The manuscripts are almost done. After more than a year of conversing, probing, analyzing, writing, receiving feedback, and rewriting, I have two clients who appear to be backsliding. One client rewrote the entire manuscript, in the process ignoring the outline we agreed on and the feedback from his brother, a journalist who wrote his own…
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 had a ghostwriting client who wanted to tell his story, but his priority also was to surf in the summer and ski in the winter. When the waves or slopes called, he was off. As a result, he never kept to a set schedule, making it impossible to consistently work on his project. Granted,…
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…
I’ve got a couple of manuscripts just about finished and ready to be edit. In one case, the client wants to have the AI program Claude analyze the 82,100-word document before moving on and hiring a human editor. His rationale comes from his time as an orthopedist. Many years ago, he was introduced to arthroscopic…
As I said last week, the media has done a terrible job showing people the realities of what it takes to produce a book. Here are five more myths people believe because movies and TV shows portray them as the truth. 1. The Myth of the Single Book. The media implies one book changes everything.…
Every time I have a prospect tell me their goals for their book is to sell a lot of copies, I respond the same way: “The media has done an absolutely terrible job and showing you the reality of what it takes to publish a book.” I continue: “Movies and TV shows make it look…
I have two clients whose manuscripts I have pretty much completed. Time to usher them onto the editing phase. But wait! They’re not ready to move on. They’re dawdling, as if they are afraid to leave the comfort of the year-plus relationship they have enjoyed with me. I’m trying to get them to think about…
I currently have two prospects who want me to act as their ghostwriter for their books. They have gone through my early screening process, and when I asked them, “If money was no object, would you be ready to move forward?” they answered yes. Cost is the most common reason a ghostwriting prospect doesn’t become…
When I meet with my business advisor, I update him on how things are going with my outsider clients or prospects. Instead of mentioning them by name (because he can’t keep track), I tend to use occupational or identification shorthand: therapist, Bronx Brother, sex worker, surfer, crypto guy, schoolteacher, Realtor, police brutality victim, impostor, guy…
