Q&A With Wally Bock 

Other than authors, I love doing Q&As with agents, publicists, editors, marketers and different people in the publishing industry that help authors put their stories out into the world for us to read! I’m happy to be doing this Q&A with book coach, book developer & ghostwriter Wally Bock! We connected on LinkedIn & he was the first to reach out, and the rest is history!

Q: Wally, it’s great to have you on booknotions.com ! What drew you into publishing? What is it about being a book coach, ghostwriter & book developer that you enjoy so much?

A: I was one of those kids who was always writing stories. When I was in the third grade, I won the best story contest in our school, and my story was reprinted in our small-town weekly newspaper. So, I claim that my first publishing credit was when I was about 8.

Writing has always been part of my life, but I never set my sights on publishing. It just kind of happened along the way.

I’m blessed to do something I love with people I like. I get to spend my days doing a deep dive into a field where I’m not an expert with interesting people who are experts. I can’t think of any better way to spend my life.

Q: When did you realize that a career in publishing was what you wanted to do? Did you have to go to college to be a book coach & book developer?

A:  I don’t think I’ve had a career in publishing or really a “career” in anything. I ‘ve spent my life following opportunities from one thing to the next. 

Because I love to write, and I enjoy public speaking, I gravitated to those things. Because I was an early adopter of online and then the Internet, I got the opportunity to write books about business advantages. One of those books, Cyberpower for Business, was called “A Book Every CEO Should Own” by Inc. magazine.

Because there was an opportunity, I started a small publishing company that specialized in training supervisors in high-risk occupations. That resulted in one specialized book that sold well for over twenty years. 

Speaking was a big part of how I made my money for a couple of decades. Then 9/11 happened. Up till that time, business travel had always been a hassle, but I was willing to put up with it because I loved speaking and meeting people and writing about what I learned. After 9/11, travel became too much of a hassle, so I decided to make my living writing.

My first book was published in 1973 with the stirring title “Budgeting for Frontline Supervisors. I also “published” short, mostly “how-to” books that I sold through small ads.

When I looked at the market, I didn’t want to start over as a freelance writer or independent author. I thought the odds were much better if I was a ghostwriter. Ghostwriting led me to meet people who didn’t need full-on writing help but needed some coaching on how to create a book that would meet readers’ needs and the author’s objectives. So, I started coaching.

Q: In your career as a book coach, book developer & ghostwriter, what wisdom do you have to share that would help anyone wanting to do all three of those professions?

A: Let’s start with people who want to write a book. Many just don’t have enough to say to fill a book. Others aren’t willing to commit to the hard work that they’ll need to do if they want to write a quality book. 

So, my first bit of advice to would-be authors is to figure out if you’ve got the material and the commitment to writing a great book. There is no easy way to write a great book, and frankly, I’m too old to work on projects that don’t aspire to greatness.

The best ghostwriters that I’ve known were experienced authors and editors before they took up ghostwriting. It helps to have a lot of experience you can draw on.

If you aspire to be a developmental editor or, as you called it, a book developer, I think you need a particular skill, and that’s the ability to see a book whole and how it can be made better. I don’t know if it’s nature or nurture, but I’m sure that most people who are good developmental editors have that skill when they emerge from adolescence. 

There are lots of great writers and editors who can’t do that but who render great service doing what they do. If you think developmental editing is for you, pick up a biography of Maxwell Perkins, learn what he did, and then make an honest assessment of whether you can do the same thing.

If you aspire to coach authors, learn something about coaching. I was lucky that I picked up those skills along the way from the business part of my life. If you aren’t lucky that way, then learn something about how to coach.

Q: Can you give a list of authors you were a book coach & book developer for? 

A: I’ve done work for some people where I’m limited by a nondisclosure agreement. I’ve also done some manuscript reviews for publishing companies where I don’t have explicit permission to share what I’ve done. So, I’ll give you some examples of the kinds of projects I’ve worked on.

Rob Santomassimo and I did his first book in 2011. At that point, he was just starting the Massimo Group, which is now the world’s premier commercial real estate broker coaching firm. I’ve worked with him on other books since then. In fact, we have another one coming out later this year. Rod is a very strategic client. Every book that we’ve done was a result of his analysis of where he wanted his business to go next.

I worked with Stephen Lynch on Business Execution for Results. When he wrote that book, Steven was the vice president of a consulting firm that was beginning to make its way in North America. Now he’s an independent business strategy consultant in New Zealand.

Tom Hall is Chairman of Tucker/Hall. The firm helps firms grow their business, manage a crisis, or advance a particular agenda. It is one of the leading public relations and public affairs firms in Florida and the Southeast. Tom wanted to share his experience as a successful entrepreneur and business advisor, providing the answer to his favorite question to clients, “What do you want to be known for?” We wrote Ruthless Focus: How to Use Key Core Strategies to Grow Your Business, which was a series of case studies of businesses that had been successful because they maintained a laser-like strategic focus. There were big firms like Amazon, Nucor, and Zara, and smaller businesses like Scott BBQ in South Carolina.

Jim Blasingame was known as the Small Business Advocate. He had one of the first radio shows that moved to the Internet. In addition to being a guest on his show many times, I also helped him with a couple of his books, including The Age of the Customer and The Third Ingredient.

Suzi McAlpine is a successful leadership consultant in New Zealand. She became passionate about burnout and its cost to people and businesses. I coached her through the writing of Beyond Burnout: How to Spot It, Stop It, and Stamp It Out. We worked with Christina Wedgewood at Intelligent Ink to craft a book that made the best-seller list in New Zealand.

Q: Since you are a ghostwriter, have you ghostwritten books for famous celebrities and reality stars?

A: Nope. I’ll leave that to others. I get professionally jazzed from working with legitimate experts who have an important message to convey and are willing to do the hard work of creating a great book to do it.