Too many people don’t realize how difficult the publishing game really is. Recently, a woman in Alabama reached out to me because she wanted a book ghostwritten. If I could choose a title for her book, it would be All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Prison. It sounded really fascinating. Then I…
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Last week, I wrote about two things a ghostwriter can do to help build a brand. Here are four more: Develop a professional website. A ghostwriter can write the copy on the website, giving prospects a solid first look at your writing ability (and, yes, I wrote my website). Not only that, but your website…
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I wanted this post to be about brands. I researched “Personal Branding for Ghostwriters: How to Stand Out in a Saturated Market” and found numerous articles about using a ghostwriter to build a personal brand. But there was very little about a ghostwriter building a brand. That didn’t work. So, I dug into my memories. …
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Before COVID, client and ghostwriter met face to face much more often. Now, thanks to that pesky, annoying virus, there are many more electronic and distant ways for ghostwriters to interact with clients and do the important job of telling their compelling stories. I get 99% of my job leads from search engine optimization (SEO),…
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I recently was reminded that I am a ghostwriter. You might think, Well, no shit, Sherlock! I prefer to look at it like the old aftershave commercials from the 1970s, “Thanks, I needed that.” And I have my business advisor to thank. I have many standard fee requests in my contracts. Besides the dollar amount,…
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There is a battle between AI and ghostwriters going on. On one side, there is the ghostwriter. Ghostwriting is a craft. It takes practice, knowledge, skill, and experience to be able to pull a client’s story out of their head and get it onto a page while maintaining their voice, tone, style, and facts of…
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When it comes to contracts, I believe both sides should have protections. The prospect needs to feel like the story is his/her/their property, that they have the rights to it and own it at all times. That also means the prospect has final say over the title, that he/she/they can terminate the project early under…
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From my earliest days in journalism, I was taught to ask questions that begin with who, what, where, when, how, and why because they were open-ended and would lead to long answers (and better quotes). When I transitioned into ghostwriting, I found these questions still worked, but I recently learned that there is a better…
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I once wrote about why journalists make good ghostwriters. (See it here.) Little did I know that I wasn’t setting a ghostwriting trend but rather following one. And yet I should have seen it coming. Consider: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 77% of all journalism staff positions have been lost in the last…
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Last week at a networking meeting, it was time for introductions. The leader decided to put a twist on things and announced, “When you introduce yourself, make sure you list your power partners.” My eyes turned upward. I remembered how my career coach blew me away a couple of months earlier when he declared that…
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