Note: This convention report was originally published on JaneFriedman.com. With 164 ghostwriters in attendance, the first Gathering of the Ghosts, which took place in New York City on January 22, was likely the largest ever gathering of ghostwriters in one place. As Dan Gerstein, CEO of Gotham Ghostwriters, the cosponsor of the event along with the American…
After more than 50 nonfiction book projects, I can tell you how your various partners are thinking about the book. What authors worry about What authors should worry about that they don’t: What editors worry about Here’s what your developmental editor — whether you hired one or have one through your publisher — is worried…
Every coach, publisher, and vendor targeting authors is telling you that it will help your book become a bestseller. They are bamboozling you. It’s like a hairstylist saying they can make you beautiful. First off, they can’t (unless you’re already beautiful). And second, being beautiful isn’t a very good goal anyway. In the same way,…
If it’s your ambition to ghostwrite books, what do you need to know, and what do you need to do? To start, here’s an inventory of the skills you need for nonfiction ghostwriting (with some notes about fiction at the end of this post): Whew! That’s a lot to know. But you also need a…
Newsletter week 28: why ghostwriters are having a moment, Wimbledon umpires must know how to swear in a dozen languages, and Texas can’t make publishers, authors, libraries and booksellers into thought police. Plus, three people to follow and three books to read. Ghostwriters ascendant I just shared a whole day in New York with more…
I know if you’re going to be a good client in 15 minutes. I’m not prejudiced. I’m experienced. How I know Before our discovery meeting, I check out your LinkedIn profile and posts, as well as your web site if you have one. I can tell if you have something useful to say, or if…
Writers may at any time get called on to write anything from social media posts to instructions to research reports. The more versatile you are, the more valuable you are. I’ll illustrate this with examples from my own career. While it included a lot more than writing, you could easily describe many of my jobs…
As a ghostwriter, you appear to work for your author client. Even so, generally speaking, you should manage the book project. Here’s why and how. Why ghostwriters should manage book projects Consider your own skills and abilities. You’ve most likely completed book projects before, so you know what’s involved. You know how to plan and…
It’s not just the things you should avoid in writing that are a problem. It’s the constant overload of those things. Too much passive voice, too much jargon, too many puns, too many exclamation points. If the reader is saying “Enough!”, the writer has made a mistake. I’ve written in this space before about the…