Newsletter 129. Strategies for principled ghostwriters, Kindle enables AI queries, the polarization risk of closer social connections, plus three people to follow and three books to read. Who wins when a ghostwriter disagrees with a client? Sometimes ghostwriters and their clients have a serious disagreement. I’m not talking about the Oxford Comma (although as serious…
Newsletter 128. How thinking proponents and opponents of AI can come together. Plus, AI author scams catalogued, bookseller IPOs, three people to follow and three books to read. Creating peace between the AI factions If one result stood out from my recent study of AI and the Writing Profession (sponsored by Gotham Ghostwriters), it was…
“I quit.” These are words you should almost never utter as a ghostwriter. The reason is that busted ghostwriting relationships let clients down and will damage your reputation. Word will get around that you parachuted out and that will hurt you in the future. Writers who make their living exclusively on ghostwriting may be juggling…
To write and publish a business book is to say “The world is different from what you thought it was. Here’s what to do about it.” If you are undertaking a business book, you must decide what your manifesto is. Some prominent manifestos for your consideration It’s not a coincidence that it’s easy to write…
Newsletter 127. Balancing between your inspiration and your audience’s desires. Plus, is publishing in crisis, Google powers a publisher, three people to follow and three books to read. What do your readers want? Authors are often torn. On the one hand, they passionately want to tell their own story and share their own unique insights…
About 20% of the time, authors I work with stop making progress. This pause often lasts months. It also saps authors’ energy and creates guilt and sadness. If this is you, I want you to feel better. So here’s some advice on what to do if your book appears to be stalled. Step 1: Forgive…
Publishers and authors are panicking about the appropriate uses of AI. It’s a nuanced problem, because AI use creates issues of quality, copyrightability, and disclosure. Wiley, publisher of vast numbers of business books, has now published its extensive guidelines online for all to see. Wiley’s guidelines are a great start Given some of the shortsighted…
Authors I work with have used AI tools in dozens of different ways. There are no fixed rules — at least not yet. But it’s been my experience that close collaborators — such as coauthors; an author and ghostwriter; or an author and a developmental editor — need to agree on what uses of AI…
I work with authors. That means my clients are idea people . . . and boy do they have a lot of ideas. I take it as my sacred duty to give honest feedback on those ideas. I am the author’s first sounding board. I can keep them from wasting time on a dumb idea,…