Seventh in an occasional series about compelling stories and ideas worth telling. Compelling stories have many qualities to them: They’re powerful, have an irresistible, sometimes emotional effect on the reader. They earn the person attention, either positive or negative. They’re unique, original, different. They relate to the reader, and they put the reader there. A…
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The expectations just keep coming. Prospects and clients have them, and ghostwriters need to mange them. Here are three more expectations to watch for related to ghostwriting services. Who’s the expert? The two sides have to understand where the expertise lies. It lies with both people. The prospects turned clients have story expertise. They know…
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The professor and motivational speaker Leo Buscaglia once said, “Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.” Ghostwriters—and their clients—would be wise to remember this so expectations can be properly managed and everyone remains united in making the project the very best ghostwritten work possible. But that means recognizing that some expectations…
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What people see as pros and cons of ghostwriting, I see as pros. Last week, I wrote about why ghostwriting is expensive. Some people consider that a reason not to use a ghostwriter. I believe just the opposite: Since you get what you pay for, it’s actually a positive to fork over good money for…
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Clients want publishing deals. I’ve recently had conversations with a client and a prospect. I ghostwrote the client’s manuscript, which she appreciated tremendously. Now, she’s trying to get it published and is finding it very difficult. She showed me how one publisher wanted $50,000 to edit, publish, and market her manuscript. “I can’t believe how…
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I recently wrote about why ghostwriters don’t work on spec. It’s also true that ghostwriters don’t usually take a percentage of an author’s advance, sales or profits on the books they ghostwrite. Just like in my previous post, one reason comes down to money. Ghostwriters want to get paid. They want to guarantee the revenue.…
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As I recently wrote, all ghostwritten work has to start somewhere, and that somewhere is the first draft, that often ugly, messy, incomplete, error-ridden, Frankenstein’s monster of a draft. Ghostwriters must impress upon clients that the first draft is just that: a beginning. Then comes the shaping, molding, building, forming, forging, and producing the work…
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Ghostwriting is one of the truest forms of collaboration there is. On one side, there’s the story expert: the person who has the compelling story that simply has to be told for whatever reasons the person wants to tell it (also known as the client). Joining that person is the storytelling expert, the ghostwriter, who…
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Recently, I turned down a potential ghostwriting client because he clearly didn’t have the money to pay me. He then asked me if he could pay me after the book sells. I responded, “No, I don’t work on spec.” That pretty much ended my conversation with him, but it made me realize that maybe not…
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To ghostwrite is to have tact. Early in my ghostwriting career, I was not as tactful as I should have been with people I needed to interview to flesh out the story. This stemmed from my newspaper journalism days when I often strong-armed and aggressively got people to talk to me. This earned me several…
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