Coaching Skills for Editors

Editor Aimee Walker explains how coaching can diversify the freelance editor's skillset in this practical and insightful one-day workshop. Coaching is becoming more and more popular as an increasing number of authors are looking for personalised support during and after the writing process. Coaching is a natural fit for a lot of editors who may already be offering a similar level of support to authors but haven’t yet defined it as a service. This jam-packed course is designed for editors who want to diversify their existing services and offer coaching to authors and clients. Over the day Aimee will help you understand what coaching is, how you can adapt approaches to coaching to suit your way of working, and how you can introduce coaching to your services. We’ll use real-life case studies to explore different methods of approaching clients’ needs. There will be lots of discussion and exercises so that by the end of the day you will feel confident and ready to coach! We’ll cover: What is coaching? Different approaches to coaching; the difference between coaching and developmental editing; helpful skills and how to develop them Delivery What a coaching session looks like; setting goals; understanding and defining clients’ individual needs (client-centred coaching) Adding coaching as a service How coaching can fit into your business; how to make the most of your current skillset; what to charge; how to find clients Boundaries and troubleshooting How to protect yourself: contracts and boundaries; the role of supervision; dealing with problems (difficult clients, tricky issues) Aimee Walker is a writing coach and editor specialising in romance and women’s fiction. Through Aimee Walker Editorial (AWE), she works with authors at every stage of the process, from concept to publication. She is passionate about helping women self-publish and having romance respected as much as other genre fiction. Her background in education and therapeutic counselling resulted in a natural affinity to working with indie authors, and she uses a very collaborative and coaching-based approach with her clients. Alongside her work with writers, Aimee runs The Coaching Compass where she helps writing coaches and editors develop their skills and businesses through teaching, mentoring, supervision and coaching. Aimee also delivers courses for the CIEP and is the local group coordinator for Northern Ireland. When she isn’t working Aimee can be found pottering in her garden with her menagerie of animals. You can find her at www.awepress.com or on Instagram @aimeewalkereditorial. NOTE: There will be a lunch break and two short comfort breaks during the day. The Irish Writers Centre is unfortunately not wheelchair accessible.