Writer Mama Riffs on Raising A Writing Career Alongside Your Kids

Hiya writer mamas,

Are you dreaming of road-trips and BBQs and your feet sinking into the sand? I know I am!

Here’s where I am on my to dos:

1. Submit feature article

2. Wrap up Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff class

(Sign up for the next one here…it’s filling up!)

3. Wrap up Platform Building Basics for Writers

(This will be offered again in the fall…next up is Pitching Practice: Write Six Queries in Six Weeks, perfect for folks who have taken WPSS and want to go on to mastering the query letter form. More info here.)

4. Catch up on paperwork, paperwork, paperwork (This is not my favorite…) and confirm summer/fall travel (Time to put on my little admin. asst. hat.)

5. Send signed books to Writer’s Digest for contest winners (With pleasure! Winners will be announced in the October issue!)

6. Catch up on e-mails (Haven’t been able to keep up for some time now…sorry!)

7. Send WOTR June segment

(Subscribe to Writers on the Rise here.)

8. Send TWM June segment

(Subscribe to The Writer Mama here.)

9. Write and submit book proposal #2 (Top secret! Not the one with Sharon, another one, stay tuned…)

10. Turn off computer with glee and hit the road! (I love my Macs, but Mommy’s ready to read some novels! Any recommendations…?)

Just a typical day in writer-mama land. Soon to be known as Vacation Land!

Okay, back to biz for a moment. Many have asked if I can/will offer individual coaching. Yes, I can and I will, beginning in July and running until the next session of classes start. I am not able to teach and coach at the same time because that would not be fair to my students.

Here are the weekday periods when I will offer coaching this year (except for major holidays or when I’m on the road):

• July 1-August 18th
• October 3-December 30th

Coaching sessions must be scheduled and paid-in-full at least one week in advance (please don’t e-mail or call me with urgent can-you-drop-everything-and-help-me-right-now messages). Remember my to-do list at the top of this post…that’s a short one.

Who will get the most out of coaching with me? Here’s a quick list:

• You are gearing up to pitch a nonfiction book
• You have a nonfiction book proposal ready to go
• You are trying to decide which book topic is best for you to pitch now
• You want to build or amplify the reach of your platform
• You have been writing for a while, have gotten published, and you are ready to take your career to the next level

Important: I strongly prefer to coach folks who have taken my classes first (that’s hundreds of writers at this point). This way, the formalities are out of the way and we can get right to it. After all, an hour is not a lot of time and I like to be very focused.

As an incentive to take my classes first, I offer coaching rates in a sliding scale:

• Three or more past classes with me: $50/hour
• Two or more past classes with me: $75/hour
• One past class with me: $100/hour
• No classes with me: $150/hour and fill out a career questionnaire prior to session

You can send me an Paypal e-check to christinakatz@earthlink.net to reserve your time. We’ll schedule on July 2nd.

If you have not yet taken a class with me, I encourage you to take Writing and Publishing the Short Stuff (WPSS). I teach four sessions of this class a year, so there shouldn’t be a problem finding a session that works with your schedule.

For folks who send or have sent me general writing career questions, I will do my best to answer them all when I return from vacation, right here in my blog.

In the meantime, if you have writing career questions for me, go ahead and send them to writermama@earthlink.net and I will cheerfully add them to my list and answer them all by the end of August. One of the lucky question-askers will win a free, signed copy of Writer Mama! (That goes for past question-askers I haven’t answered yet…)

Okay, back to work! You too!