Great. I do copyediting (preparing your text for your reader) as a standalone service for all genres of full-length books. Apply on this form.

You don’t need to have been coached by me on your book before getting a copyedit.

Cost?

I work to a tariff that depends on how many words are in your manuscript, and how quickly you need it.

For a book between 50,000 and 75,000 words, I generally charge $2,700 but it depends on how complex the text is (with respect to footnotes, pictures, sidebars, etc).

When you need a copyedit

You are feeling confident that your manuscript or book proposal is pretty much the best you can make it. You have finished “tinkering” with it.

It’s about to go out into the world. And into the wild. To be read by people who don’t know you. Who won’t “make allowances”.

Like all good writers, you are honest with yourself. You have a niggling doubt that you might have misspelt, or misused, some words. Maybe you don’t feel 100% confident using commas or hyphens. Or maybe you worry you have overlooked some errors. We all make them. We’re human.

You don’t want someone changing your words because they think it “sounds better.” You want the things that are wrong to be put right.

You want the grammar, spelling, and punctuation to be correct, line-by-line.

You want accuracy and consistency so your reader is not distracted by mistakes.

That’s the way you make sure your reader will enjoy what you’ve written.

Let me give you a quote for your book. Reach me here.

Every writer and every book is different. There are two constants to consider:

1. where in your own writerly journey you join up with me, and
2. on how hard you are able to work.

If you start working with me when you have the spark of an idea for a book, then writing your book with me could take up to 10 months, or with breaks in between (which you are likely to need), it could take up to 18 months. It could take longer. It’s unlikely to be quicker.

I’m talking about walking along the entire pathway, how I guide you along the route to help you write your book from The Idea to The End. (Scroll up if you missed it.) 

So if you are wondering how long, for example, my service “Write Your Book” takes, where I hold you accountable to your tailored writing plan so you write to the end, that might take 3 months (pretty punishing) or it might take 6 months.

Everyone’s circumstances differ. What I can do for you is to create a plan that is tailored to your specific needs, so that you have the framework and certainty you need to be creative.

How hard to you want to work?

Let me give you some writer case studies so you can get a feel for how the facts might apply to your needs:

Alex: under a publishing contract deadline of 12 months/university professor

Spent 8 months writing a 300-page book. With work commitments, used weekends (with holidays, roughly 2 out 4); allowed 3 months for copyediting and indexing.

Chris: self-publishing to enhance their coaching business. From germ of idea to uploading on Amazon

Being fast to market was important for Chris. 3 months to develop and refine ideas, consider market and readership, and nail down a writing plan; 3 months to write. A 2 month break for editing and indexing. (6 weeks for production). Uploaded to Amazon 8 months after starting work with me.

Like I’ve said elsewhere, everyone’s circumstances differ. What I can do for you is to create a plan that is tailored to your specific needs, so that you have the framework and certainty you need to be creative.

You have nailed one of the most profound questions you can ask me. 

I love to work with writers of books that enhance our understanding of the world around us. By offering their deep knowledge, they encourage their readers to live their best lives.

You might be writing:

• a business book to support your coaching practice
• a work of history
• a work of popular science.

Or you might be making an argument for personal change.

What you have in common with other writers who love to work with me is that you understand the importance of rational thought, scientific knowledge and historical fact.

You also value humility, compassion, and more than a dash of humour.

If your book brings a sense of optimism and joy in life, so much the better.

I like clear boundaries, so it will help to tell you what I do not work with:

• sexual or violent content
• polemics, or writing fuelled by hatred
• books promoting spirituality or religion.

Genre

I coach mostly nonfiction and some memoir. Being dual-qualified in Nonfiction and in Fiction coaching, occasionally I will accept a fiction project.

But I am not a coach for children’s books, short stories, essays, poetry, or screenplays.

It depends on what stage of the book writing process you are at.

For the book not yet born

Book coaching helps you to wrestle with the big ideas of your book.

You get book coaching from the moment you decide you want to get to grips with your book, write it, and finish it. 

The newly born book in need of tending

Editing is where I bring my skill to enhance the reader’s experience of what you have written.

You need an editor to review your manuscript before you self-publish, or before you send your book proposal or manuscript to agents or publishers.

My super-power as an editor is my ability to reflect your own voice in your writing. Read more here.

You have probably picked up by now that I DO NOT GUARANTEE YOU WILL SECURE A PUBLISHER.

If you seek traditional publication, I will do my level best to make sure your Proposal is the best it can be: clear and compelling, well-researched as to audience, readership, marketability. 

But many factors prevent a publisher from making an offer. Only one of those factors is the book proposal itself.

When we work together, I make it so clear that you might not secure a publisher, you get sick of hearing me say it. What I also say is that you have options. We think about your publishing goals and develop the best strategies for you: Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C. I support you throughout the process and if you need to change direction, I’ll show you how.

If you want to know more about the publishing process, open up my application form. Scroll down and find, in the middle of it, a clear explanation of the main routes to publishing. Take it, for free.

Because I work one-to-one with writers, I work with only six at any one time.

Sometimes, I am unable to start working with a client immediately and we might agree to formally start in two, or even three months time. You don’t lose out by this because I will give you a plan of action for the intervening time before we start.

This way. If you can answer “Yes” to all these points, you and your book are ready:

✔️ You have an idea for a book for that won’t go away and nags at you.

✔️ Your attitude to your book is serious. You are prepared to treat it as a professional project. You are not dabbling.

✔️ You keep writing and rewriting and can’t move forward.

✔️ You suspect there is a process to follow but are not sure what it is.

✔️ You understand that it’s a fallacy to need to be ready for coaching. That feeling “unprepared” is the right state to be in. Coaching is not an exam. It’s what a skilled and trained coach does to help you work out what you need to do to feel confident enough to write your book through to the end.

✔️ You love to work with one trusted advisor.

Yes and No. 

Yes

In our work on your Book Proposal, we spend (quite a lot of) time on your Marketing strategy and we devise a plan to a standard designed to convince a traditional publisher that you are serious about selling your book.

If you plan to self-publish, we do the same work. You have to carry out the same plan whether you are traditionally or self-published. 

We research your audience and readership, we look at what is possible, what is a stretch, and discount what is not feasible. We think laterally and we think sensibly. It’s great fun.

No

What I don’t do is to actually carry out the marketing of your book or oversee the activity. There are people whose whole business is the PR and Marketing of books and they are the people to help you with that.

Yes. You pay for my experience, authority, and knowledge of how the US and the UK publishing industry works and for my specialist skill in editing.

I require payment in advance of each book coaching cycle. You and I will agree how many cycles you should start with based on your writing goals.

Or, to schedule time for my editing services, as a line or or a copyeditor, I require a 50% deposit, nonrefundable and paid in advance.

I never, EVER, enter into contingent fee arrangements (“I’ll pay you if I get published by Penguin.” “I can’t pay you now but let’s split the royalties when they flow in, even though you did the work two years ago.”) Nor do I agree to wait for funds to be raised by crowd-sourcing or sponsorship (“I’ll pay you when I’ve raised the funds but let’s start work now.”) 

I am based in the UK and I’m required by law to collect VAT from UK clients: a sales tax of 20%. 

My registration number is GB239376182, which you may need if you are also registered for VAT in the UK or EU. You may be able to set off the VAT you pay me. (Check with your accountant.)

Yes, I’m glad you asked me that. We need to talk about AI.

Any of these big language model tools, Co-Pilot, Chat GPT, etc, are great for prompts at the initial brain-storming stage of projects if you are really stuck. A jumping-off point, only.

But to help you write the text of your book? No.

No, no, no.

You do know, don’t you, that these tools are only resourcing their answers from huge text banks filled with other people’s words? 

The spectres of plagiarism and breach of copyright should be rising up in front of your writing desk.

If you apply to coach with me, I will ask you to confirm that no part of your book is, or will be, written using generative predictive text (GPT).

Best not mention this in polite circles, but I have been a practicing lawyer for nearly 40 years. You can trust me.

I’m saying this not because I am a lawyer but because by being a lawyer, I am still an officer of the Supreme Court, and a member of the Law Society, of England and Wales.

So, if I breach your confidentiality by discussing or plagiarising your book or book idea, they will think of more inventive ways to hurt to me than by just killing me.

I thought you’d never ask. 🤓

ruthbullivant.com/legal/

When you press Submit, your answers will come straight to my inbox.

I’ll read them carefully and email you my advice on your best course of action.

In one coaching cycle, I set you pieces of work to move you towards your book goal. I give you written support as you work, answering questions you have along the way, I give you feedback on your finished assignment and direction on your next steps. We have an hour-long call by Zoom to discuss your progress, and your questions. All this is designed to keep you moving towards your goals.

Average monthly cost

Writers I start work with find it helpful to know what the whole landscape could look like to write their book from start to finish, and how long it could take to start submitting to agents and publishers from the moment they talk to me about their idea for a book. Up to 18 months.

A client determined to write and finish their book deserves to know that over, say, a 10-month period, or even an 18-month period, they may (may) go through ten cycles of coaching.

For budgeting purposes, consider the average monthly cost over an 18-month period, to keep it in proportion.

Step-by-step

Your coaching journey is broken up into small parts. So, if you start with the germ of an idea and want to get your headline book plan clear, you work in one cycle of coaching with me: Your Book on a Page. 

If you don’t want to go any further with me for any reason, that’s it. You’ve spent the price of one cycle, and then you can walk away.

But if you love your experience of book coaching (committed writers do), then we move onto Your Book’s Foundations.

And then onto Your Book Proposal, then your Plan to Publish, and accountability as you Write Your Book, and then the all-important Copyedit before submission or publishing.

Each stage is separate and we discuss if you want to move onto the next stage.