Client Case Study: Melanie Moberg

Let's peek behind the scenes of Melanie's book Warriors in Recovery.

What was the problem?

Melanie had recorded the stories of 12 women with the intention of publishing a book about their courage and fortitude.

Then life got busy.

As the author, Melanie needed to balance her duty to her storytellers to treat their stories with integrity and her duty to her audience to present interesting, useful, inspiring content.

And she had to do that within a timeframe.

How she solved it

While she dealt with everything going on in her life, Melanie set her book aside for a while, something that I always recommend with tough subject matter.

Between her studies and starting her business, along with family commitments and her own self-care, she took two years to finish her book to a standard she was happy to put out in the world.

Melanie spent a lot of time working on the order of the stories, making sure they were relevant. She wrote sections to help the reader transition between the stories and understand the common threads and themes between the experiences of the women in recovery.

She also hired a book coach and then took me on as her editor to make sure the material had been shaped into a book, not just a random assortment of transcripts.

Who this approach is good for...

Anyone who is piecing together lots of information or existing content, where it's really important to make those bits and bobs work together seamlessly.

If your book relies heavily on case studies, stories, transcripts, blog articles, videos, webinars, training materials, worksheets or podcasts, this approach is for you.

Why would you do it this way?

You may find that you have a huge amount of words already written before you've even started writing, but a large volume of content doesn't mean you're done.

When you dump your existing content into your manuscript, it's easy to think that the book is almost there because your word count looks healthy.

However, there is a craft to creating a valuable book, which involves shaping and smoothing those pieces together.

This happens through thoughtful organisation and lots of editing.

A book is so much more than a copy-pasted collection of blog posts or transcripts.

In the end, a book needs to be more than the sum of its parts.

About the author

Annick Ina is a coach, author and Book Doula. Her mission is to help women uncover and fully embrace their unique skills and qualities.

She runs a business that provides authors and aspiring authors with end-to-end services to transform their ideas into a published book, allowing them to experience the magic of becoming published authors, without being distracted by the overwhelming aspect of the publishing process.

About the book

Melanie Moberg is a Codependency Coach who helps her clients improve their relationships and feel inner peace after years of caring for others.

When her brother Michael took his life in 2013 when he was drunk and high, Melanie set out on a path determined to create change.

She has since earned her MA in Addiction Counseling from Hazelden Betty Ford Graduate School of Addiction Studies.  She uses that knowledge to advocate for mental health and addiction recovery every day.