Book Coaching and Developmental Editing Program

SF Editorial Guided Book Coaching and Developmental Editing

Now is the time to write your book. I’m the one who helps you do it.

This expert 1-to-1 program is how you finish your manuscript, get editorial feedback, revise the full manuscript once, and begin the process of finding an agent.

You’ll receive my guidance as a member of the creative writing faculty at Northwestern University, former advisory editor at The Paris Review, award-winning author at HarperCollins, and freelance writer for The New York Times and elsewhere. 

You can’t find this level of expertise and mentorship anywhere else.

My program will save you time and money and make you a writer. It takes the guesswork out of getting that all-important first draft out and understanding how the publishing industry works.

This program is for you if you want to finish a book manuscript efficiently while mastering the craft of writing with an eye toward landing an agent and a book deal with a traditional publisher.

• $12,000 total

• Sessions can be completed at your own pace up to 1 year from the start of our work together.

• You will be given a regular meeting slot that fits your schedule.

What’s included:

• Initial conversation via Zoom or email setting up the parameters of your program, your goals, and how to achieve them

• Expert guidance as you complete the first draft of your book from outlining, book structure, word count goals, craft techniques, approach, and more

• A complete developmental edit of your completed draft via an editorial letter discussed during one of our Zoom sessions

• Revision support based on my fifteen years experience teaching in the top MFA programs in the country, so you produce your best work

• Insider tips and techniques for submitting to agents, including help drafting a query letter that gets attention instead of the slush pile

• Twelve 1-to-1 Zoom sessions (30 minutes each) scheduled in a way that  will best support your progress

  • These sessions are how you stay on track, get your questions answered, troubleshoot, overcome roadblocks, or look at specific pages of your manuscript

  • Typical schedule:

    • 8 sessions during the drafting process

    • 3 sessions during the revision process

    • 1 session for next steps and help 

Now is the time to write your book. I’m the one who helps you do it.

For more, email mssarahfay1516@gmail.com.

About Me

In a nutshell, I’m the creator of two bestselling, Featured Substacks; a member of Substack’s Product Lab; an award-winning HarperCollins author; a former advisory editor at The Paris Review; a freelance writer for The New York Times, et al.; and a member of the creative writing faculty at Northwestern University.

I’m also a private Substack consultant who has helped onto the platform with Substack’s guidance and who’s now helping hundreds of Substack writers double and triple (and more) their subscribers, increase their revenue, and get real engagement.

I have many degrees—M.F.A., M.A., Ph.D. My debut memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses (HarperCollins) was an Apple Best Books pick, hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir,” and named by Parade Magazine as one of the sixteen best mental health memoirs to read.

I write for many publications, including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Time, and The Paris Review, where I was an advisory editor. My essays have been chosen as a Notable Mention in Best American Essays and nominated for Pushcart Prizes. I’m the recipient of the Hopwood Award for Literature, as well as grants and fellowships from Yaddo, the Mellon Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony, among others. I’m currently on the creative writing faculty at Northwestern University.