Anybody can become a successful book coach with the right training and support. What I mean by that is you don't have to have an MFA or an English degree or anything like that. There are lawyers who become book coaches, stay-at-home moms that become book coaches, dog groomers, teachers, technology wizards, nurses you name it. I think that's one of the great things about a career path like book coaching you can really come from anywhere. So any kind of past job or whatever, and make it work. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming, so each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So, whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes with me throughout my entire work week and I'm going to share with you what I'm working on, what big projects I'm focused on right now and basically anything that happens during the week, including any fun or interesting insights that come up as I work with other writers. Every time I do one of these episodes, I get so much feedback from listeners saying that you love this kind of peek behind the scenes. So I will definitely keep doing these type of episodes, probably about once a quarter. I personally really like doing these kind of episodes too, because I'm always curious to see how other people set up their day and decide what they're working on or how they prioritize things or how they actually choose what they're going to focus on that week. So I thought you might be curious to know what I do all day as an editor and a book coach. You know what I focus on, how I navigate through all of my action items and things like that. So that's what this episode is all about and, without further ado, let's dive right in for a Sunday update. Okay, so it's Sunday evening and this is my first entry for our behind the scenes podcast episode.

If you've heard one of these behind the scenes episodes before, you already know that I like to set aside some time on Sundays to go over my schedule for the upcoming week, just to see what's going on and to mentally prepare for what's coming. So I'm doing that now in the evening, because we took the dogs to the dog swimming pool earlier today so they can hang out with their best friend, who is also my Golden's brother, so he's both of their brothers, so that was really fun, and they are all now completely exhausted, which is great for me to be able to have some quiet time to look at my schedule. So, looking ahead, this week it is a big video week. I have three different events where I need to be live on camera and, although I love doing these kind of events, I'm always super tired afterwards. So now that I'm taking a look at my calendar and I see those events, I know it's going to be really important for me to bake some downtime into my schedule if I want to be operating at my best for the rest of the week.

Now you might be wondering why the heck would you schedule three live videos in a week if you're someone who needs to heavily recharge after each one of them? And the answer is that I've learned that this is just what works best for me. So I can definitely, you know, power through a week of doing live videos every day or every other day. As long as I bake in some downtime and as long as I know it's just going to be this way for a week and then next week I'll get to be a little more of an introvert. If I didn't batch my live videos this week, so let's say I did one to two every single week, instead of doing three to four in one week here and there, I know myself and I would definitely burn out. So unfortunately, I have learned that from experience and, yeah, I don't know, it just works better for me for some reason to kind of batch them all together in a week. I think it's helpful for my brain to have a time limit on things like this that don't necessarily come naturally for me. So, for example, you know, being on live video or just extroverting in general, that is not my natural state of being, so it takes a little bit more energy.

So I'll talk more about what those live videos are once we get into the actual updates for each day of the week. But other than that, I know I'm also recording an interview for this podcast on Wednesday, I'm doing a live office hours call with my membership on Thursday and then I have to finalize the copy edits for my upcoming book, the Story Grid Masterwork Analysis Guide to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is coming out in July, and that's super exciting. I'll talk more about that at some point during this episode. And then, yeah, a bunch of other random things like planning some future episodes of the podcast, finalizing some things for my advanced reader team and things like that. So I think this will be a really fun week for you to follow along and see what I do as an editor and a book coach, and I think I'll go ahead and end my Sunday update there and I'll be back tomorrow morning with another update, so I will talk to you then. Update there and I'll be back tomorrow morning with another update, so I will talk to you then.

Hey there, it's Monday morning now and I've got a busy day ahead of me. I need to plan out a few different episodes of the podcast because I do have some time to record them next week. So I'll plan them out and get my bullet points together for each episode this week and then, once I feel good about the topics I've chosen and you know the brain dumping I've done I will record the audio and do all that behind the scenes work next week or the week after. I think I've mentioned this before, but I try to batch as much of the podcast work as I can. So let's say I'm in the mood where I like to, you know, plan out an episode or brain dump my thoughts about different topics. If I'm in that kind of mood, I'll try to do three to five episodes at once. So that's what I mean by batching, and then I'll try to record multiple episodes on the same day, either whenever I have time or whenever I feel like recording episodes. And I like to do this because it helps me feel like I'm not always working on the podcast. Not that I don't have fun working on the podcast, because I do. I actually really love it but I also really like variety in my workday and my work weeks. So batching helps me have that kind of variety and it also helps me make space for the other things, like working on my own writing or presenting at summits or whatever else I'm doing. So for me, batching the podcast has been very, very helpful to do.

Now, after that, I need to write some emails, so I will be speaking at ProWritingAid's Crime Writers Week that's coming up in June. So that runs from June 17th through the 21st, and I need to write the emails that promote that event. I'm actually a little bit late on doing these, so normally I would have had them written and scheduled already, but because I've been working on finalizing my book, which I'll talk about in a second, some of the things I typically do have gotten a bit off schedule, which is fine because I know that I will make up for those. So today I need to write those emails. I need to also finalize the presentation I'm giving on the 19th. That's going to be all about using red herrings to misdirect and surprise readers, and this is a topic I love talking about, because red herrings and following the clues and guessing the twists in a book is one of my favorite things as a reader. So it's been extra fun as an editor and a coach to kind of pick apart how all those things work, and I'm super excited to present on that topic.

So that's the next big thing I need to do today, and then after that I need to finalize the copy edits for my book that's coming out in July, which is the Story Grid Analysis Guide to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. So essentially, this is a book that explains how and why Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone works, both from an editor's perspective and through the lens of the Story Grid's tools, and it's meant to be kind of a guidebook for writers who want to write a story like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. So whether that means a middle grade book, a fantasy book or a story that falls into the action content genre, this is meant to be a guidebook for writers who are working on those kind of projects and really just anyone who wants to learn more about how stories are put together and who appreciates the Harry Potter series. And I'm going to do another episode that goes into more detail about the entire process of analyzing that story and writing this book. But this week specifically, I need to finalize the copy edits and send them back to the StoryGrid, who are the publishers of this book. So I need to go through those today and I'll report back at the end of the day what that was like, and I think that's probably a good place to end this morning's update. So I will be back later with another update to let you know how the day went, what else came up and things like that. So I will talk to you later tonight.

Okay, I'm back for a Monday evening update now and I'm happy to report that I got all the big things on my to-do list done today. So I finished my presentation for ProWritingAid's Crime Writers Week. I wrote the emails promoting that event, I planned out three different podcast episodes and finalized the copy edits on my book and sent those in. The copy editors' suggestions were excellent and the biggest thing I realized while going through them is that I love em dashes and use the word that way too much. Spelling and grammar are not my area of expertise because I tend to write like I talk, so I'm very glad that the folks at StoryGrid knew a great copy editor for me to work with on this book, and it has been a few weeks since I saw the last draft, so it was actually pretty fun going back through it and I'm very excited to share it with you in July, which I can't believe is already next month, and I will have more info on that for you soon. But for now, if you want to get on the waitlist, to be the first to hear when it's available and to get all kinds of special pre-order bonuses, you can go to savannahgilbocom slash HP and get on the waitlist. And when you get on the waitlist, I will even send you a playlist of past podcast episodes where Abigail K Perry and I broke down the opening chapter of each Harry Potter book to see how and why they worked, plus how the opening chapters changed as the series went on and moved from middle grade to young adult. So one more time to get on the waitlist and to get that playlist you can can go to savannahgilbocom forward slash HP. So overall, today was actually really productive.

I tend to block off Mondays because I like to have a day reserved for working on my business and there's something about the start of a new week that just makes me feel really productive. I know that's a little bit strange. It wasn't always that way for me. I used to really dread Mondays when I worked in a corporate job, but for some reason now I love them and I love having a whole day to work on my business. So that's exactly what I did. Now, tomorrow I have my first live video of the week. It's a webinar with Jenny Nash, the CEO of Author Accelerator, and it's all about how I built my book coaching business. I'll explain more about it tomorrow, but for now I'm going to go eat some dinner and take the pups on a walk before bed and, yeah, I'll catch up with you bright and early tomorrow morning. Bye for now, hello, and happy Tuesday morning.

I'm back for our early morning update. It's actually 7.30 am right now when I'm recording this and I'm up and functioning earlier than normal today because I'm doing a webinar with Jenny Nash, the CEO of Author Accelerator, at 9 am and I need some time to drink coffee and become a functioning human first. I don't know if you know this about me, but I am not a morning person. I like to stay up late. I'm a big night owl. I actually don't know if you know this about me, but I am not a morning person. I like to stay up late. I'm a big night owl. I actually don't mind waking up early, but it does take me a while to function and have a personality. So that's where I'm at Now.

This webinar today is going to be super fun. By the time this episode goes live, the webinar will be over, but there might be a replay available and if there is, I will put it in the show notes. But basically it's for anybody who wants to become a book coach or who is thinking about becoming a book coach and wants to see what's possible through someone else's story, and that someone else just happens to be me today. So I'm hanging out with Jenny Nash and other certified coaches or people who want to become certified coaches and just kind of talking about how I built my business and answering questions and things like that. And I'm excited for it because when it comes to business and stuff like that, I am an open book, so people can ask me anything and I'm happy to help and share my experience. But also I like talking about business and marketing and things like that. So I'm looking forward to it and I know it's going to be really fun.

The other thing I'm doing today is going to the doctor, and I'm kind of mad at myself for not going to the doctor sooner. You've probably been able to hear in my voice that I'm not 100% healthy right now, but I'm the type of person who kind of lives in denial of the fact that they're sick until it's really bad and then regrets not getting help sooner. So that is where I'm at today. I'm pretty sure I have bronchitis and I need to do something for it because it's affecting my sleep. So I'm going to the doctor right after my webinar with Jenny.

Now, I know this has nothing to do with writing a book or being a book coach or an editor, but I wanted to mention this because I feel like there's someone out there who is either putting everyone else first and themselves last, or someone who isn't quite taking care of themselves as much as they know they should and they're delaying self-care, whatever that looks like, and I guess I just want to remind you that you are worth taking the time to take care of yourself and put yourself first. So not sure who needs to hear that message besides myself, of course, because I totally need that message this week and I should have taken care of myself sooner. But whoever you are, whoever's listening, who needs this message? You are worth it. You are worth taking the time to put yourself first sometimes, and I encourage you to do so this week. So, with that being said, we'll go ahead and end my morning update there. I'll be back later to let you know how the webinar and everything else went, and I will talk to you then. Bye for now.

Okay, it's Tuesday evening now and I am officially on medication that's already helping me feel better, so thank goodness for that, but also the webinar with Jenny went really well this morning. If you're listening to this episode and you came to the webinar, thank you so much for coming and asking great questions. It was super, super fun and I'm so thankful to everyone who took the time out to show up live. It's really cool to see how many people are drawn to book coaching from so many different kinds of backgrounds, see how many people are drawn to book coaching from so many different kinds of backgrounds and, even cooler, to see how really anybody can become a successful book coach with the right training and support. So what I mean by that is you don't have to have an MFA or an English degree or anything like that. There are lawyers who become book coaches, stay-at-home moms that become book coaches, dog groomers, teachers, technology wizards, nurses you name it. I think that's one of the great things about a career path like book coaching. You can really come from anywhere, so any kind of past job or whatever and make it work. Plus, it's just super fun and, of course, you can become a better writer in the process too. So you know perks of the job and all that right. I will put a link to Author Accelerator's book coaching certification program in the show notes if you want to check out their program, which I do highly recommend for anybody who wants to become a book coach or is just thinking it sounds super cool and wants to find out more about it.

Okay, so what else happened today? I had a coaching call with a writer who is almost done with her third draft and that is going well and it's very exciting. I got a text message from another writer I've worked with in the past and she showed me the book cover for her upcoming release and it looks amazing. So I'm very happy for her too. And the last thing I did today was I prepared for two interviews I have tomorrow. So one is for an upcoming virtual summit and the other is an interview for an upcoming episode of this podcast. So I prepared for those. I'll talk more about them in detail tomorrow, but yeah, it was a pretty full day and I'm pretty tired, not just from extroverting, but I think also admitting to myself that I'm actually sick has finally given me permission to rest and take it easy. So that's what I'm going to do.

I'll be back tomorrow with a Wednesday update, so I will talk to you then. Good morning, happy Wednesday. I'm back for a very quick morning update because I have to jump right on two calls straight away this morning. Like I mentioned yesterday, I'm doing two interviews today, so one is for a summit coming up in the fall and then after that I'm going to a business coaching call because I am part of this really awesome mastermind that meets once a week, so sometimes for training, sometimes for group coaching and things like that, and today just happens to be a group coaching session. So I'm really looking forward to that and, yeah, I'll share all the details when I come back for an update this evening. So bye for now. I will talk to you soon.

Okay, I'm back for a Wednesday evening update and I'm glad to say that everything went well. All the interviews went well and the business group coaching I was a part of was super fun too. In the first interview of the day, I talked to Gabriela Pereira of DIY MFA about genre and why it's so important for authors to know their genre so they can write a story that works, and all that fun stuff. This was for a summit that Gabriela is hosting in the fall and I will definitely send out emails about it closer to the date, so if you're not on my email list yet, make sure to sign up to get those updates. The second interview I had was with Laura Ferrari, and we talked about using social media in a way that's fun and not overwhelming, and I'm so excited to share this conversation with you. I think it's going to blow your mind in a good way, but that episode won't air until August or September, so stay tuned for that. It's going to be a really good one.

Now, the other thing I did today is I planned out everything for the ARC reader team and my street team for my upcoming book launch. If you're not familiar with these terms, an ARC reader team is basically a team of advanced readers. Team is basically a team of advanced readers, so ARC or A-R-C means advanced reader copy, and it's people who will get access to my book before it's officially published in exchange for an honest review. And a street team is a group of people who will help me hype up the book when it launches and essentially just generate excitement around it to help me spread the word during publish week. I know that some people have one team where these functions overlap, but I really see them as two separate things with two separate yet similar purposes, so that's why I have them broken out into an ARC team and a street team. So I planned out the communication for my ARC team and street team. I finalized some details around the pre-order bonus package that I'm super excited about, so basically, anybody who buys my book will get a handful of bonuses. Think things like a live call with me and Abigail who, like I mentioned, was my editor for this project Behind the scenes, deep dive into my analysis of one of the scenes in the Harry Potter book and some other goodies that I don't want to spoil just yet Now.

I have never run an ARC reader team or a street team before, but I'm really excited to see what happens with it and you bet I will keep you posted on how the launch goes and all that fun stuff. I'll probably even do an episode about it after the book launches over, which I think will be really fun just to see how everything went. And yes, I am opening up the ARC Reader Invite to everyone on my email list. So if you're not subscribed, that is another good reason to go subscribe right now. If you go to savannahgilbocom forward, slash HP, that will subscribe you to my newsletter and put you on the waitlist for early access to my book. So one more time that's savannahgilbocom forward, slash HP and I think, to subscribe to my newsletter, get on that waitlist for early access and get some goodies in the future. And I think that's where I'm going to end our update today.

Tomorrow I have two live videos, so it's going to be kind of a big day and I'll explain what those are all about tomorrow. But, yeah, I will talk to you more in the morning and say goodbye for now. Hello, hello, it's Thursday morning and today I have two live calls on the agenda. So that's what I'm doing for about three hours today, and then I'll probably be exhausted. So we'll see what else I can get done, if anything. Sometimes I have to remind myself it's totally okay to not work every hour of every day. So this might be one of those days where I take the afternoon off and spend time with the dogs or, you know, do something to recharge my batteries. So we'll see what happens.

But the first call I have this morning is with Abigail K Perry and Tim Grahl, and we're recording two episodes for the Story Grids YouTube channel that will air sometime in July when my book comes out. So Abigail was my editor on this project and she is just as invested in the project and in the Harry Potter books as I am, and it will be super fun to continue to nerd out on all the things with her, because we could do that every single day of the week and never get sick of it. Tim Grawl is the CEO of StoryGrid and, like I mentioned earlier in the episode, they are the publisher for this book. So, essentially, we're going to chat about the book and the process for analyzing it and how it can be a tool to help writers and things like that, and our goal is to record two episodes worth of content today. So we'll see what we accomplish in the two-hour window we've set aside, but I feel pretty good that we will get it all done Now.

The purpose of recording this kind of stuff and having it air in July is to build that awareness and hype around the book. If you have a book coming out soon, or even if you know that it's on your list for someday in the future, this is something you'll have to think about. So building awareness and hype around your book when it's officially published. So what we're recording today is just a small part of what's planned in the month of July. It's part of that bigger launch and marketing plan and throughout the month of July and early August, if you watch my emails and social media and podcast content, you'll get to see all the stuff we're doing to promote the book. Of course, it's June when I'm recording this, so I don't know how any of our marketing efforts will work out just yet, but I'm feeling very excited about what is planned and, like I mentioned earlier, I will most likely do an episode of the podcast some point in the future recapping what we did and what worked and the things I learned and stuff like that. I feel like, as a writer who is, you know, going to publish a book someday, that would be very interesting to see. So we will put that on the list of episodes to record. So, anyway, that's one thing I'm doing today.

The second live call I'm doing is an office hours call with the writers in my membership. So basically, writers are invited into my membership after they've gone through the Notes to Novel program and they want that kind of ongoing support from me, an outline and writing a first draft and things like that, and then my membership is about everything that happens after and in these office hours. Calls. It's kind of a free-for-all, so people can ask me questions, we can brainstorm things together. I pull up people's pages on the screen and edit them in real time or coach them through sticking points. You know things like that.

Basically, I'm there for whatever the writers in my membership need, and we do this twice a month and it's really fun. It's one of my favorite parts of the week. Every single time we have one of these calls and I just love every single human that's in my membership and it's so cool that they show up to these calls and ask questions and share their work. I mean, we all know it's not super easy to share work, you know, especially with strangers on the internet. So it's very know it's not super easy to share work, you know, especially with strangers on the internet. So it's very fun, it's wonderful and I'm very much looking forward to that call today. So that's what I'll be doing and I'll be back later this evening to let you know how everything went. So I'll talk to you then.

Hey there, it's Friday evening and I am so tired. I think the entire week and all of the extroverting and live videos has finally caught up with me, and I ended up having to take a nap earlier this afternoon because I was so tired. But both calls went really well and everything that needed to be accomplished was accomplished, so I feel like today was a win. After the calls and my nap, I made my dogs food, which, if you've ever heard one of these behind-the-scenes episodes before, you know that I do that about one to two times per week. So today was one of those days. This time we tried out the fish and sweet potato recipe from Just Food for Dogs, which I can already tell is going to be a big winner. All three of my dogs were crowding me in the kitchen as I cooked their food and they just gobbled it up when it was dinner time. So definitely going to have to put that recipe in the rotation.

Someone asked me the other day how often I cook for my dogs and I said one to two times per week, which I know sounds like a lot, but remember, I have three dogs and two of them are big. So my girl Luna she's about 35 pounds, she's a Shiba Inu. And then I have two golden retrievers, forrest and Hudson. One of them is 65 pounds and the other is almost 80 pounds. So collectively they eat a lot of food. If you have one dog or two small dogs and you want to try cooking for your dog, you won't have to make food as often as I do. So I know it sounds like a lot, but again, I have three dogs and it is a lot. Right, it's a lot to cook for three dogs, but totally worth it. I use the recipes from Just Food for Dogs and if you want to learn more about them and see what they're all about, you can go to savannahgilbocom forward slash food for dogs. So that's one word food for dogs and I will also put that link in the show notes for you, if you're interested.

Okay, so that's it for Thursday. Believe it or not, I have no calls scheduled tomorrow, so it's kind of a catch up day and I know I'll be doing a lot of random stuff. So I'll update you on what that looks like, bright and early tomorrow morning. So I'll say good night and bye for now. Hey there, I'm back for a Friday update. It's actually Friday afternoon right now and I'm only going to do one update today because I'm calling it a day a little early and I'm going to take the dogs to the park and get a head start on the weekend.

So what I have done today already I had to go back through my plans for my launch team and my arc team and my ARC team and start executing on some of the plans I made. So I laid out the emails that I want to send to my ARC reader team and my street team earlier in the week and today I had to kind of start building the framework for those emails and writing those emails and, you know, just making sure everything made sense for what I wanted to do and the timeline and things like that. I also had to go through and update my monthly expenses and things like that, which is never very fun. But yeah, that's one of those things that I try to get done every month so that you know, I know what I'm doing in my business and at the end of the year taxes are easier and stuff like that. So I won't go too much into that because it's not very exciting.

But what is exciting is I actually had two writers get in touch with me today. One of them is somebody that I've worked with in the last 12 months and she told me that she's had two amazing calls with two amazing agents this week and now she has a really cool problem and that's deciding between the two agents. So which one does she want to represent her? And we had a good chat about that today and I think she's made up her mind. So it'll be really fun to see what comes out of that. But I love getting those calls and it's just so fun to see all of a writer's hard work pay off.

The second piece of good news is that another writer that I worked with a few years ago. They got in touch with me and they said, hey, this agent liked my work, but I got an R&R request. So an R&R request is a request to revise and resubmit and luckily for this writer in this instance, they got some feedback from this potential agent. So I wouldn't say it's normal to get specific feedback from agents in most cases, but in this instance she did get specific feedback on specific things that this agent wanted her to revise and then she would reread and consider offering her representation. So she emailed me and just said, like, hey, I have all this feedback. I don't really know what to do. I'm excited. I don't know where to start. Can you help me, and things like that. So I think that's always fun to see. We hear a lot of stories about agents giving vague feedback or kind of general rejections and things like that, but every now and then I'll see a writer who gets nice and specific feedback. That is very helpful and I think it's very encouraging that she did get an R&R request, so very happy for her. That's basically what I did today Went through emails, got the inbox down and just kind of cleaned up some you know last minute stuff and, like I said, taking a partial day today because I am a little sick and I'm just ready for the weekend.

So we're going to take the dogs to the park and do something fun with them and then probably watch some TV or a movie or something like that tonight, which is always fun. So this weekend I'm going to rest, I'm going to read, I am currently watching the show on Apple TV called Foundation, which I'm really liking. Probably catch up on that a little bit. And yeah, that's the end of this Week in the Life episode. So I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride this week.

I know I had fun sharing a behind the scenes peek with you. I got to share some things that I don't typically get to talk about on this podcast, because I'm usually talking about how to write, edit or publish a book, and it was just really fun taking you behind the scenes and sharing some of the things I don't get to share very much. So I hope you enjoyed the journey and I'll be back next week with another brand new episode, so I will talk to you then. So that's it for today's episode. As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support.

If you wanna check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode inside your podcast player or or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another brand new episode next week, full of actionable tips, tools and strategies to help you become a better writer. So I'll see you next week and until then, happy writing.