I ghostwrite three types of nonfiction books: Memoirs, business books, and expository essays. Of these, people most often contact me wanting help writing a memoir. This doesn’t surprise me. Memoirs are among the most popular adult nonfiction books. On Amazon alone, there are more than 30,500 memoir titles. What used to be reserved for famous…
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Last week, I started discussing how ghostwriting is expensive because it is so specialized. Read it here. I covered three skills: writing as someone else, organizing massive amounts of information, and understanding what is a compelling story. Now, I’ll tackle the abilities to interview, research, and budget time. Interview — A ghostwriter has to spend…
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I had an idea for a post, inspired when I recently found this quote on Reddit: “Your first published story or novel will have to be better than the average published ones.” The unnamed writer explained: Writers at a workshop wanted to know why one student’s story didn’t sell and it was better than these…
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Last week, I wrote about four different speech types: informative, how-to, persuasive, and oratorical. Read it here and learn from a speech writer in NYC. Now, I’ll cover four more types of speeches that speechwriters often compose. Motivational — Tony Robbins. Les Brown. Zig Ziglar. These are three speakers who mastered this speech type in…
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Even though he wasn’t taking about speech types, business advisor Somers White once said that 90% of how well a speech goes is determined before the speaker steps on the platform, moves to the dais, steps in front of a microphone, and opens his or her mouth. Preparation is critical, which means speech writing is…
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One reason stories are so effective is because, when presented with conviction, enthusiasm, and clarity, they are memorable—and you need a speech to be memorable because people have short attention spans. According to Gloria Mark, a psychologist and the chancellor’s professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, attention spans have been shrinking over…
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A recent newsletter I received from Ally Machate, who runs a editing and marketing firm, mentioned three costly mistakes authors make when publishing. The first mistake is rushing to publish without proper editing. “Skipping professional editing might save time (and money in the short term),” she writes, “but it often lead to … negative reviews.”…
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Last week, I wrote about the importance of critical thinking in book editing. Read it here. Buried in the 11th paragraph of that piece was this sentence: Are my edits removing the author’s voice? Too often, one editor takes a manuscript and butchers it in such a way that the author no longer recognizes it.…
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