Fractional author; AI on trial; trademark your name: Newsletter 2 April 2025

Newsletter 88: Find the missing piece of your author self. Plus, business books jump the shark, AI threatens our humanity, three people to follow, and three books to read.

What is a fractional author?

There’s an huge pool of editorial talent now working freelance. Like many of those folks, I’ve filled varied roles working with authors. We do developmental editing, ghostwrite, create book proposals, improve ideas, and coach authors. And of course, we often provide emotional support, much as a therapist would. (Lots of authors need emotional support.)

What would you call that work? Author/ghostwriter/editor/coach/literary therapist? Lordy, that’s unwieldy. I wouldn’t even bother trying to name it except that there are so many of us out there supporting authors with editorial and writing help. As publishing houses shrink, the smart and literate people it casts off have formed a growing class of talented collaborators, available on a freelance basis to authors of all kinds. We need a name.

Call us fractional authors.

Some ghostwriters, in an attempt to get out from under the unfair stigma associated with ghostwriting work published under someone else’s name, have renamed themselves “collaborating writers.” That’s a mouthful, and it somehow doesn’t seem to get at what people like me do, which is, just about anything a book needs.

Authoring consists of ideation, writing proposals, pitching publishers and agents, planning, research, drafting, revising, revising again, preparing manuscripts for a publisher, and promotion. That’s not a complete list, but it covers most of it. Authors can outsource any combination of those elements. What they outsource is some fraction of the work of the book. The people who do that work for them are fractional authors.

I am, of course, leveraging the mindshare of strategic consultants who bill themselves as fractional CMOs or other similar fractional executives for companies. If they can do a freelance, part-time substituting for an actual CXO, people like me can do freelance, part-time work substituting for part of what an author does. Hence: fractional author.

What is it like to work with a fractional author? We know all about books and publishing. We don’t know nearly as much about whatever the actual author wants to be known for. We combine our knowledge and talent with your knowledge and expertise and make a book out of it.

Since we know the process, we can insert ourselves into the tasks that you lack the time, patience, or skill to do yourself. We know how to bat ideas around and find ways to differentiate them. We know how to structure a proposal. We know how to do research, evaluate publishing alternatives, and create a compelling table of contents that functions as a book plan. And of course, we write to your specification, if you need us to, or provide a solid set of advice about writing that you draft, if that’s more your style.

We get paid well. We don’t get credit. Those things align: if you want the credit, you’ll have to pay us for the fraction of the work that we do.

If you think you’re an author, but some fraction of that full set of skills is missing, try hiring a fractional author. We’ll make you whole. It’s what we love doing, and when it’s done, you’ll love knowing that a whole book — your book — has emerged from the process with your name on it.

News for writers and others who think

The New York Times‘ federal suit against OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement by AI will be going to trial.

In The Guardian, critic/painter/novelist Joseph Earp asks, if AI is making some hard things easier, are these the hard things that we need to keep doing to keep us human?

Rita McGrath wonders if business books have jumped the shark; have we reached “peak book?” Two things are true. First, most business books are crap. And second, if you want to make an impact, a great business book is one effective way to do that. The problem is focusing on the “great” part and avoiding the “crap” part.

On Jane Friedman‘s blog, Teri Case explains how she trademarked her name as an author for $350, without a lawyer. That’s one way to make it easier to get Amazon to take down knockoff books that fool people into thinking you wrote them.

Three people to follow

Jennifer Mele, who knows all about marketing communications for universities (and boy do they need help right now)

Vitaliy Kaurov , chief editor at Wolfram Staff Picks, where science geeks show off.

Eli Pariser , innovating a new, better replacement for social networks.

Three books to read

The Field Guide to Dumb Birds of America by Matt Kracht (Chronicle, 2019). A birdwatcher’s guide that finally includes “facts about a bird’s (annoying) call, its (dumb) migratory pattern, its (downright tacky) markings, and more.”

Employee Understanding: A Three-Pillar Framework for Designing a Great Experience and Driving Business Success by Annette Franz, CCXP (2025). How to make workers successful to make companies successful.

Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It by Jenny Wood (Portfolio, 2025). Ditch your fear and chase after what you deserve, no apologies.