Professional Coaching
for the modern editorEditorial Coaching
Consider this a developmental edit on your business plan. Let’s see where you’re at, where you want to be, and make a plan to get you there.
Professional Mentorship
Whether you’re new to entrepreneurship or have been in the game for years, I’ll meet you where you’re at to help you level up your systems and services.
Data-oriented Growth
We’ll dig into your business’s metrics to determine the right path for your business’s growth. Not all plants grow in the same kind of soil; where will you best bloom?
Beautiful Systems
Let’s build beautiful, comprehensive systems to automate your service workflows so your authors always have a high-quality experience.
Finding the Perfect Online Tools for Your Online Business
Running your business shouldn’t get in the way of doing what you love.
You’ve got the passion, the training, and the confidence to serve your authors as their editor, but you’re looking to step up your game. You’re not sure if you’re walking your clients through a project in the most efficient way, and you know you’re spending too much time pulling your hair out with admin tasks. Let’s make the online workspace work for you, upgrading your editing business from freelancer to entrepreneur.
My coaching services are geared toward editors who already know how to edit a book but are looking for training on ways to improve their systems, freshen up their professional presentation, and expand their deliverable value for their authors.
Don’t see something you’d like to discuss on this page? Shoot me an email and let’s see if we can work a custom module into our time together.
How coaching can help you grow:
Maximize your project efficiency
Improve your sense of self-worth and value
Set concrete, achievable financial goals
Find your ideal market niche and dream client
Offload tedious admin tasks with automation
Build confidence with your project quotes and rates
Increase your service deliverables' value
Learn to use your lead data for improved sales
Connect with fellow editors on this journey
Acquire more client testimonials with less stress
We Specialize in Dubsado Set-up
At Rooted in Writing, we are BIG Dubsado fans. Dubsado is an excellent CRM platform to handle all of your contracts, invoicing, onboarding, and project workflows. We’d love set up your account and help you optimize and automize your projects. Use our affiliate link below to get 20% off your first month or year of Dubsado.
Trust me, it’ll change your life.
Amber Helt is an incredible editor who goes above and beyond. She helped me set up Dubsado onboarding and offboarding for my own editorial clients. I learned so much about what products I need at every step, and how to implement each. She also walked me through creating templates for specific deliverables I need for different editing services. For both of her coaching services, Amber would provide me with potential wording as a starting point. Her skills are phenomenal at learning my business values, viewing my inspiration images and ideas, then using those to brand my business. I’m grateful for her expertise and advice! Amber is also extremely down to earth and easy to talk to. I felt comfortable and more like a friend when we worked together. I highly recommend her and her services.
Hi, I’m Amber Helt.
I’ve been professionally editing since 2013, and in 2016 I switched from working for publishing houses to running my own editorial agency with Rooted in Writing. Through trial and error, I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to be a freelance editor. From streamlining project workflows to creating stunning deliverables, I’d love to share with you what it takes to serve your authors with excellence while keeping a cool head as a business owner.
It’s time to get your head out of the overwhelming headspace of admin tasks and back into the heart of doing what you love most: serving your authors.
But do I think we’d be a good fit? Let’s talk about it.
Every editor is at a different point in their entrepreneurial journey. Not all milestones are ripe for coaching, and coaching is not the solution for all pain points. Here are some of my biggest FAQs before you move forward with my coaching.
How much editing experience should I have first?
Our time together depends on data, refining your pain points, and understanding your comfort levels within project scopes. You don’t need to have been in business for years to have all of these things, but ideally you’ve done paid work for at least three clients.
Can I customize my coaching package?
Absolutely! The coaching packages have a pretty good topic flow to cover all the bases on running your business efficiently, but if you want to skip a topic or add another topic, just let me know and we can work something out. I’m here to serve your business and meet you where you’re at, not to mold you into a pre-orchestrated system.
Can you tell me how to get more clients?
No, I cannot. I can help you better understand your target market and advise you on your marketing materials, but ultimately acquiring new clients is something best left to you and marketing experts.
Will you do my bookkeeping?
Part of my admin systems module is helping you keep track of your income and expenses to make sure your business is profitable. You’ll receive a spreadsheet to help with this, but I’ll point you to specialized accounting software or CPAs for any true bookkeeping needs.
Can you teach me how to do a new (to me) service?
My aim is to instruct and improve upon already formed understandings but not to construct a new foundation of knowledge. My Editing Bootcamp module is designed to take editing skills you’re already familiar with and help you improve your scope, attention to detail, and deliverables. Consider it a tune-up for a service you knew how to do while working for a publisher but are unsure of how to operate as a freelancer, or as continued education to refine your understanding after an online class.
Or, we can do a thorough walkthrough of a new service that you know nothing about to show you what the expectations will look like in providing this offering in the future. I’ll give you the tools and action plan needed to seek thorough education in the service with confidence.
I have been impressed by Amber since I joined various editing groups on Facebook and witnessed her contributions to the community. She is not only the gold standard when it comes to editing, but she is also a remarkable coach and has wildly impressive spreadsheet skills. I learned so much from her about how to streamline my business practices and improve my efficiency, and Amber really helped build my confidence as a service provider. I would recommend the coaching and Dubsado setup to any editor looking to take the next step for their business. Amber is brilliant, funny, kind, and I’m convinced she has supernatural powers.
Need Fast Help?
Choose a Topic for a One-Off Session.
Service Rates and Invoicing
A custom rate chart and payment schedule for your various services based on your annual revenue goals, workload capacity, and ideal hourly rate—all converted into neat per-word rates for clients. We’ll look at your service’s typical scope and discuss where it sits against its competition in your market. We’ll also discuss when to raise your rates, how to bundle services, and how to hire contractors for projects.
$100
Service Contract Creation
Every project needs a solid contract. We can create a standard contract for all of your services, including game-changing clauses to keep communication and expectations with clients clear and constructive, or we can go through your current contract to discuss oversights and weak clauses. Please note that I am not a lawyer and this session is purely based on my experiences working with clients and other editors.
$50
Website Audit
Make your website stand out. We’ll go through your website’s site navigation, copywriting, branding, and lead capture forms. Then, we’ll create a revision plan together on how to ensure you have a shining first impression for new clients with intuitive sales funnels and encouraging resources.
$50
Editorial Bootcamp
In this 2-hour call, we’ll take a deep dive into the execution of one of the following editorial services: developmental edit (DE), manuscript evaluation, line edit, copy edit, or proofread. This bootcamp includes: (1) Workflow creation, (2) MS Word templates for editorial letters, style sheets, and other deliverables, (3) Pricing strategy for this service, and (4) Specific contract clauses to help protect you and your author through this project. (For developmental edits, add 90 minutes.)
$150 (DE: $250)
Create Editorial Letters
Create custom MS Word templates for your business’s official letterhead, editorial letters, and cold pitch emails. These templates integrate your business’s branding elements with a content flow skeleton and boilerplate messaging to save you time when composing new deliverables while preserving your voice.
Canned Email Copywriting
Twenty email templates to use as boilerplates and starting points for key steps in your projects’ workflows, from responding to new leads to onboarding clients to project milestones and deliverables. There’s also templates for the harder emails you sometimes have to send, such as delaying a project or terminating a contract. Customizations available upon request.
I feel so blessed to have found Amber as my business coach. I could never have imagined the level of support I received personally, along with the tools she provided me for my business. The amount of care and detail Amber put into every deliverable was incredible, and I am walking away with new confidence and a collection of fabulous tips, tricks, and tools to use as I continue to grow WolfPack Writing Services. I am SO grateful to Amber for her hard work and her dedication—cannot recommend her enough!
Coaching Packages
Business Structure & Systems
Ready to take your casual freelancing to serious small business heights? With this package, I’ll help you set up everything you’ll need for running your business’s back end. From reevaluating your service rates to ensure you’re charging your value to streamlining the onboarding process to crafting beautiful deliverables templates, this package is everything you need you run a smooth and stress-free small business. You bring the editing skills, and I’ll bring the operations wizardry.
Once we have all the pieces in place to run your business with excellence, we’ll work on making your business run on efficiency—cue ultimate organization and heavenly automation with Dubsado. I’ll show you how Dubsado can become your new best friend and virtual assistant.
$600
DELIVERABLES
12 Hours of Recorded Zoom Coaching, broken up into 3-4 sessions
This package includes refining your service menu’s rates, establishing your services’ workflows, drawing up your project contracts, assessing your service scopes and value adds, streamlining your invoicing system, creating custom canned emails for your workflows, designing beautiful MS Word templates, and walkthroughs of key software for your business. You’ll also receive a free, customized copy of the MOSS System spreadsheet.
Each call is recorded and then uploaded to a private YouTube playlist so you can easily reference our past discussions. Each session contains homework for you to execute the topics we discuss as well as prep work to get you ready for our next session.
Business Structure & Systems
with Hands-Free Dubsado Set Up
With this package, I’ll help you set up everything you’ll need for running your business’s back end—all integrated nicely within Dubsado. This package includes rate chart creation, establishing your services’ workflows, drawing up your project contracts, invoicing system, custom canned emails for your workflows, MS Word templates, and walkthroughs of key softwares for your business.
All of this, plus one key, game-changing service: a white glove set-up of your entire Dubsado system! As we create the foundations for your business and get all your systems going, I’ll set up your Dubsado account with all the meta data and templates necessary so you can start using the incredible system with your projects immediately.
$900
DELIVERABLES
15 Hours of Recorded Zoom Coaching, broken up into 3-4 sessions
This package includes refining your service menu’s rates, establishing your services’ workflows, drawing up your project contracts, assessing your service scopes and value adds, streamlining your invoicing system, creating custom canned emails for your workflows, designing beautiful MS Word templates, and walkthroughs of key software for your business. You’ll also receive a free, customized copy of the MOSS System spreadsheet.
Each call is recorded and then uploaded to a private YouTube playlist so you can easily reference our past discussions. Each session contains homework for you to execute the topics we discuss as well as prep work to get you ready for our next session.
Complete set-up of your Dubsado account
Once our coaching calls are complete, I’ll set up your Dubsado account on your behalf. I’ll create all of your forms, proposals, automated workflows, service packages, and canned emails, putting together all the pieces we have from our sessions into once well-oiled machine. This process includes some basic graphic design for your brand to ensure your forms and proposals are beautiful and uniquely you. It will take me about two weeks to complete the set up once I have all the materials I need from you to get started.
Business Branding
Branding & Logo Design
Branding is key to standing out in the industry and helping clients connect with your voice. A brand can make it or break it for your business’s ability to stand out from the crowd and leave a personable, lasting impression on your client’s experience through your services. Together, we’ll discover your brand’s story and create a visual and voicey aesthetic that will saturate every inch of your business’s presence.
I work best with fellow fiction editors or editors whose ideal brand is dynamic, bold, and visual. If you are looking for a minimalistic or quiet brand, I may not be the best designer for you.
IF BOOKING WITH A COACHING SERVICE, APPLY $100 DISCOUNT.
IF YOU ALREADY HAVE A LOGO, APPLY $75 DISCOUNT.
$600
DELIVERABLES
Deliverables include: logo and favicon creation, developed business voice and driving metaphor, color palette (main, accent, and neutral) based on logo and brand vibes, stock image mood board to get you started on curating the right photos, and a PDF guide on how to use branding elements in your business. You’ll also receive branded Word letterheads, branded graphics for Dubsado (client portal, forms, etc.), and a website review of brand implementation.
Working with Amber to set up Dubsado has been an absolute gamechanger for my whole business. Onboarding that used to take days is now automated and takes minutes, and it’s all snazzy, branded, and in my voice. Amber went the extra mile to make things flow the way I need them to. Her expertise is worth every penny!
How It Works
1: Build Your Coaching Experience
Review my coaching service packages and decide which level would be right for you: mentorship, Dubsado set up, branding, or a mix of all three. Get in touch with me via email or set up a call to ask any questions you have about my packages and what services would be best for you! I’m happy to help you build the custom experience you need to thrive in your business.
2: Schedule Your Calls
Coaching sessions are conducted in 3-hour Zoom calls with space between calls to allow you to complete your assignments. Depending on the package you select and any add-ons, I’ll reach out to you after you sign up about the number of sessions we’ll need. You’ll receive a calendar scheduler to select the dates and times that work best for you. I recommend scheduling no more than two sessions per week.
3: Get the Deliverables
After any coaching call, you’ll receive a private link to our recorded video meeting for future reference. You’ll also receive a PDF with notes from our calls along with links to additional resources to help you continue growing. You can expect this PDF in your inbox within a week after our last call. For branding packages, you’ll receive a link to a Google Drive folder with any and all PNG, vector, PDF, and JPEG files.