Are you among those passionate writers who once started with excitement, enthusiasm, and joy, but soon all swept away?
Your manuscript may be languishing on your bookshelf or in your drawer that you had started with your creative brain. But sadly, your creativity, writing style, or something else was lacking that prevented you from completing it.
And now your manuscript is waiting for you to start working on it once again and finish it. It screams in the darkness of the night:
“Take me out! Complete me with your creativity and share me with the world. Don’t me alooooone like this!!!”
While it is resting in doubt, just like most manuscripts, you should change its destiny. You may have one or another confusion about what roadmap to take to turn your incomplete manuscript into a bestseller. Nonetheless, the voice inside you may know the answer and it is to choose the right book writing mentor for you.
7 Key Steps to Select the Right Book Writing Mentor
You may come across different guides in this context, but they may lack some important tips or their narrative is complex. Consequently, we have come up with seven strategic and detailed steps to acquaint you with the proper procedure. Explore them to embark on your journey to literary success:
Assess Your Requirements
Have you ever stepped out of your home without any destination in mind? Probably not, right? Similarly, you shouldn’t start your search without defining your objectives clearly. Identifying your goals will help you direct your hunt towards them. It will let you determine the reason you need a mentor.
Whether it is as you want to hone a particular writing style, complete your novel, or break into a completely new genre, identifying the cause always helps. Suppose you’re writing for the first them on the horror theme and want to create suspense in your story. You may look for a mentor who is an expert within the same genre to get their insights and benefit from their expertise.
Assessing yourself honestly will help you determine your strengths and areas for enhancement. Pinpointing your weaknesses will enable you to figure out the specific guidance you need.
Research About Mentors
Once you have gained clarity about your requirements, research the potential mentors. Conduct thorough research to find the one that aligns with your needs, preferences, and goals. Take a vigilant look at writing forums, social media groups, and online platforms where different writers get together.
Camp Nanowrimo, Critique Circle, Critters Workshop, and Fictionaut are some top websites where you can access to online writing communities. Authors actively engage with each other, share insights, and demonstrate their expertise. Look into their writing style or genre to shortlist the relevant ones.
Get recommendations from your fellow writers, colleagues, or anyone within your network to find a suitable book-writing mentor. Personal endorsements are a great way to get valuable insights about a guru’s effectiveness and compatibility with your requirements. If you like reading any blogger or social media content creator, see whether they guide other writers. And if they do, send them a customized note to find out whether they’re open to your idea.
Get in A Suitable Writing Community
Joining a writing community will help you get insights that you won’t otherwise. Reading the content of others isn’t enough. Sometimes, they look appropriate for considering them as a guru. However, the sooner you realize the reality is the opposite if you communicate with them. Therefore, join a suitable writing community whether in-person or online where you can closely observe potential mentors.
It will increase your chances of meeting likely writing partners or possible gurus. Becoming a member of a writing organization is another amazing source to find the best guide. Author’s Guild, Romance Writers of America, International Women’s Writing Guild, and National Writers Union are a few that you should consider.
Enroll Yourself in In-Person Classes
In case, you’re a MFA student of creative writing discipline, aiming to write your first ever book, consider your professor. Even if you’re taking classes at your local community college, your instructor can turn into your good mentor. Carefully observe them while attending their lectures to determine whether they match with your requirements.
Your colleagues’ suggestions will also help in this case. If you’re not studying anything at the moment, enrol yourself in a course related to creative writing. It will serve as a good start and drive you closer to your dreams of becoming a successful author.
Who knows you might come across a professor or colleague who is worth considering your guru.
Behave Like a Private Investigator
You will have some options in your mind once you have implemented the above steps. It is the right time to behave like a private investigator and get more information about them. If they’re an online personality, such as a blogger or an author, wander around their blog posts and official website.
We suggest you consider a book writer as your guru to align your search right away with your goals. Later, scroll your wandering eye through their social accounts to get a glimpse into their personality. If they seem genuine, friendly, and talented, you should prioritize them.
Act like how you have ever seen an investigator behave in movies, series, or books. Look for every bit to closely watch them, whether it is their email list, podcasts, interviews, or YouTube appearances. Be all ears to what they say or think about writers, writing, creativity, publishing, reading, and promoting books.
Get In Touch and Communicate
You may have spent your quality time and attention while reading, watching, and listening to your potential book coaches. Now, you would have got a clear idea about which ones deserve your time (and money). Only get in touch with them one-on-one whether in-person or online.
Have a detailed conversation with them to determine whether they are the best mentor in New Zealand. If your ideas don’t excite them, then what makes you think they will correctly guide you and inject personality into your book?
Here are a bunch of questions to ask yourself after talking to them. They will help you make your final decision:
Can you trust them with your ideas, secrets, and well-being?
Are you comfortable with going up to them with any writing or mindset?
Do you feel safe and supported under their mentorship?
Do they help you transform your ideas or thoughts into compelling manuscripts?
Will they tell you the truth and will you be able to calmly hear it?
Do they have a clear and solid coaching process?
Create and Sign a Contract
If you’ve communicated thoroughly with your potential mentor and your answer to the above questions is positive, they’re the one you’ve been looking for. You would finally get assurance about your decision after taking two to three mentorship sessions from them. Express your genuine admiration and gratitude for their acceptance.
If you’ve hired a reliable and reputable agency, the process will be comparatively easy. Their customer representative will connect you with the most viable book-writing guru. And your journey to literary success will begin from there. You won’t have to worry about your secrets getting leaked.
However, things would be quite different and may feel a bit difficult if you choose to work with a mentor. Sign a contract with them that has clauses about pricing, confidentiality, etc. Schedule your days and timings of meeting. It is up to you how often you want to conduct meet-ups with them. Inform them about your pace, so everything goes to your best regards.
Go Forth and Start Your Writing Journey!
How do you feel about choosing the right book writing mentor for you now? Your worries would have decreased by now. Isn’t it? You may probably feel less on pins and needles after getting familiar with the entire process.
If you go through all these seven steps, you’ll find the best book coach who will help you write the bestseller. So, don’t wait any longer and begin your journey to come under the right mentorship umbrella. Best wishes!
