Jacob Interviews….The Get Published Coach, Robin Colucci Hoffman, Part One

 

Thinking about writing a book?  Robin Colucci Hoffman, the Get Published Coach, has helped numerous authors achieve nationwide press attention, ignite bidding wars between publishing houses and continues to offer advice through her website, blog and social media platforms including Facebook, Google + and Twitter.

In our first part in three-part exclusive series, we talked about her career, Robin’s coaching style and why writing a book would be a strategic point in an author’s career.

Jacob Elyachar: When did you get interested in helping others publish their books?

Robin Colucci Hoffman: Well Jacob, it is kind of a funny story.  I guess that you have to go back 30 years when I entered college at the George Washington University majoring in journalism and while I was in school, I worked part-time for The Washington Post and when I graduated college, the chairman of my department came to me and said that he had a possible job for me that he thought that it would be a great opportunity and if I got the job, I should leave The (Washington) Post and take it and I thought it was pretty extraordinary because working for The Washington Post was the place to be for someone who was interested in being a writer.

I ended up going to work for a New York Times Best Selling Author and did a lot of investigative work and I ended up working for him for three years and during that time, I helped him research and write three books.   I thought it was training to be a newspaper reporter, which I went later on and did for a while.   I discovered that I really did not like newspaper reporting, so I got out of that and I built a very successful fitness business.   I sold that business because I realized there was something different I wanted to be doing and I could sense that it really was not my true calling.

After I sold that business, I started coaching other wellness professionals on how to grow their businesses and an interesting thing happened: my clients said to me: “What I really want is to write a book.” and all of a sudden, I reached back to the experience I had 10 years earlier and I said: “Oh! I actually know quite a bit about that because when I worked with this author, I helped him in every phase from the book concepts all the way through the research, publishing, writing and the publicity of the books.  I got to see the inner workings of the publishing industry up close and personal at a very, very high level and at a very young age.”

It was a funny thing, Jacob because I did not sit back and say: “Oh! This is what I want to do!”  It came back around to me and I realized when I started helping people with this, I started noticing two things: one, they got extraordinarily good results and the other was that I was really enjoying myself and remembered how at home I felt in the world of publishing, writing and words.  So I started to consciously seek opportunities to edit books and help people with the publication progress.   The final thing that inspired me was that I was asked to serve as an interim acquisitions editor for a publishing house.     As the interim acquisitions editor, I decided which manuscripts the publishing house was going to accept and publish.   While I was working there, I discovered that the vast majority of the authors sending in their work (over 95-percent) were clearly unprepared for the process.  They weren’t describing their work as a way to be interesting to a publisher and did not focus their book concepts that would make them easy to market and I realized that where I was really needed was not at the publishing house but working with the authors before they seek that step so that they have a shot of being successful with it.   While the publishing house offered me a permanent position, I declined and that’s when I became the Get Published Coach.

JE: Can you describe your coaching style?

RCH:  My style is motivational.  I think I have a way to lighting a fire that prompts my clients into action.   It is also methodical because I break things down into steps so it is not overwhelming because it seems like there is so much to do to get a book off the ground and I try to make it simple as I can for my clients, which are manageable chunks instead of attacking everything at once.    I also describe my style as fierce compassion meaning that I am very direct and forward but also encouraging at the same time.    So I like to say I live by the Mary Poppins rule: “I give honest feedback with a touch of sugar.”

JE: Why do you think writing a book can be a strategic turning point into someone’s career?

RCH:  Writing and publishing your book takes you to a level of expert status that you can really attain with a book.   There are more authors now than any other time in history yet being a published author there is a mystique of making you more of an expert than people who don’t have a book.   I look at a book as a key to a portal, which opens doors to opportunities to more speaking, obtaining higher paying consulting, to get publicity and get greater visibility.    A book is a new and powerful way for people to find you that might have never heard of you otherwise.

Part two of my conversation with Robin will focus on the big differences between a huge success and a big flop and her definition of success.   

For more information about Robin’s work, visit her Website at: http://getpublishedcoach.com/

To connect with Robin, you can follow her on Twitter: @AuthorAlchemy, add her to your Google + page and watch her videos on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/getpublishedcoach