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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How would you like it if you arrived at a date’s house and were asked to sign an NDA to commence the date? Would you sign it or walk away dateless? It is a similar question ghostwriters have to consider when entering into an agreement with a potential client: Are you okay with keeping things…
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Focus up, people! I recently had a prospect call me up and say, “My friends and family have insisted I write my story.” But when I asked him the obvious question, “What is the story?” he couldn’t give me a quick and succinct answer. Instead, he talked about a lot of things: being of service…
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Years before the COVID pandemic, I worked at the Los Angeles Daily News, and the paper underwent tremendous upheaval when it was sold and became part of a chain. Employees fretted that they were going to lose their jobs; some didn’t wait for that to happen, and when they left, their positions were absorbed. I…
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Why would artificial intelligence create fake sources? That’s a question I posed to two free programs, ChatGPT and Deep AI. The answers saddened but didn’t surprise me. First, an explanation of why. I knew about a New York lawyer last year foolishly cited cases he found via ChatGPT and didn’t verify them. They were fake,…
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I never realized ghostwriting was a niche. I never thought that way. After a years-long effort of trying to make it as a freelance copywriter, my career coach asked me a question. “If you could do anything, what would you do?” After dismissing my first love of sportswriting because the newspaper business is all but…
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