Part 5: The Big Leap to Training Other Book Coaches

This is part five in a series of six posts by Author Accelerator Jennie Nash about how she built her multi-six-figure book coaching business.

Author Accelerator grew out of my belief that what I was doing as a book coach wasn’t just intuitive—it was teachable. From the very beginning, in 2013, I set out to build something bigger than my own one-on-one practice: a system for helping writers move from idea to finished manuscript that could be repeated, refined, and shared.

As I built that work, I explored different ways it might scale. At one point, I considered starting an agency—matching writers with coaches and distributing the work that way. But the more I thought about it, the more it conflicted with one of my core beliefs: that the power of book coaching lies in the trust between a writer and a coach. Farming out that relationship would dilute what makes it work. I came to believe that coaches need to serve the kinds of writers they most love to serve, and to bring those writers into their own universe.

At another point, I considered creating a national association of book coaches—but I kept coming back to the question of standards. If this work was going to grow, what would we actually measure? As I began to define that, it became clear that great book coaches need to be able to support all kinds of writers at all stages of the process—not just as writers, but as people. They need to know how to give clear, actionable feedback, to be compassionate in the face of vulnerability, and to help writers navigate the often complex path to publication.

All of this thinking was part of the same effort: to understand what book coaching really is, how it works at its best, and how it could be taught. The results I was seeing with writers were consistent—they made meaningful progress, finished their books, and moved forward with publication—and that convinced me this was a system that could be shared.

A System for Certification

Author Accelerator became the vehicle for that work: a business dedicated to training book coaches in my systems and processes. In the beginning, the program was simple—just two modules—but over time we expanded it to reflect the full scope of the work. We added training on how to work with agents and publishers to ensure our coaches understand how to approach every part of the marketplace.

We also evolved how we teach and evaluate coaching itself. Early on, feedback came all at once at the end, as a kind of final test. Now, it comes at three distinct points—through three practicums—so that coaches can learn, apply, and refine their skills as they go. This shift has exponentially increased both the depth of learning and the level of expertise among our certified coaches.

Our program is built on the philosophy of centering the writer as well as the writing. We’ve now certified more than 380 book coaches, and one of the most surprising and meaningful outcomes has been the community that has grown alongside the work—a group of coaches who are not just trained professionals, but friends, colleagues, and business partners, all committed to lifting up this industry. I’m incredibly proud to lead them.

I love being an entrepreneur because there is always something else to improve, something else to figure out—and in the process, I’ve learned so much about myself and what matters to me, both in writing and in life. This work continues to evolve, just as I do, and I’m excited to see what comes next as I keep leading and shaping this industry.