Early-stage support for your book
Whether you’re at the idea-forming stage, need guidance in planning the whole book, or want to learn how to succeed in today’s publishing industry, there’s a package that’s just right for you.
Mini-Blueprint
Curious about whether there’s enough there for a book? This is your starting place
Books are pretty big projects, and it can take a bit of work before you even have a clear idea of what yours is about. The Mini-Blueprint is designed to be a delicate sampler of its big sister, the Blueprint—the donut hole to the donut, if you will. It’s a way for you to get clarity on your idea, your audience, and the marketability of your book. You’ll leave with feedback and clarity on all three.
Developed by Author Accelerator, the Mini-Blueprint is a great way to test the waters with a book coach, to see how the process works and to feel what it’s like to be inside my circle of craft. You’ll work through the Mini-Blueprint worksheet, and I’ll also provide feedback on 10 of your draft pages. Then we’ll meet for a 30-minute call, where I’ll coach you through my feedback on the worksheet and your sample pages.
One deadline and a 30-minute coaching call
$125 USD / $155 CAD
The Blueprint
Strategic guidance for planning your book
Your book is a business, complete with a crowded marketplace, a product you’re trying to market and sell, and customers who can afford to be choosy. Yet you wouldn’t open an actual business without first developing a business plan, giving it the time and focus needed to secure your best shot at success.
A book is a BIG project with a thousand moving parts. It’s so much more than just the words between the covers. In the Blueprint* process, we will move you from overwhelmed to organized. This is your package if you haven’t started writing your book yet, or if you’ve hit a wall in the writing process.
In the Blueprint, we go broad in order to narrow down. We get granular on your reasons for writing this book, the reader you’re writing it for, and the best structure or arc for unfolding the material for readers. In fiction, l help you figure out your characters, their motivations and fears, the stakes they’re facing and the struggles they overcome. We make sure your key characters experience a powerful arc of change and that the stakes are high enough to grab readers by the face and swallow them into a story they’ll never forget. In nonfiction, we build a concept flow that takes your reader on an unforgettable journey of transformation and possibility. And in memoir, we pull craft and structure from both fiction and nonfiction, designing the unicorn as we go.
The Blueprint builds a robust framework that will guide your narrative. Once you’ve got that completed and move on to writing your draft, your blueprint will show you exactly what you’re supposed to write every time you sit down to the page. It takes time to develop…but it makes the writing go much, much faster.
*The Blueprint is a powerful story-planning tool developed by Jennie Nash and licensed to Author Accelerator coaches. It works well with other storytelling models like the hero’s journey, Save the Cat and even Story Grid.
4 deadlines + 90-minute coaching calls
$2500 USD / $3200 CAD
The Steer
Half-day AMA and strategy intensive
Surprise! Nobody tole ya that publishing a book is just about as complex as launching a startup. It’s only once you find yourself in the weeds with the freelance editor you’ve hired off Fiverr that you realize you started in the wrong place…and have definitely ended up in the wrong place.
Let me give you a good steer before you set out. Even if you’re already out in the middle of the channel! There’s SO much to know about publishing, and the amount of conflicting information online is bewildering. If you’re not inside the industry it’s hard to know even just the rules of the game, let alone the moves to win.
Save yourself time and money by educating yourself upstream. The Steer is a half-day intensive where we go deep on every aspect of bringing your book into reality. You’ll take away a TON of strategy and some very clear next steps. You can find a detailed breakdown of what you’ll get in The Steer here.
Half-day intensive
$575 USD / $695 CAD
What people are saying
“Please understand that this small submission does not reflect the magnitude of the shift that happened for me over the last three weeks. I am actually beginning to discover myself as a writer and, dare I say, the joy of writing. I've also continued to discover the appropriate boundaries (time commitments mainly) for this project, so that it doesn't bleed into every other area of my life and dominate it (which is what has happened with every other big writing project I've ever done).”
— Jason Bender, transformational coach, South Korea“Knowing I wanted to write a book but not knowing where to start was an overwhelming prospect. I am grateful to have come across both the Blueprint process and to have engaged in my writing process with Alex, a very skilled writing coach who brings so much to the table. The Blueprint helped me focus on clearly articulating what my book was about, why writing it mattered, who I was writing it for, and why helping the reader on their journey of transformation was important to me. It provided a much-needed solid structure, as I'm not a linear thinker.”
— Theresa Andersen, master self-development coach, Kelowna, BC“I worked with Alex as part of her Steer offering. I had a notion of where I thought I wanted to go with my book. In talking through some Blueprint steps and learning more about my options for publishing, my fuzzy notion became much clearer. I am very thankful for Alex’s help during our fun, collaborative, creative session. It was money well spent for me. Thank you, Alex!”
— Rahul Ray, chief strategic initiatives officer & board chair, Power to Be, Victoria BC