Book Doula

Establishing the flow of a book through structuring and sequencing is one of its most important core factors. Writers are often so close to the sequence in which they write that creative rearrangements that enhance the book can be hard to spot. As a fresh eye who is tenderly stewarding your best book to come forth, I can respectfully suggest powerful (re)structuring and (re)sequencing that makes your book flow even more potently and magnetically for your readers.

In the process of structuring and sequencing review, it’s often discovered that the book can benefit from additional new content to bring it even more to life. This can include anything from some introductory or transitional sentences or paragraphs here and there to whole new chapters, introductions/forewords, dedications, appendices, footnotes to illustrations, images, tables, charts, infographics or photographs. Some authors enjoy creating the new content; others choose to leave that to me.

New content creation often calls for new research. It can be as simple as making sure citations are accurate and noted and as beautifully in-depth as seeking out data whose story is made visible with dynamic visual infographics, finding illustrative case studies, interviewing people for compelling quotations, hunting for great royalty-free images to enhance your story and so on. I love research, so I am happy and delighted to take on as much or as little of the research as you wish. If you are a kindred datahead, collaborative research to enhance your book can be one of the most enjoyable and enlivening aspects of our book-birthing partnership.

We all hopefully learn somewhere along the way that “it’s what’s inside that matters”. This is ever true of books. Your story is the essence of your book, but the “clothes” it wears in terms of the font and print color, the page size, the paper color and design embellishments make a big difference in whether that essence is expressed in its fullness. It’s often surprising to the writers I work with what a difference these seemingly small things make. The stories make the resonant interior design details known to me, and the process and sharing of this revelation is always a delight.

Ah, copy editing and proofing… Usually the least favorite part of book-birthing for writers and even for executive editors. When you work so hard to conceive of and nurture your baby into book form, often the last thing you feel like doing after completing the labor of your manuscript delivery is delving into the details of looking for every missing period, hunting for extra spaces and catching those pesky typos. I have a strangely preternatural superpower radar for copy editing and proofing, as does my optional second proofreader. Just looking at a page, my eye is magnetically drawn to what’s missing or doesn’t belong. I get a kick out of this phenomenon, so copy editing and proofing is one of my favorite parts. Of course, eagle eyes are always welcome, so if you love copy editing and proofing too, the more, the merrier!

Even the simplest books have a lot of moving parts. Fortunately, I’ve established a simple and proven successful stress-free system for production management – including the all-important multidraft version control – that saves your attention from having to keep track of all the cogs and milestones of getting your story into book form so you can concentrate on the creative part. I keep the book plan and timeline front and center on my dashboard to keep things moving along in an orderly and timely way.