A fellowship of ghosts

I’ve spent the last day walking around an events space in Manhattan at the second annual Gathering of the Ghosts.

It wasn’t easy to get here. After two cancelled flights, I drove 6+ hours from Portland, Maine to New York. But I wasn’t going to miss it.

It was worth it.

It wasn’t just the chance to share the statistics from the “AI and the Writing Profession” report onstage. (It seemed like every question that the audience had, the survey included the data to answer it.)

It was this: these are my people.

Ghostwriters are not clubby. They are not extroverted. They are dedicated to their craft and except for this event, rarely have the chance to gather and speak with each other.

I couldn’t count the number of people who tapped me on the shoulder and introduced themselves. The usual opening line was, “I read your blog (or LinkedIn posts).” A close second was, “I read that report, it was really interesting.”

Most of the hybrid publishers that matter were here. I’ve worked with them.

Book publicists were here. I’ve worked with them.

Lots of agents were here. I’ve worked with some of them.

So were the ghostwriting agencies. You get the idea.

The editor of my book on writing was here. She was judging the awards.

Everyone here is dealing with the same challenges — like pricing, difficult clients, and headwinds for proposals and book deals. Sometimes we compete, but it’s a lot more likely that we could help each other out. Ghostwriters tend to be generous.

And they’re pretty good storytellers.

I did a lot of listening and learning. I know a lot about writing. But taken together, these people know a lot more about ghostwriting than anybody else in the world. That’s a lot of talent to learn from.

Writing is a lonely profession — and ghostwriting even moreso. But for two days in November, there’s a little fellowship to be shared — no Zoom required.