In an evaluation of a writer’s background, you want to consider three main areas:

• How accomplished/experienced are they in their writing life?
• Are they an expert in another realm?
• What other ways have they sought help with their writing?

We'll go through these one by one.

How accomplished and experienced are they in their writing life?

A writer who has published two books, has an agent, and is working on the project that will go to a publisher as part of an option on a contract is obviously in a very different place than a writer who has just made a decision to start working on her first book. The first writer is likely going to be able to move faster, take tougher criticism, and demand more from you than someone who is struggling to get their first manuscript complete and wants gentler guidance.

Evaluating this basic information is key, but you also need to look deeper into their writing life. It could be that the more experienced writer is feeling extremely frustrated and stuck on a project and the new writer is on fire with her work in other ways. Perhaps she has been writing a blog every week for 12 years, guest blogged on big influencer’s sites, and published extensively in magazines, and a book is the natural next step for her content production. She may be new to books, but she could be an experienced and savvy writer.

To get at the deeper reason the writer is seeking coaching, we look for the following information within their Q&A:

• What are their publishing goals? Can they clearly state them? Is there a good reason for them?

PRO TIP: Is the writer delusional? This is a serious question. I recently had a writer with a very wobbly first draft explain that he wanted to sell his novel to a Hollywood producer so he could quit his day job, and this wasn’t just a “what would wild success look like?” bit of dreaming. He meant it. I have also had writers who were starting at zero of their first-ever book ask if I felt they could have the book in reader’s hands six weeks down the road. Delusion is, sadly, more common than you might imagine.

• Why are they seeking coaching at this time? What is their particular problem or frustration, and can they define it? We ask this for the obvious reason but also to see how self-aware they are about what they need. Someone who is seeking help to pitch agents but who can’t state the genre or the point of their book or write a 250-word description of it is probably going to need to be gently guided in a different direction.
• What type of coaching are they looking for? You want to make sure they don’t want a proofreader or a ghostwriter. You want to make sure they need what a book coach can offer.
• Have they already published books?
• Do they have a publisher? Have they self-published? Do they know the difference between the two and know which road they want to take?
• Do they have an agent?
• Have they already submitted this or other manuscripts to agents? How has that process gone for them?
• Are they on a deadline, self-imposed or otherwise?
• Do they write a blog?
• Have they published articles or stories?

Are they an expert in another realm?

I often work with people such as doctors, lawyers and detectives who are writing fiction related to their area of expertise. These people are very accomplished in another realm, but tend to be unfamiliar with the world of books and publishing. That imbalance – expert in one way, a newbie in another – may seem like it would be a hard combination. But I have found that these types of writers tend to appreciate very strong guidance; they know what they don’t know and they want to know it. They may be somewhat embarrassed that they don’t know the inner workings of how to write a book, and might need assurance that it’s perfectly normal not to be an expert in two fields, but they are often receptive to that feedback and eager to learn a new skill.

Sometimes, someone’s background may get in the way of their writing.

• Screenplay writers, for example, need to learn that there is no camera or stage direction in a book so everything must be on the page.
• Lawyers often need to learn that it’s okay to have a word or two that is there for beauty and rhythm and not just to serve a purpose.
• PR professionals and English teachers tend to get frustrated more quickly because their job is writing, they are good at it, and they can’t understand why writing a book should be so much different than what they do all day long. But it is. A book is a uniquely complex intellectual and emotional undertaking.

To understand how a writer’s background might play a role in their project, look for the following information in the Q&A:

• What is their day job or profession?
• Are they at the beginning of their career or are they a seasoned pro?
• How does their work tie into this particular project, if at all?
• Is there anything about their work that might slow them down?
• Do they seem to have the time to write a book? A busy executive may not understand the demands writing a book will place on her, and may not have the bandwidth to proceed at the pace they wish.
• Are they practiced in being coached in other ways? A lot of accomplished people are very good at asking for help. They may have a business coach, a life coach, a personal trainer.

What other ways have they sought help with their writing?

Another one of the critical things we look for during the intake process is what other ways a writer may have sought help on their project before they come to coaching. We ask this question at the end of our Q&A but it’s a question of primary concern. Very few writers come to a coach “cold.” They have often tried several other processes first, and it’s important to understand those processes and the experience the writer had with each. It can help enormously as you begin to engage with them in coaching. The most common things writers have used to help in the past include:

• Writing groups
  • Almost every potential client has been or are currently in writing groups – and they frequently love them, although I believe that their love is often blind. I think they are responding more to the cookies and wine and friendship than they are to what is happening in terms of writing. I have seen over the years that writing groups actually do a lot of damage. Writers who come from writing groups into coaching may be terrified of getting professional feedback. They may feel overly protective of their work, or defensive. They may need a lot of handholding and reassurance.

PRO TIP: To learn more about the damage that writing groups can do, read my piece, The 5 Greatest Writing Group Dangers and the follow-up, How to Fix Your Writing Group.

• Writing conferences
  • Many writers have spent a lot of time at writing conferences. While conferences can be amazing places to learn, grow, and connect with writers and agents, they can sometimes skew a writer toward panic. You get people saying things like, “I pitched my book and eight agents want it, but I haven’t finished it yet – what should I do?” Or “One agent said it sounded like YA not adult, should I make it YA?” Many times, these writers need guidance to slow down and be patient with the path to publication. Rushing a book almost always ends in disappointment. Rushing is, in fact, one of the most common errors I see.

PRO TIP: To learn more about the trouble with writing conferences, read 9 Ways to Ruin a Writing Conference.

• Other experts, editors, and coaches
  • There are a gazillion methods capable of teaching someone to write a book. I believe there are useful elements in all of them, and I adhere to that old adage that the right teachers come to the student at the right time. Sometimes a writer needs to hear a message over and over and over again until they understand it. Sometimes they need to learn from 10 other people before they come to learn from you. This is all well and good.

What I find especially frustrating is a writer who holds on so tightly to one particular method as if it is the word of god. If they are so closed off from learning anything new, I probably can’t help them – and odds are good that they aren’t actually ready to write their book anyway. They are probably leaning on the promise of a “miracle method” as an excuse not to do the deep level soul-searching work of getting their idea out of their head and onto the page. There are no miracles in book writing. There is only the hard, slow work of it.

Over time, you will begin to form your own philosophy and opinions about the various ways of teaching writing, and can use the lessons and language from these experts as needed with writers who want to use them. In the following download I have listed some of the most popular writing experts and methods, so you can start to become familiar with the language they use and their philosophies.