As part of my service, I often introduce my ghostwriting clients to various humans how edit because if they want their manuscript published, it needs to be edited, and I as ghostwriter can’t do it. One client at first declined my offer to introduce him to editors because “I’m undecided about going to an editor…
Remember that client who clearly wasn’t using critical thinking when he insisted on using the AI program Claude to “improve” his manuscript? If not, read about him here. Despite complaining about how often Claude and ChatGPT fell short, he sent me a manuscript replete with all the ways he (suddenly?) liked what Claude did. On first…
I recently came across a Wall Street Journal article (publicized widely on LinkedIn) that spoke to one;’s integrity. It was about Hachette Book Group, one of the Big Five publishers, canceling an upcoming title, Shy Girl by Mia Ballard, over concerns that it used too much artificial intelligence and not enough human writing. Read it…
Every once in a while, I get a prospect who asks me if I edit. I always respond, “Yes, but not if I’m your ghostwriter.” Similarly, every once in a while, I get a client who wants me to edit the manuscript I have completed after working on it for more than a year. I…
Last week, I wrote about four common ghostwriting fails and how to avoid them. Here are four more. 1. A weak first draft. Some would argue that’s inherent and unavoidable, that all first drafts are incomplete, rough, unedited, foul, ugly, rotten, disastrous, and not close to what the client wanted or expected. As a result,…
I was all set to write this post about a lesson I relearned—one a ghostwriter always needs to remember—It’s not my story, it’s theirs. Instead, I was reminded of the importance of avoiding ChatGPT and working with a human and not artificial intelligence when writing a book. I had a recent conversation with a client…
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.”…
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.…
I have long believed that critical thinking is a skill that is lost among much of the population. People who can think critically can evaluate information and decide if it’s true, false, necessary, or unnecessary. They can take that information and make better judgments and hold well-informed opinions. That seems to be disappearing in society,…
Early in my career as a book editor, and edited a manuscript of an expository essay in which the author asserted that the presence and existence of ISIS signaled that Armageddon, as described in the Book of Revelation, is here. I had to do a lot of fact checking, especially making sure the author correctly…
