Chapter Eight of 10. Coaching & Author Support.
Chapter Eight
Coaching & Author Support
From idea to publication, you're not alone. ROMAR Press offers coaching, resources and ongoing support for every stage of your author journey — beginning with a free consultation.
The first step
Start With a Conversation
Before anything is planned, priced or promised, there is a conversation about what you are actually writing.
Not sure your project has potential? Contact us for a free consultation to find out if collaboration with ROMAR Press fits your needs.
Come with whatever you have
- What you are writing
- Where you are in the process
- What you are stuck on
- What you hope to accomplish
- Whether you are after coaching, publishing guidance, or a retreat
Contact us to set up a meeting in person or on Zoom. It reaches the publisher directly — robitaille@romarpress.com · 254.592.1891
How ROMAR can help
Guidance for Every Stageof Your Writing Journey
Writers arrive at different points. Find yours — the consultation will confirm it.
Pre-publishing consultation
You are close to finished and unsure what happens next.
Talk through where the manuscript actually stands and what publication would take — editing, production, and whether it is ready to submit.
Manuscript planning
You have the idea and no map.
Shape the concept, the chapter structure, a target length and a schedule you can actually keep, before the drafting swallows the year.
Writing guidance
You are in the middle and losing momentum.
Craft-level support while the work is in progress, from an editor and a teacher of forty years — the part of writing that is hardest to do alone.
Publishing preparation
The draft is done and you want it taken seriously.
Get a finished manuscript ready to submit for publication consideration — what to fix first, and what a publisher will look for.
Retreat preparation
You have time booked and want to use it well.
Set the goals, priorities and daily targets for a stay at the Writer's Retreat, so the first two days are not spent deciding what to work on.
Ongoing author support
You are published and there is another book in you.
Continued guidance after publication — the next book, launch planning, and keeping the writing going once the first one is out.
Who you would be working with
A Lifetime of Teaching.A Passion for Writers.
Marilyn Robitaille earned her Ph.D. in English with a specialization in Eighteenth-Century British Literature and Rhetoric from Texas Woman's University and her Master's from the Bread Loaf School of English in Middlebury, Vermont. She has four decades of experience teaching literature and writing at the university level. She co-edited Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas and has poetry published in multiple print and online venues.
That is the whole point of coaching here. You are not buying encouragement — you are borrowing the judgement of someone who has spent a career reading unfinished work and knowing what it needed.
What forty years of teaching is good for
- Mentoring
- Four decades of sitting with writers and reading their work before it was ready.
- Structure
- A specialist in rhetoric — how an argument or a story is built, and why it holds.
- Developing an idea
- The habit of taking a rough thought seriously and asking what it could become.
- Finishing
- Deadlines, milestones, and the encouragement to complete what was started.
In practice
What Can We Work On Together?
Writers bring all of this. Most bring several at once.
- Book concept
- Manuscript structure
- Chapter organization
- Writing goals
- Target word count
- Revision planning
- Publishing readiness
- Finishing the manuscript
- Confidence in the work
- What to do next
- Retreat goals
- The book after this one
Coaching covers the writing and the path to publication. It is not legal, financial or academic advice.
Coaching and the retreat
Need Time and Guidance?
Coaching answers what to write. The retreat gives you the days to write it. Together they are a different proposition from either alone.
Before the retreat
Clarify what the stay is for: the goals, the chapters that come first, a daily target.
During the retreat
The time is yours. The plan is already made, so the work is the only thing left to do.
After the retreat
Review what got done, and decide what the next stretch of writing looks like.
Coaching and publishing
When You’re Ready to Publish
Coaching gets a manuscript to the point where it can be judged fairly. What happens after that is a separate decision.
Idea
Something you have been carrying.
Draft
The first version, however rough.
Revision
The work that makes it readable.
Preparation
Getting it ready to be judged fairly.
Submission
Sent to ROMAR for publication consideration.
Publication
If it is a fit, the book gets made.
Coaching does not guarantee publication. ROMAR reviews every manuscript on its own merits — which is what makes being on the list worth something.
For ROMAR authors
Support Doesn't End at Publication
ROMAR authors keep their publisher. The relationship is meant to carry past launch week — several ROMAR writers are already working on what comes next.
- The next book
- A new manuscript
- Launch planning
- Writing goals between books
- Retreat preparation
- Ongoing author development
Where coaching sits
One Step in a Longer Path
- Idea
- Coaching
- Retreat
- Manuscript
- Publishing
- Author
Sessions
Booking a Session
How session booking will work
Session lengths and rates are still being set. Until they are, the free consultation is the way in — and it is where you would find out which session you need anyway.
- 1Choose a sessionOr start with the free consultation.
- 2Pick a timeFrom published availability.
- 3Your detailsHow to reach you.
- 4About your projectThe short questionnaire below.
- 5PaymentOnly where a session is paid.
- 6ConfirmationTime, format and what to bring.
Coaching and author support
You Don’t Have to FigureIt Out Alone.
Whether you're beginning with an idea, working through a manuscript, or preparing for publication, ROMAR Press can help you identify the next step.