When people contact me to ghostwrite their book, they sometimes tell me, “We don’t know how to do it. We need you to show us how.” Fair enough. One of the first things I tell them once they become a client is that the process is like a relationship, and in this relationship, there are…
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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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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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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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I’m going to begin by stating something incredibly obvious: Words matter in speeches. Trust a speech writer in NYC. Duh, I hear you thinking. Fair enough, let me continue. A speech should be written concisely, meaning the speaker gets up, gets it done quickly, and gets out. That means the speaker (and by extension, the…
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Scripts are out. Spontaneous is in. I recently came across a column by Ted Gioia, who calls himself The Honest Broker. He wrote that the recent presidential election showed that giving speeches from a teleprompter isn’t effective anymore and ”The word ‘scripted’ is now an insult. Plainspoken dialogue is considered more trustworthy.” Gioia then goes…
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Last week, I wrote about two things a ghostwriter can do to help build a brand. Here are four more: Develop a professional website. A ghostwriter can write the copy on the website, giving prospects a solid first look at your writing ability (and, yes, I wrote my website). Not only that, but your website…
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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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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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I recently wrote about the importance of having a contract. That’s all well and good, but if you don’t know what to put in a contract, the importance won’t make sense. Since a contract’s purpose is to record rights, duties, obligations, responsibilities, collaborations, agreements, and payment schedules, among many others; and since a contract should…
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