B is for Book Coach

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for steam shovels . It’s been a while since I had to be on bedtime duty for a little one, but on Halloween, I tagged in to watch my babiest niece so my kiddos could enjoy the evening instead of watching her like they usually do. She was a little sad that all of her favorite people had left her to the just-okay-Aunt-B, but that was bef...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . I’m B, midwife of big ideas and book development partner for writers and non-writers alike. And for the next few minutes, you are my author. Don’t worry. That doesn’t commit you to anything more than what you’re doing right in this moment. Because the best authors are simply people who show up as themselves, for themselves and for their readers. Today, we’re m...

 When you’re working on something that matters , right? Something that you know in your gut could change the world—or at least your corner of it. Something you’re willing to put your name (and years of reputation and experience) behind and hand it to the people you know it could impact most. When you’re working on something like that —and it still isn’t done? Things can feel a little bleak out her...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . I’m B, midwife of big ideas and book development partner for writers and non-writers alike. Today, we’re making space for choices . I don’t know about you, but I don’t like to be put in a box. The older I get, the more I see and experience, the less I think any of us can fit into simple categories. The same goes for our work or projects. - The Visibility Spect...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for empathy . Some of the best concepts and tools I’ve ever learned for writing weren’t for writing at all. They were for education, decision-making, personal growth, and the process of change. So when someone asks me a question about a “memoir” or a “business book,” I can’t really answer. Genre alone doesn’t tell us enough about what...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for experiences . - Industrial categories don’t do a lot for intuitive processes. - We’re creating experiences, not products. - Human experiences don’t fit neatly into boxes, and books are no exception. - The Visibility Spectrum is our constant reminder that books are a point of connection, not a commodity. They are two-way experience...

What does it actually take to develop a craft? In this conversation with Alice Sudlow and Kim Kessler of Novel Atelier, we’ll dig into the Renaissance workshop model they follow, why psychological safety is a prerequisite for growth, and how we can survive this algorithmic digital dark age together. This is a bit longer than our usual episodes here, and it’s clearly my first run at a video format....

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . I’m B, midwife of big ideas and book development partner for writers and non-writers alike. Today, we’re making space for seeing. There is power in sharing our perspective. There is power in being able to choose which perspectives we adopt as part of our own. And that power compounds when we share our perspective with an open hand, knowing that not everyone wi...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for trying . This past week, my family and I took the opportunity to see the musical Hadestown in movie theaters. If you haven’t spent the last several years obsessing over this musical with me... - The story of Orpheus and Eurydice - The parallels to art and life and love and revolution - The new angle I caught in the movie theater -...

Welcome back to a special edition of B is for Book Coach . In these episodes, I’m reading through pieces of You Don’t Get to the Ocean by Accident —the workbook version of the early work I do with all of my authors. If you want to follow along or jump ahead, pocket-sized copies are available on Amazon, and every Substack subscriber gets a fillable PDF copy as well. Today, we’re reading from: The P...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for nuance . I am not anti-AI. I am anti-inefficient-use-of-AI. Some of you will be happy to see this. Some of you will be disappointed. Some of you will have no idea what to think. This is a sticky topic that only seems to be more polarizing as time goes on. So I also want you to know right up front that I do not feel polarized about...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for heroism. We need to talk about writing. We need to talk about what writing really is. We need to talk about the things we have been made to believe writing is. And we need to talk about it frequently, because too many of us are falling into the gaps between those two places. - The Hero's Journey of writing, and the threshold guard...

Welcome back to a special edition of B is for Book Coach . In these episodes, I’m reading through pieces of You Don’t Get to the Ocean by Accident —the workbook version of the early work I do with all of my authors. If you want to follow along or jump ahead, pocket-sized copies are available on Amazon, and every Substack subscriber gets a fillable PDF copy as well. Today, we’re reading from: Divin...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for posture. All posture is much more complex than it seems—in your body and your book. - The mechanics of physical posture- The parallels in book posture- How to look closer at the posture you hold as an author, your reader holds when arriving to your book, and the space the book holds for you both - The pain that doing this might cr...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for words that belong. For the past several months, I’ve been working with the incredible Hussein al-Baiaty over at Rising Authors to get my new website up and running. But the website was just the output. What we were really spending all that time on was what the website should contain. Not should as in “supposed to.” Should as in “b...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for connection. You and your experience are worth witnessing. This is a true statement, no matter who you are or what your experience is. You matter. Your story matters. Choosing to share any part of yourself—from ideas to lived experience to insights—is a generous gift that holds intrinsic value whether or not it creates a return. An...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for noticing. Hear directly from my friend and author about the experience of writing his last book, with clips of a conversation recorded a month into post-publish territory—a month into borrowed time, according to the prognosis he’d been given, and only a few months before he passed away. Before we go any further, I want you to know...

Welcome back to a special edition of B is for Book Coach . In these episodes, I’m reading through pieces of You Don’t Get to the Ocean by Accident —the workbook version of the early work I do with all of my authors. If you want to follow along or jump ahead, pocket-sized copies are available on Amazon, and every Substack subscriber gets a fillable PDF copy as well. Today, we’re reading from: Using...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for the mess. Do you remember the old Reese’s candy campaign, “There’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s”? In retrospect, this was probably meant to counter KitKat’s “break me off a piece of that KitKat bar” methodology. KitKat might not be my favorite candy, but their approach makes sense. Simplicity is appealing. So when I talk about si...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for the future . In this month’s subscriber update , I said something that might need a bit more explanation. I said that “community is the future of books.” And I meant it. - Why we're looking tot he future of books - What I mean by community - What books can actually create - How to make that happen Enjoying this space? It takes all...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for publishing . Humans have always told stories. From campfires to city centers, wherever someone would listen (and occasionally when no one would), someone else was ready to share. This made written language a radical technology, allowing a single person to be heard far beyond and long after they spoke. We carved, we scribed, and ev...

Welcome back to a special edition of B is for Book Coach . In these episodes, I’m reading through pieces of You Don’t Get to the Ocean by Accident —the workbook version of the early work I do with all of my authors. If you want to follow along or jump ahead, pocket-sized copies are available on Amazon, and every Substack subscriber gets a fillable PDF copy as well. Today, we’re reading from: Table...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for weirdness . Raise your hand if you’ve heard yourself say any of the following things about your book: I don’t know if it’s the RIGHT way to do it, but…there it is… It’s a little bit of X and a little bit Y… It’s complicated. It’s complex. It’s weird. Can I tell you a secret? All the best books are. - Why we're good with weird - Wh...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for constraints . We’ve been talking a lot about releasing external obligations, and for good reason. Especially now, at the start of the year, they’re loud , they’re pushy, and they’re often unrelated to what we actually want and need. But I find that internal pressure is much more difficult to release. - Unhelpful brain stories - Th...

Welcome back to B is for Book Coach . Today, we’re making space for relief . A well-respected leader in a niche industry sent out an email recently that had me yelling and drawing out charts like I had missed my calling as a sports commentator. The same message hit a friend of mine via a podcast just days before, and my authors tell me they hear it all the time. It’s everywhere. - The sales messag...