling: character development, external plot, and internal plot. I have a signature system that I use with all clients whether on story planning, drafting or revision. We use 4 primary tools to not only create a strong story foundation, but that we can also utilize to evaluate your manuscript. When I work with story planning we create these tools together based on the story you want to tell, and when I evaluate a story, I get specific info from you so I can get clear on the story you want to tell and then I can integrate this info into these evaluation tools to see if your story is staying on track.
     
    And rest assured, when I say evaluation tools, I’m in no way talking about AI. These are simple exercises I’ve refined through the years so we get clarity on what you’re trying to say in your story, your protagonist’s character development, your external plot, and your internal plot.

  • I do not usually have immediate openings in my schedule but I can often onboard a client within a month or two of inquiry depending on your service. For one-on-one coaching, I can also provide you steps to get a jumpstart on our work together.  Get started here!
     

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