The writing teacher and author John Warner just posted an essential response to the questionable idea that LLMs can provide writing feedback that’s just as useful as comments from a human editor. Here’s what prompted him to comment: There is a study out of Stanford Law School that says in a blind evaluation, law professors preferred the…
You just drafted Chapter 2. You shared it with your developmental editor, who suggested a bunch of changes. What do you do next? Disciplined writers start work on Chapter 3. Undisciplined writers repeatedly revise work already written — a habit of continual polishing. That’s a habit I want you to break. Continual polishing is the…
Ghostwriting, editing and coaching jobs can be very hard to define. In the editorial professional’s mind, the job is to create the best possible manuscript. In the client’s mind, the job is to make a book that reflects their brilliance. There’s a huge chasm between the two. Clients don’t understand how publishing works, what’s allowed…
Gotham Ghostwriters has invited me to participate in a discussion of AI challenges for ghostwriters, jumping off from the recently published “AI Guidelines for Ghostwriting.” Join the discussion online on Wednesday, 17 June, 1pm ET. You must register here to join. This is an off-the-record discussion. The panel is knowledgeable and we’ve spend time finding…
As a developmental editor, I am hired to find things that are wrong with what you wrote, and to tell you how to fix them. I do that. But more important than finding fault is identifying what needs to be preserved. I look for what’s unique about your manuscript. Those distinctive human qualities are always…
Newsletter 155. Why it pays to beat up an idea until it reveals its true self. Plus, publishers’ AI paranoia, Wikipedia editors threaten to strike, three people to follow, and three books to read. Hard on ideas I am a professionally compensated pain in the ass. People hire me to help develop their ideas. What…
Most of my clients are individuals. They want to be more visible and have more influence. They hire me to ghostwrite or edit their business or idea books. A few of my clients are companies. They want to publish a book by the CEO of their organization, about the ideas that their organization wants to…
About one-fourth of my author clients are former analysts for Forrester, Gartner, or similar organizations. I find them consistently the best people to work with. You may think this is just me being clubby, since I was an analyst until about ten years ago. You might also believe I’m just reacting to selection bias: that…
Every book I edit is different. Every author is different. Every idea is different. Most interestingly, every author fails in a unique way. They may write too long, forget to include context, fall victim to the Curse of Knowledge, be unable to write grammatical sentences, repeat their ideas, be too formal, be too informal, repeat…