Services

Bruce McAllister provides coaching and consulting services to both new and established writers. As a coach he helps writers get started writing, overcome any chronic or sudden writers blocks, and continue writing whether it is traditional journaling, creative journal writing, or writing toward one or more finished writing products (books, screenplays, short stories, articles, poetry). His first goal is to help the writer choose the kind of writing and project–by genre, craft and subject matter–truest to her or him since such writing will inevitably be the best written and the most publishable.

As coach and consultant, Bruce’s immediate goal is to see any writer launched as quickly as possible in the right direction–whether that direction is (l) deciding on the right client-tailored process for getting a book’s first draft written, (2) getting the client’s book in shape craft-wise (along with dynamite query letters and book proposals) to submit to agents and publishers for traditional (“legacy”) publishing, (3) deciding (if  “legacy” publishing isn’t the goal) which of the many options for physical and digital self-publishing is the wisest for the client”s case, (4) ensuring excellent “product” for self-publishing (cover art and design, back-cover copy, endorsements, line-editing, proofing, etc.), or (5) deciding how to best initiate and maintain promotional efforts for the client’s book (whether self-published or traditionally published) using the right mix of the following:  author websites, endorsements, social media, other community-platform cultivation, book trailers, advertising, collateral writing, book publicists, and other promotional strategies.

Evaluation of a complete book manuscript or screenplay, whatever stage or draft, usually takes 3-4 hours; partial book manuscript, screenplay, or assortment of poems, articles or short stories, 2-3 hours. An evaluation provides a long email or phone critique of the work with some follow-up email exchange to clarify the craft matters needing attending to. Most writers blocks, no matter how persistent or immobilizing they have been for a writer, usually takes 1-4 hours to resolve. Coaching on an ongoing basis–by email, phone and/or face-to-face conferences–can be effective at as little as 2-3 hours per month; and his clients range from those who consult with him for an initial 2-6 hours and then go off to pursue their writing and writing projects on their own, through clients who retain him for daily or weekly coaching for extended periods of time. Every writer is different–by goals, experience, life schedule and budget.

Work is billed by informal e-invoice after work is completed, and installments are acceptable. Bruce works within a writer’s budget whatever its size.