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Writing a book was supposed to be a no-brainer.
I’m a whiz at short-form writing, so my assumption was that I would just know how to write a book. It would spring forth from these delicate piano hands fully-formed! (ish)
Moments after the last word was written, a bidding war would ensue for the right to publish my charming memoir full of ketamine parties, lovable narcissists and delectable summer romances featuring fireside orgies.
Near-universal commercial appeal!
Move over Lady Chatterley!
Turns out that writing a book is not the same as writing emails.
I’ve had to face just how little I know about building a plot and keeping readers curious and hungry for more—as opposed to giving everything away in the very first line, which is what I do with email pretty much 100% of the time. (see above)
I am so glad I found my writing coach Suzy Vadori.
When Suzy first told me there were “industry secrets” that nobody in publishing ever talks about, I was like, “Whatever lady, I’ve read that on about 800 different sales pages so you are going to have to actually prove it.”
…and then she proved it.
First I hired her to help me outline my book, and then I hired her again to provide feedback on the actual writing as I execute the outline we made together.
Never in my history of writing coaching, retreats and programs have I gotten feedback on my writing with this level of specificity. It’s painfully specific—something I love and hate at the same time, in equal portions.
To be fair, broader feedback, community support and process-coaching has been amazingly helpful, but this is different.
Suzy tells me exactly what’s not working in my writing and why. Then she tells me how to make it better.
It feels like I found THE ONLY PERSON IN THE WORLD willing and capable of doing that for me. Her feedback is the most actionable and helpful I’ve gotten on my writing, ever. And she’s actually a very nice lady.
The good news: the book doesn’t suck anymore. It is 1000x better now that Suzy’s brains are on it.
I’m introducing her to you here because many of my subscribers have author-dreams that include having a book on the shelf of their favorite bookstore.
A book that’s actually good.
Not one of those books business people write that’s solely designed to increase brand awareness.
Suzy can break down the exact components of a bestselling book. She reads every book bound for mass-market paperback and can tell you exactly why it sold so well and how to replicate it. I don’t know how she reads that much. She either doesn’t sleep or listens at 3x speed. (Or maybe she does cocaine? ♀️ Totally kidding…cancel, cancel!! Suzy does not do drugs!)
She has a list longer than my arm of people who came to her with book drafts even suckier than mine who went on to get a 5-book deal or ended up in a bidding war with 3 major publishing houses.
Suzy could tell you dozens of those stories, and does.
I really want to be her next success story.
Once our current engagement is done, I already know I’ll hire her to help with the proposal and query letter, so that’s built into my 2023 budget.
So far I’ve spent about $2700 working with her privately, to take me through the outlining process and give feedback on about a hundred pages of writing.
It’s an amazing deal and I love that she doesn’t listen to me when I tell her that, with her level of experience and her impeccable delivery, she should really be charging more.
Her prices mean she gets to work with new authors (clients she really likes) so she’s sticking with them which I think is so smart.
If you want to learn from her, she has a very helpful free class called 3 Secrets to Increase Your Chances of Your Book Getting Published (not an affiliate link), as well as a program that costs less than $500.
We worked on this funnel together last year, which is how I discovered she is 100% the cleverest person in publishing I’ve ever met.
Check her out if you’re an author-wannabe like me. I hope she lights your brains on fire as much as she does mine.
‘Till next week,
Tarzan “Future Bestselling Author” Kay
