I once had a pair of ghostwriting clients who in our first meeting confessed, “We really don’t know what we’re doing. We need you to tell us what to do.” In other words, while they hired me to ghostwrite their book, the reality was they needed a coach as much as a ghostwriter. That’s not…
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Before ghostwriting, I was a sportswriter, and one lesson I quickly learned was hurry up and wait. When I covered any college or professional game, there was a mandatory cooling-off period afterwards when the press had to wait before gaining access to the teams. This often extended to before the game, too. I remember covering…
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Ghostwriters don’t automatically deal with a lot of death, but I’ve been lately. Three friends lost their mothers in a matter of weeks. My wife and I have been attending memorials and making condolence calls. Also, a friend died at just 67, sending shockwaves through our social circle. And now, a ghostwriting relationship is at…
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As I’ve previously written, the outline is the most important part of the ghostwriting process. It provides a plan, a blueprint, a direction, a pathway—call it what you want—to help you write the book. There is no way to ghostwrite a tightly focused book without first having an outline to determine what’s going in, where…
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Fifth of an occasional series about stories and ideas worth telling. A heart defect is not inherently compelling. As a ghostwriter, if someone pitched me to ghostwrite a story about a guy who overcame a heart defect, I’d first ask, “What else is there to the story?” and if there was nothing, I’d turn it…
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Fourth in an occasional series about stories and ideas worth telling. One criterion ghostwriters should look for when deciding what story to help tell is how mouth-droppingly amazing the story is. If when hearing the whole story, I find my mouth agape and my vocalizing the sentences, “Oh my God. I can’t believe that!” or…
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Third in an occasional series about ideas and stories that are worth telling. I get pitched story ideas all the time. Many come from people who have overcome some great adversity in their lives and feel a desire to share it with the world. Sometimes, the story doesn’t interest me, and since I don’t want…
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This is the second of an occasional series of stories I worked on that are worth telling. According to study.com, there have been more than 20,000 books written about the Holocaust. It is a sensitive topic from personal and historic standpoints, and a ghostwriter has to make sure that if he or she is going…
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Back in 2002, The New York Times came out with a survey that said 81% of people feel they have a book in them. The article’s author, Joseph Epstein, tried hard to discourage people from writing those books, and one reason he gave was that “so many third-rate books are published nowadays.” Epstein was right…
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The reason I love ghostwriting so much is because it’s the most rewarding—financially and emotionally—work I’ve ever done. I can’t adequately describe how wonderful it is to see the smiles and hear the sobs of joy in between “thank yous” from a client who has wanted to write a book and never thought it possible…
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