Good afternoon, Anastacia;
I attempted to write a note to you before and it went into a completely other box, I guess because the note was becoming a letter. But in any case, you never got the letter, so it is still floating around in space somewhere. This note is shorter, so we can establish a more direct line of communication and see if we have a fit. And then we will go from there.
I do agree with everything you say above.

Don

I’ll second what Sandy said about location, and add that VAs are virtual for a reason 😉 While someone would likely be interested in meeting you if/when you both happened to be in the same location at the same time, they aren’t so interested in in-person work (a sweeping generality, there, but a fair one). Not to mention, when you lock down the geography, you restrict the available talent pool. Why do that unnecessarily? What if the most perfect VA for you was in California, or Minneapolis? Would you truly rather work with someone where the fit wasn’t as great just to have her nearby? 🙂

And as to the genre, it’s unlikely to me that a VA who didn’t have an interest in your genre would be interested in working with you; I know that our VAs at AssistU feel that life’s way too short to work with clients whose work bores them to tears because they partner so closely with their clients, diving deep into what’s going on with them. Having said that, I would look for someone who has experience helping fiction authors, as she’s likely to have seen what’s worked for them that you may find helpful. Let her experience with other authors be part of what supports you well.

I’m glad the article was helpful, Donald.

Google could help you find a VA who’s nearby, but I’m wondering why that’s important to you. If you hire someone local and insist on meeting in person regularly, it will cost you more, as your VA will need to charge you not only for that meeting time, but for the travel time as well. You can meet face-to-face with Skype or Zoom or other tools with a VA located anywhere.

I think that finding a VA with an interest in the specific book category will be a fluke. You’d be better off looking for someone with experience working with novelists rather than nonfiction authors, for example, but I’m not sure that even matters. You don’t hire a VA for strategy. You hire them to do tasks that you direct. If you want someone to, for example, create a social media strategy for your books, you would want to consult with a social media strategist first to get a plan and structure, then turn the execution over to a VA.

Good luck!

Sandy

Exactly! I’m so happy you have that level of relationship with your VA!

A

Ah, I see your point about project vs. the long-term relationship you’d see with employment. Thanks for pointing that out. I am officially educated!

And I appreciate your comment about professional equals, too. I think that’s so important. My VA is absolutely my peer — and even that doesn’t do her justice. I have enormous respect for her knowledge, skill, and resources, and ask her advice all the time. It’s not a “here’s your list of tasks” relationships, it’s a partnership. I’ll say, “Here’s where I’d like to end up. Let’s talk about the best way to get there” and she adds value 100% of the time.

Thank you!

Sandy

Thanks for sharing that.

The difference I see is that your doing it is part of your process. The client isn’t requiring it of you. And, although editing a book is no small project, it is still a project with a start and end; I can see the value in it for anything project-related.

But when I created the profession, one of the ways we differentiated ourselves (VAs) from the old home-based secretarial service model was in the long-term relationships we form with clients. It’s not unheard of for a VA and client to work together for a decade or longer. We actually think of them as sidekicks—the right-hand person.

We find most people want that kind of relationship with a VA, but don’t know how to approach looking for it. Its in the context of this that I wrote my answer.

From 20+ years of working with clients looking for VAs, I can absolutely say that most of them come to the table with only an employment model/mindset available to them. You know, the model where the person with the “job” is 100% in control, and the person interested in the “job,” jumps through whatever hoops to try to prove herself worthy and the best candidate.

It’s the only thing they know about interviewing. In my view, that model has no place between professionals and equals in a relationship. And that’s what VAs often see, and what I clearly rail against.

Thanks, Anastacia! I appreciate your thoughtful observation about the trial run idea, and see your point about how investing the time upfront to find the best match might eliminate the need for a “try me out” project.

As for your comment that “no biz owner reading this would ever do a test or trial for a prospective client,” though, when a prospect contacts me about editing a book, I need to do a test edit of a few pages before I can provide a project estimate. When I send my estimate, I also include the test edit because I want the author to see how I’d approach the project. I don’t want there to be any surprises later. If they don’t like what I’ve done with those few pages, they shouldn’t hire me. It’s a mini-trial, but it’s a trial.

From my view, a trial run with any two professionals can also keep the consultant from making a mistake. We’ve all had clients who did their best to make us nuts, right? Using your marriage analogy, many people who live together first say their spouse became a different person immediately after they married and made it legal. Clients do the same thing.

Thanks again for this bonus contribution and your help with the post! I appreciate it and I know our readers do, too!

Sandy